The following is just a really odd way to convince someone of something in my opinion.

1. "China is one of the countries with the highest approval of their government by independent studies."
2. Government approval is inversely correlated with poverty and terrible living conditions.
3. Therefore it is unlikely that "they def aren't living like this"

It's also especially odd if you're mentioning independent studies. Are there not independent studies about the living conditions?

And to be clear, I don't even disagree with you. I think a lot of westerners are affected by racist/orientalist views (or whatever you wanna call them) without realizing it. It just felt like a strange way to counter the thought process.