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While it's been a decade since I've lived in China, I just have to disagree with this. Living in China and talking to Chinese people opens up a vast pool of "common knowledge" that is just not available to Westerners since it's not reported in the media and since there are a lot of pro-Chinese westerners in China or Westerners who are (rightfully) afraid of posting anything critical of the govt online. There is a shit ton of stuff that happens in China that you'll never hear about. Most of what happenes, actually.
Homeless dudes might not rape you in the park in China (though then again they might, if you are one of the non-persons living in a slum or migrant laborer camp!) but a well connected person like a school principal, police officer, etc very well might sexually assault you or your daughter, multiple times, and there'd be nothing you could do about it. For extremely obvious reasons this stuff never gets reported -- most people just STFU about it to avoid any retaliation. Another example -- you might also get your ass kicked by local thugs who pay money to the cops, and nobody will ever hear about it. You could also get defrauded or robbed, and the cops are either too apathetic or again, on the take, so nothing will be done.
All of that to say, don't believe that China is some sort of "law and order" society. It is, but in the same way the late stage USSR was. The laws exist to protect and advance the interests of the powerful, and crime statistics serve to burnish the country's image, not to actually document how much crime is taking place.
Compared to what came afterwards, post-Stalin USSR was "law and order" society. Do not look at statistics, look at what Soviet people complained at the time (lots of things, but fear of violence and crime was not one of them), or ask elderly people who remember - they would tell you safety was the main thing they miss from the old times.
Doesn't that run into the issue of what they perceived to be safe? If they perceive themselves safe, or nostalgia blinds their view, then you're getting a perception, not truth.
Official propaganda at the time claimed that harvests are record breaking, shops are full and all Soviet citizens live in great prosperity. Nevertheless, Soviet people perceived things differently.
If violence was omnipresent and streets were gang free fire zones, Soviet people would notice it too.
Read memories of Soviets who immigrated to US - they were doubly shocked. Once positively, with American standard of life and how such unimaginable luxury was seen as normal, and once negatively, with American crime and violence and how such endless carnage was seen as normal.
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China isn't perfect. But aren't we forced to conclude that it's safer for your average middle-class person than the equivalent US city? They do fiddle the figures, that's why I'm focusing on high-profile, hard to hide things.
Even so, could they really cover up 75% of crime, the minimum they'd need to be on par with the US? https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/China/United-States/Crime
People get sexually assaulted by those in positions of authority all around the world. It's a very opaque topic, hard to gauge. We had those rape gangs in Britain who were somehow hidden for 20 years.
But generally, people getting raped by strangers, getting their catalytic converters stolen or having a high-profile politician's house broken into by some weirdo - that's more obvious. People notice murders, they notice drug-addicts in the streets, broken glass and so on.
It's apples and oranges. First, "middle class" in the way that Americans would understand it is ridiculously infinitesimal proportion of the overall population. Not based on income parity, but on the trappings of a middle class lifestyle. By almost all standards the vast, vast majority of Chinese, even city dwellers in "tier 1" cities, are still living in poverty.
Second, there's almost certainly less random street crime in China, but that's because the local/provincial/national government has a monopoly on crime. It's like living in cartel-controlled territory, you're not gonna get mugged by a freelancer, but if a cartel member wants your car or your wife or whatever, you're fucked. Which leads to my next point...
I don't know, but maybe! A lot of people report crimes in the U.S. because there's string faith in the police and justice system (well, until recently perhaps). To extend the above metaphor, who are you going to call when you get your ass kicked by a cartel member? The police? lol! So the crime that was committed against you never officially happened and it doesn't end up in the stats, along with the vast majority of crimes. Look at our low crime rate! Obviously the metaphor doesn't work completely because cartels do have to vie against the police and federal govt for power, but in a place where the government is essentially just one large corrupt mafia, there's no such need. And we haven't even gotten into how Goodhart's Law affects crime statistics if your party boss has tasked you with reducing X crime by Y percent, it's an open secret that official stats are often tweaked or fabricated.
This is IMO analogous to my example above in that the city government and police force were in cahoots to cover this up for two decades. Only imagine that there are no independent journalists or disinterested higher levels of government to blow the lid off the systematic abuse, and in fact you're liable to end up imprisoned or dead if you dare try to expose thr powerful people behind the coverup.
The Chinese government has a tremendous amount of control over the online narrative and complete control over traditional media. You and your neighborhors might notice that there are more killings of robberies, but if state finds that fact embarrassing, good luck getting the news out. I'll concede that in the tier 1 cities (esp Shanghai and Beijing) they are much more likely to actually keep the streets safe, but for the other 99.9% of China where there are fewer foreigners and the population is less Westernized/internet savvy, almost anything could be going on.
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