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Comment by dvfjsdhgfv | Hacker News Reader

> I would pick the one who's less likely to have me extradited from whatever country I am in or ban me from flying.

Frankly, I despise what the American government did to Assange and Manning. However, you can't even remotely compare their fate to what is happening every day to hundreds and thousands of people in different parts of China like Tibet. You have no chance of escaping, no chance of trial not to mention any appeal, your life can be destroyed in an instant. Several people in Tibet each year prefer to self-immolate than live under the terrible conditions imposed by the Chinese government.

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For sure, China does awful things to many of its citizens.

But for an American, China doesn't have the ability to do any of that stuff. Nor are they likely to have any reason to care about my actions. While on the other hand, the USA has direct powers over me, and is likely to care more because I'm here.

So sure, China and the CCP are evil, probably much more evil than the US government. But even at that, the danger they pose to a typical US citizen is much less than that of their own government. So it's rational prefer, say, a Chinese-made phone to a US-made one.

About self-immolations for "Free Tibet": People in India, born in India, who have never visited Tibet are self immolating

https://qz.com/india/632077/quietly-a-tibetan-teenager-in-in...

To me, this does not speak about extreme suffering in Tibet, but rather:

1- A very strong sense of self-sacrifice and pride in their community

2- A very effective propaganda machine that persuades even people who haven't experienced suffering first-hand, to make the extreme sacrifice in support of the cause

Interesting opinion, given what Tibet looked like before Chinese invasion (tl;dr: it was a totalitarian hellhole, not comparable with the current situation).

If it's so improved, you have to explain why Tibetans regularly risk their lives escaping over the border to India, where - so long as they are not shot by border guards - they join the ruler of that former totalitarian hellhole, the Dalai Lama, in Dharamsala.

I'd like to read more, do you have any sources?

Speaking from personal experience (I met exiles in Northern India in the 90s). Here's a source, though I don't know how reliable it is: https://bylinetimes.com/2020/01/22/china-clamps-down-on-the-...

They might have been brainwashed - after all, religion plays a role here. Also, getting rid of slavery does hurt the situation of previous slave owners.

You can't just compare what US does to some individuals, and what China does to the entire minority populations of Uighurs (13M people) or Tibetans (7M), like harvesting their organs for example

https://www.businessinsider.com/china-harvesting-organs-of-u...

Yeah, the US just kills civilians around the world at will, invading whatever country they think they own.

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