[tiborsaas]

> China is a totalitarian state that quite literally controls information; Japan and the US are not in any real sense.

The US has a long history of spreading misinformation and lies too. Japan also tried to cover up its WW2 crimes.

Point is, all governments want to control information to a certain degree.

[keiferski]

As I said, this is a false equivalence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_equivalence

These “information control” done by the US and China are in no way comparable and any suggestion that they are is pure whataboutism. We are discussing this on a website based in the US, where freedom of speech is more-or-less guaranteed. Try doing the same in China and see how the CCP reacts.

For another example of this, consider that the American president often complains (rightly or wrongly, not commenting on its validity) that the media is against him, misinterprets his statements, etc.

Can you imagine such a situation in China? It is almost absurd to contemplate: an independent media that is overly harsh on Xi or the ruling party. Such a state of affairs should make it obvious that the intensity of censorship is a level of magnitude greater under the CCP.

[ksk]

And yet most Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was connected to 9/11.

The US lies differently than China. But the lies work all the same.

[dirtyid]

The comparison is about government manufactured misinformation, not media transparency. US government absolutely puts out comparable propaganda as China.