If this was an article whining that Anti-American Rhetoric Is Off the Charts in Chinese Media, and op was in the comments defending the war in Afghanistan, or immigrant children in cages and women forcibly sterilised, I don’t doubt it would have been removed in a flash, and rightfully so.

then you're assuming incorrectly--we give people some latitude to have dumb, incorrect takes that people disagree with or aren't popular here, and having one of those takes is not unto itself a bannable offense. this is especially and frequently true if it receives a lot of pushback because it provides a record of where the community stands and what the community finds acceptable, which is socially useful information for observers. this is outlined quite extensively in our moderator philosophy and has been pretty much since we took off. in any case, the idea that everything anyone posts here is tacitly endorsed by having been posted and not removed is a goofy standard for any social media website.