Dan's letter is a largely objective personal account, but it is heavily biased towards a particular worldview. This "Ezra Klein" liberal worldview is absolutely not representative of China. It represents a tiny (affluent, expat-oriented) minority.
He spends a few paragraphs talking about how returning to NYC/SF was disappointing, that the NYC subways were strictly worse than he remembered, then turns around and says "the real [America] is getting better". Huh? Based on what? The stock market?
Being a Chinese liberal in 2024 is an exercise in cognitive dissonance and blind faith. You have to just believe that Xi's China is about to collapse, and Biden's America is on the cusp of a golden age. You have to ignore decades-deep trends (in education, development, economic inequality, geopolitics) and wish that they are going to suddenly reverse. Because of an 80 year old POTUS who has been US Senator since 50 years ago when Shenzhen was a dumpy fishing village? It's a very difficult ideological position right now.
I think it's hilarious that when westerners provide data based arguments that China is failing, China supporters will say you don't understand China and you need to live there, and they've heard China's impending fail many times. And then when a Chinese person that lives in China provides arguments that China is failing, China supporters will say well they're biased.
Cherry-picking can look superficially like a "data-based argument", but that doesn't make it a good argument or approximation of the truth.
Dan isn't outright lying, but he is omitting a lot of uncomfortable truths (long-term trends) in order to reinforce his worldview.
Voluntary expats in particular are unreliable narrators because they are incentivized to fit in their new home and defend their major life choice. An expat that expresses loyalty to their old country over their new one is not really an expat, they will be viewed socially as an eternal outsider, foreign agent or invasive settler.
He spends a few paragraphs talking about how returning to NYC/SF was disappointing, that the NYC subways were strictly worse than he remembered, then turns around and says "the real [America] is getting better". Huh? Based on what? The stock market?
Being a Chinese liberal in 2024 is an exercise in cognitive dissonance and blind faith. You have to just believe that Xi's China is about to collapse, and Biden's America is on the cusp of a golden age. You have to ignore decades-deep trends (in education, development, economic inequality, geopolitics) and wish that they are going to suddenly reverse. Because of an 80 year old POTUS who has been US Senator since 50 years ago when Shenzhen was a dumpy fishing village? It's a very difficult ideological position right now.