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Comment by woodandsteel | Hacker News Reader

So you are saying we should not condemn the Chinese government for the actions described in the article because the US government is doing the same things.

I strongly disagree. I think all human beings have the same basic rights, and so we should condemn actions that undermine them no matter where they happen in the world.

Furthermore, governmental violations are complicated and so for each government we need separate articles describing what it is doing wrong. And that is what we indeed get in many media articles linked to here at HN, including lots at The Economist.

That being the case, why is it that you condemn describing what the Chinese government is doing wrong, but think it is good to do so for the US? I don't know, but one possibility is that you are a troll paid by the Chinese government to promote its propaganda.

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I read it more as 'people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones'.

The line of 'their restrictions on human rights are worse than ours' seems like at best a race to the bottom. I feel western democracy should be setting a standard so far above what this article describes that there are no comparisons to draw. In which case the OP has a good point

> why is it that you condemn describing what the Chinese government is doing wrong, but think it is good to do so for the US?

I condemn the Chinese for all of their civil rights infractions, watch: China has a serious problem with gross human and civil rights violations.

Anyway. People tend to react to accusation that the United States government commits serious human rights attrocities with a knee jerk - accusing the other person of being employed by other governments, etc.

This is not the case.

Let me put this out there, because I think it's important to understand.

China has been drastically improving in the field of human rights over time. It's trajectory is UP.

America has been drastically devolving in the field of human rights over time. It's trajectory is DOWN.

Is that concerning? Why do Americans feel that China is even a metric for comparison?

No government gives their people rights. Rights are inalienable.

The United States government has been taking away their people's rights.

Articles such as the above make China seem like the problem, or the most important problem.

If you are an American and you are concerned with human and civil rights, you won't win them by fighting the Chinese. You will win them by fighting your own government.

I take the allegation that I am a paid Chinese propagandist seriously. I reject this accusation fully.

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