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"Why the strong anti-China sentiment on HN? I don't get it. That's quite odd, I notice the opposite. I notice many pro China pieces here on hackernews. Whether
by mahranch 11y ago
"Why the strong anti-China sentiment on HN? I don't get it.
That's quite odd, I notice the opposite. I notice many pro China pieces here on hackernews. Whether it's talking about their green energy, growing economy, financial markets or what have you.
Perhaps you've fallen victim to what's known as hostile media effect? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostile_media_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostile_media_effect)
It says that you tend to notice more negative media & chatter about something you care about or have an interest in, regardless of reality.
And I think this might actually be the case here because the original commentor above wasn't "anti-China" at all. He was stating a contrary viewpoint. Being realistic doesn't mean something is automatically "anti". If there was an article about the U.S middle class growing this year, and someone posted a comment which disputed that, it wouldn't be an "Anti-American" comment.
Speaking of, I see more "what's with the anti-China comments?" more than I notice actual anti-China comments. In fact, I almost never see truly anti-China comments.
- sanxiyn 11y agoBeing realistic is different from being contrary, which in turn is different from being a conspiracy theorist. Personally, I consider "Chinese government is fabricating economic statistics" a conspiracy theory territory. You have a point that being mistaken is different from being hostile or anti, but we do call people "anti-vaccine" when they are just mistaken and as a result genuinely worried about vaccine. I think one should interpret "anti-China" the same way.
- zghst 11y agoIt's not conspiracy theory territory, Li Keqiang the country's premier actually admitted that many provinces fabricate statistics to look better to Beijing. And there is tons of evidence that their statistics do not match reality. Realistic is China's economy cannot continue to defy gravity, the regular people aren't experiencing the miracle growth. Maybe the wealthy who have their hands in the pie, but for the other hundreds of millions of Chinese, there is no miracle.
- sharetea 11y agohttp://www.wsj.com/articles/wsj-survey-chinas-growth-statements-make-u-s-economists-skeptical-1441980001 http://www.wsj.com/articles/wsj-survey-chinas-growth-stateme... "More than 96% of respondents to the latest Wall Street Journal survey of 64 economists–not all of whom answered every question–said China’s gross-domestic-product estimates don’t accurately reflect the state of the world’s second-biggest economy. “Official data are manufactured to fit the government’s narrative,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities."
- tonyedgecombe 11y agoWhich is exactly what you would expect in a communist regime with a neutered press.
- avn2109 11y agoThat's what I'd expect from any middling-to-competent regime, not just the commies (though they of course do it too). For example, the Argentines are famous for making up exchange rates, and my own (American) government has a policy of systematically misreporting inflation and unemployment.
- jpatokal 11y agoFabricating statistics wholesale is conspiracy theory. Releasing statistics that are distorted in all sorts of ways because various government organizations have direct incentives to do so is pretty much a statement of fact.
- jazzyk 11y agoIn China, the statistics ARE controlled by one, non-objective party (Party? :-)), so conspiracy theories are somewhat justified. Even in the much freer US, there are examples of (subtle) information manipulation. Such as releasing numbers that don't fit the government narrative : - on a Friday afternoon (when all journalists are driving home or drinking at a bar) - on page 95 of a 96-page report