• Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    The major contributing factors in the famine were the policies of the Great Leap Forward (1958 to 1962) and people’s communes, launched by Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Mao Zedong, such as inefficient distribution of food within the nation’s planned economy; requiring the use of poor agricultural techniques; the Four Pests campaign that reduced sparrow populations (which disrupted the ecosystem); over-reporting of grain production; and ordering millions of farmers to switch to iron and steel production

    Central planning literally made it worse.

    And locking up political enemies is pretty authoritarian…

    Authorities often label independent or investigative coverage as “fake news”.[2] Since Xi Jinping became the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2012, various commentators, protesters, feminists, lawyers, journalists, and activists have been arrested, detained, jailed, and threatened for attempting to exercise press freedom.[3][4] As of 2023, Reporters Without Borders called China “the world’s largest jailer of journalists.”[

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press_in_China

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      And locking up political enemies is pretty authoritarian…

      Isn’t your shithole country torturing Assange right now for exposing US war crimes?

      • Valmond@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        The old whataboutism.

        We are not all from the USA and no country is perfect, that doesn’t mean any single country gets a pass in my opinion.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOP
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          1 year ago

          Screeching whataboutism is a logical fallacy used to justify having double standards for yourself and your adversaries. If the things you claim to happen in China are actually happening in your own country then that’s what you should be focused on. Meanwhile, it’s not just USA that’s at fault in the west. Every western country commits horrific atrocities. For example, France is doing brutal crackdowns on protesters with militarized as we speak.

          Maybe if westerners focused on fixing up their own shithole countries instead of yapping about China all the time, the west wouldn’t be where it is today.

          • Valmond@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            I’m not creeching :-)

            And whataboutism is what you just did, answering critic with “what about that country?!”.