I care mostly about myself. Just like you care mostly about yourself. You certainly don't use the same criteria against any other country.
Yes, you are. Both of those countries have large intelligence programs, yes. So does the CCP. And, as I mentioned elsewhere, they don’t have to even pretend to follow the law. China is a massive surveillance state.
USA is much worse, much more pervasive, much more massive.
But sure mate, China fine, US big bad scary. Got it.
China bad, USA is worse.
The CCP has no laws it needs to follow.
Same goes for the USA.
It needs reasons to get information on you, and the information it can get is limited.
Nope. It gathers mass information all the time. This conversation is being recorded by the USA because all traffic on the internet is being recorded by them. They didn't need to ask anybody.
I am, I’m just not a paranoid conspiracy nut.
You are more paranoid than me but also racist from the looks of it.
No actual US citizens and their children. BTW all it takes for them to call somebody a terrorist is to call them a terrorist.
Yes, pretty corrupt. They are still a government that follows laws
Apparently you haven't been keeping up with the news
From your link: “By law, NSLs can request only non-content information, for example, transactional records and phone numbers dialed, but never the content of telephone calls or e-mails.”
That's because they already have access to the content from the NSA.
Lol, this is a book which is widely discredited.
LOL it hasn't.
If you do not see how these are not the same thing then we may as well move on.
If you don't see how it's the same thing thing we might as well move on. There are actual genocides happening in Gaza and Yemen but hey since the US is helping with those that's OK I guess.
So a very high profile person who flagrantly broke the law in multiple jurisdictions has led to the US asking for extradition, which is a thing many countries will do, and is still here.
He only broke US laws and his house was raided.
Again though you seem to think this is perfectly fine so there is no need to go on.
Yes, pretty corrupt. They are still a government that follows laws
Now I know you don’t fully grasp how bad the CCP is.
You keep moving the goalpost. CCP is bad, not as bad as the USA, not as bad Saudi Arabia, not as bad as South Korea, not as bad as Israel.
The US government is pretty corrupt.
LOL. "pretty corrupt".
Does the US government disappear political opponents?
It kills them with drone strikes. Also tortures them.
Does it require all companies over a certain size to have official party officers on staff, to ensure they are ‘paying their dues’ and not becoming too powerful.
In Taiwan itself? No. When they transit through China, or friendly countries? Yes, emphatically.
Well I am neither Taiwanese nor am I traveling through China so....
You would be wrong about most of this.
I don't think so. The exploits of the NSA have been widely reported. Nowhere close to the USA or even Israel.
Remember this: all large Chinese companies have CCP officers with complete access to all information.
All US companies are subject to US laws which allow for full and free access to all information from those companies. Aside from that the NSA has code in all the routers, all the sim cards, all the hard drive firmware etc. Again all this has been widely published.
I feel like you haven’t been to the US.
I have actually but I don't see why that's relevant. You really think people gain knowledge once they step off the airplane into the USA?
. Companies collect personal info, yes, but the US government isn’t out there wiretapping the entire world.
It sounds like you are not very aware of what's been happening.
Well that’s up to you. I’m no dissident either but I have family in Taiwan so you’ll understand if I take it more personally.
Sure I guess. Is China arresting or kidnapping people in Taiwan or something?
China can easily decide you (or your neighbors) need spying on for reasons unknown to you.
I am 100% convinced they are spying on as many people as possible but I am also 100% convinced that the number of people they spy on is much less than the number of people the USA is spying on. I am 100% convinced that the USA is spying on me, is recording this conversation, records my phone calls, and has a history of every web site I visited and what I did at those web sites and every call I made and every text I sent. I don't think the Chinese intelligence agencies have the same capability or reach that the US intelligence agencies have. Not even close.
I trust the NZ government a lot more than the CCP, and you should too.
Depends on the topic. I trust NZ government more than the CCP in most things but I fear the NZ government more than I fear the CCP because the NZ government exercises more power over me than the CCP does.
BTW why do you keep ignoring the other evil empire in the picture? I trust the US government less than I trust both the NZ government and the CCP.
Neither am I, but I can recognize the terrible actions taken by that government, and not want to support it in any way.
Cough Israel, cough Saudi Arabia.
Why?
Because I don't want to be on the list of known dissidents the government keeps.
Are you seriously trying to compare the New Zealand, or any western government, to the CCP?
Yes.
If you are, then I seriously doubt you understand quite how bad the CCP is.
As bad as they are they can not exert any power over me. OTOH both the NZ government and the US government can exert tremendous amount of power over me.
This is not a contest of who is worse the USA wins that hands down. This is a contest of who can harm me personally the most and who I should be afraid of the most.
I know first hand that, in China, regulations and standards can be bypassed with the correct payments. I do not trust that they have not done so, especially when there are other, better, choices.
The cars that are exported here must meet our standards.
It's exactly what you said. Who do you think is making sure the chinese cars are going to kill you when you get in them if not the workers?