It is a truism that you can become jaded working in just about any country. But a healthy bit of skepticism is just what the doctor ordered when dealing with extraordinary claims.
For example, one frequent comparison between the US and China involves defining a police state (which I discussed several weeks ago).
Exhibit A
Last week a gunmen killed 12 moviegoers at a Batman premier in Colorado.
At the same time, half a world away, a massive thunderstorm flooded the greater Beijing metro with the heaviest rains since the PRC was founded. And due to poor drainage infrastructure at least 77 residents died from drowning and electrocution.
Both of these incidents were horrible, yet it was the aftermath that is key to illustrating which country is more free than the other. For example: to stave off criticism of flood management, the censorship regime in China subsequently shoved a dozen words and terms down into the memory hole.
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