What are the personal restriction of the Chinese people have placed on them by their government?
Can the average Chinese citizen decide where to work, where to by food, or even where to live? Does their government decide who is educated and who is trained to sweep floors?
Mostly they can choose for themselves what job, where to live etc. That may not have been true 10 years ago, but it’s true at present. I don’t know how college entrance is done, but I suspect it’s mostly by doing well on standard exams.
They don’t have to join the communist party if they don’t want to. However, they cannot choose their leaders. And it’s still a very good thing to have a family member high up in the party.
I was there for a month in 1997, things may have changed a lot.
I saw a lot of people fending for themselves. Standing on street corners with paint brushes and other tools waiting for someone to stop by and ask them to work. Lot’s of street vendors too. Manufacturing is dirty and dangerous there but everyone knows that. There are restaurants and stores too, not sure how many jobs vs the population but because they are steady work they got paid peanuts. Even the engineers I worked with with were poor.
The best jobs were the government jobs, talk about graft. You couldn’t get anything done without greasing someones palm. I didn’t ask about college, how you got in, but a chosen few did.
All in all, despite the poverty and pollution, the Chinese people are some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met (unless you’re waiting in line for a plane or something, then it’s everyone for themselves).
I would like to go back to see how it’s changed.