This is excessively and abundantly wrong. It's also deeply insulting to people in every country in the world that still struggle with poverty, because it's like you're telling them that it's their own fault for not pulling themselves out of it.
‘China lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.’
Wrong.
China abandoned socialist economy. And the Chinese people lifted ourselves out of poverty.
What did the state do?
They kept people in poverty for decades through their fanatical socialist experiments, which they had to abandon due to abject and glaring failures.
I don’t remember anyone ‘lifting’ anyone out of poverty, in my family, my friends’ families, in countrysides, cities. The use of the word ‘lifting’ is a propagandistic language that gives agency and credit to the state, and treats the people of China as patients to an external cure. It also makes the PRC sound like a welfare state. Nothing is further from the truth.
So please part your way with the language of ‘lifting’. It is a false claim and frankly insulting to everyone in China over past decades who worked hard to improve the livelihood of their own and their families. There are plenty of much better words here.
This is just incredibly insulting and ignorant. If you believe the government has no hand in fostering the economic environment that enabled development, then it should be straightforward for every sufficiently motivated populace to do the same, right?
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It's hard for me to comment on these ideas without going into ad hominem and personal attacks, because these are some of the most pernicious comments that can possibly be made - the idea that there's nothing for other counties to adapt or adopt from the the Chinese model of poverty alleviation or economic development because the Chinese people “saved themselves”. Ezpz.
You both suck so very much - ignorant and dishonest hacks that deserve everything negative that comes your way. You value political preening and moral posturing over helping people. You would see the world suffer before daring to let the Chinese government get its due for engineering and then perpetuating the most spectacular economic rejuvenation of modern history - one that can and should be adapted where appropriate for other developing nations.
For people interested a detailed look at how Chinese authorities created, refined, and improved the institutional processes that empowered economic growth in early years of reform, I strongly suggest reading How China Escaped the Poverty Trap by Professor Yuen Yuen Ang. Maybe a do a detailed book review so everyome can see what thoughtful scholarship on this important topic looks like.
For more details on the last decade of targeted poverty alleviation, I recommend traveling the poorest parts of the Chinese countryside yourself and talking to people directly, because I'm not sure that book has been written in English yet. Ask people to whom they assign the credit for their improved economic situation. Ask them what processes or institutions helped make their lives better. Good or bad, they'll tell you. But you aren't going to learn about it from your office in California... Or over afternoon tea in Hangzhou.
In a sense I think this type of opinion is the last echo of neoliberalism — you just remove the government, and everybody gets rich. I would argue this line of thought is also behind the current predicament in the West.
Nov 7, 2025 · 1:32 AM UTC
