[dang]

That is a red herring in at least four ways:

At most 10% of the HN community is in the Bay Area, last I ran the numbers.

People in the Bay Area are extremely aware of BLM, police reform, and related issues.

There's no reason to believe that interest in China-related topics is coming more from the Bay Area than elsewhere.

Interest in these topics is not about local demographics.

[SpicyLemonZest]

Interesting. I would have guessed more like a third of the community, but you'd know better than me.