Had Assange been publishing Chinese state secrets,
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If the secrets were heroically obtained by an anonymous democracy-loving Chinese soldier at great risk to his life,
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if the Chinese government asked Amazon to take down Wikileaks and also hinted to Paypal/Mastercard/Visa to do the same,
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If an arrest warrant for Assange was issued on unrelated charges, suspiciously at the same time as the leaks,<p>What would the editorials in the free-world be talking about? The rights of the Chinese government or Assange's fearless voice of democracy?<p>Would the US and Swedish diplomats be figuring a way to get Assange extradited to China -or- would they be drafting a sure-to-win Nobel Peace Prize nomination?<p>What would White House and Downing Street say, about Chinese govt. claims of their troops lives being in danger?<p>Would the common public be suspecting Assange on the assault case or would they be sure that China is foisting upon him, a fabricated case?<p>It would have been good to have George Orwell and Aldous Huxley on HN. And yes, Noam Chomsky too.
I think your analogy is flawed. Are Chinese and Swedish diplomats figuring out how to extradite Assange to America?<p>I am not inclined to uncritically believe Assange since he misled us about the nature of the charges against him.
There's a hitch in your logic: The US IS the good guys: Freedom-loving, freedom-protecting, doing what's right good guys.
China is an oppressive murderous communist regime.
The US is good, China is evil.<p>So your premise doesn't hold up.
What furthers US interests furthers Good; the US is Good and its purposes noble; the US acts for the Good of the world and disagreement with the US is Evil.<p>As a democracy, Americans elect their officials. As leaders of a force for Good, these officials act with noble purposes; embarrassing them hurts Good and is therefore Evil.