Does China Have More Freedom Than the United States? (opens in new tab)

The democracy one (fifth point) is a big ol' stretch, and the healthcare one is debateable, but the other points are well-taken. I have struggled to make the case to my friends and family after visiting China that in a very meaningful sense, and especially for the vulnerable, having more things well connected by public transit and safe to travel on at any time of day or night is freedom. And they have an order of magnitude more of it than the USA does.

As long as Chinese peoples don’t have their private wealth rights protected by law, don’t have freedom of speech, publishing and assembling parties, China is not a more freedom state than the US. All those freedoms are temporary and not real.

All the other points to attack this might be misleading remarks.

Remember the Free Hong Kong movement? How about we look into what happened to everyone involved.

Now tell me this is equivalent to freedom.

I've lived in a communist country and I know how freedom of speech and freedom of press works. Well, it doesn't.

Without it, how can you trust official (or even unofficial) polls and reports? With such heavy surveillance and lack of real privacy, people rarely say what they actually think.

> "In every one of these categories, Chinese responses far outpaced those from Western nations."

I bet. Makes you wonder what would happen if they answered differently. I'm 100% sure the results are honest!

> (in US) "As a result, many people remain in jobs they find to be miserable just to keep their insurance, since without it they might not be able to afford life-saving treatments."

That’s almost funny - as if in China everyone has their dream job. Good thing Amnesty International and other organizations haven’t found any abuses or forced labor there; oh wait...

When it comes to movement, healthcare, and housing — it's striking that the hukou (户口) system still ties people to their birthplace. Sure, you can travel and even live elsewhere, but in practice you lose access to social benefits like healthcare or public schooling for your kids. This isn't some small exception - we're talking about hundreds of millions of migrant workers in cities who live as a "second category" of citizens. Formally free to move, but with limited rights.

Sorry, but the article reads more like propaganda than analysis - calling something "freedom" that, in reality, is not.