Its like Hillary walking into a working class kitchen for the first time.
They’ve been shielded from even critical support of China and other AES for so long they literally, not figuratively, literally cannot process that people exist that have beliefs that aren’t Reddit Approved. They immediately assume it’s bots or wumao. Human beings can’t possibly hold these beliefs, so they must be Oriental hordes or actual robots.
A new empire rising to replace it won’t make any difference. The human rights abuses in China, while often exaggerated by mainstream media, are very real. Like there might not be a Uyghur genocide but they are VERY discriminated against.