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man i never know when or if i can ever trust news about china, or news from china, or anything i hear about china, because there are so many special interests who WANT me to hold one particular opinion or another...
There certainly are parties who would benefit from the world believing this story, after all. Even if the benefit is as minimal as making western or capitalist construction firms look better. It's practically indirect advertising, making acceptance of high construction costs feel more palatable because "at least it's not like china" or some shit.
I've seen those videos where people are whacking the base of a pristinely painted concrete support pillar with an empty plastic water bottle and watching the material chip, flake, and crumble away like it's made of loose gray dirt and even then I felt this skin-crawling sensation that I'm being fucked with by SOMEBODY. They claimed it was part of one of those shiny brand new housing towers that ALLEGEDLY don't even have plumbing, ventilation, or electrical systems installed because the contractors are ALLEGEDLY in it for pure graft and nothing more, but how can I take anything at face value anymore?
Your suspicions are generally correct. News about anything is always carefully selected to fit a narrative.
I have been in those kinds of buildings in China. They're real. I also have no idea what difference it makes to the average American to know about them.
Those buildings were pretty wild though. As an American, I relate to them this way: a lot of China's prosperity is recent, within the last couple of decades. You'll see some of the same stuff in America but with respect to much older achievements that were neglected. Both are the result of local governments falling asleep at the wheel or specific politicians ignoring problems to make themselves look better, at least temporarily. In other words, same shit, different day.
Since this is Lemmy, I guess I should say this isn't a "both sides" thing. It's a "this is being human" thing. I suppose the difference between the two is China will censor stuff for civic harmony while US media will blow everything wildly out of proportion to drive rage clicks. So there's that.
Yeah it's a lot of guys getting sweetheart contracts from government construction initiatives, then skimping on materials to pocket as much cash as possible. Capitalism/cronyism doing its thing