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People are jumping to a number of conclusions in these threads with little evidence. The rapid down-voting is crazy. There's no confirmation that this had anyt

People are jumping to a number of conclusions in these threads with little evidence. The rapid down-voting is crazy. There's no confirmation that this had anything to do with Meng, or that these people weren't guilty of something worth investigating. Wait for more details before assuming that everything is connected.

curiousgal 8y ago
Extrapolating from that, I always find it amusing when people seem to have global politics figured out, not realizing that it's a complex dynamic system with hundreds if not thousands of agents at play, when they ,the very same people, would be lost watching a two-player poker game.
- wallace_f 8y ago
  But how can we know if we should agree with your comment without knowing your political affiliation?
- latch 8y ago
  It's concerning. People have strong opinions (bordering on it being a "fact") about places they've never been to (or near). They might have never even left their country. It isn't something they've studied, it isn't remotely related to their work. But they still _know_ how it is.
  - abc-xyz 8y ago
    I shamefully lived in China for a long period, and almost every Chinese person I've talked to was either misinformed or oblivious to the kind of negative news you see discussed on HN. You can learn a lot, both negative and positive, about living in the country that you'd have no way of knowing if you hadn't been there (or done a lot of research), e.g. how foreigners are not allowed to stay at most cheapish hotels and will even be turned away from a lot of apartments. But by living in China then you're less likely to know about these news because if it isn't censored then you'll be exposed to their propaganda instead. And things are going to get much worse when the social credit system really kicks in and the citizens benefit from spreading propaganda.
barry-cotter 8y ago
I suggest you learn more about China before expressing opinions about the plausibility or not of these theories. Some good websites would be Balding’s World, written by Christopher Balding, or Scholar’s Stage, written by Tanner Greer. Alternatively you could follow the two of them on Twitter, @BaldingsWorld or @Scholars_Stage

curiousgal 8y ago

Extrapolating from that, I always find it amusing when people seem to have global politics figured out, not realizing that it's a complex dynamic system with hundreds if not thousands of agents at play, when they ,the very same people, would be lost watching a two-player poker game.

wallace_f 8y ago
But how can we know if we should agree with your comment without knowing your political affiliation?
latch 8y ago
It's concerning. People have strong opinions (bordering on it being a "fact") about places they've never been to (or near). They might have never even left their country. It isn't something they've studied, it isn't remotely related to their work. But they still _know_ how it is.
- abc-xyz 8y ago
  I shamefully lived in China for a long period, and almost every Chinese person I've talked to was either misinformed or oblivious to the kind of negative news you see discussed on HN. You can learn a lot, both negative and positive, about living in the country that you'd have no way of knowing if you hadn't been there (or done a lot of research), e.g. how foreigners are not allowed to stay at most cheapish hotels and will even be turned away from a lot of apartments. But by living in China then you're less likely to know about these news because if it isn't censored then you'll be exposed to their propaganda instead. And things are going to get much worse when the social credit system really kicks in and the citizens benefit from spreading propaganda.

barry-cotter 8y ago

I suggest you learn more about China before expressing opinions about the plausibility or not of these theories. Some good websites would be Balding’s World, written by Christopher Balding, or Scholar’s Stage, written by Tanner Greer. Alternatively you could follow the two of them on Twitter, @BaldingsWorld or @Scholars_Stage