I'm shocked by the amount of anti-China bias on HN.<p>Consider a few points:<p>- The conditions inside US prisons (daily, predictable rape, etc.) rival those in any labor camp anywhere in the world.<p>- Many US prisoners are nonviolent drug offenders.<p>- Don't forget the human rights abuses in Abu Ghraib and Gitmo and the hundreds of thousands of innocents killed in our oil wars.<p>- China's main social issue is rich coastal cities and extremely poor inland areas.  This geographical accident is behind many economic policies.  The US is lucky to have rivers that tend to lead to a far more even distribution of wealth across geographical areas.<p>- In its early days the US embraced mercantilism.  It has particular political causes and over all countries who practice it lose more than they gain from it, but the tradeof is considered worthwhile for political reasons in spite of its foolishness.  In China's case, it represents a way to grow the Chinese economy while not risking social stability (which is considered highly important considering the above bullet).<p>- The US was also formerly a thief of intellectual property.  Notably, many writers and publishing houses in England were irate that presses in the colonies paid no royalties, etc., a situation made worse after the American revolution.<p>- Massive sectors of the US economy are under significant government control, even before the bailouts.  It's splitting hairs to bemoan China's "communism".<p>- The average person in China does not care about all the political nonsense that we are being propagandized to stew over.  Most people all over the world just want to be able to lead a reasonably happy life, etc.  China surely has some "backward" aspects, but consider that we did not have women's suffrage in the US until quite recently, and that we had a draft until VERY recently.  Suppose China is 100 years behind, is that the end of the world?  Do we really deserve to feel such righteous indignation?