[gostsamo]

Not many, I think. I usually look at the new section of HN and check what has been flagged unreasonably. Anti-chinese post are rarely flagged multiple times.

My opinion is that there are honest pro-chinese people on HN, most likely chinese working in the US who don't plan to stay for life and feel patriotic enough to protect the fatherland on internet forums.

[vlkr]

Maybe, but i think every platform that has a lot of influence or a big audience is a valueable target for propaganda.

[gostsamo]

Agree, just I'm lacking the evidence. Plus, we might overrate the importance of HN for the CCP. Most of their thought control is for internal use. The external influence is usually based on money and access to the chinese market, not by thrall farms. Exceptions apply to social media, but I think that they concentrate on the large platforms like FB, Twitter and Youtube.

[platinumrad]

This is almost certainly it. HN is first and foremost a technology website and its userbase is tiny in the grand scheme of things. I get that we like to think we're the center of the universe, but is it so inconceivable that even if the CCP knew we existed, it wouldn't care?

[lucian1900]

And also non-Chinese people that support the PRC, like myself. Many of us are communists, but not all.

The trend on HN is indeed quite clearly anti-China and anti-communist, so Chinese propaganda is definitely less successful than that of the US and Western Europe.

[platinumrad]

I'm not a communist (I'm not an ML(M), to be specific) but I do have a self-destructive compulsion to put up tepid contextual defenses of western adversary states like China, Russia, and Iran. I don't think they're universally wonderful places with perfect benevolent rulers, but the way most people here are completely delusional about these countries, from history to present conditions and motivations, can be frustrating. It's a soft (and sometimes hard) chauvinism which is a little sad coming from a group that likes to think of itself as fair and critical thinkers.

Also the implicit dehumanization ("they have no culture") of the people who live in these places can be really disgusting.

[lucian1900]

Exactly. Even the barest minimum of anti-imperialism gets pushback.

Western chauvinism is quite something. It's more noticeable if you're in any way "Eastern", even European.

[enaaem]

You are one public forum. People can disagree with your messages just as you can disagree with others. If you don't want pushback write a blog and disable comments.

[platinumrad]

There is a difference between "nobody should be allowed to disagree with me" and "it's regrettable that most people hold what I consider to be very regressive positions on this topic." I don't think anyone is expressing the former.

[lucian1900]

Surely I can critique the collective behaviour of a particular public forum without excluding myself from it? Different fora differ drastically in behaviour, after all.