Chinese Courts Rule Companies Cannot Fire Workers Simply to Replace Them With AI - Judges classify AI adoption as a controllable business strategy rather than an unavoidable disruption, shielding employees from automation-driven layoffs
Chinese society is oiled by the concept of guanxi (关系) which is the word for uh… it’s the like standing you gain through your connections in society. This is why kids of party members routinely drive around beijing in black Audis breaking traffic regulations with impunity because the police can’t touch them.
Similarly, if you pass a little something or do the right favours to the right officials, and those officials pass it up the chain, then any sort of building consent or other lawbreaking exercise becomes possible.
At least that’s what things were like when I was last there in 2008. I have no reason to believe it has changed significantly since then.
According to this site, China is in a four-way tie ranked 76 of 181 countries measured in terms of corruption (lower is better). It scored 43 of 100 on their “Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)” (higher is better).
I think the parent post has merit, as China is notably more corrupt than many similarly sized western world countries. (But my afternoon web search is far from authoritative or definitive).
I genuinely don’t know much about corruption in China (or other places, really), so I’m pretty ambivalent.
But when I look at transparency.org’s methodology, it raises some minor doubts. What they do is they collect surveys from 12 different institutions, 10 of which are based in US allied countries. This, combined with the fact that the US is in some kind of cold war with China, makes me a bit doubtful of its veracity. Analogously, how trustworthy would I deem an assessment of America made by Iranian, Chinese, and Russian institutions? Not very.
I’m not saying China isn’t corrupt, it may very well be. I don’t know. But I prefer suspending judgement until I’ve looked into it properly.
So, is this like a vibes based comment or do you know something about this?
Chinese society is oiled by the concept of guanxi (关系) which is the word for uh… it’s the like standing you gain through your connections in society. This is why kids of party members routinely drive around beijing in black Audis breaking traffic regulations with impunity because the police can’t touch them.
Similarly, if you pass a little something or do the right favours to the right officials, and those officials pass it up the chain, then any sort of building consent or other lawbreaking exercise becomes possible.
At least that’s what things were like when I was last there in 2008. I have no reason to believe it has changed significantly since then.
I did a web search:
https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2025
According to this site, China is in a four-way tie ranked 76 of 181 countries measured in terms of corruption (lower is better). It scored 43 of 100 on their “Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)” (higher is better).
I think the parent post has merit, as China is notably more corrupt than many similarly sized western world countries. (But my afternoon web search is far from authoritative or definitive).
I genuinely don’t know much about corruption in China (or other places, really), so I’m pretty ambivalent.
But when I look at transparency.org’s methodology, it raises some minor doubts. What they do is they collect surveys from 12 different institutions, 10 of which are based in US allied countries. This, combined with the fact that the US is in some kind of cold war with China, makes me a bit doubtful of its veracity. Analogously, how trustworthy would I deem an assessment of America made by Iranian, Chinese, and Russian institutions? Not very.
I’m not saying China isn’t corrupt, it may very well be. I don’t know. But I prefer suspending judgement until I’ve looked into it properly.