rigor
Not just infrastructure, payments are also convenient with Ali pay/WeChat pay. Everyone pays everything by phone, most haven’t used cash or card in years, although you can if you want. Apps are also ridiculously well designed and integrated, less visible as a foreigner, as much if it is obviously in Chinese and you have a language barrier. But you can really do anything you can imagine in WeChat. Alipay can also translate in miniapps. Say you are in a restaurant, you will scan a qr code on the table, can have a menu that you can automatically translate if you so chose. You also can order and pay through that menu on your phone.
Bureaucracy exists like everywhere else, but tends to be faster and more efficient in my experience. It’s not perfect, but the country does feel very different.
Also, it doesn’t depend that much on the city. I have been to most large cities in China, many small and medium sized ones too. I have also been to the countryside. The latter is more relaxed, but everywhere has technology and infrastructure. Basically all cities are serviced by train. Towns will all have bus systems that mean you can get anywhere in the country with public transportation.
Archived link/paywall bypass: https://archive.is/VbSPI
Also, you would think a region once plagued by unrest and terrorism (fomented by our favorite imperialist power of course), now stable and prospering would be cause for celebration? No? Also about NEV subsidies, isn’t this what all countries should be doing? Besides, the Global North has long subsidized industries when they chose to.
Related, China has become the number one scientific destination with the largest inflow of researchers outstripping the US, according to OECD data as reported (archive) by Science Business. I can’t cite the OECD data since it seems to be behind a paywall, but I believe you can find it here.
China also leads the world with nearly half of all applications for international patents (46.8%), trademarks (48.3%), and industrial designs (53.8%).
Japan’s science and technology ministry also conducted a study, as reported (archive) by Nikkei Asia, and found China leads the world in research papers. Both in quantity and quality.
A report by Clarivate substantiates this. This report also describes how China is not reliant with collaboration with the Global North for research, and that China is expanding research with Global South countries.
Despite all this, in the imperial core they still believe China can’t innovate. All while China is out-innovating the Global North.
I can confirm Lemmygrad is accessible. Hexbear is, but loads VERY slowly in my experience. No such issue for Lemmygrad.
By the way, the firewall varies slightly in different provinces. That being said Lemmygrad seems accessible everywhere.
ps: most sites are accessible. Only big American tech sites that don’t want to follow local law (Google, Facebook, etc.) are blocked. Many other websites are not blocked but just load really slowly. Not certain why, part of it may be the websites throttling IP address from China.
You will always be fighting an uphill battle in the academia of the imperial core. Global North historians in particular are on the front line of anti-socialist narratives. Of all disciples, the narratives of hustorians are probably the most powerful propaganda against radical though in the imperial core. Keep in mind that your professor is likely not sympathetic to leftwing thought, let alone socialism. This is compounded by the fact that even if they where, the structure of western academia makes it almost impossible to be a genuine Marxist that is critical of society. You won’t get grants, promotions, etc.
Just know that you did your best to inform them, and don’t waste your energy any further. Don’t expect that professor to listen to reason or to genuinely consider your sources. As soon as you are outside the imperial narrative, they dismiss your opinion and sources as fringe. Why? Well, if they engaged honestly, they would have to change their mind.
Try to concentrate your energy on anything that will produce results and benefit you and the mouvement. Read, stay healthy, educate yourself and others. Organize if you can.
The recently I talked to a Chinese banker in one of the biggest Chinese banks. We where walking around a beautiful park, which also had a public library in it overlooking the park. A very nice public space overall. Anyway, in the library there was a stack of The Governance of China (third volume) by Xi Jinping on one table. So we talked about it, and it turns out the bankers in China read this book, have classes/study sessions, and try to find ways to implement Xi Jinping thought. Imagine calling a country capitalist when bankers read communist theory and have study sessions for it. That’s China; not a capitalist country, but a socialist country where the party is doing it’s best to develop material conditions, and they have largely been successful.
This is the paper the article and graphic are based on:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0230555
It’s using a survey from mainland China.
