[crntaylor]

It's always interesting reading reports on China through a US media perspective. Stories go round relatively regularly using very carefully selected snippets of news to paint a particularly negative portrait that isn't factually wrong, but so narrowly focused that it misses the overall picture (deliberately)

On the parts really stabbing into Chinese communications monitoring, I suspect the reasoning is so the US government can say "Look, it's even worse in China!" to cover the extent of their own filters and monitoring (which most American people are only vaguely aware of. Most of them take what they're told by the US government as simple fact, and even when they can see the facts from a less biased perspective still refuse to accept it)

[bmmayer1]

Human rights are objectively better in the US than in China. Not perfect here either by any means, but the indicators are clearly, objectively better. Which is what every major human development index says worldwide, not just those peddled by our country. The UN HDI ranked the US as #3 and China as #101. It's not even a contest.

[arethuza]

Does HDI measure human rights? It seems to based on combining life expectancy at birth, years of schooling and GNI per capita:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index

[crntaylor]

I'm not really disputing that. I just thought it was interesting that the GP's comments didn't seem any less 'truthy' if you switched the roles of the US and China. Think of it as a fun exercise in examining unconscious bias, if you like!