I’m not like China expert, but this seems to be a pattern in stories for China that I’ve started to notice more, since the different local responses to Covid. Some local police or local government will do something and then it will be applied to the country as a whole, it’s federal government, and/or to Xi.
China is seen as a monolith, sometimes even among the Chinese. Something that came up is 几多 vs 多少 (how much) in modern China. Someone from Beijing will say 几多 is only used in Cantonese speaking areas and in old texts since it’s such an archaic way of asking “how much” that’s been preserved in the far south, despite the fact that I hear it on a daily basis here in Wuhan, it’s like 40/60 for 几多/多少. Also 饮 (to drink, eat or enjoy in general) vs 吃 (eat), 喝 (drink) or 抽 (inhale). 饮 is very rare for my dialect of Mandarin and only really paired with 料 to make 饮料 (drinking mixture/concoction, refers to soft drinks or other non alcoholic beverages or fruit juices), but I think other locations will still use the old verb.
Localities get a lot of autonomy in China. The central government generally issues guidelines and only steps in directly in cases of national interest, like with organizing the economy, which is part of why Chinese people when polled tend to have a higher opinion of the national government than they do their local government. It also means that foreign press can cherry pick moments where a local government does something bad while simply never reporting on the things that they do that are cool to paint a certain picture of China.
I’m not like China expert, but this seems to be a pattern in stories for China that I’ve started to notice more, since the different local responses to Covid. Some local police or local government will do something and then it will be applied to the country as a whole, it’s federal government, and/or to Xi.
Trump praises Xi for controlling 1.5 billion people with an iron fist. Americans actually believe China is some sort of Borg hive mind controlled by Xi where everyone thinks the same thing and it’s always because he extended his will, like the Borg Queen does.
China is seen as a monolith, sometimes even among the Chinese. Something that came up is 几多 vs 多少 (how much) in modern China. Someone from Beijing will say 几多 is only used in Cantonese speaking areas and in old texts since it’s such an archaic way of asking “how much” that’s been preserved in the far south, despite the fact that I hear it on a daily basis here in Wuhan, it’s like 40/60 for 几多/多少. Also 饮 (to drink, eat or enjoy in general) vs 吃 (eat), 喝 (drink) or 抽 (inhale). 饮 is very rare for my dialect of Mandarin and only really paired with 料 to make 饮料 (drinking mixture/concoction, refers to soft drinks or other non alcoholic beverages or fruit juices), but I think other locations will still use the old verb.
Localities get a lot of autonomy in China. The central government generally issues guidelines and only steps in directly in cases of national interest, like with organizing the economy, which is part of why Chinese people when polled tend to have a higher opinion of the national government than they do their local government. It also means that foreign press can cherry pick moments where a local government does something bad while simply never reporting on the things that they do that are cool to paint a certain picture of China.