Look at the commenter's history for some of the comments on China related news. This is interesting. China is known for manipulating information and spreading propaganda.
I hope HN cracks down on comment manipulation related to Chinese government news stories.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
We always look for evidence when people are worried, and we take action, such as banning accounts, when we find it.
Frankly, though, the greater danger—orders of magnitude greater—is users' tendency to assume that other users must be astroturfing, or shills, bots, or spies, just because they hold opposing views. The truth is that HN is divided on divisive issues, just like society at large, all the more because it is a majority international community.
That is why the site guidelines ask you not to post comments like this. The attempted cure is more toxic than the seeming disease.
I've written about this a ton if anyone wants it: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
I certainly don't have the data to demonstrate a valid concern, this was an assumption.
The rules mention we should "email you" if we are concerned. Out of curiosity, if you did find manipulation in the data, would you share it with individual who emailed you about the concern?
Silicon Valley: 5% - 14%;
US: 32% - 56% (including SV);
Europe: 28% - 35%;
Canada/Australia/New Zealand: 7% - 8%;
India: 2% - 7%;
China: 0.5% - 3% (including Hong Kong). From European countries, the UK is 5-8% (of the HN total), Germany is 4-7%, France is 1-3%. The Dutch and Swiss are (stereotypically) stable at 2% and 1% respectively.
These ranges include measures like logged-in-ness. If you only look at total users then SV is less than 10%, and the US comes out less than 45%—or even as low as a third, depending on what's specifically measured.
Is this combined for all three, or each individually? If combined, could you break it down? If individually, wow for New Zealand!
These people are most likely Americans, of Chinese descent. They are probably also 2nd or 3rd generation Americans, like yourself. They went to American schools and universities. They speak perfect English. They vote. They are patriotic. And they pay their taxes.
These people have no connection to the China government. They probably don't have any more close relatives that even live in China. So their connection to their ancestral home lands have been severed. They are by definition, Americans.
Now, yes, there may be some people in Silicon Valley, who are Chinese nationals, and who are working with an H-1B visa. I don't know the numbers breakdown.
But, I think you need to make a distinction between the two types.