[stonethrowaway]

Trap for young players: don’t read anything in western world on China. It’s mostly propaganda, misdirection, political games and the like. In other words, pure bullshit if you’re not in the in-crowd to pick up the jokes that TPTB are sending to each other by posting absurd things.

[southernplaces7]

>don’t read anything in western world on China. It’s mostly propaganda, misdirection, political games and the like.

Nonsense. Sure, there's lots of bad reporting about China in the West but generalizing as you do is as absurd as swallowing the latest from Fox News and taking it as gospel. There's also lots of astute, reasoned and well-analyzed reporting about China in the west and elsewhere.

For example, about the region of the world I've been living in for nearly two decades, I see lots of excellent reporting, and much of it comes from external sources; some of the best in fact. It's possible to do this without being within a given system.

What alternative sources should people use for China then? Name a few instead of lazily criticizing to feel superior.

[stonethrowaway]

You ever heard of that phrase “actions speak louder than words”? No? Okay, let me give you an intro then.

The only two sources you can trust on this subject matter are actions of countries, and the the use of the thing between your ears. There is a political game that is played and the only thing that matters are the moves made. All of the words wasted in so-called “news” are irrelevant. That’s just entertainment for the masses devoid of reality. The things that matter are actions and inactions of countries. The straight moves, the misdirects, and the jukes along the way. Whenever you are gloating about how a country is doing something dumb, you are saying that you cannot read the hand they are about to play. Keep this in mind, and act accordingly.

[southernplaces7]

Your claim is absurdly, childishly reductionist. The actions of countries themselves can often be wrapped deeply in layers of obfuscation, secrecy, hidden motive and incompetence, or in many other things, and be extremely hard to even know of unless you're literally on the spot, or read at a distance for the events leading to them and their ramifications.

Analysis of other's texts and selective reading from well curated sources is absolutely useful and important in knowing what's going on in a place or what might come. Many historical examples of this abound and what you say is literally just nonsense, as if it were something invented by a dramatic teenager who hasn't actually read anything of history outside a Robert Ludlum novel (if that).

Many excellent analyses by informed outsiders with insider sources or by people who just used good investigative procedure, existed of Nazi Germany, the USSR under the bolsheviks, the USSR pre-collapse, and other countries, that if they had been read by people with a discerning eye, could have yielded powerful information about what these countries would eventually do and how. News, as in general run of the mill reporting, is often just blather, but in between it, or distilled from it and from other sources, much important information can be gleaned.

[DiogenesKynikos]

Ironically, Fox News' reporting on domestic affairs in the US is far more reliable than most Western reporting on China. That's not to compliment Fox News, but just to give you an idea of how poor reporting on China is.

If you want to know about China, the SCMP is a decent source. Caixin is also good, but it's more focused on economics. Also, speaking Chinese and following Chinese social media is a thousand times more informative than any Western news source about China.

[corimaith]

The actual answer would be peer-reviewed academic articles and studies, or go just go google-translate and read Weibo or Zhihu but these posters won't suggest those because what you will find there isn't going to be pretty.