> So great is their control that they've built one of the greatest public rail networks in the world for the public good.
I don't know how good you know about Chinese government. But I think you made a mistake about the purpose of the investment and building by Chinese gov. The rail network is not "for the public good", at least it's not the major reason. It's for keeping GDP growth rate looks as high as possible otherwise no one/country can buy the over-produced industrial products like concrete and steels after subprime mortgage crisis.
> The assumption you're making here is that democracy is the better more "modern" way.
Democracy is not perfect but I am sure CCP is much worse.
>Democracy is not perfect but I am sure CCP is much worse.
This is Debate-able. If it's worse, it's not that much worse.
>I don't know how good you know about Chinese government. But I think you made a mistake about the purpose of the investment and building by Chinese gov. The rail network is not "for the public good", at least it's not the major reason. It's for keeping GDP growth rate looks as high as possible otherwise no one/country can buy the over-produced industrial products like concrete and steels after subprime mortgage crisis.
Isn't improving GDP a public good? What's better in your opinion? Bailing out a bank and letting the execs go on a vacation or building rail infrastructure?
But I get what you're saying. I would say for public rails it's both GDP and helping people move across the country. Cities with rail are way more efficient than cities without.
The increasing of that GDP was just the number. The Chinese national bank just produced more money and pay them to the building company. It's inflation. People cannot got much good from it.
Then again, as a Europen, I've said "Fuck China" and "Fuck The US" about equally often lately and would never consider visiting either until conditions improve...
Honestly, no one is going to care about either your or my comments about Chinese government on this niche forum. Think about it, what would Chinese government gain by arresting you? And why would they start looking at your comment history on hn at all?
not just hn. i've said it elsewhere. they may not even need to "look" in the future. They may just have systems in place that will just identify and catalogue all criticisms of china. And the system would then just pass your name through such a catalogue when doing a standard check on you as you pass through or travel there. Wouldn't be that hard for them to do.
> So great is their control that they've built one of the greatest public rail networks in the world for the public good. When's the last time the US did such a thing for the public good?
Public works projects happen all the time here. This is such a silly argument.
> No whataboutism will change the fact that it is controversial whether democracy or centralized control is better.
