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One thing China does well. Put people that damage their society or economy behind bars.
by barbazoo 25d ago
One thing China does well. Put people that damage their society or economy behind bars.
- PeterHolzwarth 25d agoIn China, "harmed society or the economy" is very very often the excuse used to put political enemies into prison.
- scotty79 25d agoSo? It works. Their economy is starting to lap the West one. Maybe cutting a little bit off the top works regardless of who exactly is being cut?
- SpicyLemonZest 25d agoIt sounds appealing when you imagine that nobody you like would ever be cut, but that's not how the Chinese system works. I would guess that at some point in the past you've laughed at memes making fun of political leaders; in China, this is not allowed, because the authorities believe that posting mean things about the system or its leadership damages the trust in government which is required for a healthy society.
- scotty79 25d agoYou won't scare me into compassion for people so different than me that they might as well not be carbon based.
- PeterHolzwarth 25d agoJust want to be clear here: you appear to be saying that you support a regime putting people in prison that a regime doesn't like, on made-up charges, with the excuse of "harmed society or the economy" - have I got that right?
- scotty79 25d agoReality is the same behind the polite facades both in the East and the West. The problem with the West is that being rich mostly excludes you from being put in prison for being not liked by the powerful. Excuses are also irrelevant. You can put people behind bars on made-up charges in USA as well, if they interfere with powerful enough interests. Just not the rich enough people. China doesn't make that exception. Is that worse or better?
- Lio 25d agoIs that true or is it just people that challenge the power of the current Communist Party leadership that get punished?
- barbazoo 25d agoThere is this recent example https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/20/evergrande-founder-jailed-life-fraud-hui-ka-yan https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/20/evergrande-...
- gruez 25d agoWhich seems exactly like the sort of thing an authoritarian regime would do to placate the masses. Make an example of some big boss, but conveniently fail to fix or even acknowledge the issues that led to the crisis in the first place. In the example of the property bubble, it's domestic financial repression making real estate the only option for savings, and local governments being hooked (heh) on land sales to fund their budgets. The whole system was designed to pump up property prices and drive a bubble.
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- deaux 25d agoThat's a cop out. You can do both. Do you really think they haven't tried to fix the issues? There's no reason why they wouldn't. They try to fix the issues and rightly jail the CEO. To act as if he was just an unknowing cog in the system is nonsensical.
- gruez 25d ago>That's a cop out. You can do both. Do you really think they haven't tried to fix the issues? There's no reason why they wouldn't. Except you know, all the incentives for keeping the current system in place. Financial repression still exists. Same with the local government funding model. Also the government's intervention was arguably what led to the crisis, by abruptly disrupting real estate companies' cashflow. The problem needed to be solved, but in typical CCP fashion, rash decisions made the situation worse. Same as with the one child policy. Finally, what makes you think meta "haven't tried to fix the issues"? They're trying very hard with age verification :^)
- gruez 25d agoYeah, like Jack Ma (of alibaba) who disappeared for months, and got his company's IPO canceled, all because he criticized the government's financial regulations a bit too much? Trump wishes he has as much ability to put people behind bars as Xi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ma#During_tech_crackdown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ma#During_tech_crackdown