> On the other hand, consider that if you’re in the US your own information most likely comes from sources that are antagonistic to China? Why are you so sure that other people are just mindlessly consuming while you’re getting the real truth?

Having lived in China for 9 years, I'm pretty familiar with the US and Chinese media. They can both be biased in the way that media is biased, but one is actually not controlled by a single party while the other most definitely is (if you aren't sure, check out the differences between CNN and FoxNews).

China prefers the narrative that the rest of the world is antagonistic against it and out to get it. In reality, it is just the CCP that is really unpopular, and its popularity wanes and ebs with however authoritarian it happens to be at the time. With an official approval rating of 140%, they are incredibly popular in China, at least.

This is healthy thinking. China might not be a place where there is any censorship, nor goons rounding up Uyghers, nor restrictions on travel, nor foreign-country-located police stations hounding ex-pats to return home under threat to their families.

It could all be made up and China could be a free-thinking, free-speech paradise where an insufficient number of western visitors have realized that everyone is free to talk about fair elections and Winnie-the-Pooh and a Green Party winning control of the Chinese Parliament.

That all sounds quite plausible. We should go and see.

Right, because those are the only two options.

Yes, you finally get it. It really isn't that there are only two options, but the Chinese media pushes there are only two options! You are either pro-china and completely in line with the CCP's agenda and ideology, or you are an anti-china western-media following racist. No nuance or middle ground, or even moderate positions, are possible. The lack of any middle ground in the debate is toxic, and that is mostly due to the Chinese government's hardline position on the matter.