All sociology is rubbish in authoritarian countries. What does it mean “government is popular”? It means nothing because no one would say otherwise.
It means lifting over 800 million people out of poverty and achieving an almost 95% home ownership rate in a country with over a billion people (the media don't like talking about that second fact because it runs counter to the idea that China's housing market is ""collapsing"" because of CPC mismanagement when the reality is Xi and the CPC declared that housing is for LIVING IN and not for speculative investment. A brilliant move that would benefit Americans if we were so bold to suggest this idea ourselves). Let's add several thousand miles of modern infrastructure and high speed rail on top of that so that all of those former people in poverty can now access economic centers.
But yeah, everyone in China hates their government for accomplishing these things for them, sure... The NYT and Western press are absolutely NOT lying to you so you don't feel as bad when you see the literal rotting away of NYC subway stations for example. People that
totally know the truth about China because they read about it in the Wall Street Journal be like: "Uhh yeah we could have super modern infrastructure and a functioning government too but that would mean being AUTHORITARIAN and EVIL like those Chinese fellas, so instead we're going to let things continue to erode as is. My favorite magazine assures me everyone in China hates the CPC and is begging for us to liberate them from Emperor Xi. Yeah our government has problems but so does theirs so I guess our tradeoffs are better than their tradeoffs. Therefore nothing should change and the system should continue as is."
Oh and by the way it was a Harvard study that concluded Xi Jinping's approval rate is amongst the world's highest. You know, Harvard, the institution that is totally pro CPC, right?
The sooner we accept the truth about China the sooner we can begin ACTUALLY competing and working with them as equals. The longer we delude ourselves and make up fake stories about their country the more of a head start we give them in defining the next century of world history.