This is still a hot take in most western circles. I really hope that tiktok turns up the propaganda now that it's going to be banned anyway, especially during an election year to make more people see videos like this.
My vibes-based analysis is that Japan is a US ally, and it still took something like 20 years for a majority of westerners to think of it as a nice place. China will be subject to relentless propaganda, so I think it's probably going to be around 2030 or later when most westerners realize China is a nice place.
It's a pity to see 西方人小看中国. I guess the silver lining is that with racist western chauvinism clouding the vision of imperialists, they will continue delusional policies that underestimate China and overestimate their own capability, which is ultimately a soft strategic advantage for China.
I think a big factor today is that living standards in the west are rapidly collapsing. This leads to loss of faith in the system, and by extension into regime propaganda. When people start realizing that their government is lying to them about everything, then it's not a huge leap to start asking why China is being demonized so much.
The other side is that people don't believe that there could ever be a government that people would approve of, just because ours is so consistently horrible.
I hope you’re right. I am probably just in a filter bubble on yt, but seeing organic content (i.e. not spooks) give this commentary about toronto contrasting with this commentary about China within such a short period (on a western platform!) seems to be a leading indicator that reality is catching up with media perception