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Every single China thread on HN turns into a false equivalence 'no the US has far worse history / false whataboutism' A couple Trump political appointees attem

Every single China thread on HN turns into a false equivalence 'no the US has far worse history / false whataboutism' A couple Trump political appointees attempted to do that. The system worked and the US didn't jail the NYTimes and the press for reporting the facts. Their stupidly half assed political crap didn't work and they lost the election. I wouldn't call Xi incompetent but instead scarily so. The power of Trump versus Xi & CCP are not even in the same ballpark It's pointless to engage but sometimes I can't help it

onethought 6y ago
You are right, but it's because people are generally not willing to enter a proper debate on the issues in China. Take the Uigher issue, it is ALWAYS reported with a lack of context. No mention of the bombings, the mass killing events, the huge domestic terrorism issue it has caused China for the last 20 years. Instead we just get reports of China "randomly" persecuting these people for seemingly no reason. When you have people showing up at one of the largest train stations[0] in the country openly representing an ethnic minority and randomly stabbing men, woman and children of Han decent... what is the correct government response? This isn't even the debate that we have. We don't ask this question at all, we instead publish photos of prisons, and reeducation camps, but no one ever seems to ask "Why is china doing this?" because the assumption that Western Media would like you to make is "Because they are just evil communists". It would be like reporting on Guantanamo as an "off shore prison where America kidnaps people from foreign countries and keeps them there for no reason, most have never even been the the US" --- There would be uproar if news was reported that way. But when it's China, everyone is happy to have their blinders on, and not understand or explore the full context of a difficult issue. [0] https://time.com/88941/not-again-knife-attack-at-train-station-in-southern-china/ https://time.com/88941/not-again-knife-attack-at-train-stati...
- dillondoyle 6y ago
  There are plenty of terrorist attacks in the US too, from the wiki below China does have a few years with big numbers but the US page doesn't include a bunch of mass shootings by far right white MAGA and single white men wackos. And despite those numbers the US isn't rounding up millions of our own citizens into 're-education camps.' I'm sure the 'whatabout' is the stupid wars in the middle east which are undoubtedly horrible and should fairly be condemned (and definitely are). But the US is not waging an ethnic genocide on our own citizens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_China#Terrorist_incidents_by_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_China#Terrorist_i... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_the_United_States#2020%E2%80%93present https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_the_United_States...
  - onethought 6y ago
    I agree that is the debate to be had. So what are they suppose to do though, if they have a state of their country trying to seperate and harming civilians to do it? Xi thinks forced re-education and subjugation is the answer. Historically, other countries have taken that approach as well.

onethought 6y ago

You are right, but it's because people are generally not willing to enter a proper debate on the issues in China. Take the Uigher issue, it is ALWAYS reported with a lack of context. No mention of the bombings, the mass killing events, the huge domestic terrorism issue it has caused China for the last 20 years. Instead we just get reports of China "randomly" persecuting these people for seemingly no reason. When you have people showing up at one of the largest train stations[0] in the country openly representing an ethnic minority and randomly stabbing men, woman and children of Han decent... what is the correct government response? This isn't even the debate that we have. We don't ask this question at all, we instead publish photos of prisons, and reeducation camps, but no one ever seems to ask "Why is china doing this?" because the assumption that Western Media would like you to make is "Because they are just evil communists". It would be like reporting on Guantanamo as an "off shore prison where America kidnaps people from foreign countries and keeps them there for no reason, most have never even been the the US" --- There would be uproar if news was reported that way. But when it's China, everyone is happy to have their blinders on, and not understand or explore the full context of a difficult issue. [0] https://time.com/88941/not-again-knife-attack-at-train-station-in-southern-china/ https://time.com/88941/not-again-knife-attack-at-train-stati...

dillondoyle 6y ago
There are plenty of terrorist attacks in the US too, from the wiki below China does have a few years with big numbers but the US page doesn't include a bunch of mass shootings by far right white MAGA and single white men wackos. And despite those numbers the US isn't rounding up millions of our own citizens into 're-education camps.' I'm sure the 'whatabout' is the stupid wars in the middle east which are undoubtedly horrible and should fairly be condemned (and definitely are). But the US is not waging an ethnic genocide on our own citizens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_China#Terrorist_incidents_by_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_China#Terrorist_i... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_the_United_States#2020%E2%80%93present https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_the_United_States...
- onethought 6y ago
  I agree that is the debate to be had. So what are they suppose to do though, if they have a state of their country trying to seperate and harming civilians to do it? Xi thinks forced re-education and subjugation is the answer. Historically, other countries have taken that approach as well.