How is surprising? The defining characteristic of a nation state is that it has a monopoly on violence within its borders. Having a monopoly on intercepting telecom traffic is a logical consequence of that. For other countries though, yeah I'd prefer if neither China nor US have backdoor access.
So would I, but having lived in both countries, one of the two governments is decidedly more evil than the other.
Can you support this assertion?
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/nine-fifa-officials-and...
To quote a Chinese citizen: “Give us a baby and we’ll let you go.”
https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/03/21/give-us-baby-and-well-...
China does not respect the sovereignty of other nations, nor the rule of law. They are not above intimidating, blackmailing, or otherwise exerting their influence on foreign nationals on foreign soil when their views become too politically inconvenient.
Those residing and holding citizenship abroad but that have family back in China (which are many) have proven especially vulnenable.
Stories of China arresting foreign citizens for activities abroad and never allowing consular access, funding and manipulating groups in foreign countries (especially on university campuses) and then directing them to silence others, and more are a dime a dozen.
While the US's hands are quite dirty here as well, China has shown repeatedly that given the opportunity they are more than willing to try and implement the kind of oppression and thought policing they have at home in places abroad. It is more dangerous for the entire world to have China spying on them than it is the US.
How is China worse than the USA? Your claim seems to rest entirely on greater reporting of China’s aggressions by the US and their allies.
Do you think the US is harvesting organs?
However I am truly afraid of the way Xi has enacted its horror policies in China.
The US routinely massacres innocents in foreign countries then retroactively declares all the victims “terrorists”. China — to my knowledge — doesn’t engage in anywhere near the level of military aggression that the USA does.
When you compare the number of organ harvest victims to the number of “terrorists” slaughtered by incorrectly targeted missiles, who comes out ahead in the ethics game?
Do you think killing people for the sake of imaginary goals is better or worse than killing people to harvest organs?
Acknowledged this already.
The policies the US is trying to enforce with these measures are less bad for most of the Western world than those that China is. That's it.
While the US has taken quite a slide on freedoms over the past couple decades, they're still nowhere near China's level and I find it pretty laughable to even try and put them on the same playing field in that regard.
The ideal would be to use open-source hardware and e2e encryption, but if this is not possible I would suggest these scared of the US to use Chinese phones and these scares of China to use US phones.
China has historically not engaged in violence far from its borders. America frequently does.
unless you are under 25 or deeply religious, I'd suggest to think twice before using 'evil' on subjects of international politics.
Was George Bush Jnr performing the actions of an evil man? Discuss.
Pedantry FYI, that’s just a state. The term “nation” has more to do with distinct communities and culture. And so a “nation state” is when those overlap.
Furthermore, since a nation is a group of people bound together by shared culture, values, religion, language, etc., while a state is a piece of land with a defined border, then nations and states are not necessarily the same thing.
A "nation-state" is the intersection of the two, where cultural boundaries align with political and geographical boundaries, and not a redundant synonym of "state".
That seem like a good reasons for people within US borders to prefer to be spied on by the Chinese government rather than the US government and for people within Chinese borders to prefer to be spied on by the US government rather than the Chinese government.
If I have to be spied on, I will choose whoever is less likely to subject me to violence.
So if I had to choose I would prefer china over the NSA, Of course neither is the best option but .....
if I lived in China the inverse would be true
If they have access to an enormous volume of potential blackmail or datamining, you think they won't use that against us for political gains? They could blackmail a programmer to insert a subtle vulnerability into a piece of code by threatening to expose his extramarital affair, or threatening to tell his employer/family/friends what kind of porn he watches. Or they could easily datamine and target those with monetary issues to see who is vulnerable to a bribe. Or they could threaten to frame you for child porn using their backdoor access.
This is from a government that isn't afraid to 'disappear' political dissidents, send people to "re-education" camps, harvest organs from their own people. You think they're going to be friendlier to American citizens?
Yes, because American citizens are none of their business. Law enforcement and prosecution on the other hand is very interested.
China, and the US for that matter, will generally do what they think they can get away with to further their interests. Regardless of a bunch of imaginary lines drawn on a map.
Now let's imagine I am an American citizen/businessman competing with a Chinese businessman. I have a better product, better networks. Let's also imagine the scenario where the Chinese govt has more power and dominance than anybody else in the world. Do you still think an American citizen is none of their business?
How about if an American citizen happens to write an article criticizing Chinese govt? What would happen in the above scenario?
Not to lambast china while excusing the US Government that requires that type of spying by law.
Do you believe that the US Government is above " blackmail or data mining" or "won't use that against us for political gains", both of which has been proven to be true
Everyone is Soo fucking afraid of foreign influence on our politics they ignore the domestic influence of the same nature.
Personally I believe the NSA and CIA to be more dangerous to our liberties than China or Russia.
As Lincoln said many many moons ago, If we lose our freedoms it will because we destroyed ourselves
As far as the tech companies / Hollywood censoring because of china, for the product in china sure but they censor their products here because they want to, china is just a convenient excuse that naive people believe. It is a way to shit shift the blame "no no we did not want to, big bad china made us" bullshit
So long as those steps are designated as a "free speech zone".
People always seem to forget, all government actions and regulations no matter how small are acts of violence. They are not voluntary and are backed by the threat of legal violence to anyone that dare resist.