A controversy over a waterfall has cascaded into a social media storm in China, even prompting an explanation from the water body itself.

A hiker posted a video that showed the flow of water from Yuntai Mountain Waterfall - billed as China’s tallest uninterrupted waterfall - was coming from a pipe built high into the rock face.

The clip has been liked more than 70,000 times since it was first posted on Monday. Operators of the Yuntai tourism park said that they made the “small enhancement” during the dry season so visitors would feel that their trip had been worthwhile.

“The one about how I went through all the hardship to the source of Yuntai Waterfall only to see a pipe,” the caption of the video posted by user “Farisvov” reads.

  • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    Because I’m trying to understand their perspective. I consider China to be communist in the sense that the people in charge are communists, the same sense that it was communist under Mao. They call themselves communists, they explain their reasons for doing things from the perspective of communist ideology, they teach Marxism in schools, etc.

    To say that they are specifically no longer communist, when they claim to be, seems to be weighing in on what communism is and isn’t. Specifically, it seems to be taking the perspective that Mao’s leadership constituted “real” communism while Deng’s leadership constituted “fake” communism. As I am not a Maoist, I disagree with that perspective.

    It’s strange to me that you think understanding someone’s stance on China’s economic reforms, the point in history where they allegedly abandoned communism, would be irrelevant to understanding the standard by which they consider China to have abandoned communism. What could be more relevant?

    • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      They don’t know anything about China’s government or its history, they’re simply combining their hate of capitalism with their hate of China - they’ve picked up a few wesponized talking points to allow them to talk like they know everything because admitting the whole thing is super complex and confusing makes them feel scared and lost in this big old world.

      It’s also racism, communism and capitalism are western ideologies so they consider them valid, Chinese principles and reforms are foreign and worthless in their eyes - they simply can’t accept that they’re not playing the western way, the idea of a third thing is incomprehensible to them. It’s the same with Chinese tech, people want to belive all they can do is copy the west, I think partly it just feels weird trying to accept that even in some small way people are ahead of us.

      Their electric cars for example are presented as a rudimentary version of American ev but the reality is they’re a product very well suited to China’s integrated transport network which allows easy and affordable train travel for long distance and commuter transit. Small last-mile and runaround focused EV works in China because that’s how they planned for their transit system to work, they’re flowing a series of five year plans which lay out the shape and direction of their economy with the goal of benefitting the people. It’s a centrally planned economy working through a complex series of committees and congresses. Of course that’s communism, anyone that says it isn’t is just being weird.

      • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        Thank you, yes. It’s pure chauvanism and falls apart easily under examination, which seems to be why they always disappear so quickly.

        1.4 billion people live in China and I’d venture to say that a large chunk of them consider themselves to be communist and the party to be communist. That is easily the majority view of self-indentifying communists worldwide. But surely, they think, as a Westerner, I’m the authority on what communism is and not these backwards Chinese.