Martin, I think that what sometimes happens (not saying it has happened here on the board as such, but just generally speaking) is that some people in their haste not to be racist, fall over themselves never to mention a nationality or religious group or sect or similar as being worse/better or 'more of' than anyone else.

The call will always be-but we have that here or there in the western world too, they are not the only ones, witness such and such.

Which of course is true. That's because we're all human and there are are unscrupulous people right across the board, every race, every nationality.

The question though (to me) is one of degree.

And the truth is that at different times, some countries or groups are way, way worse than others in some aspects. We're not all equal at all.

There's no doubt that over the last few decades, China has been able to get away with stuff that wouldn't fly here. Not because we're inherently morally better but because our laws have tightened.

Some time ago (but not the too distant past) I was reading about Chinese factories where the workers were not highly paid, lived on site and got sick or died at an alarming rate because of exposure to some of the chemicals used in the manufacturing process. They were making expensive brand name toys.

When I was in China a couple of years back, one of the guides said that China has improved tremendously over the last decade as far as freedom of speech went, but they still needed to be a bit careful. So yes, I wouldn't put it past the chinese government to repress knowledge about some things. You just can't access some things online in China either. Blocked.