>During the cold war, cozying up to the Russians the way Google is now sucking up to the Chinese would have been rated as treason.

I am a huge critic of China's human rights record, but "treason" has a very specific legal definition. Doing trade with a country is not "treason".

What would be a better term in your opinion?

Please consider watching this excellent Glenn Greenwald & James Risen debate over the usage of the word 'treason' and how dangerous it is to use it incorrectly. Greenwald cites prime US legal examples throughout history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsY70_uIXNc

Doing business?

How many US companies do business in China, and have at least some access/collection of Chinese users' data? Are they all traitors?

I was asking the question in the context of my comparison with the cold war era. Doing business with Russia then wouldn't have been called just “doing business” either, especially if it happened in support of practices diametrically opposed to our own professed values like Democracy and Freedom.

How much of a sellout or a cynic do you have to be to call betraying those values for money merely “doing business”?

(edit: added last sentence)

Even during the cold war, Americans did business with Russia. No large computers or munitions, but Americans still ate Russian caviar. There was this call to boycott it at the same time as the Moscow olympics, but I don't think anyone called it "treason". https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1980/01/31/...

Nobody was actively participating in oppressing the russian population during the cold war. This attempt to dance around the issue is transparent.

The post you replied to is a direct answer to claims about trade between the US and Russia during the cold war.

The post I replied to is making false equivalence comparisons. There's nothing subtle about the issue being circumvented.

The equivalence comparison wasn't made by the post you replied to, but by it's parent.

> Even during the cold war, Americans did business with Russia

ie A false equivalence.

Me selling flags to Russians is doing business. That has nothing to do with the issue of what constitutes or can be construed as Treason which is certain kinds of business that ally against national interests.

When the United States have to choose between their professed values like Democracy and Freedom, and economical benefits in the US, what do you think took preference?

Spoiler: US-backed military leaders and dictators weren't pushed to power because they promised to support those values. US companies profited of that, and by that, the US economy.

That's on you, dog. You're the one misusing the term:

>“Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”