> Yes, I have, and my conclusion is it’s nothing like what fear mongers tell us what it’s like (btw you got a nice single-purpose account there so the credibility is low in my books).

Actually, I'd say it's far worse. If you talk to people that aren't active on reddit and whatnot, then they will often have no idea what's happening in Xinjiang. And if they don't even know what's happening in Xinjiang then they of course won't know about organ harvesting of political prisoners, how people who spread information the government doesn't appreciate will end up like this guy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vspukvqxTSg), etc. Foreigners wishing to live in China will also experience a lot of discrimination and hardship that they wouldn't have to endure in other Asian countries. For example, a foreigner will be denied entry to 9/10 apartment/hotels if they don't stay at 4-5 star hotels, or go through agencies that have a "green book". It will also be much more difficult to be able to live there as a digital nomad or whatnot compared to other Asian countries.

That's also why I use VPNs and multiple accounts on all social media sites. If I didn't then I'd risk a lengthy jail sentence or death if I ever got caught by the Chinese authorities.

> I heard these people are usually compensated very well by local standards. In fact, I heard there’s a whole class of people in Beijing, Shanghai, etc. who became multi-millionaires because their old family homes were bought up for new development projects.

That's not what I've heard, and I know at least one friend said their family couldn't afford to buy a new place with the compensation and was thus forced out of the city. But I'm sure there are people who fit both descriptions.. regardless, imagine how you would feel if you were forced out of your home that you didn't want to leave.

> Construction workers’ living conditions are on the lower end for sure, but often an improvement over rural life (which is why they’re drawn to cities in the first place), and even rural living conditions isn’t that bad from what I’ve seen. Of course there are huge gaps between “the third world” or even different regions in China so what I’ve seen is far from the worst possible.

These people are often forced to live at the construction sites, or share a tiny room and toilet with a bunch of other people. They won't be able to see their families for many months. Their living conditions are worse than the living conditions of prisoners in Scandinavian countries. Not just with regard to living conditions, but also with regard to being able to see their families and loved ones. It's also very common to see them sleep on the street, under a bridge, etc. during times where they aren't working.

> Citation needed.

Have you ever been in a big city such as Wuhan during CNY? We also know 5 million left before the lockdown (great job CPC), and do you really think people should be going to school, gyms, factories, etc. during the epidemic?

> And none of your arguments justified the snail pace of taking a year to build a tiny little building, when even by U.S. standards it could have gone a lot faster (otherwise an apartment building would easily take a decade), unless your human rights include dragging projects out in order to be paid more for the same amount of work.

I think I did, but without knowing the exact situation then it's difficult to be more precise. I assume you're a software engineer, so let's look at it from this perspective.. have you ever worked on projects that should only take a week but ended up taking many months? I'm often assigned work that I could solve in a couple of hours but I instead spend a few days or a week, because if I didn't then I'd feel too exhausted and risk burnout. I assume almost everyone here do the same, and I imagine it's no different for construction workers where different projects are given different priority.

I've also seen plenty of construction work in China and third-world countries move at a snail pace, and construction work in developed countries (e.g. fixing a road in the city center) be completed within a day.