whatyoucantsay

Nothing sneaky is involved. Like you and most people, I believe I am fair minded. There's no pretending involved, either.

It is very surprising users would have even seen a comment buried deep in an old thread within minutes, but it is possible and I'm inclined to believe you in this case (though the next most likely case is a 五毛党 vote brigade). Nothing in the comment was a violation of guidelines, nor was the previous comment at all what it was maligned as.

That said, it's now clear that the very attempt "to voice minority opinions I believe to be true" is counter to the goals of the forum. While they're ideas and issues where one voice has a relative chance of making a difference, they're also very likely to lead to flamewars. It's hard to let go of the human rights issues, especially those I've seen some of first hand, but it's not productive here.

I'd be lying if I said YC's recent moves weren't terrifying, but I'll give up on voicing it in this way.

Seeing good-faith comments which break no rules I'm aware of being flagged is truly disappointing.

It's your forum and if you choose rule by law rather than rule of law, I am powerless to improve the situation. In ten years time, if you remember any of this, I hope that you might have a new perspective this topic.

We need that guy.

"A couple of years out of date" would be the more generous way to say "false". Australia very recently grew past Taiwan's population.

The story you linked above, with over 170 upvotes and less than a day old appears nowhere on the first 5 pages of HN.

It's hard to imagine HN suppressing any similar story from a similarly credible source about a million people being detained in any predominantly white or English-speaking country.

There's a lot of money for YC to make in China, but this is a million human lives. Please at least try to think about that.

(And yes, the story is certainly drawing flags from Chinese patriots and wumaodang alike)

"Ideas I disagree with are wrong and should be silenced!" is about as timeless and universal a position as any in human history.

It's not a good one, though.

> I think this is all premised on the belief that American corporations somehow have the moral obligation (and right) to change the way things in a different country work.

> China has its own functioning tech ecosystem, so entrant companies need to play by its rules if they want to make a profit there. Period.

Nazi Germany also had "its own functioning tech ecosystem". So did Stalin and Mao's even more murderous regimes.

Moral obligations don't stop at borders.

It's amazing we have Bill Joy to thank for not only C shell and much of BSD, but also VI.

Thanks for the resource link. Does the data set include domestic-only Chinese investors?

What is this "reunification" you speak of? Taiwan has never been part of the PRC. Before its current state, it was part of Japan. You could go back to the peak of the Qing Dynasty, but clearly that isn't a nation that currently exists.

It's like talking about "reunifying" Austria with Germany based on the previous borders of the Holy Roman Empire which once contained both.

That's surprising that publicly broadcasted calls to assassinate the president didn't result in arrest.