From the guidelines: "Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."

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.

This is pure speculation but given such a “large” news week that falls outside of hn guidelines I’m guessing that perhaps attentions have been diverted. Cue study.