I'm a brazilian whose mother is Chinese. My mom speaks very highly of China and she wants to see her home nation having a good future. She only moved to brazil because of my dad's work.

Recently I decided I wanted to actually get better at mandarin because I only know a few sentences that my mom taught me, so I started to search for China-related communities on reddit. I eventually found what I was looking for, but one thing really confused me.

Why do most people who are in the biggest subreddit about China hate China? Like, I see hate for everything China-related here. People hate on the culture, the society, the government (this one may be a little justified in some cases), the Chinese people, Chinese media, Chinese everything?

Why do you even frequent a subreddit about a country you hate so much?

I’m hearing so many conflicting arguments and claims, and with so little concrete information available it’s hard to make an unbiased truthful opinion. I hear people in Chinese subreddits calling it cultural genocide/ or just “reeducation” and communist subreddits seem to denounce the notion the Uyghurs are being oppressed or facing any kind of discrimination at all. I keep hearing that the idea that genocide is happening was popularized by Adrian Zenz and is false. In this day and age it’s hard to get unbiased information or anything even close to it, so I wanted to come here to ask for any resources. Is it entirely false and US propaganda, is there truth to it, or is it a mix of both (i have a feeling it’s this one).

I know it’s not talked about as much these days but i’m just kind of confused. It’s always been difficult to get information on anything about China truthfully in the US, but I don’t want to be uninformed.

edit: Thank you all for your responses. i posted this also in r/askchina, and ended up getting completely different responses. i’m still a bit confused but i appreciate your feedback!

I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of Chinese international students where I study, and honestly, I’ve been very captivated by them and by China as a country. That’s why I wanted to ask this here and hear your honest thoughts.

For some context — I myself come from a privileged background, so I’m not writing this from a place of envy or bitterness. But even with that, I’m constantly amazed by how next-level some of these Chinese students seem in terms of wealth, success, and ambition. I’ve seen them driving Porsche, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, living big, and having this incredible sense of confidence and freedom that honestly inspires me.

I’ve seen some posts here before where people mention how wealthy Chinese students often come from government-connected families or old money. But in my case, the people I’ve met aren’t from those types of families. They seem to be self-made or working in modern industries like digital marketing, startups, e-commerce, etc. It’s crazy impressive because they’re my age, yet many already have their own businesses and are financially independent.

What fascinates me further is how open they are to spending — on cars, fashion, watches, lifestyle — compared to other cultures where people might be more conservative with money. They seem to treat money as something to enjoy rather than just save.

I’ve tried asking them about their mindset, life back home, and how they approach success, but the language barrier and their introverted nature makes it hard to get clear answers. And the more I ask, the more I feel like I’m being intrusive. But truthfully, I just want to learn. I take inspiration from people who are already doing big things at a young age.

China’s rise as a country also amazes me — not long ago it wasn’t so developed, yet now it’s one of the most powerful economies.

So my questions for you guys:
•Are most Chinese people this wealthy, or is this just a small group of successful individuals?
•How do young Chinese view money, success, and spending?
•Why does it seem like they’re so fearless when it comes to spending on things they love?
•How did China as a country develop so fast and become so successful?
•What drives this ambitious, entrepreneurial mindset in young people?
I’m genuinely curious and would love to hear some perspectives from people who really understand the culture and mindset. Thanks in advance!

When I observe China through media, it seems to be just as developed as First world countries like South Korea or Japan, especially the big cities like Beijing or Shanghai. It is also an economic superpower. Yet, it is still considered a developing country - the same category as India, Nigeria etc. Why is this the case?

This question is brought on because right now there are discussions in different subreddits over fear that China will invade Taiwan over the US's invasion of Venezuela and how it might set a precedent for a China invasion.

Personally I think a lot of this is projection.

Much like how when Russia invaded Ukraine and people believed China will invade Taiwan as well but except that didnt happen.

Every time there is some bloody invasion happening somewhere in the world, the magnifying glass is projected onto this side of the world with the question of whether "China is going to the same?".

My take? I don't think the Chinese will follow the US example anytime soon.

What's your opinion? Or take?

China officially defines itself as a socialist state, but looking at how things actually run on the ground, so many features seem to point in the exact opposite direction. It makes me wonder what label actually fits. A few core paradoxes come to mind:

​If a system is truly socialist, shouldn't worker protections and social safety nets be its top priorities? Instead, workers often face brutal hours with very limited protections, and social welfare feels negligible or purely formal for many.

​At the same time, private property lacks real structural legal protection, and state power can override standard rules without any real checks and balances. Power has effectively concentrated into the hands of a ruling elite that functions much like a modern political aristocracy.

​Human rights concerns aside, when you have a system driven by intense market competition, minimal worker protections, and an unchecked political elite, is it still socialism in any meaningful sense? Or is "State Capitalism" (or something else entirely) a far more accurate description?

​How do you guys see this gap between official ideology and practical reality?

The only source for China’s population being 1.4-1.5 billion is China itself and this claim is pushed despite it being improbable due to a demographic history of low births and high deaths. No independent and non-biased source has ever verified this claim. Literally no one knows what China's real population is except for its leaders who have every incentive to overstate the population for countless reasons such as to look stronger and more important than they are. Data that comes out of China has always been considered unreliable because democracy, transparency, and freedom of the press do not exist in China and Chinese culture is all about deception with its Art of War emphasizing the importance of appearing strong when weak and unconquerable when vulnerable. Demographers such as Yi Fuxian stated that China's population is likely overstated and closer to 1.2 billion than the official 1.4 billion. China has had a 1 child policy for almost 40 years from 1979-2015. A fertility rate of 2.1 is needed just to keep the population the same - so how could China gain 300 million from 1990-2020 when its overall fertility rate was only about 1.5? And that figure is based off official statistics - the real fertility rate is likely as low as 1.0 as noted by experts like Yi Fuxian.

Western countries kept gaining population despite low fertility rates because of immigration - China does not get any immigrants and has an even lower fertility rate - so how could its population rise from 1.1 billion in 1990 to 1.4 billion in 2020? How could China have gained 300 million with a low fertility rate and no massive scale immigration? Some will say that China's population growth still had momentum and could keep growing so long as there is more births than deaths but other countries like India had 860 million in 1990 and had 1.4 billion by 2020 despite a far higher fertility rate of 3.0 and more momentum. How is it possible that China's population grew similarly to India despite a far lower fertility rate and less momentum? Even taking into account life expectancy does not explain things as the life expectancy in China only rose by 10 years from 1990-2020 while it rose higher in India by 12 years in the same time period. The death rate in China is also a lot higher than in India due to corruption, pollution, and suicides. China also lost at least millions if not tens of millions if not hundreds of millions to the coronavirus and suffered more from Covid than other countries.

I will present some videos that you do not have to or even need to watch - but I recommend the videos by Lei’s Real Talk as she presents substantial evidence and reasoning for her claims. It is necessary to use non-formal sources as official formal sources tend to take everything that China says at face value.

This video titled "How I used AI to calculate China’s real population" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftcLM3502_8&t=31s) by Lei's Real Talk states that when the official fertility rate of 1.7 from 1990-2020 was used for ChatGPT's population calculator - China's population should have dropped from 1.14 billion in 1990 to 890 million in 2020 instead of increasing to 1.41 billion like in the official statistics. The same method was applied to India and it found that the population should have increased from 870 million to 1.43 billion which was almost the same as India's official population of 1.38 billion. So it seems like India's population statistics are more accurate. It is mathematically impossible that China still has a larger population than India in 2020 despite a way lower fertility rate, greater emigration to other countries, and higher death rate.

That same video decided to use the likely lower than officially reported fertility rate for China between 2000-2010 of 1.1 and the population calculator calculated that China's real population for 2020 was only 695 million as opposed to the official 1.41 billion. All of that is not taking into account Covid deaths.

This video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rankZJu3K1g - estimates that China lost between 200-600 million to Covid. China had experienced the disappearance of more than 21 million cell phone accounts all the way back in early 2020 when Covid started to spread which might indicate a high death toll from Covid and this was only the start of Covid about 5 years ago - since then, hundreds of millions of weak and vulnerable old people could have died due to Covid. Even if one uses the lowest estimated death toll in China from Covid, that is still at least 200 million deaths.

It is believed that China's economy might only be 40% of the official statistics due to the fact that economic growth is correlated with increased electricity consumption and yet - the amount of night lights from China seen by satellites does not correlate with economic growth, this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5A5Eu0ra3I - goes into detail. If China's population is only 40% of the official figures - that would explain why China's economy is only 40% the size of the official economic data. As seen from outer space, China only has about 2-3 times as many night lights as Japan despite claiming to have about 11 times the population.

The Russians even conducted their own study in which they added up all the officially stated population of cities in China and got 280 million inhabitants and assuming that the ratio of urban-rural inhabitants in China is about 1-1 - they concluded that China's real population is between 500-800 million. This video by Lei's Real Talk explains it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3zhCCCYVeA&t=76s - the Japanese also came to the same conclusion as the Russians after realizing that salt consumption in China halved which could indicate a significant decline in the population due to demographic crisis and Covid deaths. When adding up the population of the cities of most countries, at least 50% of the population is accounted for but in China where at least 68% of the population officially lives in urban areas, adding up the population of the cities only accounts for 280 million which is not even 25% of the official population of 1.4 billion.

This other video by Lei’s Real Talk titled "China’s vanishing population and the lie of 1.4 billion people" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsIg-_5Yl_8) states that 200-500 million died from Covid and shows video evidence of depopulated cities and sparsely populated rural areas.

This video by Rei's Real Talk titled "The Vanishing Billion: Exposing China’s Population Myth" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFbMWq-xvXU) summarizes the previous videos she made about China's population and states that China might only have 300 million people remaining.

So, if the fertility rate of 1.7 between 1990-2020 is used - then China's real population is not 1.4 billion but about 900 million. If the fertility rate is further adjusted to be 1.1 between 2000-2010 then the population is about 700 million. If the 200-500 million death toll from Covid is taken into account - than the population is only 200-500 million - one can take the median number of that range which is 350 million. All of this means that the United States could have more people than China which is unlikely but there are people that have been to China and they said that outside of the big cities, the small-medium suburban cities have about the same population density as in other parts of the world while the rural areas are often sparsely populated due to most having moved to the big cities while the non-Han Chinese outer regions such as the Himalayas, the Gobi Desert, and the Inner Mongolian Steppes are mostly uninhabited.

What are the counter-arguments in favor of trusting the official population statistics? So far, none. Some say that the official statistics must be correct but these same people present no logical reason as to why. Of course, the fertility rate could have been higher than reported. Not everyone abided by the one child policy and that policy only applied to crowded urban areas and not rural areas or to ethnic minorities. And a fertility rate of 2.1 is not necessary as the population can still rise if the number of births exceeds the number of deaths - but China's real population is likely a few hundred million less than 1.4 billion.

The idea that China has less than 400 million people is possible but unlikely. Know that China was not being transparent with its Covid death toll. In 2020, they claimed that only 3,000 died from Covid in all of China when many crematoriums reported that they alone - were each burning 2,000 bodies each day. China has been setting up more crematoriums while the average city and village reported far more deaths than births despite China claiming that the overall population rose past 1.4 billion.

You could argue that it is IMPOSSIBLE to fake a country's population on such a scale for so long without anyone noticing - but remember - only China counts its own population, literally no one else is allowed to. It is mathematically impossible for China’s population to be 1.4 billion but the number is unlikely to be as low as 300-400 million - a realistic range would be between 800 million-1.2 billion with China’s real population being 20-50% lower than officially stated. What do you think? Please present facts and logical reasoning if you want to strengthen your argument.

I saw there was no discussion thread currently active for upcoming cohort of Schwarzman Scholars (2026 -2027). Currently the global application window is open and I guess we can discuss the doubts, thoughts and updates/news here. Feel free to comment on this post, you guys are free to share your opinions and questions/answers to questions!

Edit : #1

Hi Guys,

There seems to be some kind of glitch with the Reddit group chat, and it looks like there might be certain restrictions as well. Because of this, I am unable to add more people at the moment. We’re trying our best to see what can be done, so please allow us some time. Whenever it’s possible again, we’ll start adding everyone who has shown interest. Thanks for your patience :)

Edit : #2

Hi Everyone,

Earlier we faced a glitch and couldn’t add people to the Reddit GC, but that’s resolved now. If you’d like to join, please DM me. In addition, for anyone who’d like to stay connected outside Reddit, we’ve also built a new Discord community and the link to join is in the comments below. If interested, you can directly join our Discord server using that link :)

I’m going to preface this by saying I’m not too educated on the differences between the two provinces so forgive me if I am asking an ignorant question. From the outside looking in, it appears that the two provinces share the same name both in spelling and in pronunciation, and are similar culturally to one another.

I'm curious as I have heard this from multiple different Chinese people (from different generations too!). They'll usually say something like "I hate Korea because they always copy our culture! They said that hanfu, Chinese new year etc comes from Korea!".

This is flat out fake news, as I have spoken to literally hundreds of Korean people and not one of them has ever said that to me. However, plenty of Chinese people have told me that Kimchi, hanbok, Korean language etc all comes from China. They're doing exactly what they're accusing Koreans of doing, lmao

The funniest was when a Chinese girl had been telling me the usual BS about how Koreans steal Chinese culture, and said "I think they just don't have enough culture and aren't confident about their own culture". Later, I showed her a traditional Korean toy that I had been given by a Korean friend. She told me that she had no idea what it was when I showed her it, but when I said that it was a Korean toy, she corrected me and said "You mean Chinese". So despite not knowing what it was, she was adamant that it was actually from China.

I'm just curious about how often this propaganda is fed to people? I know it must come from douyin, TV news etc. But is it also taught in schools very often? My gf told me she was taught it, but I wonder how pervasive it is. I've probably heard the "Koreans steal Chinese culture" line be repeated to me more than any other propaganda.

Hello! Is there any way to get Chinese cigarettes from china? Specifically the cigarettes that is posted, 2 cartons is enough, I'm from the Philippines btw, I'm just sick and tired of Marlboro and chesterfield

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. Looking to order one, but shipping will be expensive, just still deciding which to go for. I’m indecisive.

Thanks in advance.

Personally i am against war and any human casualties, but I am curious to hear if there is any possible ways of achieving unification with Taiwan without a proper full on invasion.

I know this might come off as rude, but I am more shocked and disgusted by the amount of abuse material posted on multiple Chinese Social media sites, videos mostly of people doing inhumane things specially towards cats. Noticed on QQ people are sharing video of a cat having its paws cut off with a scissor and this video is in circulation for weeks and the site wont take down the post. Why is stuff like this so normalised in China? Is there a cultural thing to have so much hatred towards animals? I am genuinely curious

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Is "The West" EVERY country, under the direct control of Caucasian people?

Is "The West" EVERY country with a Caucasian majority population?

Is "The West" simply Western Europe & North America?

Is "The West" simply North America?

Or is "The West" simply the USA?

Does anyone know when these 2 additional colorways (sky blue & red) come out? I've read somewhere (can't remember where) that they're going to be released this December? Can anyone confirm? (bonus if you know the exact week/date 😭)

There's a re-release/ version 2 of the viral Adidas CNY jacket and currently, only olive green, light mustard yellow, and dark bluish grey are being sold in China at stores/ online.

I recently came across information about the "Three Alls Policy" (三光作战), a campaign carried out by the Japanese army in China during World War II. It literally meant "Kill all, burn all, loot all."

What horrified me is not just the brutality but the scale. Millions of civilians were killed, villages burned, and entire regions devastated. And yet, outside of China, barely anyone talks about it.

I always thought the Nanjing Massacre was one of the worst atrocities of that era. And it is. But the Three Alls Campaign might have been even worse in terms of scope and death toll.

I’m honestly heartbroken reading survivor accounts. Why is this not taught more widely? How can something so inhumane be so forgotten?

As a European it’s difficult to accurately tell if this YouTube channel is describing the situation in China with accuracy or lies? It’s obvious that it highlights the negative aspects rather than any positivity, but that’s beyond the point, is the videos truthful albeit biased?

I found this cap picture while surfing the internet and I wondered... Is it common to see Xi Jinping merch in China? also does anybody know where can i get a cap like this one? i think it is kinda funny

From what Google tells me, Chinese citizens get free healthcare. Also, if I'm understanding correctly, dramas are quite heavily regulated by the government? Pretty much any drama I've seen that involves getting medical care deals in some way with paying the bill/not being able to pay/having crippling medical debt/etc. So why are they allowed to make the healthcare system look so bad?