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Comment by Parcel7183 | Hacker News Reader

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Self-defense (which is what maintaining sovereignty within one's borders is) does not require moral high ground.

Correct, no government should extrajudicially prosecute suspected dissidents - neither within or without their borders. My issue is that this is frequently framed as America being a victim under threat, and not a serial aggressor.

"America" isn't the victim here. The Chinese nationals in America (and their families) being targetted are. They shouldn't be ignored regardless of what their new country of residence has done.

Walk and chew gum at the same time.

Yeah, the CIA really focuses on aunties in their PJs posting Winnie the Pooh memes at 3AM.

"He does it, too" should always be read as "Guilty as charged".

Does the CIA do shitty things? Yes. No question. And they don't get anywhere near enough static for it.

That does not mean that China doing it is any less shitty or any less deserving of approbation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

Not really? I'm just saying that this situation shouldn't be viewed from any kind of moral highground, because US organizations have engaged in (and continue to engage) in equally bad operations. The entire "America is under threat" narrative falls apart when you consider how much damage the US has done to the third world in general.

There should be a rule where advocates for countries that suppress all criticism and knowledge of their own bad behaviour, are allowed to talk about the behaviour of anyone else, particularly those countries that do allow free speech.

On forums in China, when the topic of bad behaviour from an entity outside China, comes up..is there always somebody with a "yeah but China is worse" comment too?

Or can they just discuss the topic and its impact?

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