This is a bit late for a response, but it has to do with what protections are afforded by what entity. The US has very explicit treaties signed with allied nations. Canada, for instance is a five eye partner and thus has far less to worry about from the US than it does from China.
Additionally, China has an ongoing bad track record with how it treats other nations. Commercial entities within China are far more at the whim of the state government and are required to act in alignment with the CCP instructions.
People treat China differently because China is different. They very much are a different beast when it comes to authoritarian control of its commercial and private entries.
Having been in the military, I find it hilarious and accept that it is not a place everyone should be. The recruiter likely has a very similar realistic understanding of where the military stands with people right now.
My power comes from the two sets of solar panels and batteries on my land. It is possible to do without fossil fuels. We’re not there yet for everyone, but the problems you point out are solvable, and if solar/EVs had the same amount of backing from the government over the same timeframe that gas/ICE cars have had, we would be in a very different place right now.
You can kinda make it bend a bit to your whim. While it is technically immutable if you don’t mess with it, it does have everything necessary for using pacman. It just all reverts next time steamos updates. Anything you install directly through the discover portal is permanent, but it does technically have access to anything in the pacman repos as well.
I unlocked mine long enough to download neofetch and take the screenshot for this. It’ll revert back soon, but I only needed it temporarily for imaginary internet points. :)