The notion that China lacks 'proper civil society' is in my mind rooted in a western sense of orientalism and good old fashioned racism. I'm no defender of China, but let's recognize that the same nations trying to punish China because 'human rights'(US, UK) are the same ones responsible for killing close to 1 million Iraqis and creating the largest humanitarian crisis on earth(Yemen).
Is putting other countries citizens in concentration camps somehow morally superior?
> They're using machine learning to generate social scores.
America also has this they just call it a "credit score" or "klout".
> If you don't like America or the UK, you can leave.
Wow all my US expat friends who constantly complain about having to pay US taxes despite living here in the UK must have things totally wrong then.
> it's not racist to not like these horrible cultural values or to go against them.
No it's racist to ignore the injustices we commit in the west while condemning Asian countries for doing the same thing with different branding.
The argument isn't "China is good actually." It's "We do most of the same stuff you are accusing them of."
Our credit system is bad and theirs is worst. Next topic?
They can at any point renounce their citizenship, but they don't and continue to pay their taxes.
I grew up with cultural values, and I don't like the Chinese ones. Does that mean the US is perfect? Of course not.
Whataboutism is cushioning the evil creeping, instead of trying to stop the incoming flood, you're busy mopping up the puddle.