[dragonsh]

> the US, Japan, Canada, GB, AUS, the EU need to band together to counter China’s egregious rights abuses

Countries living in glass houses cannot throw stones on others. Moreover each country has it's own flaws, so before asking others to correct each one of them needs to correct themselves (like those countries ruling establishment in China enjoy majority support and minority like in any system democratic or communist or authoritarian is suppressed or prosecuted). All these system needs to change in which minority are protected from tyranny of majority.

> They could all offer residency programs for the bright students

Agree with you they should also include every prosecuted community in the world in this program not just Hong Kong. Indeed program should be wide open to prosecuted minority from any country not just China. The bastion of democracy can demonstrate it in action not words, to really change the status quo.

I don't hold my breathe for it, given most democracy also works on majoritarian politics it will be hard given national self-interests trumps humanity.

[philliphaydon]

> ruling establishment in China enjoy majority support

We don’t know the support because anyone who dares to speak up is silenced. People are too scared to say they don’t like the government.

The claim is that the CCP has 95% approval rating. But the local governments have a 10% approval rating.

The local governments are The Central government. Nothing the local governments do is done without The Central governments oversight and approval. So that 95% approval isn’t real. But I sure as hell wouldn’t say I disapprove if I lived in china.

[BobbyJo]

I find the 95% figure hilarious, frankly. As if 95% of any population on the face of the planet could agree on anything, much less a population of over a billion.

It being as high as it is tells me it's fake. Not fake as in falsified directly, but definitely fake in that the citizens opinions are manipulated via information control. The later makes perfect sense with the 10% figure for local governments. You can lie to people about how things are going far away, but you can't lie to them about how they're going in their backyard.

[jquery]

5% disapproval is basically the lizard man constant, aka how many people believe our politicians are actually lizards wearing human skin. So claiming 95% approval is essentially claiming 100% approval. Patently absurd. Even in the days after 9/11 when America was memorably united as one, approval of Bush hit 90% (briefly), not 95%.

It’s effectively impossible to have lasting super-high approval as a government anyway, because you’re in the business of picking winners and losers.

[riffraff]

Fun trivia: in Italian journalistic vernacular an hyper majority with no dissenting voices like this is called a "Bulgarian majority", referring to the former communist rule and obviously fake data.

As much as times change, dictatorships stay the same.

[dirtyid]

>We don’t know the support

There are decades of polling, analysis of polling methodology by western NGOs and institutions to support these findings.

The “Surprise” of Authoritarian Resilience in China https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/02/surprise-authorit...

> Nothing the local governments do is done without The Central governments oversight and approval.

"The Mountains Are High and the Emperor Is Far Away". CCP is not omniscient.

[philliphaydon]

> There are decades of polling, analysis of polling methodology by western NGOs and institutions to support these findings.

Polling put Hillary at 98% chance of winning and she still lost. Unless you support the conspiracy theories that Russia hacked the election.

It’s not hidden knowledge that a lot of Chinese people are scared to say anything bad.

[dirtyid]

This is 30+ years of polling showing consistent trend with methodologies scrutinized by multiple parties. And since when are statistics of approval ratings comparable to US election polling?

>It’s not hidden knowledge that a lot of Chinese people are scared to say anything bad.

Because that's not actual knowledge so much as conspiratorial thinking and lazy propaganda. PRC citizens criticize with impunity frequently, especially via methods that has little chance of blowback, i.e. polling, local protests vs public criticisms that goes viral.

[philliphaydon]

Oh please. Local protests in china always result in police brutality and arrests. Just a few weeks ago there was video footage of students protesting the changes to their degrees sitting on steps and the police hitting them. Let’s not try and pretend people are not scared to go against the norm. The vast majority of PRC you talk to outside of china will tell you they absolutely love their country and hate the ccp. Don’t pretend that sentiment doesn’t exist inside china for the vast majority of good people suffering at the hands of the ccp.

[dirtyid]

Yes and who do they appeal to? Central government, which comports with all studies showing high satisfaction with Beijing's performance. And risk of physical protest is qualifiable different than participating in a poll, PRC folks bitch about politics via relatively cost free methods everyday.

>vast majority of PRC you talk to outside of china will tell you they absolutely love their country and hate the ccp.

Maybe if you hang with FLG crowd and base opinion off epochetimes. Apart from dissidents or minorities who actually suffered repression which are the minority, the vast majority of mainland diaspora acknowledge central gov is what made modern PRC great, even if begrudgingly. Of course negative sentiment towards government exists... 5% against central gov as data shows. Everyone, everywhere bitches about politics, local and central, difference is PRC citizens overwhelmingly feels central gov is performing well. And in context of national approval, one evaluates based on performance of central gov like top executive branches / politburo members. Again this is consensus of 30 years of polling that's been scrutinized every which way by western institutions.

[slipframe]

The proof is really in the pudding, if the CCP were as popular as they claim, they wouldn't have a rational reason to crack down on competing political parties and fair elections. They know they aren't so popular, that's why they don't allow the public to have a choice.

[potatofarmer45]

This 95% has as much credibility as Kim Jong Il's 36 round golf score.