[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

That's not what your link suggests.

As with China, criticism of Israel is valid but its context should be considered. I believe this is what JohnnyB is trying to say. We should ensure our criticism is of the Chinese government and the way they operate, and not Chinese people as a whole

So far so good, agreed.

... or wish consequences that would unjustly affect many innocent Chinese people (such as crushing them in a war).

Eh, you lost me. I'm certainly not calling for a war with China, but I'm declining to do so because it sounds utterly insane to me. If the likely outcome of such a war would be positive change on a global scale, rather than what I expect would happen in reality, the impact on innocent Chinese citizens wouldn't somehow make it taboo to talk about doing it. I hate to Godwin things up in here, but it's a reasonable analogy in this case: plenty of innocent, well meaning German citizens who did nothing wrong and simply had the bad luck to be born in Germany at the wrong time in history were harmed by the allies. Obviously their degree of culpability varied - some people were no doubt wilfully blind to atrocity as long as their lives were good - but plenty were just caught up in history, and their deaths or the other bad things that happened to them were simply unfortunate byproducts of a necessary response. And if you're thinking, "bad analogy because Germany occupied France and bombed Britain", this would still be true even if the Nazis hadn't done those things and had stuck to exterminating Jews.

2021 China isn't as bad as Nazi Germany. But the point of the analogy is that if a regime is horrible enough, the necessary action global response to that regime will inevitably harm some of the innocent people living under it. Whether that action involves economic sanctions or political pressure from abroad or the support of reformers or open war, once you're in that situation, the harm those things might do to innocent people living in the country in question don't make them less necessary to do.

On top of that, it's important to at least be aware and recognize that anti-Chinese government sentiments can be and are co-opted by racists, which is why it's important to be fair and exact in our criticisms, and call out criticisms or calls for action that would impact innocent people for no other reason than their being Chinese.

To compromise about honest, direct criticism of evil practices because it might embolden other evil people to be evil is essentially just a heckler's veto. It's not a good reason not to speak in the first place. As for being accurate and fair, sure, that's something everyone should strive for, simply for its own sake. But there are actions that can reasonably be called for that are perfectly defensible, and would nonetheless impact innocent people for no other reason than their being Chinese, just as the actions of the Chinese government impact people living in the rest of the world.