Not sure why it's so heavily downvoted. Chinese seem to be way more transparent about their surveillance. Before Snowden you could have just told somebody to get rid of their tinfoil hat, but we do know now it's not much better here. Well, don't get offended so easily, of course depending what dimensions you choose for comparison you could say it's incomparably better. But mass state surveillance? Do you really care more about your face on the street than all your online activities?

Not just heavily downvoted, but flagged and in one case, completely removed without trace or reason. No warning, no appeal.

Thanks for the comment though, it's nice to know that someone heard what I was saying.

You missed the many, many articles on surveillance in the US and how that discussion isn't a prerequisite for discussions about China. Also, you point out that the poster has an interest in stories about China, but not how that's a problem.

> "You missed the many, many articles on surveillance in the US and how that discussion isn't a prerequisite for discussions about China."

I must have... The last ones I remember are from like 2014, and as I recall there wasn't much signal in the noise. Feel free to link me to the most recent discussion (DDG shows me nothing - zero results - for the past month when I search "surveillance" on this site, no idea why).

While it might not be a prerequisite, isn't it sort of important context? Because I haven't seen any signs of improvement on this front, while I've seen a very sharp rise in the number of China related posts.

> "you point out that the poster has an interest in stories about China, but not how that's a problem."

I mean, if this site and it's users want to talk about China that much more than the US that's fine, but how is it a problem for me to point that out? And is it perhaps a little disingenuous to call a consistent 40% China related post history with over an 80% negative connotation "an interest in stories about China"?

> I must have...

In the past month there have been 51 articles with the term "surveillance" in the title, though that's not a metric I would use.

Maybe he/she’s Chinese or of Chinese descent? I have friends of Taiwanese descent that very much follow China closely and critically.

Maybe - but I think that if I posted 12 times a week about US transgessions - or German, or Irish, or Australian - I'd be facing a ban in extremely short order.

I'd not like to see this normalised.

Why do you think you would receive a ban for that? I don't think you would.

"Please don't use Hacker News primarily for political or ideological battle. This destroys intellectual curiosity, and we ban accounts that do it."

But I heartily encourage you to try it, and let me know how it works out for you. Perhaps you can get away with it by making 51% of your posts about random tech debris.

Aside from the discussion of surveillance, surveillance + systems of censorship is a whole different level of beast.

If you think you haven't seen systems of censorship in America, that's concerning.

Deepwater Horizon, where reporters, scientists, and anyone with a camera were barred from the entire area.

The Dakota Access Pipeline, where Stingrays were used to prevent news getting out, and no mainstream reporter went for days.

Coverage of Sanders' 2016 campaign, where he had roughly 5% of the coverage Trump got.

Whistle-blowers getting exiled / jailed while the whistle-blowees walk free.

The no-fly list, which you could end up on without any due process, and have no way to appeal.

There is no shortage of examples... if you look. I even seem to remember certain important stories getting removed from various social media forums...

"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum" - that's a system.

You were able to write about all of this - and I doubt you're afraid of your life or that you're going to get a visit from someone for writing about it?

> "Whataboutism"

That dismissal is too easy. OP has noticed the disparity in news output regarding the matter. China as well as other countries have an established surveillance creep problem. I read OP's question as: "unless the problem in solved in those other countries, why is it mainly China in the news now?" and not "We didn't solve the problem, so we're not allowed to criticise China", which would be "whataboutism".

> And I don't think there is anything in the world that can compare to what China

Who knows? At least China is transparent about it. Other countries have cracked down so hard on whistle-blowers that it's become impossible to know what's going on in secret.