>This reads oddly like propaganda and flies against any and all of the evidence that we regularly observe

What evidence are you observing that has convinced you it's one way or the other?

I can go on Twitter and see some variant of the first comment and the second in almost every thread. What are you reading that you consider the "ground truth" that you can so easily point out the propaganda?

As a Canadian, I'm sure my sources are similar to yours, and I'm not really sure what the truth is. I assume it's somewhere in the middle. One thing I do know is that both "sides" are churning out propaganda at an unprecedented pace.

» I assume it's somewhere in the middle.

Sorry but this is not logical. You can't weigh two positions and say the truth is in the "middle". Sometimes one is more true than the other.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

If one side is centrist and the other is extremist, you can't go between those two.

China does have some of the best worker protection laws.

The protests we’re observing now, including the one in the iphone city, are against the government.

Let’s not conflate the two.

Wow, "are against the government", that's really some typical CCP talk seen in their smear campaign.

From what I can see people just want a bit of freedom and get their promised compensation. I doubt any of the workers has interest in overthrowing the government.

I'm not sure where you're from but for a good majority of the world, protesting against the government and wanting to overthrow the government are two very different things. I am talking about the former.

The sorry state the west has devolved into in the last 2 years.

There was a different protest at a factory in shenzhen, prior to the lockdown protests.