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> I have Chinese family members that grew up under literally starvation conditions, only to grow up to find themselves multimillionaires. The CCP was literally

> I have Chinese family members that grew up under literally starvation conditions, only to grow up to find themselves multimillionaires. The CCP was literally why they were starving in the first place

SlightlyLeftPad 3y ago
This is technically true but the Chinese viewpoint on this topic is net-gratitude for CCP taking control of their country back from foreign powers, particularly Japan, which murdered, tortured, and raped millions of people for years leading up to and during world war 2. Unlike Germany, Japan continues to largely pretend this never happened and has refused to publicly acknowledge or atone for it which perpetuates the political conflict there. This is something that is well understood in Chinese society and I think was personally fascinated that people were able to overlook the flaws and grave shortcomings of early CCP rule.
- ffsm8 3y ago
  [flagged]
- seanmcdirmid 3y ago
  The PLA literally killed 500 thousand people in Changchun to liberate the city from the KMT. Mao and much of the past was a dead topic until Xi brought it all back to the forefront. I was really shocked that someone who suffered from the cultural revolution would worship Mao so much, even if he was effectively a princeling.
  - SlightlyLeftPad 3y ago
    Yeah, I don’t understand it personally and I was also similarly shocked.
    - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
      At least, after Xi, the last vestiges of Mao will be just history (the next Gen X Chinese leader will have been born after Mao died, or at least just a very little kid). This is why Xi becoming president for life was such a disappointment for me, I expect that the next generation of Chinese leadership will be much more modern (and Xi is the first monolingual/career politician leader modern China has had, hopefully that doesn't continue into the next generation).
      - SlightlyLeftPad 3y ago
        The elimination of term limits is huge red flag for me. My hot take is that it’s setting Xi up to lead a China into a global culture war long-term and I think it’s likely we’ll similar misguided Putinistic behavior before he’s gone as he continues to build his trusted circle of yes people over the coming decades. For a brief period around the pandemic period there was definitely a relatively short uptick in nationalist rhetoric but I believe that was more of a response to Trump’s sometimes contradictory statements on China and their leadership. Largely, in my relatively average sample size in discussions with chinese-born expats (possibly a bias). Xi is not a very popular leader, particularly among the more affluent population.
        seanmcdirmid 3y ago
        Xi is much more popular among the masses vs Hu, Hu was a pretty weak leader, or at least, didn’t have much power. Affluent Chinese, you need to distinguish between northerners and southerners, the latter being much less nationalistic in general. During my last years in China (until mid 2016) I definitely noticed younger techies I worked with being more nationalistic than they were when I started my stint in China (2007)
  - peterfirefly 3y ago
    > I was really shocked that someone who suffered from the cultural revolution would worship Mao so much, even if he was effectively a princeling. Mao did (almost by chance) rescue Xi's father from execution by (other) Communists.

SlightlyLeftPad 3y ago

This is technically true but the Chinese viewpoint on this topic is net-gratitude for CCP taking control of their country back from foreign powers, particularly Japan, which murdered, tortured, and raped millions of people for years leading up to and during world war 2. Unlike Germany, Japan continues to largely pretend this never happened and has refused to publicly acknowledge or atone for it which perpetuates the political conflict there. This is something that is well understood in Chinese society and I think was personally fascinated that people were able to overlook the flaws and grave shortcomings of early CCP rule.

ffsm8 3y ago
[flagged]
seanmcdirmid 3y ago
The PLA literally killed 500 thousand people in Changchun to liberate the city from the KMT. Mao and much of the past was a dead topic until Xi brought it all back to the forefront. I was really shocked that someone who suffered from the cultural revolution would worship Mao so much, even if he was effectively a princeling.
- SlightlyLeftPad 3y ago
  Yeah, I don’t understand it personally and I was also similarly shocked.
  - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
    At least, after Xi, the last vestiges of Mao will be just history (the next Gen X Chinese leader will have been born after Mao died, or at least just a very little kid). This is why Xi becoming president for life was such a disappointment for me, I expect that the next generation of Chinese leadership will be much more modern (and Xi is the first monolingual/career politician leader modern China has had, hopefully that doesn't continue into the next generation).
    - SlightlyLeftPad 3y ago
      The elimination of term limits is huge red flag for me. My hot take is that it’s setting Xi up to lead a China into a global culture war long-term and I think it’s likely we’ll similar misguided Putinistic behavior before he’s gone as he continues to build his trusted circle of yes people over the coming decades. For a brief period around the pandemic period there was definitely a relatively short uptick in nationalist rhetoric but I believe that was more of a response to Trump’s sometimes contradictory statements on China and their leadership. Largely, in my relatively average sample size in discussions with chinese-born expats (possibly a bias). Xi is not a very popular leader, particularly among the more affluent population.
      - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
        Xi is much more popular among the masses vs Hu, Hu was a pretty weak leader, or at least, didn’t have much power. Affluent Chinese, you need to distinguish between northerners and southerners, the latter being much less nationalistic in general. During my last years in China (until mid 2016) I definitely noticed younger techies I worked with being more nationalistic than they were when I started my stint in China (2007)
- peterfirefly 3y ago
  > I was really shocked that someone who suffered from the cultural revolution would worship Mao so much, even if he was effectively a princeling. Mao did (almost by chance) rescue Xi's father from execution by (other) Communists.