Why the strong anti-China sentiment on HN? I don't get it.
That's quite odd, I notice the opposite. I notice many pro China pieces here on hackernews. Whether it's talking about their green energy, growing economy, financial markets or what have you.
Perhaps you've fallen victim to what's known as hostile media effect? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostile_media_effect)
It says that you tend to notice more negative media & chatter about something you care about or have an interest in, regardless of reality.
And I think this might actually be the case here because the original commentor above wasn't "anti-China" at all. He was stating a contrary viewpoint. Being realistic doesn't mean something is automatically "anti". If there was an article about the U.S middle class growing this year, and someone posted a comment which disputed that, it wouldn't be an "Anti-American" comment.
Speaking of, I see more "what's with the anti-China comments?" more than I notice actual anti-China comments. In fact, I almost never see truly anti-China comments.
You have a point that being mistaken is different from being hostile or anti, but we do call people "anti-vaccine" when they are just mistaken and as a result genuinely worried about vaccine. I think one should interpret "anti-China" the same way.
"More than 96% of respondents to the latest Wall Street Journal survey of 64 economists–not all of whom answered every question–said China’s gross-domestic-product estimates don’t accurately reflect the state of the world’s second-biggest economy.
“Official data are manufactured to fit the government’s narrative,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities."
Even in the much freer US, there are examples of (subtle) information manipulation. Such as releasing numbers that don't fit the government narrative :
- on a Friday afternoon (when all journalists are driving home or drinking at a bar)
- on page 95 of a 96-page report
China's Government has been infamous for lying about economic statistics for decades. Their unemployment rate has hardly changed since the 1980s. For a while - 2001 to 2009 - their real growth was so dramatic it didn't matter much that they were lying about everything. Now that the tide is going out on the world's second largest economy, it matters in a big way.
"The Chinese are corrupt and never tell the truth." "The Chinese are only good at at stealing and copying things." "The Chinese cyber-threat ..."
On the other hand, I've noticed in Japan, even with the pervasive anti-China sentiment, news sources are keen to use "Chinese officials" or "China's central government."
You can go to China or some of the surrounding countries (SE Asia, Japan, Australia) and see for yourself. Or look at the sales reports from Apple. The massively growing Chinese middle class is quite a real thing.
Yet the reaction here is of scepticism, disbelief, denial.
I don't understand that.
No other topic (Europe, US, Africa, Middle-east ...) is met with same.
This company just plays the normal MBA playbook in an echo room and every listens without thinking. Just look at the former (some now bankrupt) companies that hired McKinsey. Amongst them Enron and Swissair.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/03/is-mckinsey-co-the-root... http://business.time.com/2013/09/10/mass-layoffs-overpaid-ce...
Xi Jinping: "We love peace" ,But his CPC's State TV commenter on parade: "Look at this missile, it can hit Hawaii"
U.S. help China fight against NAZI, but China under control of The Communist Party of China will become another NAZI