sorry to sound like a jerk here, while I'm aware things like this happen in China all the time and I am no fan of this type of policies and unclear communications, why does the author call out China in particular when they clearly indicated he has previously broken a Chinese law, now you may not fully agree with the law and there were unfortunate mistakes and lack of communications by his AirBNB hosts, it is still a valid law.

Same thing happens at western countries to Chinese citizens every single day, and yet nobody bats and eye just because Chinese aren't as vocal and expressing their dissatisfaction. Before my family obtained Canadian citizenship (we are originally from China), every time we crossed the US border we'd get questioned like criminals for a good 40 minutes, mind I was a 13 year old child so what crime could I possibly commit while in the US? And it wasn't until recently that I found out my Irish colleagues who do not even hold permanent residency in Canada, their experience going over the US border has been smooth as silk, no question, no fingerprints, no nothing.

I'm sorry I have a hard time emphasizing with the author, and I just don't know what point he's trying to get to here. That China is a shithole that discriminates western journalists? I don't know.