Jason Hickel, who is a political economist, author, and Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science & Technology in Barcelona, says: ”The Chinese people clearly have a much higher regard for their system than Western media assumes.”
Jason Hickel was interviewed in late April 2026 by Afshin Rattansi, the host of Going Underground.
Hickel claims:
Over the past few years, several major studies by Western institutions have found incredible levels of popular support for China’s government and its political-economic system.
The World Values Survey, based in Sweden and Austria, consistently shows that over 90% of people in China say they trust the government. Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance, which is not pro-China, in fact anti-China, finds similarly high levels of satisfaction with the national government, reaching over 90%.
The Danish NGO Alliance for Democracies found that 91% of people in China say their government serves the interests of the people rather than elites, much higher than in the U.S., France, or Britain.
A new study published in Political Psychology recently found that China was the only country where people at least somewhat agree that their political-economic system is fair.
These are striking results. The Chinese people clearly have a much higher regard for their system than Western media assumes. There’s strong state legitimacy there.
That’s not to say China has no internal contradictions or problems; every country does. But this data shows China is doing something right that deserves attention.
Much of this likely stems from dramatic improvements in people’s material conditions over the past decade, huge reductions in poverty, wage increases, better health outcomes, expanded public services, and a crackdown on elite corruption.
The government has also focused on building out grassroots democracy and more responsive feedback systems. There have been big improvements, and the world should pay attention.
Source
- Afshin Rattansi: Going Underground (X)