> I think one day the Chinese will be saying "at least we're not living in the west"
Conversations with highly educated Chinese nationals I've had on this topic at elite universities will often conspicuously include whataboutery on e.g. the number of security cameras in London using statistics from about 2005. Presumably they learn this in school.
I'm not saying this is good or bad, just that it's pretty common already.
And so they should. Like Putin remarking about Assange. Yes, Putin may be a despot who's whacked journalists. But that doesn't make him wrong that persecuting Assange was despot-tier scummy behaviour.