Anyone who says something positive about China today quickly risks being dismissed as a propagandist.

That became apparent again this week when philosopher Sebastien Valkenberg cited me in an opinion essay in FD (Het Financieele Dagblad, the Dutch Financial Daily) as an example of a “hip influencer” supposedly succumbing to the allure of autocratic regimes.

This article is an English translation of the Dutch piece I wrote in response to that essay. Although that debate took place in a Dutch context, the underlying questions—about China, stereotypes, safety, freedom, and how we talk about authoritarian states—are relevant beyond European countries.