I know the Act, and it's awful. But I don't think it's "true". At least we can agree that Chinese seem to have a sense that the world is "against" them.

I'm sure it seems it's true if you're Chinese, but for a country that literally describes anyone "non Chinese" as "outsider", and thinks that's entirely normal, I think it's more likely the sense of "othering" is self-created.

Perhaps the sense of "world against us" is balanced by, and created by, a Chinese sense that they are "against" others and need to be? Supported by a particularly Chinese sense of manifest destiny where "rejuvenation" means reestablishing what they see as their rightful place of "specialness" and "centralness" in the world? Accelerated recently by the central government's focus on "external spies" and preparing for "struggle"?

Like on a sidewalk, if you need to be "central" don't you also need to push "others" aside? :) I get you need to then play the fake victim and pretend others started it, but if you're starting with "othering", and "centralness" and "specialness", isn't it you who's responsible? But just not bold enough to own it yet, explicitly? So need to pretend, "Oh it's other people doing this, therefore we're doing it."

But what if it's actually self-generated, this desire for "centralness" and the concomitant "othering" of "non Chinese?" I think that's likely. Whether it's a historical reaction or a persistent characteristic, I'm not sure, but I don't think it matters. The fruits right now are the same. Although, I think it's likely that it is a persistent idea: remember that China was the predominant economy worldwide for at least 1000 years over a span that included the "Dark Ages" for the West. China not being the most developed is a recent thing. See Ian Morris' books for analysis if interested :) So it would make sense if Chinese now hold onto a forgotten dream of being more great than everyone else, and are starting to act like it. In fact, "feel it" to be their identity in the world, and the "rejuvenation" is sending them back to that? :) I think it's likely. What do you think?

It's culturally highly xenophobic and insular, despite being globally mercantile. I don't think it's likely that people are "against" Chinese as much as Chinese are against "outsiders" and the effects that then creates, both internally and on the world stage. Sad tho definitely! :)

Yes, it's quite bad but at least these days they can't be overtly racist. Look at the American anti-China campaign in the 50s and 60s, it was appalling.

I have a pet theory that almost every group of people is their own worst enemy.

China needs to cool it with the xenophobia.

This is literally presumption of guilt based on where someone was born. It's the literal definition of prejudice. Very illiberal.

Mind you, I am not claiming that you have to be liberal. I just want honesty and consistency.

If we all oppose China because they threaten liberty, then we must protect liberty.

But if you oppose China just because it's a pissing contest between superpowers, that's fine but then maybe it's not my problem.

This is an exaggeration. Anti-China sentiment has been surprisingly uncontroversial and bipartisan. It’s actually one of the only things the American left/right can agree on right now.

It is 100% possible to see China as a long term economic (and possibly military but I doubt that) threat, abhor their human rights violations, love Chinese people and despise the CCP all in one go.

Easily, yes.

I would wager that you are completely wrong for thinking this. Chinese people fear racism and prejudism towards them from whom? The US? Even taking the statement "Sinophobia is common [in the US]" at face value (even though it's wrong), Chinese people living in China care about that as much as Americans care about the vast majority of Africa and the Middle East hating them, which is to say not a whole lot.

I agree 100% with what you say. But if you are from the USA, you may better not say it.

It is just impossible for a person from the USA not to sound ridiculously hypocritical when criticizing China. You are the greatest war-mongering country in the last few generations! If you are from the U.S.A., it is more realistic and effective to work on stopping your country killing people abroad.

Not that anything that you say or suggest about China is wrong. But this century will not be remembered only by the Chinese genocide of the Uighurs, but also by the north-american aggressive and murderous imperialism.

You know what happened during the Cultural Revolution in China right? Yet hardly anyone is talking about it.

It isn't anti-China, it's anti-PRC. The difference is obvious.

Those people are dangerously ignorant.

You're free to oppress yourselves. You're even free to believe that your slavery is freedom. But I have no doubt in my mind that China and its vision of the ideal society would be repressive to me and negatively affect my way of life.

See, I like being divisive and value the ability of a society to be disrupted in favor of bigger and better things. For example, we value the ability to petition and protest our government or society when it does something bad because that way we get progress.

The Chinese way to respond to a social grievance, whether you like/know/acknowledge it or not, is to just murder everyone and deny anything ever happened. Granted, that's also known to happen in America-backed dictatorships, but at least they don't do it at home.

And that's the culture you export- encouraging harmony, monotony, and social conservatism ("don't rock the boat") in countries they support rather than free thought, diversity, and innovation. I'd hate for the remaining 5/6ths of the planet to be under the boot of an immutable society in love with its own stagnation and mediocrity.

In my case (and others, I've observed), I don't hate China's citizens. Instead I loathe China's leadership. It's corrupt, evil to its own citizens, quick to violently oppress any form of protest, and it's racial slavery.

And I offer equal loathing towards any other leaders who look at China and go "You know what? We should try that here."

Be precise: many of us loves China and Chinese people.

> Anything anti-CCP is almost guaranteed upvotes.

Because we love Chinese people.

Weird but true.

In the same way that we want to stop boats before they cross the Mediterranean so that less people will die crossing.

(However I admit that I think I'm probably in the minority who actually wants to increase spending to support people where they live so they don't have to move.)

An average Chinese person on the street doesn't think, he is preoccupied with making a living, and has no time to watch nor the Radio Free Asia, nor People's Daily.

And if given chance to immigrate, and money, most will not give a f__k what is to happen to China, or America tomorrow.

Locals would agonize much less about the fate of their country than idle intellectuals in the West, as they are smart enough to see that they have zero stake in it. There is nothing in life an average Chinese gets from his country, and nor would he want to give anything back to it.

No, at the best of times China is discussed as an exciting place where cool tech is happening.

Horrid xenophobia would be the worst of times. Or are you saying HN has something even worse than that for China?

As for people believing exaggerations about the Tiananmen Square Massacre: sorry, not sorry. If China wants there to be a measured and accurate public accounting of that then they can participate in the free and open discussion of that history. As long as they continue to murder or otherwise destroy the life of anyone who discusses it, the consequence is that people are forced to guess what happened. Too bad.

Yes because this is a Mainland issue. So only Mainland opinions are legitimate. They enact their policies with their best interests in mind, however misguided it may be because a foreigner can only enact policies with their own interests in mind, however well-guided they may be. A white person probably shouldn’t go into a black community to tell them how they should run things for their best interests.

The issue isn’t that they are doing something right or wrong—all governments will enact policies that are disagreeable... the US included (in the case of Edward Snowden). The issue is that to the Chinese they will never take the protests of foreigners seriously because foreigners will have their own interests in mind, not to mention are generally poorly educated about Chinese policy decisions in general.

Trying to influence policy from afar is simply a form of taxation without representation. A foreigner really should have no say in the policy decisions of afar because 1) they do not have to suffer the consequences of the policies, 2) they cannot understand the experiences leading to such policy decisions and 3) as a result of 1 and 2 they will always have their own interests in mind rather than those or their constituents. Imagine a product manager in the US trying to manage a product built by a team of engineers in China for the Chinese market. He’ll sure fail because he will have no grasp pf the product in practice being used over there, and for that reason anyone that detached from something should not be trying to exert influence for their own interests.

A poor inner city black family may have a whole different set of daily problems than a rich white suburban family. Imagine if the white family admonishes the black family because their kids are failing school or dealing drugs. In absolute terms dealing drugs is wrong, illegal, and failing school may be a sign of bad parenting, but in reality the needs and priorities of the black family are on a completely different level from the white family.

Disenfranchising the Chineses’ right to self-govern because of your limited frame of reference that they are doing it wrong is myopic. Waging political and ideological war against them because they do things differently is the true crime. You should criticize their bad policies by pointing out why they are bad, not by disenfranchising and belittling the voice of the rest of the population.