> If the cure is the usual "bomb them to democracy", I'll take the abuses...
That's a pretty flippant statement to make.
China is an authoritarian country that's moving closer to an autocracy, let's not "cut them any slack" and "take [their human rights] abuses" based on some cartoonish caricature of US actions. China is developing new forms of totalitarian social control may superficially resemble certain western practices (e.g. credit scores and background checks) but there are important differences. If you don't find that troubling, I can't really take your views seriously.
>>> For historical reasons not all countries develop at the same speed or are at the same stage.
This belies some fallacious thinking that countries develop along the same track. This is a common foolish mistake when it comes to thinking about China, which is becoming harder to entertain in light of recent events.
I think GPs point was that one should „clean up his own front porch“ (fix serious problems in their own country) before discussing others. I don’t agree with that though, I think China serves as an example as to where a turn to authoritarianism with heavy focus on economy can go wirh current technology, let alone tomorrow’s. We should be extremely careful to not end up in a dystopia with all the tools that are becoming available. This also shines another light on EU‘s approach to privacy that I think should be highly respected.
No, let's not "cut it some slack" on human rights abuses in the making.