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Comment by jszymborski | Hacker News Reader

The equivocating in this thread boggles the mind.

- Windows isn't the only other OS, nor would that mean that what the CCP is doing with HarmonyOS is OK.

- Backdoors are the rule, not the exception in China. This is not true of the US.

- I disagree with the Patriot Act and NSLs, but let's not forget that the US is a free democracy and that those laws can change if there is political will. That isn't the case in China.

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It happens in every thread like this and it’s extremely frustrating, especially when you dig into the US side and find out it’s not as bad as the sensationalists make it seem.

Wasn’t prism bad enough? You think the US would stop at making backdoor?

Its like people completely forgot Prism. The caricature like understanding from Americans of China is mind boggling. I guess decades of McCarthyism takes its toll on the American mind.

I'm Canadian, and I haven't forgot PRISM. It's not a caricature to call China an authoritarian government. PRISM doesn't change the later.

Every time someone brings up the CCP doing something bad, I need to suffer some whataboutism re: the USA that is supposed to justify it. Backdoors are bad wherever they appear. Because China is an authoritarian regime, it can backdoor openly without consequence.

And the consequences of discovering backdoors in the US were (checks notes) a manhunt for Snowden.

This is my eternal question on HN: Why is every criticism of China, no matter how small, invoke a million people who spring out of the wood work to decry the acts of the US by way of justification or radical digression.

I am desperately pleading for an answer because for some reason there is a group of folks on this godforsaken website that can't help themselves from doing so and it's driving me absolutely mad.

Can we please just acknowledge a criticism or statement of fact about the CCP? Is that allowed?

to me it seems like there are systems of control in US, China, West whatever and the western ones are just a lot more subtle or savvier than the chinese equivalents but functionally serve a lot of similar purposes (For example, US media is always in lockstep on important issues despite being a "free" press!)

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