For sure, they were very active during the war, both covertly as you say, and more directly through the 8th Route Army.
The KMT did most of the heavy lifting because they governed almost the entire country while the CPC controlled a single, very poor province.
They were an anti-Chiang faction that split during the late civil war and declared support for the CPC. They still exist on the mainland until this day.
There was also the left-right split before the war with Japan; after Sun Yatsen's death there were rival KMT governments with the rightists led by Chiang in Nanjing and a leftist government in Wuhan led by Wang Jingwei, though the latter folded and the party reunited until Wang became a traitor during the war and sided with Japan.
Honestly couldn't say. I know a fair number of people who still do it but I don't want to extrapolate to wider society.
My understanding is that even in 996 they get way longer lunches than us.
I'd be really wary of trying to soften how bad 996 is. Everyone I've known who's worked it has described it as pretty hellish and the government really does need to work harder to stamp it out.
As of at least 2023, Chinese public attitudes towards the LGBTQI community continues to become increasingly favorable.
Literally all that "article" says is that China has its issues but is making progress in the right direction.
The important thing is that LGBTQ people in China can and do currently live free, safe, and open lives, and that the state is consistently moving towards providing queer people with further right and protections.
How is that a different perspective?
big if true
true if big
It's status-quoism, usually both in-universe and in a meta sense in that monarchism is the Tolkienist default for fantasy stories.
Chengdu has a (positive) reputation of being China's most queer-friendly city, I guess she was drawing attention to that?
XHS is a platform dominated by young urban liberal women and isn't going to be particularly representative of Chinese society as a whole.
Like I don't think it's showing lies or anything, queer people can and do live safely and openly in China's cities, but the app might not show realities of rural conservatism, or the fact that homophobia is still very common within family units if not in broader society. Just something to be aware of.