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Is it because most HN readers are _not_ in China that we lump together all scientific results as "China does thing"? Is this also common for EU/USA? Do we say

Is it because most HN readers are _not_ in China that we lump together all scientific results as "China does thing"? Is this also common for EU/USA? Do we say "UK developers new method for ..." or "Researchers at Cambridge"? I swear I'm not making any political statements, just wondering why we treat it as a homogeneous entity.

ken47 1y ago
Occam’s Razor applies.
knome 1y ago
>Do we say "UK developers new method for ..." or "Researchers at Cambridge" these would be completely normal headlines, in my experience.
mitthrowaway2 1y ago
If you think it should be phrased differently, you should tell it to CGTN, China's Beijing-based state-run media. HN merely accurately transcribed their headline, as per the site rules.
nneonneo 1y ago
CGTN is a Chinese state-run broadcaster; they themselves chose to use the phrasing “China does thing”. It may be in an effort to present a more unified face for the widely varied research happening in China, as well as showing a more easily-understood headline for Western audiences.
- dingnuts 1y ago
  that's a polite way to describe propaganda
  - uni_baconcat 1y ago
    There’s another way to find this out. Just one tap to CGTN homepage. Try to read how they describe government news, domestic news, and international news.
ivape 1y ago
Orwell’s Eurasia is real. China exists virtually and does “things” as far as Americans are concerned.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
neltnerb 1y ago
I read it as similar to the US espousing how its researchers developed something. Not really a big deal, though I'd have... you know... linked to the actual paper or maybe mentioned the professor's name more prominently. I think most stuff I read emphasizes institute and researchers more heavily, but I can see why anyone doing public research might want to expand the scope of credit.
lightedman 1y ago
"The study, published online by Science on Friday, was conducted by researchers from Peking University and Renmin University of China." China does thing literally applies here, asoth entities are Chinese-state educational and research institutions.
ofalkaed 1y ago
It feels like HN is slowly turning into a forum for critiquing headlines.
jrvarela56 1y ago
Similar to how we say ‘Africa’. The less familiar you are, the higher level the bundle.
kuboble 1y ago
Growing up in Poland all we heard in the news was that "American scientists found that..." The article could mention the relevant institution but the headline never would as it would rather confuse the reader.
grues-dinner 1y ago
> Do we say "UK developers new method All the time. Just search for "UK/British scientists/engineers invent/develop" (with quotes). There are lots of headlines like that. E.g. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/10/british-scientists-new-treatment-disease-pope-francis/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/10/british-scientis... It's more that you don't really get any headlines out of China that aren't from or laundered through Chinese English-language media first. Whereas in the West, universities send their PR pieces to the Western media directly. No normal journalist is trolling Arxiv or Nature or whatever for juicy papers, and certainly not Chinese-language journals: they're just rehashing the media release, usually uncritically. Which is why you hear about every time someone sneezes near a new battery chemistry that "may revolutionise energy storage" but "needs more research into mass production methods" at MIT but almost never at Tsinghua, unless it's done the rounds first and caused a stir in the domain-specific publications.
- flowerthoughts 1y ago
  I believe the same, but also, on paper, China is supposedly communistic, so there should only be one "China" to talk of (and, no, I'm not making some subtle statement about anything else.) Perhaps that's the agenda for CGTN in particular.
  - graemep 1y ago
    > China is supposedly communistic Communist in name. Lots of private businesses though.
    - hmm37 1y ago
      They consider themselves socialist... Communism is their long term idealistic goal.
- adrian_b 1y ago
  Searching for "UK boffins invent" or "British boffins invent" might get even more matches in headlines :-)
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
flohofwoe 1y ago
"American scientists discovered that..." really isn't that uncommon though? At least quite common in German news. I guess when you're inside a country which produces the news, the actual location inside that country matters more than for people outside that country ... E.g. for the US what's commonly called Americentrism - I guess a similar term exists for China.

ken47 1y ago

Occam’s Razor applies.

knome 1y ago

>Do we say "UK developers new method for ..." or "Researchers at Cambridge" these would be completely normal headlines, in my experience.

mitthrowaway2 1y ago

If you think it should be phrased differently, you should tell it to CGTN, China's Beijing-based state-run media. HN merely accurately transcribed their headline, as per the site rules.

nneonneo 1y ago

CGTN is a Chinese state-run broadcaster; they themselves chose to use the phrasing “China does thing”. It may be in an effort to present a more unified face for the widely varied research happening in China, as well as showing a more easily-understood headline for Western audiences.

dingnuts 1y ago
that's a polite way to describe propaganda
- uni_baconcat 1y ago
  There’s another way to find this out. Just one tap to CGTN homepage. Try to read how they describe government news, domestic news, and international news.

ivape 1y ago

Orwell’s Eurasia is real. China exists virtually and does “things” as far as Americans are concerned.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

neltnerb 1y ago

I read it as similar to the US espousing how its researchers developed something. Not really a big deal, though I'd have... you know... linked to the actual paper or maybe mentioned the professor's name more prominently. I think most stuff I read emphasizes institute and researchers more heavily, but I can see why anyone doing public research might want to expand the scope of credit.

lightedman 1y ago

"The study, published online by Science on Friday, was conducted by researchers from Peking University and Renmin University of China." China does thing literally applies here, asoth entities are Chinese-state educational and research institutions.

ofalkaed 1y ago

It feels like HN is slowly turning into a forum for critiquing headlines.

jrvarela56 1y ago

Similar to how we say ‘Africa’. The less familiar you are, the higher level the bundle.

kuboble 1y ago

Growing up in Poland all we heard in the news was that "American scientists found that..." The article could mention the relevant institution but the headline never would as it would rather confuse the reader.

grues-dinner 1y ago

> Do we say "UK developers new method All the time. Just search for "UK/British scientists/engineers invent/develop" (with quotes). There are lots of headlines like that. E.g. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/10/british-scientists-new-treatment-disease-pope-francis/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/10/british-scientis... It's more that you don't really get any headlines out of China that aren't from or laundered through Chinese English-language media first. Whereas in the West, universities send their PR pieces to the Western media directly. No normal journalist is trolling Arxiv or Nature or whatever for juicy papers, and certainly not Chinese-language journals: they're just rehashing the media release, usually uncritically. Which is why you hear about every time someone sneezes near a new battery chemistry that "may revolutionise energy storage" but "needs more research into mass production methods" at MIT but almost never at Tsinghua, unless it's done the rounds first and caused a stir in the domain-specific publications.

flowerthoughts 1y ago
I believe the same, but also, on paper, China is supposedly communistic, so there should only be one "China" to talk of (and, no, I'm not making some subtle statement about anything else.) Perhaps that's the agenda for CGTN in particular.
- graemep 1y ago
  > China is supposedly communistic Communist in name. Lots of private businesses though.
  - hmm37 1y ago
    They consider themselves socialist... Communism is their long term idealistic goal.
adrian_b 1y ago
Searching for "UK boffins invent" or "British boffins invent" might get even more matches in headlines :-)

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

flohofwoe 1y ago

"American scientists discovered that..." really isn't that uncommon though? At least quite common in German news. I guess when you're inside a country which produces the news, the actual location inside that country matters more than for people outside that country ... E.g. for the US what's commonly called Americentrism - I guess a similar term exists for China.