@mayintoronto @chu So there are a few issues I commonly see when talking about Chinese social issues:

• The lack of visibility into those issues in the first place. The suppression of independent journalism means that there are many systemic issues that you will just never hear about, and the activism that does exist is often in Chinese (and many people in the west, despite speaking for and about China, still just can't read Chinese). The online censorship environment is very heavy and extends into mundane topics as well, that you wouldn't even think are topics for censorship. As an example, take a look at some of the censored/deleted topics in China Digital Times' monthly archive: https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2026/04/cdts-404-deleted-content-archive-summary-for-march-2026/.

• The lack of basic knowledge about PRC society. For example, I see a lot of people assume that healthcare in the PRC is free: It's not, and being able to afford even basic medical care is a huge issue for seniors and those in rural areas. Similarly, I see a lot of people assume that China has strong labour protections, while completely being ignorant about the systematic and large scale labour inequality perpetuated by the hukou system.

• Finally, the discussion of Chinese issues only in terms of the issues that exist in our own western societies. This is using China as a mirror, rather than as a real place. Climate change and electrification is an issue for us Canadians, so people look wistfully at Chinese solar panels. The devastating wars that America is waging are a horrible issue that we feel powerless about, so people look wistfully at China who is speaking against the US. But this is still fundamentally centred around ourselves. This is not only bad in that it ignores the Uyghur slave labour that's being used to build those solar panels, and the Chinese airplanes that are being used to bomb the resistance in Myanmar. It also never engages with PRC society, and the real people there living at the bottom, on their own terms from the perspective of the problems they face. It stops any attempt at understanding Chinese society and its actual tensions and contradictions. A thought experiment: What would it look like if we started from the Chinese perspective on a problem, and then used America as the mirror and comparison instead? For example, the PRC's mining operations and environmental damage in Zambia - how does mineral exploitation that western countries have done in Zambia compare? Or for example, the white paper revolution in 2022 - what can Americans learn from the protests that happened then?