README.adoc

= China Dictatorship 中国独裁统治
:cirosantilli-media-base: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cirosantilli/media/master/
:idprefix:
:idseparator: -
:sectanchors:
:sectlinks:
:sectnumlevels: 6
:sectnums:
:toc: macro
:toclevels: 6
:toc-title:

Chinese "Communist" <<dictatorship,"Dictatorship">> "facts". 中国《共产主义》<<dictatorship,《独裁统治》>>的《事实》。<<faq,FAQ>>, <<news,news compilation>> and <<restaurants,restaurant>> and <<music,music>> recommendations. <<faq,常见问答集>>，<<news,新闻集>>和<<restaurants,饭店>>和<<music,音乐>>建议。<<xi-abolishes-term-limits-2018-03,Heil Xi 卐>>. <<xi-abolishes-term-limits-2018-03,习万岁>>。

Video and images may be better viewed at https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship or by cloning locally, see also: <<mirrors>>.

image:https://web.archive.org/web/20191013080128if_/https://i.redd.it/c9q6vdybr7i31.jpg[height=300]

toc::[]

[[about]]
== About 关于

This repo has the following goals:

* allow copy pasting links to answers to questions/comments that have been posted a million times before by <<wumao>>, mostly under: <<faq>>. This was the original goal.
* serve as a censorship bomb to block GitHub in China: <<keyword-attack>> to destroy the <<gfw>> and <<dictator-needs-gfw,therefore the CCP>>. Or more realistically get added to the <<github-gov-takedowns>> hall of fame.
* be a fun and sometimes silly source of Chinese mostly anti-CCP culture like a better https://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/China[Unencyclopedia] / http://web.archive.org/web/20191209021646/http://encyclopediadramatica.rs/China[Encyclopedia Dramatica] without the stupid stereotype jokes. Just quickly browse the pictures with Ctrl + F "Figure" and have fun.
* serve as a place where people can post interesting related stuff in the issues: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues see also: <<shitpost>>
* highlight positive about China's culture outside of its shitty government, such as <<the-best-chinese-supermarket-food-products,food>> and <<music>>. This has two goals:
** teach foreigners (maybe even Chinese people on certain points) about amazing Chinese things that they can consume
** show wumaos that <<ciro-santilli>> is not as clueless about China as they think

[[faq]]
== FAQ 常见问答集

[[why-keyword-attack]]
=== Why attack websites with censored keywords?

<<keyword-attack, The attack>>.

To <<effective,destroy the firewall>>.

This would then end <<censorship>>.

And then <<dictator-needs-gfw,I believe>> that this would also <<why-end-dictatorship,end the dictatorship>>.

The keyword attacks increase the cost of censorship.

If commies censor things, they will get worse IT technology, and thus become <<richer,less rich>> and militarily powerful.

Since all they care about, like any other politicians, is power, the only way to make them stop censorship is to make the cost of censorship higher than not censoring.

Without the threat that China will be less technologically, and therefore militarily advanced, there is no incentive for the CCP to destroy the firewall.

The goal is to put them in a position where they have to choose between either:

* having military power
* remaining a <<dictatorship,dictatorship>>

but not both, since having both means that they will <<war,start WW3 and destroy humanity>>.

Related attack: <<photobombing-like-attacks>>.

[[harm-people]]
==== Does Ciro Santilli want to make the Chinese people people look bad?

No, the opposite.

Ciro only wants their <<dictatorship,dictatorial government>> to look bad to destroy it, and help China become <<does-ciro-santilli-hate-china,the most awesome country on Earth>>.

Even the Chinese that are against their own Government <<what-should-pro-democracy-chinese-living-in-china-do-about-the-dictatorship,cannot do much about it openly>>, so it is not their fault.

And even those <<i-like-my-dictatorship,who supported their dictatorship>> must be respected, whoever stupid and <<brainwashed-by-usa,brainwashed>> you might think they are, <<democracy-is-a-religion,since it is impossible to prove who is right or wrong in politics>>.

See also: <<about>>.

[[harm-programmers]]
===== Does Ciro Santilli want to harm the Chinese programmers?

No.

This is not revenge of any kind.

He knows he is harming you in the short term, and he doesn't like that.

But he believes that this harm is a necessary means to reach his real goal, which is to destroy the firewall, and the dictatorship.

Don't you think it is worth a try? Destroying the firewall, would <<why-end-dictatorship,enormously benefit>> not only Chinese programmers, but every single other Chinese person too.

Once the firewall is destroyed, which <<dictator-needs-gfw,may destroy the dictatorship>>, he want China to develop the best science and technology in the world, and <<would-you-like-to-live-in-china>>.

And by the way, with his https://github.com/cirosantilli[extensive contributions to open source software], Ciro is already helping China, and all underdeveloped countries, become stronger.

See also: <<disturbs>>.

[[meant-to-be-used]]
=== Politics should not be posted in technical websites such as GitHub or Stack Overflow

Is the Chinese government using the Internet the way it was meant to be used, by investing billions in <<censorship>>?

What about <<nine-nine-six-icu>>? Did you also complain about it, or did you just star it like 250k of your fellow programmers?

Any act of protest will use things in ways that it was not meant to be used.

For example, the street is not meant to showcase protest banners, it is meant to be a passageway for cars.

As engineers, we have a moral responsibility towards society. We should not blindly follow orders of those in power if it violates our principles, e.g. build weapons or censorship mechanisms. And we should freely express our principles and violation concerns.

Making a statement where no one will ever see it, like a personal website, is <<effective,sure to have no effect>>.

Much of the best art and technology is about using something in a way that it wasn't meant to be used.

Finally, the political powers of each website decide what is allowed or not on their website, and what is not allowed gets blocked. So far, Stack Overflow and GitHub's Terms of Service have said to go ahead:

* <<stack-overflow>>
* <<github>>

Infinite duplicate pool:

* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Ameant-to-be-used+
* https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina/issues/89

==== Is Ciro Santilli making programming contributions with the main intent of promoting your political agenda?

No, that is just a side effect.

If that were the case, I would definitely target more widely technologies, in particular Web and JavaScript, instead of obscure things like C and assembly in which I have spent tons of my time.

Also, as I've said elsewhere, my actions are very unlikely to have any actions. Much more likely to have any action, would be for me to become rich and powerful first, and the best way to do that is to invest in whatever I think is most useful.

Actually, it can even be argued that I'm somewhat irrational, since I would be much more likely to become rich and powerful by bowing down to the CCP and trying to get their money instead.

On the other hand, becoming rich and powerful is also highly unlikely, so maybe I'm just taking a low-risk low-reward path?

I have very little free time, and will never do something for political reasons, only things that interest me technically.

Finally, do you really think I'd be able to do such awesome projects if I had primarily political considerations in mind? XD

===== Is Ciro Santilli making trivial edits on questions just to spam your name further?

No.

I just think that the website is great, and want to push it to perfection, in particular with better Google keyword hits, and uniform grammatically correct titles.

If you think that any of my edits were harmful, please ping me and open a meta thread to discuss specific edits, and I will comply with consensus.

[[why-end-dictatorship]]
=== Why would China be better without its Dictatorship?

Because it would make China, and the world:

* <<richer,richer>>
* less likely to get into <<war,WW3>>
* <<intolerance,safer for its own citizens>>

[[richer]]
==== Why would democracy and freedom of speech make China richer? 言论自由让中国比较富有

There is infinite debate about this out there, some examples:

* http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2011/05/can-poor-countries-afford-democracy-becker.html (https://web.archive.org/web/20180923192824/https://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2011/05/can-poor-countries-afford-democracy-becker.html[archive])
* https://www.quora.com/Is-democracy-or-authoritarianism-better-for-developing-countries

For:

* dictatorships are more likely to start <<war>> or other <<policies,crazy policies>> like the <<great-leap-forward,Great Leap Forward>>, which completely destroy the economy in one go
* society becomes richer when people know that they can do their startups, get rich, and stay in the country without fear of being persecuted unfairly and losing everything instead of migrating to Canada.
+
Any criticism of the government, even if constructive, is taken as menace to power, and more likely to be shut down, which makes the government and just becomes less efficient since there is less feedback.
* governments are monopolies, and the more powerful they are, the worst it is for competition an efficiency in general. E.g.: the startup with better government ties wins, instead of the most efficient one.

Against:

* presidents only care about the 4-8 year horizon, while dictators can make longer term decisions to maintain power forever, their power being limited only by "the people are happy enough to not start a revolution"
* dictatorships can make changes faster without the same amount of discussion that happens in democracies, where power is more spread out.
+
Killing a million people will make us richer? No problem, let's do it.
+
That is great when they make good decisions, but it sucks when they make <<war,bad ones>> more likely.

I really like https://web.archive.org/web/20180923192824/https://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2011/05/can-poor-countries-afford-democracy-becker.html[Posners'] way of putting it:

____
While average rate of growth do not appear to differ much between democracies and authoritarian regimes, the variability in performance does differ more among authoritarian governments. China has had remarkable growth since the 1980s, but the prolonged devastation and hardship produced by China's "<<great-leap-forward>>" (when millions of farmers starved to death) and its Cultural Revolution would unlikely have occurred in a democratic country like say India. Nor is it likely that say Cuba and many African nations would have suffered so long with such terrible economic policies if they had reasonably democratic institutions.
____

Maybe China was poor because of Mao's crazy communist regime. Similar regimes also made <<russia>> poor. And yes, before that exploitation by the West may have been a factor.

Definitely, the current regime is better than Mao's, but just imagine how rich China could be if it had more freedom and justice.

Imperial China lost the race for the Industrial Revolution. Will another dictatorship be able to stay on top of the next technological revolution?

==== Censorship makes countries poorer

<<dictatorship,Dictatorships>> need <<censorship>> to survive, and they must control all information to make themselves always look good: <<dictator-needs-gfw>>.

As a result, knowledge of problems flows more slowly, and therefore they also take longer to solve.

Maybe this hurts the argument, but Hillary agrees: :-)

____
But countries that restrict free access to information or violate the basic rights of internet users risk walling themselves off from the progress of the next century
____

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccGzOJHE1rw&t=2110 "Secretary Clinton Speaks on Internet Freedom", U.S. Department of State, 2010-01-22
video::ccGzOJHE1rw[youtube,height=400,width=600,start=2110]

Also mentioned at: link:https://youtube.com/watch?v=d3dE_LDz_9E?t=1681[Google versus China - VPRO documentary - 2011]

This is also the basis of a <<keyword-attack>>.

This is also well illustrated in the link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_(miniseries)[HBO 2019 miniseries "Chernobyl"], which suggests that part of the reason why Chernobyl happened is because of the Soviet Union's obsession to save face.

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6kYod3_gwk Chernobyl supercut scene where the reactor explodes, and a chief engineer "Comrade Dyatlov" accepts the 3.6 Roentgen measurement as "Not great, not terrible" and forwards it to his superiors who take actions based on that, even though the radiation measurement apparatus only goes up to 3.6 Roentgen. Needless to say, the actual radiation was much, much higher: when a proper measurement is made, the value is 15000 Roentgen! The URSS only admitted Chernobyl three days after when Swedish nuclear plant radiation detector alarms started going off. Notably, in order to keep it secret, they for example did not cancel the https://time.com/4313139/post-chernobyl-parade/[International Workers' Day parade in Kharkov, Ukraine which happened five days after the disaster].
video::M6kYod3_gwk[youtube,height=400,width=600]

.Photo of a CDV-717 radioactivity meter that maxes out at 3.6 Roentgen like the one that would have been used in Chernobyl. https://www.reddit.com/r/ChernobylTV/comments/bnio6n/36_roentgen_on_a_cdv717/[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191102143219if_/https://i.redd.it/f806kp316ox21.jpg[height=400]

This suggestion is even more explicit in the fictional https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Z[World War Z] 2006 novel by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Brooks[Max Brooks] about a <<corona,virus>> outbreak in China. It was later adapted into the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Z_(film)[World War Z (2013)] movie by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramount_Pictures[Paramount]:

* https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jun/04/brad-pitt-china-world-war-z[]: Paramount cowards tried to kowtow and remove references to China from the movie, but it failed
* https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/china-barred-my-dystopian-novel-about-how-its-system-enables-epidemics/2020/02/27/cc0446f0-58e5-11ea-9000-f3cffee23036_story.html[]: no Chinese publisher dared publish the book unless China references were removed, which the author declined, and so the book was not published in China

Or https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/death-statistic/[if you prefer]:

____
The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.
____

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amartya_Sen[Amartya Sen] is another famous proponent of similar arguments in the area of hungers: https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/211/44284.html[] (https://web.archive.org/web/20170722090616/https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/211/44284.html[archive])

____
In democratic countries, even very poor ones, the survival of the ruling government would be threatened by famine, since elections are not easy to win after famines; nor is it easy to withstand criticism of opposition parties and newspapers. That is why famine does not occur in democratic countries. Unfortunately, there are a great many countries in the world which do not yet have democratic systems.
____

although like any other political argument, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/01/arts/does-democracy-avert-famine.html[some disagree].

Virus outbreaks and other natural disasters also illustrate this well: <<corona>>.

[[corona]]
===== Censorship of the 2019 Corona Virus 2019冠状病毒病早期迹象审查

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_disease_2019 | https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019冠状病毒病

The Chinese Government censored the initial outbreak in January and did not inform Wuhan on January 8, which likely made the situation much worse than what it could have been.

Good timelines so without a fucking paywall:

* https://www.axios.com/timeline-the-early-days-of-chinas-coronavirus-outbreak-and-cover-up-ee65211a-afb6-4641-97b8-353718a5faab.html "Timeline: The early days of China's coronavirus outbreak and cover-up"
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2019–20_coronavirus_pandemic_in_November_2019_–_January_2020

Timeline:

* 2019-12-27 several genomics companies had sequenced the coronavirus and noticed the similarity to Sars. According to GeneBank, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MT019529[] the sample was collected on and 23-Dec-2019 and published on 04-FEB-2020
* 2020-01-03 findings were sent to the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Center_for_Disease_Control_and_Prevention[Centre for Disease Control] (CDC, https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中国疾病预防控制中心[中国疾病预防控制中心]) in Beijing, but then the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Commission[Chinese National Health Commission] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中华人民共和国国家卫生健康委员会[中华人民共和国国家卫生健康委员会]), China's top medical authority, issued orders to not talk about it and destroy samples
* 2020-01-08 CDC team went to Wuhan to see the situation, was not informed that contagiousness of the disease had been confirmed
* 2020-01-20 the findings were made public, in an interview with Zhong Nanshan. He later said in an interview that the local government should be blamed:
+
video::LK1Pz8FmryM[youtube,height=400,width=600,start=132]
* 2020-01-23 Wuhan begins lockdown
* 2020-01-24 to 30 Chinese New Year

News coverage:

* <<caixin>> article about how early Coronavirus signs were censored:
** http://china.caixin.com/2020-03-10/101526309.html (https://web.archive.org/web/20200317111527/http://china.caixin.com/2020-03-10/101526309.html[archive]) "李文亮所在医院为何医护人员伤亡惨重？" (Why did Li Wenliang's [李文亮] hospital suffer heavy casualties?)
** https://www.caixinglobal.com/2020-02-29/in-depth-how-early-signs-of-a-sars-like-virus-were-spotted-spread-and-throttled-101521745.html (paywall) "In Depth: How Early Signs of a SARS-Like Virus Were Spotted, Spread, and Throttled"
** https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/chinese-scientists-destroyed-proof-of-virus-in-december-rz055qjnj "Chinese scientists destroyed proof of virus in December". Paywall skip: http://archive.md/xOKiu Terrible copy paste of some Caixin article with no sources/precise names.
* https://www.businessinsider.com/china-information-crackdown-on-wuhan-coronavirus-2020-1 "China spent the crucial first days of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak arresting people who posted about it online and threatening journalists" (http://web.archive.org/web/20200124113400/https://www.businessinsider.com/china-information-crackdown-on-wuhan-coronavirus-2020-1?r=US&IR=T[archive])
* https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/g5xykx/you-can-now-go-to-jail-in-china-for-criticizing-beijings-coronavirus-response "You Can Now Go to Jail in China for Criticizing Beijing’s Coronavirus Response"
* https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjdn4d/doctors-in-wuhan-are-still-dying-and-beijing-is-still-trying-to-silence-them Ai Fen's (艾芬) report of how the situation was mishandling was censored
* 2020-04-13 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/12/asia/china-coronavirus-research-restrictions-intl-hnk/index.html "Beijing tightens grip over coronavirus research, amid US-China row on virus origin". The Government can now veto papers from being published on the subject of the origin of COVID-19.

Some believe that the Chinese government grossly under-reported death counts. Official figures were about only 3300 deaths, in the insanely densely populated Wuhan area, while Italy had reached 10000 deaths:

* 2020-04-19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr280LWjJT0&t=2198 Trump says on a White House briefing he does not believe China's case count due 
* 2020-04-01 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/china-concealed-extent-of-virus-outbreak-u-s-intelligence-says CIA speaks
* 2020-03-29 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8165717/Locals-Wuhan-believe-42-000-people-died-coronavirus.html Reports of funerary urns sold

Maybe China is saying the truth this time. Maybe the rapid Dictatorship response worked. But maybe the most important lesson to take out of this is: no one trusts a Dictatorship, after an infinitely long history of lies and no freedom of the press.

On the other hand, one may argue that the "city closure" measures were stronger/faster than in democracies.

Doctor Li Wenliang (李文亮) reported the virus, but was told by authorities to stay quiet, and later died from the virus, becoming somewhat of a martyr:

* https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51409801
* https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/2020/02/【网络民议】你能做到吗？-你听明白了吗？/

The following excerpt from his forced confession trended:

____
你能做到吗？ +
你听明白了吗？
____

Translation:

____
Can you manage? +
Do you understand?
____

.Selfie of Li Wenliang on his hospital bed before he died. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51409801[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200209173001im_/https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/10FFE/production/_110803696_drli1.jpg[height=400]

.Corona Xi mural of <<xi-jinping>> morphed into a Coronavirus by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lushsux[Lushux]. Fuller composition view: https://twitter.com/lushsux/status/1243830638966235136[]. Reddit called it https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/fqku03/winnie_the_flu/[Winnie the Flu] in a reference to <<winnie-the-pooh>>. https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/fqku03/winnie_the_flu/[Source].
image::http://web.archive.org/web/20200401093459im_/https://i.redd.it/ulqhu0q38fp41.jpg[height=500]

====== nCovMemory

Popular GitHub repo documenting personal experiences and media reports:

* https://github.com/2019ncovmemory/nCovMemory "新冠肺炎记忆：报道、非虚构与个人叙述" 2020 New coronavirus pneumonia memories: reports, non-fictional and personal accounts.
* https://github.com/memoryhonest/nCovMemory-en translation project
*
Other interesting GitHub repositories: <<other-interesting-github-information-repositories>>.

====== People arrested for reporting on the 2019 Corona Virus

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Qiushi[Chen Qiushi] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/陈秋实_(律师)[陈秋实])
** Twitter: https://twitter.com/chenqiushi404
** YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv361SF6FKznoGPKEFG9Yhw
** https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/09/asia/wuhan-citizen-journalist-intl-hnk/index.html "Chen Qiushi spoke out about the Wuhan virus. Now his family and friends fear he's been silenced"
** https://youtube.com/watch?v=Iwpr55PZEJ8 "Lawyer Chen Qiushi documenting coronavirus epicentre disappears" by "South China Morning Post"
+
video::Iwpr55PZEJ8[youtube,height=400,width=600]
* Fang Bin (方斌)
** Twitter: https://twitter.com/GuqZJRTOvbqbGub
** YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRItarzSwqakT-EZkSvuy3A
*** The last YouTube video simply says:
+
____
全民反抗 +
https://zh.m.wiktionary.org/zh-hans/还政于民[还政于民] +
方斌书
____
+
which translates as:
+
____
All the people, revolt. +
Return the country (politics) to its people. +
Written (calligraphed) by Fang Bin.
____
+
video::_7VIG2qp0j4[youtube,height=400,width=600]
** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUvBNpkxrJo "Fang Bin is second Chinese citizen journalist to vanish while reporting from coronavirus epicentre" by "South China Morning Post"
+
video::sUvBNpkxrJo[youtube,height=400,width=600]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Zehua[Li Zehua] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/李泽华_(记者)[李澤華])
** YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJHUpBCNKrZwBhxfcIrP8Aw
** Twitter https://twitter.com/kcrissli
** 2020-02-28 https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjdejp/a-chinese-citizen-journalist-covering-coronavirus-just-live-streamed-his-own-arrest

[[war]]
==== Why would democracy and freedom of speech make China less likely to start a war?

This has been discussed to death:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_peace_theory
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_Peace:_A_Philosophical_Sketch

Some arguments include:

* the people who will actually fight and die on the front can't vote against it
* dictators have huge power, so if they put it in their heads that they want to start a war, it is much harder for sensible people to stop them
* dictators need <<evil-west,to keep the people in fear all the time to keep their power>>, and a war is a great way to achieve that

[[uneducated-masses]]
==== The Chinese masses are still uneducated, and not fit for free speech and democracy 中国大众愚昧，不能好好选领导

When will they be ready? Who decides? What if they think that they are <<tiananmen,ready now>>?

In George Bernard Shaw's "Maxims for Revolutionists" words:

____
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for <<corruption,appointment by the corrupt few>>.
____

Many democracy supporters jokingly recognize democracy's shortcomings.

A https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-141/red-herrings-famous-quotes-churchill-never-said/[fake Churchill quote]:

____
The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.
____

Art Spander:

____
The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid.
____

Laurence J Peter:

____

Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.
____

===== The Chinese masses are not interested in politics and therefore not ready to vote

But how would they be interested in politics or be able to discuss, if it is impossible to a different view without going to jail?

What about the <<tiananmen,1 million people in Tiananmen>> and the 70 million <<falun-gong>> followers? Did they not care?

.<<rebel-pepper>> cartoon about a pig who does not care about politics because it cannot be eaten. 民主又不能当饭吃 https://twitter.com/remonwangxt/status/1131398147253710850[Source].
image::http://web.archive.org/web/20191220204455if_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7OImmpWsAEYXEN.jpg[height=600]

.Translation by Ciro Santilli of the Rebel Pepper cartoon about the pig who does not care about politics because it cannot be eaten.
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Rebel_pepper_pig_can%27t_eat_democracy_cartoon_translated_to_English_by_Ciro_Santilli.jpg[height=600]

[[corruption]]
==== Democracies have less corruption than dictatorships

One of the key points of <<xi-jinping,Xi Jinping's>> governments has been to quench corruption. And use that as an excuse to get rid of rivals while at it.

However, there is one much better solution to that: democracy and freedom of speech.

The reason is obvious: with censorship, corrupt politicians can <<internal-censorship,internal censorship>> anything bad that they did, and so it becomes much harder to destroy corruption.

In George Bernard Shaw's "Maxims for Revolutionists" words:

____
Democracy substitutes election <<uneducated-masses,by the incompetent many>> for corruption,appointment by the corrupt few.
____

[[effective]]
=== Will the keyword attacks really help to destroy the firewall?

.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Cards_(American_TV_series)[House of Cards] S01E02 "Nobody can hear you. Nobody cares about you. Nothing will come of this." GIF. https://houseoflessons.tumblr.com/post/43967209684/on-protesters-nobody-can-hear-you-nobody-cares[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/save/_embed/http://78.media.tumblr.com/c958931381d9efa62f158d885f3ca811/tumblr_mirhy5eQPY1s6tut4o1_r1_500.gif[height=400]

==== Embargoes make the dictatorship stronger

The <<keyword-attack,keyword attack>> is basically an embargo.

There is already a lot of literature about this, especially in the cases of Cuba and North Korea. It is basically a libertarian vs conservative / Cato vs Heritage thing in the US:

* https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/no-embargo-harms-cubans-gives-castro-excuse-policy-failures-regime
* https://www.heritage.org/trade/report/why-the-cuban-trade-embargo-should-be-maintained
* http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_big_idea/2006/08/thanks_for_the_sanctions.html

The key dilemma is:

* if we keep contact with the Dictatorship, maybe its people will see that democracy is better and start a liberating revolution
* if we keep giving technology to the Dictatorship and it does not become a democracy, we are making a Dictatorship more technologically advanced, and therefore <<war,dangerous>>

Some interesting aspects of the keyword attack embargo:

* it is immediately self-enforcing: we don't need politicians to decide and enforce the complex "if you do this, we punish you like that" question.
+
By political and technological information is together, and this immediately puts the dictatorship in a bad spot, without us having to decide anything.
* by affecting programmers in particular through Stack Overflow and GitHub, we make them more likely to develop better <<censorship-circumvention,Firewall climbing>> tools themselves

One point in favor of the embargo is that China has opened up since the '80s '90s, but did freedom improve at all? Under <<xi-jinping>>, it may be argued that it did not, and maybe that we should just stop feeding them technology and accept that they won't become free.

Trump's link:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/02/trump-banning-huawei-beginning-of-biggest-trade-war-ever-united-states[2019 China trade war], and in particular the Huawei ban, is an event that has brought this question to the spotlight once again.

===== Keyword attacks could be used by certain CCP political groups to justify blocking off the entire external Internet, and make the dictatorship even more pervasive

It is a risk, but it would make China drastically <<richer,less powerful>>, so at least they wouldn't be able to start or sustain <<war,WW3>>. So I don't think it will go that way.

[[effect]]
==== Keyword attacks on programming websites will never have any effect

That is true with high probability, just like any other individual who tries to influence 1B people.

Every action is statistical: I just push the balance a little bit towards freedom.

This FAQ and any talk is useless. You and I are wasting our time here.

The possibility of blocking Stack Overflow and GitHub is 1000x more useful than any talk, but it is still useless.

However, potentially blocking those websites takes <<better-to-do,0 of my time>>, I just leave the content there, so it is worth my time.

To have an idea, in 2015 there are about:

* 20M developers in the world
* 2M in China : https://www.quora.com/Approximately-how-many-programmers-are-there-in-the-world http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/european-technology/there-are-185-million-software-developers-in-the-world-but-which-country-has-the-most/
* 5M Stack Overflow users http://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/227868/select-count-from-users
* TODO I wonder what percentage of GDP those programmers control. I'll bet any programmer on Stack Overflow is at least 5x more powerful than the average Chinese.

And if we never start somewhere, nothing will ever happen.

[[so-block-cost]]
==== Stack Overflow and GitHub could be blocked at no cost by the Chinese government

Hitting the block button has, of course, no cost.

The cost of blocking Stack Overflow lies of course in the loss of information, and slower technological development, see also: <<why-keyword-attack>>

Remember that it is not possible for the Chinese government to block only certain pages of HTTPS websites due to encryption: either the entire IP / domain name is blocked, or nothing.

The 2019 <<nine-nine-six-icu>> event however brought to my attention that Chinese (usually WebKit-based) browsers are already censoring HTTPS websites selectively of course, see e.g.: https://github.com/996browser/996.BROWSER/tree/77f28a36a862e3cc4d238dc47c19872156096bc4

But I doubt developers use those browsers, right? The only way would be for China to forbid foreign browsers entirely.

=== This is your personal problem, we have nothing to do with it, stop punishing us for it

We have to fight for justice for our fellows, or else when injustice happens to us, no one will fight for use either.

Every form of protest incurs some damage. E.g., if we manifest on the street, it generates a traffic jam.

I don't like it, but I think it is worth it.

If you just work to make money and have a good life, without any plans to improve the government, you are just making the economy of the dictatorship stronger, then when they start a <<war,war>> or kill yet another minority, blood will also be on your hands. See also: <<what-should-western-countries-do-about-china>>.

[[intolerance]]
==== Most Chinese people don't care about the minorities

How can you be that certain that your children won't have dissident ideas and be punished unfairly for them?

Intolerance is a risky way to live. Everyone is part of one minority in one way. If all minorities were oppressed, everyone would be oppressed.

Dictatorships crush minorities much more than democracies.

Do think the majority of the Chinese people would vote to put 50 year old <<falun-gong>> meditating <<ciro-santilli-mother-in-law-jail,aunties in jail>>, if the CCP hadn't made a huge propaganda campaign and used an iron fist?

Are the Chinese really that selfish to vote for this oppression, even as the <<censorship,free media>> would show videos of meditating old ladies in jail on national television? <<ciro-santilli>> does not believe this.

Minorities are put in jail because the CCP fears them. Dictatorships can only survive if there is zero difference in opinion in the population.

The famous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...[First they came ...] text comes to mind in which <<nazi,the priest Martin Niemöller regrets not having supported the rights of his opponents that were unfairly treated by the Nazi Government>>:

____
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out +
Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out +
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out +
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me +
and there was no one left to speak for me.
____

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intolerance_(film)[Intolerance (1916) film]

[[stability]]
=== If anyone disagrees with the government they must be punished to keep the stability of the country

Destroying diversity is the best way to reach a point where everyone can agree to start <<war,a new big war and destroy everything>>.

The CCP thrives on the excessive <<evil-west,fear it instigates into its own people>>.

How can society improve, if we are never allowed to try new things out?

Change in democracies does not require <<violence,violence>>. Violence happens because the government punishes any dissidence, even if pacific, to retain its own power.

In democracies, radical policy changes happen without dropping a single drop of blood. People vote, and policies change, end of the story. In https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy[JFK's] words:

____
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable
____

See also:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_revolution#As_it_relates_to_democracy
* https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Address_on_the_First_Anniversary_of_the_Alliance_for_Progress

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXRG7yiqR3I Passage of Kennedy's discourse that contains the quote "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable".
video::Iwpr55PZEJ8[youtube,height=400,width=600]

[[disturbs]]
==== Keyword attack profiles disturb me

But isn't it better to be annoyed than having <<war,war>>, <<richer,being poor>> or <<xinjiang,put into jail unfairly>>?

If the truth is too much for you to bear, worry not, you can use either:

* this cool browser extension to clean up Stack Overflow: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/32236-stackoverflow净化器 "StackOverflow净化器"
** GitHub user with the same username: https://github.com/EternalPhane
** http://web.archive.org/web/20181211094818/https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/32236-stackoverflow%E5%87%80%E5%8C%96%E5%99%A8
** http://web.archive.org/web/20181211094917/https://greasyfork.org/en/forum/discussion/47981
* a custom ad terminator expression shown at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/87 `stackoverflow.com##a[href="/users/895245/ciro-santilli-%e6%96%b0%e7%96%86%e6%94%b9%e9%80%a0%e4%b8%ad%e5%bf%83%e6%b3%95%e8%bd%ae%e5%8a%9f%e5%85%ad%e5%9b%9b%e4%ba%8b%e4%bb%b6"]`

Installing any of those immediately give you <<social-credit-system,10 Sesame Points>>, <<xi-abolishes-term-limits-2018-03,习万岁>>, 

See also: <<harm-programmers>>.

[[not-chinese]]
=== Non-Chinese people should not interfere in Chinese politics 外国人不应该干预中国政治

. We live in the same world.
+
If China's <<richer,economy>> is bad, my economy is worse.
+
If China's environment is bad, my environment is worse.
+
If China's environment is bad, my environment is worse.
+
If China <<war,starts a war>>, I might have to fight it.
+
If China <<corona,fails to control a viral outbreak>>, I might get infected.
. If I lived under a dictatorship, I would welcome foreign intervention.
+
Even if you don't, I know several Chinese who do.
+
Are you certain that your beloved CCP would be in power today if the link:https://china-journal.org/2018/02/26/why-did-chiang-kai-shek-lose-china-the-guomindang-regime-and-the-victory-of-the-chinese-communist-party[Japanese hadn't weakened the Guomindang] and the link:https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/how-stalin-elevated-the-chinese-communist-party-to-power-xinjiang-1949[Soviet Union helped out Mao]?
. You have been brainwashed by the commies who say that all foreigners are bad :-)
+
The commies do this because most foreign countries are telling the Chinese to get rid of the dictatorship.
+
Most foreigners actually want what is best for China.
. Oh, China xref:belt-and-road-initiative[would never ever do anything like that], would it?
. You can't do anything about it.
+
I don't like this argument, but in the end, this is what all politics comes down to: power.
+
I recognize that in that sense, I may be similar to the CCP and any other political party.
+
But conversely: <<effective>>.
+
.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Cards_(American_TV_series)[House of Cards] S01E02 "Nobody can hear you. Nobody cares about you. Nothing will come of this." GIF. https://houseoflessons.tumblr.com/post/43967209684/on-protesters-nobody-can-hear-you-nobody-cares[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/save/_embed/http://78.media.tumblr.com/c958931381d9efa62f158d885f3ca811/tumblr_mirhy5eQPY1s6tut4o1_r1_500.gif[height=400]
+
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=SRPiE59e8NU House of Cards S01E02 Officer: "Some guy was trying to get into the building, when we said "no" he started tearing his clothes off." Frank: "Nobody can hear you. Nobody cares about you. Nothing will come of this. Why don't you let these nice gentlemen take you home?" video clip. Interpretation: https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/94608/what-can-we-make-out-of-the-final-scene-from-house-of-cards-season-1-ep-2
video::SRPiE59e8NU[youtube,height=400,width=600]

See also:

* <<is-ciro-santilli-chinese>>
* <<evil-west>>

Duplicate pool: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Anot-chinese+

[[brainwashed-by-usa]]
==== Non-Chinese people have been brainwashed by the USA know nothing about China

Everyone is "brainwashed" by their environment.

I don't doubt that you know more about China than me.

But if you are Chinese, also consider that you have been brainwashed by the commies, so likely much more than me since you live in a dictatorship.

So, instead of saying that, why don't you just actually prove your point by teaching me something interesting about China that I don't know about? I love learning new things.

But please, link to reference material instead of just saying it, it will be much more convincing.

See also: <<western-democracies-are-not-perfect>>.

[[evil-west]]
==== The commies exaggerate the threat of the West to keep in power

This is a common strategy, but the West is not as evil as they say:

____
Once upon a time, there was a farmer with a farm.

One day, the animals on the farm started feeling a bit trapped, and started bumping against the fence to get out.

The farmer, however, was smart, and told the animals:

_____
Careful! There is a wolf outside! If you go out, you will be eaten by the wolf!
_____

The animals, were not that smart, and listened to the farmer, they were afraid!

From time to time, one of the animals would disappear (and without their knowledge, reappear on the farmer's dinner table).

But the farmer kept giving the animals delicious food without them making any effort, so they decided to believe the farmer's explanation that animal had escaped and been eaten by the wolf.

Maybe, there was actually a wolf outside. But if they had escaped, only some of the animals would have been eaten by that wolf.

But by staying on the farm, all the animals were, sooner or later, eaten one by one.
____

TODO source.

Duplicate pool: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Aevil-west+

.French political cartoon from 1898 by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Meyer[Henri Meyer] showing leaders of Western powers, Russia and Japan splitting up China between them. The CCP would arguably <<not-chinese,not have raised to power if not due to Japanese interference>>. Maybe the West deserves the CCP they helped create. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:China_imperialism_cartoon.jpg[Source].
image::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/China_imperialism_cartoon.jpg/438px-China_imperialism_cartoon.jpg[height=500]

[[bias]]
=== Ciro Santilli and this page are completely biased against the Chinese Government!

<<ciro-santilli>> prefers the term focused :-)

That being said, Ciro takes the agenda of information sources very seriously.

E.g. he tries to clearly classify Communist Party, Falun Gong, and Western government linked sources.

Any evidence of positive political progress will also be added to this repo, e.g. people openly discussing politics online, human rights activists doing political stuff and not being put into jail, etc.

Party promises do not count, only reports of activities by individuals.

See also:

* <<flg-bias>>
* <<radical>>

[[throne]]
==== Ciro Santilli's claim to the Qing Dynasty throne 三西猴清朝皇帝觊觎

Ciro Santilli's <<wife>>, her mother, and paternal cousin, believe that Ciro's wife is the descendant of the brother of a recent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qing_dynasty[Qing emperor] through her father's family.

Although they have not been able to produce concrete evidence, which could be explained by the endless political turmoils in 20th century China, Ciro decided that this would be a good bet to take, and married her anyway.

If anyone is able to provide further evidence of this relationship, please, please, please get in touch.

The family tree that Ciro has reconstructed orally is:

* Ciro's wife:
** Father: Ai Dayi (艾大义) born: 1932 in Shenyang
*** Father: Ai Xikang (艾锡康)
**** Father: Ai Pushan (艾??)
**** Younger brother 2: Ai Xiyuan (艾锡?) Professor at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeastern_University_(China) Apparently had no Children.
**** Younger brother 3: Ai Xicong (艾锡?) Graduated in law in Japan in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waseda_University[Waseda University] Was the top official of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Police_Agency_(Japan) in China when it was occupied by Japan (警察廳长) Passed first by Taiwan.
**** Younger brother 4: Ai Xiying (艾锡?)
**** Younger brother 5: Ai Xifu (艾锡?) Together with Ai Xiying, they were went to the Republic of China Military Academy and were high ranking officials in the war against the Japanese in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War[] (八年抗战). Later was a congressman in Taiwan.
** Younger sister: Ai Shiping (艾世？)
** Older brother: Zhao Yingjie. Studied law in Japan also at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waseda_University[Waseda University].

Many of them have had different names in different places/countries, notably many used the name 肇(Zhao) rather than 艾.

This wiki page contains a good family tree of the most important Qing people: link:++https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree_of_Chinese_monarchs_(late)#Qing_dynasty++[]

Further anecdotal indicators follow.

Ciro's wife and family are clearly of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchu_people[Manchu ethnicity] just by looking at them, and they originally lived in the North East of China

His wife's family name is the very unusual 艾, pronounced "ai4", which she claims is a reference to the 愛(also pronounced ai4) in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisin_Gioro[愛新覺羅], which is the name of the Manchu ruling clan of the Qing dynasty.

Ciro's father-in-law, who he barely met, was very old when he had his daughter, and passed away before Ciro could talk a lot with him, which is consistent with the claims that he spent several years in jail during <<mao-zedong,Mao's>> purges, see also: <<wife>>.

.Ciro Santilli's portrait as Qing emperor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:清_郎世宁绘《清高宗乾隆帝朝服像》.jpg[Original image].
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Ciro_Santilli_portrait_as_Qing_emperor.jpg[height=600]

[[preconceived]]
==== You have a preconceived opinion about China that cannot be changed

I try to justify here why I think China would be better with democracy, but I know that ultimately all of this is useless.

Our opinions are all determined genetically and by bring-up, and there is nothing I can do to change yours, or you change mine.

From that point of view, all of this is just a cold blooded political game, in which I try to force the CCP to take down the Firewall: <<why-keyword-attack>>.

Unfortunately I'm still human and do get annoyed or sad sometimes, but never mad, even if your opinion is contrary to mine, and therefore wrong :-) The <<reply-policy,reply policy>> helps reduce such frustrations tremendously however.

I also have doubts about certain things I do as expressed throughout this FAQ.

Also, I have never said that anyone else is wrong.

In the end, I just end up thinking about new replies to things people say to me, and add them to this FAQ so that future replies will be faster to copy paste. See also: <<better-to-do>>.

The real goal of this FAQ is not to convince people, but rather to determine who is an ally and who is not, and get those allies together to defeat the commies.

[[flg-bias]]
==== Does Ciro Santilli support FLG just because his wife and mother-in-law do it?

Not consciously, Ciro thinks would likely support them even if I didn't have family ties to <<falun-gong>>.

Likely he wouldn't have started this campaign if he didn't know them of course.

But of course, this is impossible to answer objectively.

Wouldn't you be rather upset if your <<ciro-santilli-mother-in-law-jail,mother in law were put into jail unfairly for 15 days>>?

But don't you think that <<falun-gong-is-not-important-to-be-worth-discussing,**70 million** people (6% of the total population in 2000!)>> getting completely squashed by the Party illustrates extremely well the dangers of the dictatorship?

With that in mind, Ciro tries his best to give FLG only the right level of exposure I think it deserves relative to other events, according to these guidelines: <<keyword-choice>>.

If more recent events of mass human rights violations happen, especially affecting in the order of tens of million people, I will probably rank higher than Falun Gong, this was the case for <<xinjiang,Xinjiang in 2019>> for example, even though it only affected a measly million.

==== Why did Ciro Santilli start his keyword attack?

The last straw that led <<ciro-santilli>> to start the <<keyword-attack>> on <<stack-overflow>> was when on March 2015 his girlfriend's mother was arbitrarily kept 15 days in jail for doing <<falun-gong>>. He posted about this at:

* https://twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/579270450984984576
* https://www.facebook.com/cirosantilli/posts/952661734753174

I then continued because I hate political <<censorship,censorship>>, and because <<does-ciro-santilli-hate-china,I love China>>.

[[ciro-santilli-mother-in-law-jail]]
===== Ciro Santilli's post when his mother-in-law was put into jail

Maybe some people would be happy if their mother-in-law were put into jail. But unfortunately, this wasn't the case for <<ciro-santilli>>.

.<<ciro-santilli>> with his mother in law during his wedding in 2017. Annoying? Sometimes. But threat to the fucking Chinese State? How fucked does your political system have to be for the answer to be a "yes"?
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Ciro_Santilli_with_his_mother_in_law_during_his_wedding_in_2017.jpg[height=600]

====== Jail post en

My girlfriend's mother, a 63 year old lady, was kept 15 days inside a Chinese "correctional facility" because she does Falun Gong.

She had to stay all the time in a small room with a bed and a toilet, under video surveillance, being fed three meager meals a day.

I see Falun Gong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong as just another <<flg-religion,moderate religion>> which causes no harm to its believers. The only reason that it is unofficially outlawed in China is because the communists fear it as a political competitor.

There was no trial and no explanation. She was going to take a train to visit her sister. But she didn't know that there was an important political event happening in the capital: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_National_People's_Congress So the police at the station, who already knew she did Falun Gong, took her away.

When she came back home, the house had been searched and was all messed up. Her religious books and computer were missing.

I'm glad she was not physically harmed. I find it fascinating how even well educated Chinese support a government which simply does not represent some of its people. How will you feel <<intolerance,when something like that happens to your own family, and there is nothing you can do about it>>?

====== Jail post zh

Translation by <<why-does-ciro-santilli-love-china-so-much,my wife>>:

我女朋友的母亲，一位63岁的女士被监禁在一个中国的"劳教所"，只因为她炼法轮功。

她被迫待在一个小屋子里面，只有一张床和一个排泄的地方，一直处在监视器下，每天两个窝头一碗只有几个白菜叶的汤。

我看过法轮功http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong 只是一个和平的信仰，对相信它的人没有任何坏处。它在中国被非官方的定为违法（其实没有一项明确法律禁止），唯一的原因就是工产党害怕它是一个政治竞争对手。

没有审讯没有任何解释。她正准备坐火车去看她的姐姐。但是她并不知道那个时候有重要的政治会议正在首都进行：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_National_People's_Congress
所以那些知道她炼法轮功的铁路警察把她带走了。

当她回到家中时，房子被搜查过了，四处一切混乱。她的信仰书籍和电脑都没有了。

我很庆幸的是她身体并没有受到伤害。我觉得很意思的是一些受过良好教育的中国人怎么能够迫害一部分它的人民的政府呢？如果这样的事情发生在你的家庭，而你什么都不能做，你会怎么想？

====== Jail post pt

Translation by myself:

A mãe da minha namorada ficou 15 dias num "centro de correção" chines porque ela faz Falun Gong.

Ela ficou o tempo todo num quarto pequeno com uma cama e banheiro, sobe videovigilância, recebendo 3 refeições pequenas por dia.

Para mim, o Falun Gong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong é apenas mais uma religião moderada que não causa nenhum problema para seus crentes. A única razão pela qual ele é proibido na China é porque os comunistas tem medo dele como competidor politico.

Não houve julgamento nem explicação. Ela ia pegar um trem para ver sua irmã, mas ela não sabia que teria um evento político importante na capital: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_National_People's_Congress Então a polícia da estação, que já sabia que ela faz Falun Gong pegou ela.

Quando ela voltou pra casa, a casa tinha sido procurada pela polícia e estava uma bagunça. Os livros religiosos e seu computador foram confiscados.

Eu fico feliz apenas que ela não sofreu abuso físico. Eu acho fascinante como mesmo muitos chineses educados apoiam ainda um governo que não representa parte do povo. Como você vai se sentir quando algo do tipo acontecerá com a sua família, e você não pode fazer nada sobre isso?

===== Further details about Ciro Santilli's mother-in-law's persecution

March 2015: 15 days in jail for no reason: https://www.facebook.com/cirosantilli/posts/952661734753174

June 2017: 3 cops came to her house. She was there. They asked if she still did Falun Gong. She said yes. They took photos of her Falun Gong books / posters. They were polite.

October 2017: 7 - 8 cops came to her house _at 11PM_. They knocked the door strongly and made noise, and questioned neighbours of her whereabouts. Luckily she was not there.

=== China is fine as it is, stop making it worse

Welcome to the wonderful world of democracy, a world where people can have different political opinions than you :-)

If you are so fine, why are you reading this at all? Go back to being fine.

See also:

* <<why-end-dictatorship>>
* <<preconceived>>

==== I like my Dictatorship

Ciro Santilli can understand that.

It must feel good to have absolute truth in the <<democracy-is-a-religion,Cult of Xi>>, and let the black police <<against-censorship-and-flg,get rid of weirdos for you>>.

A scene from the awesome mini-series link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Moments_of_Spring[Seventeen Moments of Script (1973)] comes to mind.

In , the main character, Stierlitz, who is an undercover Soviet spy in Germany during WW2, travels on a train with a <<nazi,nazi-officer>>.

The war is almost over, and the desolate officer tells Stierlitz:

____
I told my children: I hate any democracy!

No democracy in our Reich!

Any democracy in our country is doomed to end up with one thing: the dictatorship of small shopkeepers.

The more freedom we have, the sooner we want to be controlled by SS troops again.

And then we want our the secret police back, and concentration death camps again, and the universal fear everywhere! Only then we feel calm and secure.

No need to prove your point of view in defending the fate of the homeland.

No responsibility.

Just raise your hand in honor of him, <<xi-jinping,who will take care of everything for you>>,

Just shout out "Hail Hitler!" and everything will become understandable.

No more worries.
____

.https://youtube.com/watch?v=YsXhgzX56cA&t=2086 Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973), Episode 7, general confession scene.
video::YsXhgzX56cA[youtube,height=400,width=600,start=2086]

It is amusing that there is a <<russia,Soviet>> movie criticizes dictatorships.

When the dictatorship turns again you our your family, will you fight, or will you just let them do whatever they want because they can never be wrong? See also: <<intolerance>>.

[[most-chinese-people-like-their-dictatorship]]
===== Most Chinese people like their dictatorship 中国大众支持他们的独裁

It is easy to reach an agreement, when everyone who disagrees goes to jail or gets killed due to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inciting_subversion_of_state_power[Inciting subversion of state power 煽动颠覆国家政权罪].

Also ask <<tiananmen,these guys>>, and <<falun-gong,these>>, and <<xinjiang,these>>.

One is reminded of the game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Happy_Few["We Happy Few" (2018)], which which people are forced to be happy. <<nineteen-eighty-four>> also comes to mind of course.

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zndzntIDLFE IGN review of the "We Happy Few" (2018) game. 
video::zndzntIDLFE[youtube,height=400,width=600]

=== There are bad things happening all over the world, why don't you fight for those causes as well / instead?

We have to choose the one we think is the worst, and focus on it.

What is worse is a subjective choice. For me:

* I love China and my <<why-does-ciro-santilli-love-china-so-much,Chinese wife>>, see also: <<bias>>
* I hate dictatorships, and China is the largest one by population / GDP / link:https://www.ploughshares.org/world-nuclear-stockpile-report[nuclear stockpile]

My <<keyword-choice,SO username>> and <<better-to-do,protest time>> are not infinite.

See also: <<western-democracies-are-not-perfect>>

[[western-democracies-are-not-perfect]]
==== Western democracies are not perfect  西方的民主有很多缺点

That is definitely true.

Nothing is perfect in this world.

I just think that they are way better than dictatorships.

As link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority[Churchill] once brilliantly link:https://richardlangworth.com/worst-form-of-government[put it]:

____
Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
____

However, this is all obviously subjective, and believing that dictatorship is a better form of government is also a valid belief.

If you find an event on a Western democracy that you would like to highlight, send a pull request. We will not however include events that are not currently censored. Every country did fucked-up things in the past, the question is if they currently allow discussion about it or not.

See also:

* <<richer>>
* <<preconceived>>
* <<bias>>

.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signe_Wilkinson[Signe Wilkinson] 2017 Free Speech "Can you just move it so it doesn't cover them?" umbrella cartoon. Ciro once saw a <<wumao>> post this. It made him smile. If the cartoon were about <<dictatorship,dictatorships>>, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Sam[Uncle Sam] would be instead <<intolerance,decapitating and raping the people on one half of the umbrella>>. Of course humans are <<flg-intolerance,shit in democracies as well>>, but at least that system makes it harder for them to oppress each other. http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=161799[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20180319052924if_/http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/properties/signe/art_images/cg599721e743615.jpg[height=400]

===== Western democracies have invaded other countries and crushed separatism

Yes, Western democracies are not perfect.

What matters is that citizens can disagree with those actions, publicly say it, vote accordingly, and not go to jail, so that policy will be changed if the majority so wants.

In China, the minority controls the majority, and the majority cannot say anything even if they disagree.

If the majority wants to do evil however, evil will get done, it is impossible to prevent that.

See also:

* <<separatism>>
* <<richer>>

===== Western democracies also censor subjects such as child porn and hate speech

First, if you don't think child porn should be banned, I don't think there is much point in arguing with you anymore.

But of course, there is censorship in Western democracies, and there is a gray area between what should be censored or not.

The only thing that matters is that political speech must never be censored. This way, the majority can always discuss and vote to change what can be censored or not.

In China, trying to discuss of changes laws puts you in jail, so bad laws cannot be changed.

See also: <<richer>>.

[[snowden]]
===== Snowden 斯诺登

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden | https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/爱德华·斯诺登

The level of unknown surveillance that Snowden uncovered is a bad thing about the US.

However, it is obvious that the level of surveillance in any dictatorship will be infinitely higher, since the Government has much more power.

Snowden's prosecution was inevitable. Countries need secret services. Secret services need laws that prevent leaking classified information that was produced by government officials.

<<ciro-santilli>> has never and will never criticize China or any other country for spying or prosecuting spies.

The problem with dictatorships, is that they make _every_ information that makes them look bad a "state secret". Including any information that hundreds of thousands of people have witnessed, or economic performance metrics! See also: <<internal-censorship>>.

If Snowden were Chinese, the Chinese government would ban talking about him or anything he uncovered. A <<keyword-attack,keyword attack>> with "Snowden" in the West has no effect.

On the West however, the debate Snowden sparked cannot be censored, and has helped to control excessive and secret state power.

Ultimately, Ciro thinks camera surveillance is somewhat inevitable, because people will always want to fight crime and terrorism and surveillance technology keeps getting cheaper and cheaper.

He is however strictly against the ban of cryptography.

He also believes that a good solution to balance out government power is the second amendment. It is better to have more school shootings and less full-blown dictatorship led genocides / mass human rights violations.