China Unsolved: Who Poisoned Zhu Ling?
supchina.com
supchina.com
At least in the west, there is a pretense and expectation that the laws apply equally to all.
My experience is that law has been gamed and weaponized, wielded generally by the most powerful and able, and that even in situations of crime the police do not take anything that doesn't track to a big precinct objective seriously.
I've literally had a police officer laugh at me after I suggested he might be able to investigate a spree of car break-ins and thefts in my neighborhood.
A homicide attempt against my family saw the perpetrator - well connected to a network of lawyers and wealthy - escape the jaws of punishment.
On the flip side I've been harassed by police and the justice system for minor infractions or entire misunderstandings - and due to political demonstrations have a good sense that I'm registered in both my municipal and national domestic threat scoring and surveillance systems as a "possible threat".
I've spoken to friends and family about this and they share the same experiences.
I was raised on TV and media that portrayed police as neighbors and good natured civilians, but the reality for me has tracked much closer to thuggishness and intimidation.
Yes personal anecdotes only, but stolen bicycles, multiple car windows smashed and robbed, houses broken into, aggressive drivers, calls regarding domestic abuse, dangerous situations - all with friends and family generally encouraging each other not to call the police because it won't do anything to help the situation.
Cops in Troy, Albany, and DC seem to be SPECTACULARLY worthless, at best. Cops in the suburbs in my experience are universally assholes and power tripping. Similarly, I've heard horror stories about cops in LA, Portland, etc, except they seem to just not do anything at all (besides beating up black people).
Sounds like it could be cultural to departments?
There's absolutely nothing unusual about it in fact.
China is the world's second largest economy by a large margin, and it's the #2 tech nation also by a large margin, there are naturally going to be increasing numbers of stories about China in general.
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I would echo the OP's concern that most foreign coverage of China and Russia on hacker news seems to be:
1. Entirely off-topic.
2. Negatively biased in some way.
This tends to be true of more internet forums than hackernews. Having been "around for a while", my experience is that the wave of negatively flavored articles about US competitors follows the tide of geopolitical competition.
I believe these general trends are a result of our nation's propaganda program, where internet discussions and homeland conversations are considered legal operating ground. I believe much of the source material is posted by ordinary people, who have had their perceptions managed and influenced by these propaganda programs.
Regarding your point about China being the second largest economy and also a leader in technology - I would expect a significantly different mix of positively biased stories focused on China's leading edge, new innovations, top scientists and mathematicians, etc.
The university second only after central party school
I also suspect someone from hackernews are manually promoting such content