I think you’re assigning too much probability to the possibility that your friend told an intentional lie. Probably his brain was occupied by generating an extremely complex conversation that stretched the bounds of his knowledge. Somewhere along the line his brain assigned a ~90% chance that China executed fewer people during the USA and it turns out he was wrong. That shock to him probably made him much more receptive to your beliefs. Self-deception is also a possibility. If he was a CCP member, for example, I could see your friend sincerely believing in the truth of the lie he was telling.
This type of non-intentional lying has been mostly solved by having the internet readily available during complex conversations. If you weren’t able to convince your friend of your side yet, you might want to try dissolving the question...
I think you’re assigning too much probability to the possibility that your friend told an intentional lie. Probably his brain was occupied by generating an extremely complex conversation that stretched the bounds of his knowledge. Somewhere along the line his brain assigned a ~90% chance that China executed fewer people during the USA and it turns out he was wrong. That shock to him probably made him much more receptive to your beliefs. Self-deception is also a possibility. If he was a CCP member, for example, I could see your friend sincerely believing in the truth of the lie he was telling.
This type of non-intentional lying has been mostly solved by having the internet readily available during complex conversations. If you weren’t able to convince your friend of your side yet, you might want to try dissolving the question...