The reply just pointed out the hypocrisy of the original poster.
(As in "here you are a willing participant in a forum were censorship is just as bad complaining about how there is this other forum were censorship is bad")
It's hard to take any apologists for the CCP seriously even if they make a good point.
That user is being hypocritical by using Twitter while bashing censorship, but it would be the cultural equivalent to praising Biden or Trump for never drinking and somebody comes along and praises Hitler for also not drinking. You should not praise Hitler even if it is true.
In this precise example they are apologists because they're deflecting criticism and bringing up other wrongdoings done by other people in a different part of the world under different means and for different goals.
But... But... the Tankies told me I had to choose!
What do you mean right wing America bad and China also bad?!
But which team are you on then?!
Someone tell me which crimes to excuse and which to condemn!
/s
I am sure cisgender (ι‘Ίζ§ε«) and other genders are at least shadow-banned on red note. Honestly, I have not heard this word for my entire Chinese-speaking life, until one of my LGBT friend mentioned it.
Everyone knows China is a progressive communist/socialist country that recognizes genders :)
It is not "say gay and go to jail" kind of situation, but LGBTQ community are actively being marginalized, and any form of promotion and organization are likely not paint the participants in favorable light.
One thing that might surprise the west (like the income and cost of living in China) is that Chinese policies are seldom delivered by a publicly avaliable written order, making it hard to find concrete proofs of government wrong doing. This give rises to the word "εθΆ" (drink tea), typically means to pressure certain group or individual into submission without a formal procedure or record.
This culture of doing things "under the table" and several crackdown on investigative journalism has led to many inconclusive proof of wrongdoing and some misconception by many people from the west.
However, there are still plenty of evidence that many LGBTQ organizations are forsed to shutdown, non-heteralsexual couple not recieving appropriate benefit, and harassment from officials. Just to list a few,
Person talking about how the neighbour's yard is such a mess and then somebody else pointing out that their own yard is just as much as a mess is pointing out the hypocrisy of that person, rather than whataboutism.
Whataboutism is the reverse - it's when somebody points out your yard is a mess and you point out that the neighbour's yard is also a mess.