Yep. The main thing to remember here is that this wasn't always this way. China used to be much more dangerous in the late 80s and throughout the 90s. The huge improvement in material conditions came with a very noticeable reduction in crime. It wasn't simply a matter of better policing or surveillance. Even anti-corruption efforts could not have succeeded without the material basis improving across the whole of society. This is like a perfect case study that confirms what leftists have always been saying, which is that you don't solve crime with punitive draconian measures, but by lifting people up out of the conditions that create crime. That and having a society that is less focused on the individual and more on social "harmony" as the Chinese would say.

[–] cayde6ml@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

I've read that even as late as the 1990's, that many areas in rural (and even in some suburban and urban places, just less often) China were de-facto ruled by warlords, bandits, thieves and gangs that held the local populace under their boot by the neck, and that the Chinese government, police and military were more like an invading army or militia, than the actual government that they were supposed to be.

I'm extremely glad, that era seems to be almost entirely over, now.