Then again, as a Europen, I've said "Fuck China" and "Fuck The US" about equally often lately and would never consider visiting either until conditions improve...

Honestly, no one is going to care about either your or my comments about Chinese government on this niche forum. Think about it, what would Chinese government gain by arresting you? And why would they start looking at your comment history on hn at all?

not just hn. i've said it elsewhere. they may not even need to "look" in the future. They may just have systems in place that will just identify and catalogue all criticisms of china. And the system would then just pass your name through such a catalogue when doing a standard check on you as you pass through or travel there. Wouldn't be that hard for them to do.