[wisdomoftheages]

Well, in the Xi era China has a) become more of an overtly fascist dictatorship and b) harder for Westerners to make money in, so because of b) there's more incentive to focus on a)

Still lots of great stuff happening there, so long as you're not an ethnic minority, religious, LGBT, disabled, an addict, mentally ill, interested in social change, or too poor to afford your own private oxygen and food supply

[dang]

Please keep nationalistic flamewar off HN. It's what this site is not for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[zabana]

Ethnic and religious minorities are also persecuted all over the US and Europe, it may not be physically (except if you're black in the US) but there's definitely a psychological warfare being declared against these groups through mass media and culture (movies, tv shows, literature ...). I'm not too sure we can give lessons to the Chinese government on this subject.

[2bitencryption]

> are also persecuted all over the US and Europe

Persecuted? I mean, maybe there's social stigma. But I can start a local chapter of "<some_minority> support group" and no one is going to knock on my door and disappear me in the night. I can make a website that's entirely dedicated to criticizing my government, and my internet connection won't be blocked. I can jaywalk across the street without a CCTV camera auto-detecting my face, associating it with my Citizen Social Credit score, and then having it be broadcast on a massive digital billboard to shame me in front of thousands of people.

Okay, that started to drift from your original point a bit, my bad.

[zabana]

> But I can start a local chapter of "<some_minority> support group" and no one is going to knock on my door and disappear me in the night.

Absolutely true. But you WILL not be given access to venues to host events, and you will most certainly be labeled a "violent activist group" or (if you're from a particular religious group) be accused of "feeding the fire of terrorism". With all the negative consequences that come with that. (This is not science fiction by the way, it happened in a certain west european country not too long ago).

So yeah, I'm not sure it's a better deal.

I wasn't trying to start a flame war or anything. I just find the hate towards china very curious and very dangerous. What bothers me isn't necessarily the negative criticism it's rather the fact that we're accusing them of things the US and Europe have been guilty of for centuries, but you're right we're drifting away from the main topic of the article.

Thanks for replying.

[_iyig]

>I'm not too sure we can give lessons to the Chinese government on this subject.

I simply must call BS.

Are the Germans not qualified to give lessons on the subject of pervasive surveillance, or the concentration of thousands into camps on the basis of their religion? Are the Bosniaks not qualified to speak of ethnic cleansing, particularly as it applies to a Muslim population? Are the British, whose colonial empire committed many of the same crimes China seems intent on repeating, without any wisdom to offer on the subject?

Perhaps the recent density of criticism directed at China, in particular reports on the surveillance state and concentration camps in Xinjiang, are signs that something has gone very wrong.

[zabana]

You speak as if western powers invading, destroying and supporting coup d'etats in foreign nations is a thing of the past. It's not. We are right to bring up the issue of Tibet but the chinese would be more than happy to mention the endless list of countries the west has destroyed/seriously compromised in all parts of the world (central/south america, the middle-east, central asia and now even Africa).