I don't think people on HN are afraid to criticize the Chinese government. I just don't think they understand how bad the situation is. This is partially because the Chinese government has been extremely successful at censoring both domestic and international press, and partially because most people just don't care. I hate the discussions on Chinese culture on Reddit because the "discussions" are really just westerners regurgitating common myths and stereotypes they read elsewhere on Reddit. I can't count the number of comments I've read on HN in the past few months from white Googlers who have never been to China linking some medium post from a Chinese citizen "Asking for Google to come to China", as if that justifies Dragonfly.

This is just my personal observation and I'm biased in my heritage, but in America I've noticed that the problems afflicting Asians get noticeably less attention and sympathy. In public school, the Japanese detainment camps were almost completely glossed over in history class. Casual racism against Asians is still socially acceptable even at a time when society is more sensitive to prejudice and discrimination. Very people care about the human rights situations in North Korea and China even though, objectively, they're more serious and older than more recent conflicts that get more attention.