> The only time I've ever gotten an objective opinion about China from a national was when they became a citizen of another country, had no remaining family the

> The only time I've ever gotten an objective opinion about China from a national was when they became a citizen of another country, had no remaining family there and no intent to return. That's a little over the top. Chinese people can be open and objective with non-Chinese if you get to know them well. The tricky thing is that if you don't know them well and frame things in an in-group vs. out-group way and seem to criticize their "Chinese" in-group as an outsider, they might feel the need to defend their in-group (China and it's government) whether they believe it or not. >> The sorts of things you're talking about are genuinely not on the radar of the average person over there. It would require education they specifically and intentionally don't have. > This is a bit...presumptive, at the least. They can see what's going on, but they're going to have a different perspective and different sensitivities. E.g. being less attuned to privacy-based skepticism, but more attuned to corruption-based skepticism.