I really don't care how much the US complains about Chinese nationalism when they pull the same crap in practically every 3rd world country for the sake of holding power.

There's a reason why so many 3rd world immigrants in the US feel unfazed by Trump because they essentially grew up in some Washington backed imperialist government which was way worse, hence the reason they emigrated.

They understand that neither country is some beacon of hope, they're just two big competitors that keep each other somewhat in check. The tradeoff you get for joining the US is freedom of expression and representation (mostly) and the tradeoff you get for joining China is faster upward momentum and social stability (mostly). Its better to have at least two choices instead of one which in reality would be none.

Yes there will always be sketchy things you probably shouldn't touch, but we're really out here defending internet censorship over TikTok as if the NSA doesn't have 2/3rd of the modern world permanently bugged.

Influence campaigns in full effect this week, even on Lemmy.

Living in a sanctuary city, plenty of people around me are Chinese. I’ve also been enjoying the current state of Chinese gaming. Of course…I play those games on devices I can sandbox.

Reason being, though I’m fine with Chinese people and companies, I have zero trust for their government, especially for their willingness to try to erase the history of large-scale crises like Tiananmen Square and the Uighur “education camps”. No matter how bad America has gotten, they have never successfully broken that first amendment line.

Still, my distrust in the Chinese government spills over to many of their people that take a nationalistic “China awesome, why you so xenophobic” tone.