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Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

The US used to call out China over its human rights abuses. That seems to have stopped around the start of Obama's second term. Now the US has gotten to the point where its president praises China's new permanent president for being so brave to do that.

My hope is the US' next president will be one that cares deeply about civil rights and will start calling China out in the future, as its human rights abuses inevitably increase under a dictator with all-seeing surveillance eyes.

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Let's not have yet another generic political/national argument. They're all repeats of the same few basic patterns. That makes them predictable and therefore uninteresting in HN's sense: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Plus they almost all turn into flamewars.

Good HN discussions on large, divisive topics are not generic but specific, and engage with the actual content of an article. More on this if anyone wants it: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

Interestingly enough, China answered by publishing a list of human rights violations committed by the U.S. [1] (I could not find the original transcript).

[1] http://english.gov.cn/archive/publications/2017/03/09/conten...

> its president praises China's new permanent president for being so brave to do that.

I believe that was said in jest during a speech at a charity dinner.

The event was described as a political fundraiser for Republican donors in all the reports I've seen, not a charity event.[NR, CNN]

The part about having a President for Life in the US was definitely presented as a joke, though Trump's admiration of "strong" leaders has been a recurring sentiment.[The Atlantic]

[NR]: https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/03/donald-trump-xi-jinpi...

[CNN]: https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/03/politics/trump-maralago-remar...

[The Atlantic]: https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/554810/

It could be due to a shift in power. The US isn't the only game in town now.

I just realized this the other day.

You'll hear qualms about trade unfairness and the occasional blatant copyright/knockoff culture, but hardly ever any mention of human rights.

The pot calling the kettle black? Aside from that, we share the hope for a US president who cares deeply about human rights!

"Now the US has gotten to the point where its president praises China's new permanent president for being so brave to do that."

Trump really seems to have a hard on for wannabe dictators like Erdogan, Putin and now the Chinese guy. Hard to understand.

What are some of these violations in your view that China should be called out on?

EDIT: Removal of previous question since posters have interpreted it as trolling (though I assure you, it was not).

> Does the US really have any right to be calling out any country for human right violations?

Yes, yes it does. You don't have to be a saint to point out bad behavior.

> Yes, yes it does. You don't have to be a saint to point out bad behavior.

Sure, but no one is making that claim.

Then I wonder, what is your claim?

I am not making any claim. I just asked a question. Not everything is a debate, you know.

Its because your post reads like standard whataboutism Russian and Chinese online paid trolls/propagandists spout.

Please keep that common insinuation off HN.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16532039

Your first question does take a rhetorical position. It effectively makes a claim, by the wording of the question.

Your second question suggests that one should recap decades of human rights abuses.

Finally, by stating "Not everything is a battle, you know", you seek to make it a battle when no one else is.

This is all classic troll behavior.

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