Hacker News Reader

I agree, the regime in China is nothing good. But we live in an imperfect world and they clearly are the "lesser of the many evils" our there. Just one concrete example: China didn't wage wars for 20+ years in the Middle East, resulting in millions of desperate refugees showing up on our doorstep.

View on HN

Again, it's a question of perspective. Mao killed dozens of millions of people and strongly supported the Khmer Rouge, which in turn were responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. Xi seems to be performing a turn back towards authoritarianism.

Who do you trust? Out of both countries, I worry more about that which is less transparent and has less democratic institutions and less commitment to human rights. Though I worry about both, of course.

Those transparent democratic institutions didn't stop 20+ years of war in the Middle East.

This neither addresses my point nor is it relevant to the comparison.

It is relevant. Your point: "US is less scary/harmful than China, because it's a democracy". My response: "The fact that US is a democracy doesn't change anything if you are not a citizen of that democracy. Also being a democracy didn't prevent US from committing mass-murder in the Middle East".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com