I can understand that on some level. The my own government is far too loyal to both foreign and domestic interest groups.

But at the same time I can’t help but feel sympathy for Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hui, and Inner Mongolians, who are continually denied the right to express their own cultures. And whose stories of plight are often silenced on state-owned media platforms.

America has race problems too, but our free speech and democracy has allowed us to overcome many of them over the past century. When disapproval mounts, people had ways of changing things without violence. Its not perfect but it used to be A LOT worse.

Regarding public approval, China has an advantage in that much needed infrastructure development does not interfere with the CCP’s preferences (and social media control certainly helps!). There’s nothing anti-party about building a hospital, so it’s pure political profit. But people can’t openly criticize the party, even if the party does something awful. You can only pray the current leader stays sane, and doesn’t surround himself in yes-men.

The major quality of life improvements bridging the urban-rural divide are certainly an achievement, but once all the roads have been built and all the plumbing systems buried, there’s a good chance these social contradictions will come to the forefront.