This kind of discourse presents a very stark class divide IMO. For the vast majority of people, the immediate concern is the local government collecting information about you. Municipal cops, county sheriff, state police, FBI/ATF/DEA/etc. The cops can ruin your life. What can China do to you - an average schmuck?

The only people concerned about Chinese surveillance are the ones standing on the other side of the line. The ones with wealth and power. The ones who are protected by the cops. The ones who can sleep in peace knowing the cops will cover up their crimes for them. They are the ones who are threatened by information leaking out of their jurisdiction. They can't stand the mere possibility that records of their malfeasance and graft might exist outside of their control, becoming effectively permanent. Meanwhile they employ every technology at their disposal to ensure records of our contacts, habits, debts, and criminal history will outlive the Sun.

I have absolutely no sympathy for these bastards. These are the fuckers who delivered us the most sophisticated surveillance and propaganda machinery in human history and framed it as a tool which would liberate oppressed people around the globe. The fuckers who tried to gaslight us into thinking privacy was an obsolete concept in a world of social media and digital communications. In articles like this, you get to see clearly how much they squirm it when the same standards are applied to them. How nauseous they become when they are equally powerless to control their data. Scrambling like they and everyone they know are pedophiles.