I just spent a month in China and the disparity between what we are told in western media and what is actually going on is substantial, but not in the ways I expected.

I always tell people on Hacker News to just book a flight to Shenzhen. Just go. They'll be completely safe there - probably even safer than where they come from. They can go see China for themselves, instead of through western media.

The vast majority of people on Hacker News have drank so much "China bad" propaganda that they're even afraid of visiting.