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Comment by cpursley | Hacker News Reader

Can we stop with this lazy and racist trope already?

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/patents-b...

It's not racist to be wary of relying on Chinese technology.

The country is a pretty vicious dictatorship without any of the norms e.g. independent judiciary, free media etc we would want. Which combined with the fact that the government routinely injects itself into how private businesses run means you can't depend on any consistent set of rules.

"The Costs of Unlawful US Detentions and Interrogations Post-9/11"

https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/01/09/legacy-dark-side

"Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition"

https://www.justiceinitiative.org/publications/globalizing-t...

And China detains and tortures people as well.

Not sure what that has to do with technology.

“But what about this entirely unrelated thing”?

Also, why do so many trolls assume that anyone who criticise a second or third world country is automatically American?

I will say this as a non-American: the US are great for a lot of things and terrible for a lot of others. They have a lot to answer for, and what you mention is barely scratching the surface, as for any country with a bit of history. I still don’t want China to have any control over what happens here and I am still never buying anything from Huawei. Same for Russia, for that matter.

You buy plenty from both even if you don’t realize it.

The food you ate today has a high likelihood of being fertilized with Russian inputs.

The hardware you typed your comment up on was probably made in China.

> You buy plenty from both even if you don’t realize it.

You misread. I am not buying from Huawei (and a couple of others, not all Chinese, and not all for the same reasons).

> The food you ate today has a high likelihood of being fertilized with Russian inputs.

Importing raw material is strikingly unlike importing cutting edge telecommunication devices. Thanks for making that point, I thought it was obvious.

> The hardware you typed your comment up on was probably made in China.

Indeed it is. You are very smart.

Perhaps, but very few people are wary of Chinese technology, they just virtue signal for particular examples like Huawei.

I think the link to patents implies a response to the copycat part. Though, while they certainly do more than just copy, it does seem to be more prevalent there despite the absolute number of patents issued.

I was specifically replying the the "copycat" comment, not the "reliance' one.

Since these patents are granted by the Chinese government, they can generate an arbitrary number of them to seem like they are innovating.

A better metric would be how many other countries and non-Chinese companies are finding those patents useful and relying on them. In that metric, you will likely find them much further from the number 1 position.

Please explain in what way it is racist to say that China is known for copying western technology. You may not agree with the statement but that does not make it racist, just untrue in your opinion.

The mere fact that something does not fit your desired narrative does not imply it is racist or some other form of -ist. It just makes it not fit your desired narrative. Were I Chinese I'd think '白左' on reading your post.

Believe it or not, but the Chinese government could grant a patent that had technology stolen / copied from other countries. Also, Chinese isn't a race so it isn't racist. It is anti-China / nationalist at worst.

The anti-Chinese (and anti-Russian, for that matter) are Euro-centric and rooted in thousands of years of “drone hordes from the East” mentality.

russia is actively murdering it's neighbors. There is no need trying to paint this as something deeper.

Eh, that user is just blindly aligned with the notion that any criticism of a particular nation(s) or policy is rooted in racism.

They're very much not interested in addressing the issue of how Russia in particular enjoys fighting wars and thus a reflection of their culture and beliefs towards fellow human beings.

And which nation are you lucky enough to be from that doesn’t have a history of waging unjust wars?

Do you think 85 years ago when the British and French were anti-German that they were being racist? Or perhaps they just didn't like people from a certain nation?

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