Chinese airline completes maiden passenger flight with domestically built plane

Re:Chinese airline completes maiden passenger flight with do... by Barrin92 on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @07:43PM (#25588195)

I don't really see any evidence for the fact that foreigners are being squeezed out of China. FDI in China is actually up, even American investment in China.[1] under the current administration no less. Number of foreign students in China has steadily risen, and only slowed somewhat down but it's still the fifth most popular country for foreign students[2]. I personally plan to return in the next few years in all likelihood. (I don't have family in the country, and I'm not Chinese for what it's worth, and I rarely had problems).

I see absolutely no evidence in the numbers, or personal experience, but only in narrative that China has become a worse place for foreigners. Business climate is way better than it was mostly due to rule of law improvements. I have no idea to what extent the corruption reforms purged antagonistic party members or whatever, but it wasn't just a stunt, it actually did help private businesses.

I also find the elevation of Deng over Xi odd, given that Deng all his economic reforms aside, also used to roll tanks over students. The current administration doesn't even seem close to go back to the old methods.

[1]https://www.statista.com/statistics/188629/united-states-dir...

[2]https://monitor.icef.com/2019/04/chinas-foreign-enrolment-gr...

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Re:Chinese airline completes maiden passenger flight with do... by chaostheory on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @08:11PM (#25588398)

> I don't really see any evidence for the fact that foreigners are being squeezed out of China.

You're not exactly providing good evidence to prove your point either e.g. your article about being 5th most popular destination for students talks about the trend slowing down.

The trend I'm speaking of started about right when Xi assumed power.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:wb3Z3w...

> FDI in China is actually up, even American investment in China.

Money from far away, foreign investors are always welcome in almost every country. China is no different. I'm talking about expats who were more permanent than temporary, foreign exchange students.

China still has a xenophobic culture. Has it gotten better? Sure it has, but it

> I also find the elevation of Deng over Xi odd, given that Deng all his economic reforms aside, also used to roll tanks over students.

There's no denying that what Deng did was unthinkable and largely due to paranoia, but that doesn't change the fact that it was he who opened up China and created its current economic machine. Xi has come after that fact. I'm not even sure how what he did is relevant to our discussion since I'm pretty sure Xi supported it.

I have to ask. How long do you stay in China when you visit? Are you fluent? If you're not, you're missing a lot of context.

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Re:Chinese airline completes maiden passenger flight with do... by Barrin92 on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @09:20PM (#25588874)

>I have to ask. How long do you stay in China when you visit?

I've stayed usually for two to three months per year. I've been in Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Guangzhou mostly around tech folks. It's getting better but I'm not fluent, I can get around. So sure obviously I follow the politics it's of interest to me but mostly I've gotten my impression from work, talking to people and just living there.

And while the atmosphere is tenser maybe, there's more nationalistic tones in particular from very young people and it didn't feel as geopolitical say 8 years ago as it did 2 years ago, it doesn't seem like a fundamentally different place. I can't speak to every machination of the party but I don't think China is going to withdraw from the world, or not let foreigners in or anything like that. People from the very bottom to the top seem to know there's no way back to Mao's days, I don't think more political centralization is going to change that.

There's so much bad press these days you think China is the next Soviet Union, but it's hard to square with lived reality for me which is why responded quite strongly to the original post, there's just so many of them, I don't think it does the diversity in the country justice.

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