Maybe I'm not easily triggered enough but generally speaking when one says "the Chinese" or "the Nigerians' or "the Russians" in a discussion that's about international relations, geopolitics or similar, I tend to think they're talking about the nation and its government, not the people themselves.

If that's the case, the distinction was subtle enough for me to miss, and probably a lot of others. It isn't hard to say "the Chinese government" if that's what parent meant. Instead saying "the Chinese" in response to an article about a Chinese company's product is clearly ambiguous. I don't see how it's okay to gratuitously say anything about "the Chinese" as if that was somehow a valid, well defined and understood group that warrants being judged and stereotyped in such a wide manner.

But it blurs the distinction and it normalizes thinking about the Chinese people and the Chinese gov't in similar ways. Honestly I think it's irresponsible and naive - let's not pretend there isn't a rising undercurrent of anti-Chinese sentiment in the West.

All the rising anti-Chinese sentiment I've seen seems mostly geopolitical and not ethnic.

I assume they meant the Chinese government, not the Chinese people.

I think you're assuming some positive intent here that's definitely helpful to the conversation, but may not actually exist in this specific case.

For our part, I think us sane people can all agree that it's the PLC that we are suspicious of, whereas the people of (and from) China are wonderful people.

Is that any less racist?

I say this without even the slightest hint of snark: are you sure you really know what that word means, and the dichotomy of race and government?

Yes, it is a lot less racist actually. Are you serious?

How is being aware of and concerned about the activities of a government racist?

...Yes, because the Chinese government is not a race? Obviously?

It's not racist at all, it's nationalist if anything.

The fact that national governments aren't to be trusted is not racist. Your implication and terribly bad misapplication of the word "racist" is more disturbing than someone not trusting said foreign government.

Well, most of the Chinese people don't really seem to mind the fact that their government runs literal concentration camps. Perhaps it's fair to criticize them?

It has nothing to do with race. Stop throwing around that word.

Yeah, those military divisions that they have that are constantly pinging virtually every IP address in the world looking for vulnerabilities...they surely have good in their heart!

I mean... All of the major governments do that, it's just IPs of botnets always tend to be Chinese or Russian since those tend to be the unpatched systems.