I wont go into the fact that China blocks foreign services or their theft of IP. Other commenters have covered these point already.

China (or rather the CCP) is an adversarial and imperialistic state that seeks to gain influence over other nations through various means, including espionage and PSYOPs. I’m not saying other nations don’t do that, but it is what it is.

It is in our best interest to mitigate the harm done by this adversary through any practical means. Of course this upsets the Chinese government, but that’s expected, and may be a sign that we are on the right track.

Remember that Reddit also started off small, then grew, then got bought, then turned into shit (*). However, I think that Lemmy has a greater chance of surviving as long as people keep everything truly decentralized. We shouldn’t all flock to “lemmy.world” or any other one Lemmy instance. Because if we do, that specific Lemmy instance will also be sold (along with the userbase) and turned into a corporate money-making machine.

(*) Some would argue that Reddit has always been shit, but that’s besides the point…