Btw. There was another thread[1] which got a bunch of points and comments very quickly and got bounced out of the front page very quickly as well. Are posts about China/Hong Kong being penalized on HN?
There's a strong attractor basin around discussing the same news as everybody else that's worth pushing HN away from, in general.
> 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.
That seems like it should be fair game.
anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
While there is a lot of great work in high tech and startups coming out of China, we (and the people who run this site) should be clearheaded: there is no significant distinction between the military and industry in China. Cooperation with China comes at a cost that will, eventually, be paid.
Not to say that HN is actively filtering out China-critical posts. But they easily could in the future.