3 Misconception about China

As a Chinese citizen/As someone from China, after talking to some language partners on italki, I have found that a lot of people have some misconceptions about China.

1.) China is a poor country.
A lot of people have asked me if China is still a poor country. We used to be poor, maybe 50 years ago. However, we have made a lot of progress [for]/in the last 10 years. We have better public transport than the U.S., we also have [also] a cashless payment system that is better than any other country. We can do everything just by using our phones. Therefore, I have to tell you, China is doing very well now.

2.) Chinese news is fake and controlled by government.
A lot of people have told me that, our news is fake news, just because we can't access Youtube, Facebook and Google. Again, to me, this is not true. We have our social media apps - Weibo and Wechat. We can still read a lot of international news over there. Since our domestic companies are doing very well, we should support our local products, local apps. A lot of youtube videos and FB posts are English, which is not so friendly to Chinese people. In our Weibo, Baidu and WeChat, we can access the same news and information, [with]/in the Chinese language. It helps a lot of Chinese people. Talking about fake news, I don't think there is much fake news in China, because everyone can use the internet so fake news will be exposed very soon. But in U.S., there [are]/is a lot of fake news. That's why Donald Trump won the election when all the media was being so negative towards him.

3.) Chinese people have bad attitude.
I want to say to all foreigners who are in China, please respect our law and our culture. When you keep comparing China to your country and make us look bad, you don't deserve to be respected. Most of the police officers here can only speak Mandarin, you break the law and use English to bluff them, they let you go because they have a hard time to communicate with you, so who has the problem here?   I have some foreign friends and they respect our culture, and they like China. So, we might have bad attitude, but sometimes it might not be our problem.

So these are what I feel are the 3 major misconceptions that people have about China.

Well-written, Stella.  You have got it right about what many people think about China, and I believe there is some truth in it.  Certainly, China is no longer a poor country.  Chinese people access world news freely.  However, there is no free press in the western sense ;  all domestic news outlets are under government supervision and are subject to control, even if it is self-imposed by journalists who know what would not be permitted.  Some publications are not available in China due to government bans, and internet censorship is used to prevent access to information about some aspects of recent Chinese history.  

Chinese tourists overseas have acquired a bad reputation, but then so too have British tourists.  We all need to be more aware of the impression we make on people in the countries we visit, and to respect their customs.  Not knowing their language is no excuse.

As a Chinese, after talking to some language partners on italki, I have found that a lot of people have some misconceptions about China.

1.) China is a poor country.
A lot of people asked me if China is still a poor country. We used to be poor, maybe 50 years ago. However, we have made a lot of progress for the last 10 years. We have better public transport than U.S., we have also cashless payment system that is better than in any other country. We can do everything just by using our phone. Therefore, I have to tell you, China is doing very well now.

2.) Chinese news is fake and controlled by the government.
A lot of people told me that, our news is fake news, just because we can't access Youtube, Facebook and Google. Again, to me, this is not true. We have our social media apps - Weibo and Wechat. We can still read a lot of international news over there. Since our domestic companies are doing very well, we should support our local products, local apps. A lot of youtube videos and FB posts are in English, which is not so friendly to Chinese people. In our Weibo, Baidu and WeChat, we can access the same news and information but in Chinese language. It helps a lot of Chinese people. Talking about fake news, I don't think there is much fake news in China, because everyone can use internet so fake news will be exposed very soon. But in U.S., there are a lot of fake news. That's why Donald Trump won the election when all the media was being so negative towards him.

3.) Chinese people have bad attitude.
I want to say to all foreigners who are in China, please respect our law and our culture. When you keep comparing China to your country and make us look bad, you don't deserve to be respected. Most of the police officers here can only speak Mandarin, you break the law and use English to bluff them, they let you go because they have a hard time to communicate with you, so who has the problem here? I have some foreign friends and they respect our culture, and they like China. So, we might have bad attitude, but sometimes it might not be our problem.

So these are what I feel the 3 major
misconceptions that people have about China.

I decided to correct some mustakes. I hope you find them useful😊

And one question: could you please explain a bit better the situation with your internet? I do also think that China's news is quite normal, but I don't understand exactly how your Internet regulation works. You can message me or answer here. You reply will be very much appreciated!😊