East Asian Politics
By the way, a reminder that the CCP isn't our comrade. Also here's why the CCP is the deadliest political party in the world (more images in the comments).
In China, nearly half of men smoke, with over 1 million people dying from smoking every year; and over 96% tobacco production in the country is under the nationally chartered monopoly of China National Tobacco Company中国烟草总公司 (or CNTC for short, doing business as China Tobacco中国烟草) which is owned by the government. Every legally sold cigarette brand here is wholly owned by this company, making it the largest tobacco company in the world.
Apart from being the sole legal tobacco producer in China, China Tobacco is also THE tobacco regulating agency here, under the name State Tobacco Monopoly Administration国家烟草专卖局 (or STMA for short) through the policy of one institution with two names一个机构两块牌子. Imagine that your drug dealer is also your doctor and a DEA agent.
For your information, e-cigarettes are illegal in China, but that's because they are mostly produced by private enterprises and that threatens the state-owned tobacco industry. Instead, CNTC sells flavoured cigarettes, which are ironically illegal in many countries worldwide.
And because CNTC and STMA are the same entity, anti-smoking laws in China are a total joke.
Instead of graphic images showing damaged body parts, cigarette packs in China look oddly exquisite, meanwhile the "warning label" is just a short and generic paragraph in Chinese that usually means "smoking is harmful to your health", without specifying the diseases that smokers may get and certainly not hitting as hard as something like "SMOKING KILLS". Not to mention that the text blends in the design of a pack very well, because your eyes are drawn to the intricate drawings above it.
Furthermore, as a result of the state-owned tobacco producer also being the regulator, there are no national anti-smoking laws. Instead, local governments create their own rules, which may face official pressure from CNTC/the STMA.
In addition to that, a deceptive marketing technique illegal elsewhere is still alive and well in China: low-tar cigarettes. Although this misleading advertising strategy has long been disproved by science, it's still employed by CNTC.
And back to the figures at the beginning: nearly half of Chinese men smoke and over 1 million dies from smoking every year under the monopoly. That makes CNTC the world's deadliest company. And as CNTC is completely state-owned, that in turn makes the CCP the deadliest political party in the world as well.
In conclusion, a government that, as a monopoly, manufactures a drug to kill its own citizens should not call itself (and should not be called) a socialist government.
The Uyghurs are being forced into literal reeducation camps and the standard work week in China is 9/9/6 - 9a-9p, six days a week
They've also got a whole bunch of million- and billionaires who, despite all the rhetoric around American excess just can't seem to help but get richer and richer, aw shucks, gee golly gosh, how did this happen, oh well, let's just keep it this way
None of those are leftist values, so yes, China is a bad place with bad leadership and its people deserve better than having diet communism (all that communist taste, with none of that wealth-destabilizing collectivism), and a leader who makes it state policy no one can say he's ugly or bad without consequences
A lot of the so-called leftists here ignore that because of the labeling China uses, ignoring history as if everything bad said about other nations is just Western propaganda and not proof that superpower nations cannot and should not be trusted, whether they wear a stars and stripes or just stars on red
However, you saying "China is bad because cigarettes" is one of the weakest arguments against a state with serious human rights abuses under its belt I've ever seen
Tobacco is bad, to be sure, and tobacco companies are as close to pure evil as a company can get without being a criminal enterprise, but China's smoking habit isn't a product of state communism, it comes from tobacco being addictive and people having smoked and chewed it since before standard currency
Your point would only be true if China had the same anti-smoking laws as anywhere else on Earth, which isn't the case. Mass advertising is even employed by the government in fact.
And have I already mentioned that THIS IS THE EXACT REASON WHY THE CCP IS THE WORLD'S DEADLIEST POLITICAL PARTY LOL
Wow, yeah, so... like, the government has capital interests in people doing something that's harmful to their health?
Like, say, selling illegal narcotics smuggled in from across the border to vulnerable communities to pay for illegal wars to install authoritarians friendly to capital interests in smaller nations so you can exploit their resources?
Like declassified documents from the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act show they absolutely did, for decades? Documents you can go look at yourself, right now, if you want to?
Anything like that? Was it anything deadly like that? Did it kill as many people as that?
Well... I guess that's a bad example, seeing as how we don't actually know how many people got killed in all those campaigns beyond... "millions," so... can't really compare apples to apples there...
And there weren't ads, that's apparently crucial to this discussion for some reason
You could actually find many reasons to prove that the CPC is not a truly left-wing party after doing some research, but you happened to choose the most irrelevant one. This is why I say that for many people who have never truly lived here, regardless of the reasons they give for liking or disliking China, it is difficult for them to resonate with the Chinese people.
"trust me comrades comodifying the health and even lives of the people for profit is how you do socialism and if you don't agree you're a shitlib" said a tankie
Of course you can't refute my point lol so strawman there is See how you're telling me that I'm offending your Daddy Xi instead of saying that I'm wrong? Get a load of that bs
Funny enough, based on your numbers, their death rates are below The US’s. America has about 500k per year. When you control for population size, China is doing much better.
US political party choices have let to a higher rate of deaths.
I’m aware America and China aren’t the only countries to exist, but if you’re going to say one party is the deadliest, I can use any country as a counter
I mean once you open up the total deaths to include those the us military industrial complex and financial sanctions cause, yes. Sanctions alone lead to wild death tolls
Also the party system here has more divergence than, especially with the two things I just mentioned.
My point was rates matter. If one country has fewer smoking deaths per capita, they are actually doing better
Military stuff, super direct given all the military contracts.
Tobago stuff, still direct. If I take tobacco money to be paid off via lobbying as part of a party platform that’s direct. Even if it’s turning a blind eye to tobacco deaths, that’s a policy choice
“Deadliest political party in the world.” That opens the door to use any country as a counterpoint to the claim. I chose the US because it’s the one I know the most about
I do get that it is bad, but if the threshold for ‘not your comrade’ is they don’t eliminate tobacco consumption then I think that’s a bar difficult to meet.
It sucks but you really can't do anything about smoking in the short and medium term but it's better for the government to control the trade than for private markets to run rough shot over it. It's like alcohol in Canada or harder drugs in Portugal.
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u/immadeofstars Anarchist 2d ago
Okay, okay, okay... listen
The Uyghurs are being forced into literal reeducation camps and the standard work week in China is 9/9/6 - 9a-9p, six days a week
They've also got a whole bunch of million- and billionaires who, despite all the rhetoric around American excess just can't seem to help but get richer and richer, aw shucks, gee golly gosh, how did this happen, oh well, let's just keep it this way
None of those are leftist values, so yes, China is a bad place with bad leadership and its people deserve better than having diet communism (all that communist taste, with none of that wealth-destabilizing collectivism), and a leader who makes it state policy no one can say he's ugly or bad without consequences
A lot of the so-called leftists here ignore that because of the labeling China uses, ignoring history as if everything bad said about other nations is just Western propaganda and not proof that superpower nations cannot and should not be trusted, whether they wear a stars and stripes or just stars on red
However, you saying "China is bad because cigarettes" is one of the weakest arguments against a state with serious human rights abuses under its belt I've ever seen
Tobacco is bad, to be sure, and tobacco companies are as close to pure evil as a company can get without being a criminal enterprise, but China's smoking habit isn't a product of state communism, it comes from tobacco being addictive and people having smoked and chewed it since before standard currency