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Comment by markdown | Hacker News Reader

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Case in point: Kiwis have just found out their leader of opposition loves the CCP:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/11/new-zealand-op...

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In Australia we just elected a former CCP rep: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-11/gladys-liu-chinese-fo...

It's happened on both sides of politics: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-12/sam-dastyari-resigns-...

And even state politics get $100,000 cash donations in aldi bags: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-06/huang-xiangmo-denies-...

Since when is it alarming to complement another country's progress, especially when you're not enemies? I'm no fan of the CCP (and no Kiwi) but this sounds ridiculous.

It's alarming to compliment a dictatorship that keeps its people in chains, has millions of minorities in "re-education camps" and kills anyone who becomes too vocal against the party.

Just because Trump has tried to normalise just that (ref: Russia and North Korea) doesn't make it acceptable.

> that keeps its people in chains

The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, by a large margin, almost 7 times that of China.

That's definitely a huge problem for the USA, on many levels. However, people in the USA don't regularly self-immolate to express how badly their compatriots are treated, and this happens regularly in Tibet. One would think this would give the Western world a good idea of how oppressive the Chinese regime can be.

Without evoking Godwin's law, just think about it: China is a dictatorship oppressing free speech and many of their citizens that don't share the official views, torturing them, closing them in concentration camps etc. As a politician, you should know better how to express your admiration for progress.

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