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China really isn’t as communist as they and their antagonists claim.

Honestly, you’re probably going to have a hard time getting a legitimate answer from someone with experience. Misinformation and disinformation are likely to be tried on both sides but the reality is that it’s very difficult to really know.

1. Even when China does release statistics, you have to take it with a grin of salt.
2. homeless statistics, accounts and even acknowledgement of their existence is hard to trust even in the most democratic societies simply because of the nature of homeless living. Homeless generally tend to avoid official looking people if they can.
3. propaganda abounds from every angle when it comes to homeless, propaganda built from within, for within. Propaganda built from within, for export. Propaganda from outside, for themselves. Propaganda from outside, built for us.
4. The odds of getting first hand experience from a homeless (or formerly) person in China, on Lenny is unrealistically small. A large portion of Chinese housed don’t have internet, let alone the homeless. What I can guarantee you is that it’s not like the homeless you see in the west. They’re not sitting outside of a Starbucks on a cell phone.

Are there homeless in China? Yes

Is there extreme poverty in China? Yes

One thing that western people rarely truly understand is that there are also workers putting in 70+ hour weeks living in company forms under conditions so bad it makes American prisons seem reasonable, and not actually getting ahead with money because they are sending it all to their family in the countryside just to keep them fed.

There are also more than a hundred million Chinese people who don’t even have running water.

They also have tens of million people living rich in luxury apartments driving luxury cars with servants to do everything.

Yes, I’ve seen it. I never asked.

Yes. I’ve been there a few times and there are homeless people in the major cities. The property market is largely capitalistic. Maybe someone with more expertise can elaborate but there (or maybe were?) restrictions on working in some cities. Basically like “internal” immigration restrictions.

The policies may not be around anymore and they weren’t necessarily made with ill-intent. It was more of a “Beijing can’t handle anymore people until we build housing and water infrastructure.” But people obviously go where economic opportunity is no matter what governments say. So, there are people working in the informal economy illegally like “illegal immigrants” might be classified in the U.S. or Europe. It’s not like shanty towns or favelas, in my limited experience, but there are slums with, at best, makeshift shelters.

I’m not making excuses for another country but to me, it was like in the West but at a different scale and so a different situation. Some of the policies struck me as harsh at first but I don’t know what the fuck to do if a city’s infrastructure really can’t handle sudden mass migration. And they do build public housing, even if often in ways I wouldn’t. (For instance, demolishing what are to me historic neighborhoods to build giant apartment towers. But I also understand that what’s “historic” to an American is a laughably small period of time.)

I’m trying to be fair, here. Like in any country, there’s homelessness, mental illness, addiction, etc. but I don’t think the Chinese government is ignoring it any more than my own country. And I don’t know what it’s like to have zillions of years of history and over a billion people. Hopefully, someone who lives there can correct any mistakes I’ve made in this summary.

This is the sort of specialized question that should be asked in a specialized community, rather than here. It even concerns a country, and communities always exist for countries.

Yeah, the comment was just intended to highlight how bad things are getting here now.