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No need to waste time when you see someone mention these three events together:

Famine, Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution.

It's the Chinese liberal equivalent of that "TIANANMEN MASSACRE. ORGAN HARVESTING. UYGUR GENOCIDE" trope.

(Hint: It's aimed at Mao Zedong and the CPC)

Thanks for the ping @[email protected] and @[email protected] .

I'm not sure you understand the Cultural Revolution nor traditional Chinese culture, Mao Zedong didn't want to "destroy traditional culture", that wasn't the goal of the Cultural Revolution, that was the goal of "破四旧" ("Eliminate the four old“) movement orchestrated by the ultra-lefts. "Eliminate the four old“ targeted mainly feudal values and not capitalist values, it turned out to be more anarchist than scientific as with the rest of the actions of the ultra-lefts.

From a DeepL translation of "A Concise History of the Communist Party of China" (2021) page 205:

In May 1966, the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee adopted the "May 16th Circular", pointing out that: "The bourgeois representatives who have infiltrated the Party, the government, the army and all kinds of cultural circles are a group of counter-revolutionary revisionists, who, once the time is ripe, will want to seize power and change from the dictatorship of the proletariat to the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie." In August, the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Party adopted the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which proposed that "the focus of this campaign is to straighten out those in power within the Party who have taken the capitalist road." The convening of these two meetings marked the launching of the Cultural Revolution. Since then, the Red Guard Movement has been rapidly emerging. From January 1967 onwards, the Cultural Revolution entered the stage of "total seizure of power" and soon developed into a serious situation of "overthrowing everything" and even "total civil war".

(Note that there is an official English translation of this book but I can't find a readable copy online yet, so above is the the DeepL translation of the Chinese text instead, with some minor corrections)

On traditional Chinese culture, we apply "取其精华、弃其糟粕", that means we don't throw out the baby with the bathwater, just because traditional Chinese values have bad aspects doesn't mean we can't learn from the good aspects. Maybe you have not heard of the Confucian phrases "天下为公" and "天下大同".

On July 1st 2021, in his speech at a ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC, Xi Jinping proposed "两个结合" ("Two Adapts"), that is:

We must continue to adapt the basic tenets of Marxism to China's specific realities and its fine traditional culture.

Xi stresses the importance of inheriting the fine parts of traditional Chinese culture, as opposed to liberals who decry all of it. Both socialists and liberals have reasons to criticize traditional Chinese culture. Socialists apply a scientific approach that is to inherit the good parts and throw out the feudal aspects. Liberals are against socialism so they attack traditional Chinese culture without any reservations.

"Attack" on traditional Chinese culture wasn't a new thing, during the May Fourth Movement of 1919 there was a slogan called "打倒孔家店，救出孔夫子". During the Cultural Revolution the slogan was "破四旧" as I mentioned at the beginning, and after Lin Biao's coup failed there was the "批林批孔" (criticize Lin Biao and Confucius) movement that Mao endorsed initially but didn't anymore after finding out the "Gang of Four"'s intentions.

Sorry I got heated up after reading the article you linked, the strong words are directed at that. I personally wish the Cultural Revolution had succeeded but alas here we are.

There will always be the risk of reactionaries sneaking into the party and climbing up to the higher ranks, or former comrades turning corrupt and endangering the the socialist cause. But that doesn't mean we should destabilize the country just to deal with them, that only helps the reactionaries further their cause.

What everyone should learn from the Cultural Revolution is how NOT to handle internal contradictions.

This is the second time I'm seeing the Cultural Revolution put in a good light in this post, get off your high horses you naive idealists!

The Cultural Revolution was hijacked by ultras, Lin Biao tried to assassinate Mao.

This is the Constitution of the CPC in 1969: https://fuwu.12371.cn/2014/12/24/ARTI1419387596442272.shtml, it includes this paragraph in the preamble:

林彪同志一贯高举毛泽东思想伟大红旗，最忠诚、最坚定地执行和捍卫毛泽东同志的无产阶级革命路线。林彪同志是毛泽东同志的亲密战友和接班人。

(DeepL translation) Comrade Lin Biao has consistently held high the great red flag of Mao Zedong Thought and has most faithfully and resolutely implemented and defended the proletarian revolutionary line of Comrade Mao Zedong. Comrade Lin Biao is Comrade Mao Zedong's close comrade-in-arms and successor.

Utterly disgusting.

Others have mentioned China's non-interference policy, I'd like to add that I think the only way for China to get more involved is through the UN, that means the Security Council or Peacekeeping or some other UN organization.

Thanks for the ping @[email protected] .

Chinese in China here, I think a better question than "Do you support your government" would be: "If the US government were to replace the CPC and current government tomorrow, would you approve?" Sorry to folks in Nordic countries (another stereotype propelled by liberals) because the US is the "beacon" that liberals use mainly.

If people from any country have no experience with living in other countries, they might be more inclined to topple their own government if their living conditions aren't great and someone were to advocate for the toppling. Even if people read about how bad some foreign governments are in the news, some people would just brush it off as "propaganda", they would have to see it for themselves to believe. This goes both ways for both the people of the US and China.

Comparison is a powerful tool, but some people whip out the "whataboutism" card when you try to do that, they tell you to address the problem instead of finding worse examples from other places. Indeed it's always better to address the problem at hand, but people who scream "whataboutism" in relation to China's issues are really saying "don't look at worse places to make yourself feel good, overthrow the SEE-SEE-PEE regime now!"

Do I support the CPC and Chinese government? Yes and yes.

Does China have problems. Yes.

Do I need to hear from egotistical maniacs in other countries on how to handle issues in my country? No.

小时 means "hour", so in this case it means hourly. I use minimum wage as a baseline, but you can compare using per capita disposable income instead (English data source: http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202301/t20230118_1892303.html). Yes most people who've been to any form of university are expected to earn more than just minimum wage.

The cost of courses in public schools varies by region and is set by the local government, I would say 4000 RMB/year is a safe estimate on the minimum fee.

Students can also apply for student loans in China. I'm not familiar with the topic but here's a short news article from 2021 that covers the basics: http://english.scio.gov.cn/pressroom/2021-09/15/content_77753922.htm

Undergraduate students can apply for a maximum of 12,000 yuan ($1,860) in loans per person each year

The loans should be mainly used to cover tuition and accommodation, and any extra money can be used for daily expenses

Students do not need to pay the principal or interest while they are still in college and can apply for a five-year probation period after graduation, during which they only pay the interest

Student loans are part of China's financial aid package to help college students. Other assistance includes scholarships, subsidies and tuition fee waivers

Different forms of financial aid to college students totaled 124 billion yuan last year, benefiting 36.7 million students

Note that the last line I quoted mentions 36.7 million students, I'm pretty sure that includes students from all previous years since the total number of students in undergraduate and graduate schools currently amount to 40 million.

As for whether higher education is "affordable" in the general sense, here's a quote from the same article:

No college student should drop out of school due to financial difficulties and enabling all students to change their destinies and realize their dreams through education affects millions of households, national development and the future of the Chinese nation

As an example, for the top 2 prestigious universities in China, Tsinghua University and Beijing University, most courses cost 5000 RMB/year and dormitories cost around 1000 RMB/year, which adds up to 24,000 RMB for a 4-year course.

To put that into perspective, here's a list of the minimum wage for all regions in China (Chinese text): http://www.mohrss.gov.cn/SYrlzyhshbzb/laodongguanxi_/fwyd/202307/t20230703_502349.html. They range from 1420 RMB to 2690 RMB, so the total cost of 24,000 RMB will require 9 to 17 months of minimum wage income depending on the region.

Yes this is just in today (Chinese text): http://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/sjjd/202308/t20230815_1942020.html

However, the proper wording is "suspend publishing" and not "no longer publish".

自今年8月份开始，全国青年人等分年龄段的城镇调查失业率将暂停发布，主要原因是：经济社会在不断发展变化，统计工作需要不断完善，劳动力调查统计也需要进一步健全优化。比如，近年来，我国城镇青年人中，在校学生规模不断扩大。2022年，我国16-24岁城镇青年有9600多万人，其中在校学生达到6500多万人。在校学生的主要任务是学习，毕业前寻找工作的学生是否应纳入劳动力调查统计，社会各方面有不同的看法，需要进一步研究。再比如，随着我国居民受教育水平提高，青年人在校学习时间增加。在劳动力调查统计中，对于青年人年龄范围的界定，也需要进一步研究。

(DeepL translation) Since August this year, the release of the age-specific urban survey unemployment rate for young people across the country will be suspended, mainly for the following reasons: the economy and society are constantly developing and changing, statistics need to be constantly improved, and labour force surveys and statistics also need to be further improved and optimized. For example, in recent years, among China's urban young people, the scale of school students has been expanding. 2022, China's urban young people aged 16-24 had more than 96 million people, of which more than 65 million were school students. The main task of school students is to study. Whether students looking for jobs before graduation should be included in the labor force survey statistics, there are different views from various aspects of the society, which need to be further studied. Another example is that, as the education level of China's residents rises, young people are spending more time in school. The definition of the age range of young people in labor force surveys and statistics also requires further study.

I heard teachers from public schools were "moving part of the curriculum behind a paid wall" before the ban on tutoring for core subjects. Teachers in public schools aren't allowed to participate in private tutoring, that didn't stop some teachers from trying anyway. What you are talking about is not a just possibility, it has already happened before, and is mitigated with the ban and other policies.

Forgot to mention, even though teachers in public schools can't participate in private tutoring, there's no stopping them from joining private schools if the salaries offered are more lucrative.

I don't think there are released statistics on the exact distribution, but the economists who managed to turn "20% unemployment" into 50% had some ways of estimating by comparing the population of people around the ages of 16 to 24 and the number of people still in school.

There are certainly statistics about overall quality of products from the manufacturing industry, but I think it's too broad to be very useful. For example, from this year's statistical communique (http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202302/t20230227_1918979.html):

The qualification rate of manufactured products[64] reached 93.29 percent.

[64] The qualification rate of manufactured products is the ratio of the samples that have passed the sampling quality test, the process of which follows certain methods, procedure and standard, to the total amount of the sampled products. The survey samples cover 29 sectors of the manufacturing industry.

For more specific statistics you'd need a more specific question. About nepotism, the campaign against corruption has some statistics but I don't think there's a way to quantitatively reflect on the issue of nepotism.

On educational costs, this is a manufactured need as public education from kindergarten to grade 12 is practically free in China, and university costs are almost practically free. Now private education is where things can become very expensive as you can imagine, this includes private schools and private tutoring.

Some parents think that expensive private schools offer better quality of education, or think that they are better alternatives to some low-par public schools, but I think they just cost more. Private tutoring isn't just about core subjects, some parents may also want to enroll their kids into arts/tech/sports/etc. training classes, that's where some of that imaginary educational costs come from too. Unless private education is banned, this non-issue of educational costs will still be a problem for competitive parents.

I didn't go too much into the cost of living, but the cost of housing may be the main concern for parents who want to enroll kids into schools in the mega-cities (e.g. Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen), but this is also a nuanced topic.