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by munmaek 2424 days ago
The same argument would apply if the person was white and had many relatives in China. Or real estate, or other leverage that can be used against them.

You can’t ignore the fact that the PRC uses those things as leverage against people abroad in order to get information. Until that stops, what are companies and governments supposed to do? Roll over and allow espionage because we’re so tolerant?

1 comments

I could use the exact same argument to propose banning Americans from GitLab. I'd also have much better empirical grounds for doing so, given how much is known about the extent of US espionage.

There's a growing hysteria in the US about China, which is leading to increasing signs of discrimination and harassment of Chinese people in the US. This sort of demonization of an entire country and the politics behind it (preservation of the US as the world's dominant power by containing China) are very dangerous. The thing that makes it most disturbing is the way people across the political spectrum have bought into the idea of the Yellow Peril, and are now okay with discriminatory policies, the trade war, and challenging Chinese territorial sovereignty.

I don't buy it. Yes there's a growing hysteria of China, but that's due to their government. It's not against the people in general. (Yes, yes, there's always an example of someone being racist/xenophobic. My response is there are always idiots who are racist/xenophobic. Citing them as an example of the populace at large is just lazy.)

People don't care about people from the ROC, aka Taiwan, aka China*. If people in our extremely polarized political environment are uniting on this, it's because it's a Serious Issue that needs to be addressed.