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* Twitter in 2020:
** report https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3096380/twitter-begin-labelling-state-affiliated-media
** example from https://twitter.com/PDChina <<peoples-daily>> marked as "China state-affiliated media" and links to https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/state-affiliated-china
Reports of Chinese influence on social media:
* 2020-06 Twitter has also implicated in receiving advertising money from <<china-daily>>, see also: <<china-watch>>
** 2020-06-12 https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/information-operations-june-2020.html
** 2020-06-12 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/12/twitter-deletes-170000-accounts-linked-to-china-influence-campaign "Twitter deletes 170,000 accounts linked to China influence campaign"
** The Chinese government later contested this decision: https://variety.com/2020/digital/asia/china-victim-wants-twitter-to-delete-attackers-1234633860/
* 2020-04-07 https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/9397v8/chinas-been-flooding-facebook-with-shady-ads-blaming-trump-for-the-coronavirus-crisis "China's Been Flooding Facebook With Shady Ads Blaming Trump for the Coronavirus Crisis"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_intelligence_activity_abroad
Do not underestimate the CCP and its control over every Chinese companies and people. Every Chinese company and person is a potential spy.
This is <<evil-west,true for all countries however>>, and <<ciro-santilli>> does not not reproach China specifically for its secret service, e.g. <<snowden>> used https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#NSA_sub-contractee_as_an_employee_for_Dell[Dell] as an NSA front-end.
The point is just that the West should not underestimate this menace that comes from a <<dictatorship>>.
For university espionage in particular see: <<university-espionage>>.
* 2020-03-20 Tarmo Kõuts from Estonia
** https://news.err.ee/1608148489/court-sentences-estonian-marine-scientist-to-prison-for-spying-for-china "Court sentences Estonian marine scientist to prison for spying for China"
* 2020-12-25 https://in.news.yahoo.com/detention-10-chinese-spies-afghanistan-040901520.html "Detention of 10 Chinese spies in Afghanistan leaves Beijing red-faced" TODO better source.
* 2020-12-09 Christine Fang https://www.axios.com/china-spy-california-politicians-9d2dfb99-f839-4e00-8bd8-59dec0daf589.html "Exclusive: Suspected Chinese spy targeted California politicians". In 2015, she was fucking some politicians and infiltrating parties, but as suspicions arose, Beijing likely called her back.
* 2020-09-21 Baimadajie Angwang
** https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/09/21/nypd-cop-charged-with-acting-as-china-agent.html "New York City police officer spied on fellow Tibetans for China, prosecutors charge"
* 2020-08-21 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3hwdsbh6-M "I worked for the Chinese State Department – 中公教育党委 – offcn CCP Committee" more info at <<aaron-dewitt>>
* 2019-01-15 Kevin Mallory
** 2019-01-15 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46557096 "Kevin Mallory: The churchgoing patriot who spied for China"
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Good profile. He was first approached via LinkedIn. As a related case, Jun Wei Yeo was arrested as LinkedIn spy recruiter in 2020: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-53544505
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And those stupid Chines handlers gave him a phone that was supposed to be encrypted, but it crashed and then rebooted unencrypted, right when the FBI agents were around.
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But after the 2008 real estate crash, his fortunes changed. His house plummeted in value, and later he lost his job.
** 2019-04-04 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/how-230-000-debt-linkedin-message-led-ex-cia-officer-n990691 "How a $230,000 debt and a LinkedIn message led an ex-CIA officer to spy for China"
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Good profile, gives important points: he was 230k in debt, and "Mallory began reaching out to former CIA colleagues in an apparent effort to pump them for information. The ex-colleagues grew suspicious and contacted the CIA, prosecutors say."
** 2019-05-18 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48319058 "Kevin Mallory: Ex-CIA agent jailed for spying for China".
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The article also contains a good summary section "CIA spy operation in China: Key dates".
* 2019-11: Wang Liqiang spy defection to Australia
** https://www.smh.com.au/national/defecting-chinese-spy-offers-information-trove-to-australian-government-20191122-p53d1l.html
* 2019-11: Jerry Chun Shing Lee, naturalized American, convicted for being double agent while working at CIA after being in custody for 2 years
** https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/former-cia-officer-sentenced-19-years-conspiring-chinese-spies-n1089341
* 2018-06-05 Ron Rockwell Hansen
** https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-44364437
====== 2010 dismantling of CIA's network in China
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_China#2010
Around2010-2012 about 20 CIA spies in China were killed. One was shot right in the courtyard of a government building as a message to others.
After identifying some of the websites, possibly with a double agent, Iran was able to reach the rest through Google searches for similar sites.
The trouble started in when the CIA was investigating nuclear weapons in Iran in 2009.
The fact that China soon followed could indicate that Iran sold the secret to China.
TODO do we have any such sample websites or screenshots of them? https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/167
https://news.yahoo.com/cias-communications-suffered-catastrophic-compromise-started-iran-090018710.html mentions that:
____
A 2011 Iranian television broadcast that touted the government's destruction of the CIA network said U.S. intelligence operatives had created websites for fake companies to recruit agents in Iran by promising them jobs, visas and education abroad. Iranians who initially thought they were responding to legitimate opportunities would end up meeting with CIA officers in places like Dubai or Istanbul for recruitment, according to the broadcast.
____
therefore the websites might not have been in English.
TODO find that broadcast. News broke 2019-06-22[] apparently:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMilJGTIvkI "US calls for Iran to free alleged CIA spy" by euronews (in English) (2011-12-20) shows a forced confession on state television by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_Mirza_Hekmati[]. He claims to have been tortured with forced drug withdrawal. Given that Iran is in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Crescent[Golden Crescent], Ciro would guess they gave him heroin, see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_in_Iran[] "Opium in Iran is widely available, and the country was thought to have the highest per capita number of opiate addicts in the world[1][2] at a rate of 2.8% of Iranians over age 15."
Iran claims to have captured spies working for CIA
* 2017-05-20 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-espionage-idUSKCN18G0UM "China killed CIA sources, hobbled U.S. spying from 2010 to 2012: NYT"
* 2018-10-02 https://news.yahoo.com/cias-communications-suffered-catastrophic-compromise-started-iran-090018710.html "The CIA's communications suffered a catastrophic compromise. It started in Iran."
[[ministry-of-state-security]]
====== Ministry of State Security (MSS, Guoanbu, 国安部)
* link:++https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_State_Security_(China)++
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中华人民共和国国家安全部
The Chinese <<snowden,counterintelligence>> organ.
Report website launched in 2018 https://www.12339.gov.cn/[], some coverage:
* https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2141910/china-launches-website-report-foreign-spies-corrupt
[[pla]]
====== People's Liberation Army (PLA, 中国人民解放军)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Liberation_Army
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中国人民解放军
The Chinese army, and also one of the central intelligence agencies, notably on cyberattacks.
.A Chinese soldier smashes bricks on a colleague's head during joint Chinese-<<india>> anti-terrorism exercises in Kunming in 2007. http://mil.news.sina.com.cn/2014-02-26/0954766058.html from <<sina>> give the Chinese term "油锤贯顶". https://nastyhobbit.org/details.php?image_id=370[Source]. https://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/military-brick-breaking-demonstrations-face-the-chop/[Better source with worse image quality].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/PLA_soldier_breaking_bricks_on_head.jpg[height=400]
===== The West must ban the Chinese telecommunications software and hardware
They are an entry point to spying, censorship and <<fake-news>>. Notable companies that should be banned:
* <<huawei>>
* <<tiktok>>
* <<zoom>>
* <<alibaba>>
Ciro Santilli
committed
* 2020-02 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-media/u-s-imposes-new-rules-on-state-owned-chinese-media-over-propaganda-concerns-idUSKBN20C2G1 U.S. imposes new rules on state-owned Chinese media over propaganda concerns, the companies are: Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, China Daily Distribution Corp. and Hai Tian Development USA, Inc. See also: <<chinese-government-media>>.
** 2020-04-03 https://theintercept.com/2020/04/03/zooms-encryption-is-not-suited-for-secrets-and-has-surprising-links-to-china-researchers-discover/ 'Zoom's encryption is "not suited for secrets" and has surprising links to china, researchers discover"
===== What should Western media do about China?
When you report something about a person, for fuck's sake include the person's name in the title of the article, at the very least the pinyin.
Then, in the body, also add the corresponding Chinese characters on the first mention. This is how you do it: "San Xihou (三西猴)"
Yes, Chinese people also have names. And yes, pinyin has infinitely more homonyms than characters.
In the body of the article, notably in photos, include the exact location of the event if applicable.
City at the very least, but if recognizable, where withing the city.
Yes, China is big! There are many different places in China.
==== Western companies that comply with Chinese censorship requests
Western governments should prevent companies from complying to Chinese censorship requests, or at least impose fines and sanctions on them.
Citizens should boycott such companies and require them to be punished.
See also: <<western-companies-that-sell-censorship-technology-to-dictatorships>>
* 2020 <<hololive>>
* 2020 Outfront Media, see: <<lebron-james-opposes-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests-2019>>
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSBC[HSBC]
** 2020-06 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSBC#Support_for_China's_Security_Law_for_Hong_Kong_(2020)[Support for China's Security Law for Hong Kong (2020)]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomberg_L.P.[Bloomberg L.P.]
** 2020-02 https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/ "When Bloomberg News's Reporting on China Was Challenged, Bloomberg Tried to Ruin Me for Speaking Out"
* 2019-12 Shutterstock implements censorship for searches from China https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/08/in-wake-of-shutterstocks-chinese-censorship-american-companies-need-to-relearn-american-values/
* JPMorgan
** 2016-11 "Sons and Daughters" corruption hiring program for chidren of government officials: https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2016/11/17/jpmorgan-agrees-to-pay-264-million-fine-for-sons-and-daughters-hiring-program-in-china/#46746e305688
.2019 summary of companies that kowtow to China. https://twitter.com/hoho90272496/status/1182669015937966080[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Brand_censorship_chart.jpg[height=600]
.<<rebel-pepper>> 2019-10 carton showing several brands kowtowing to <<xi-jinping>>, while South Park alone gives the middle finger. https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/china-hongkong-us-10102019153228.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_bat.jpg[height=400]
.<<rebel-pepper>> 2017-07 showing <<xi-jinping>> eating an Apple Inc. logo referring to the many events where Apple gave in to Chinese demands to have access to the Chinese market. https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/China-Apple-cartoon-08242017103540.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_Apple.jpg[height=400]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4WBsahU3X4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Colbert[Stephen Colbert] comments in 2015 on how American films make a good image of China to be allowed in China by censors to increase sales.
video::V4WBsahU3X4[youtube,height=400,width=600]
* https://applecensorship.com App Store monitoring by <<greatfire>>, source: https://github.com/greatfire/applecensorship
* 2021-06-08 https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/07/apple-private-relay-unavailable-in-china/ Apple’s new encrypted browsing feature won’t be available in China, Saudi Arabia and more: report
* 2020-03-01 https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/01/china-roundup-apple-closes-app-store-loophole/ "China Roundup: Apple closes a 4-year-old App Store loophole"
* 2020-02-25 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/25/apple-censorship-requests-china-shareholder-groups-proposal
* 2019-04-12 https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/12/18305087/congress-apple-criticism-china-communist-tiananmen-pro-democracy "Lawmakers lash out at Apple for censoring a song about <<tiananmen,Tiananmen Square protests>>"
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.Chinese flag with Apple characteristics. https://techcrunch.com/2015/08/11/apple-shares-tumble-5-amidst-china-concerns/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Apple_China_flag.png[height=400]
* https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/28422/names-allowed-on-profiles you have to use your real name
* https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/topics/6042/6059/430 you have to use your real photo
Extremelly dictatorial, we should test other approaches, e.g. background image, and <<copypasta>> on about.
* 2021-03-11 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/11/tech/linkedin-china-microsoft-intl-hnk/index.html "LinkedIn suspends new sign-ups in China":
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We're a global platform with an obligation to respect the laws that apply to us, including adhering to Chinese government regulations for our localized version of LinkedIn in China," LinkedIn added. The company declined to elaborate on which local law it was examining.
____
* 2019-01-04 https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/2180620/linkedin-adhering-beijings-rules-censors-chinese-profile-page-us-based "LinkedIn reverses course after censoring Chinese profile page of US-based human rights activist Zhou Fengsuo", see also: <<zhou-fengsuo>>
* 2014-06-04 https://money.cnn.com/2014/06/04/technology/linkedin-china-censorship/ "LinkedIn draws fire for China censorship" mentions: "Some LinkedIn (LNKD) users have received emails from the company in recent days informing them that their posts will not be shown in mainland China."
3 days after <<ciro-santilli>> put up anti-CCP messages on his LinkedIn, the account was banned in China, with a message under https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/cases/36977487[]:
____
Hi Ciro,
Your LinkedIn profile is an integral part of how you present your professional self to the world. That's why we believe it's important to inform you that due to the presence of prohibited content located in the headline, background image and volunteer experience sections of your LinkedIn profile, your profile and your public activity, such as your comments and items you share with your network, will not be made viewable in China. Your profile and activity continues to remain viewable throughout the rest of the countries in which LinkedIn is available. We will work with you to minimize the impact and can review your profile’s accessibility within China if you update the headline, background image and volunteer experience sections of your profile. But the decision whether to update your profile is yours.
In February 2014, we began offering a localized version of LinkedIn in China. We believe that people everywhere can benefit from Chinese individuals connecting with each other and LinkedIn members in other parts of the world, and that the creation of economic opportunity can have a profound impact on their lives and the lives of their families and communities.
While we strongly support freedom of expression, we recognized when we launched that we would need to adhere to the requirements of the Chinese government in order to operate in China. As a reminder, your profile will remain viewable throughout the rest of the countries in which LinkedIn is available.
If you have any questions, please contact Customer Service.
Interestingly however, Ciro still recevied some profile views from Chinese profiles from time to time, he wonders why, do they have a permit of some sort? E.g.:
* 2021-08-09 https://www.linkedin.com/in/嘉伟-闫-bbbb60218/ 闫嘉伟 领英中国 - 内容审核 (Yan Jiawei), LinkedIn China, content audit based in Beijing. One of the censors mistakently viewed Ciro's profile without premium or internal tools! Hello. Started working there June 2021, no further personal information available.
* 2021-07-29:
** custommer service person from <<huawei>>
** financial consultant from Beijing
.3 days after <<ciro-santilli>> put up anti-CCP messages on his LinkedIn, the account was banned in China. They are quite efficient. <<zhou-fengsuo>> had notably https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/china-linkedin-zhou-fengsuo[previously achieved this]. Another report by a https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/linkedin-censorship-peter-humphrey[Peter Humphrey].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Ciro_Santilli_LinkedIn_China_ban.png[height=600]
This lists links between owners of several US media outlets and China: https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/04/has-china-compromised-every-major-mainstream-media-entity/[] "A Rundown Of Major U.S. Corporate Media’s Business Ties To China". No direct evidence that this has affected the news however.
* 2021 Cinitalia <<china-radio-international>> offsohot publushing propaganda add-ons on the Italian newspaper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Giornale[Il Giornale]
** https://www.reddit.com/r/ADVChina/comments/n9o2kp/italian_newspaper_controlled_by_chinese_news/
** Sample article: 2021-05-09 https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/mondo/report-che-confuta-teoria-genocidio-nello-xinjiang-1945268.html "Il report europeo che confuta il genocidio nello Xinjiang" (The European report that refutes the genocide in Xinjiang) about <<xinjiang-re-education-camps>>.
[[china-watch]]
====== China watch (2011-)
Campaign by <<china-daily>> to add paid articles/ads that read like news in/distributed with Western newspapers. They appeared to be marked as China watch ads, but still, they should be crushed.
* 2020-06: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post[Washington Post], https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall_Street_Journal[Wall Street Journal] and others figure on official fillings of newspapers paid by China Daily: https://efile.fara.gov/docs/3457-Amendment-20200601-2.pdf[].
https://www.opindia.com/2020/06/china-propaganda-daily-washington-post-new-york-times-wall-street-journal-millions-dollars-justice-department-newspapers-paid-content/ summarizes:
As per the documents filed by China Daily with the Justice Department, the Communist party mouthpiece had paid over $6 million to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), $4.6 million to the Washington Post, $2,40,000 to Foreign Policy, $50,000 to the New York Times, $34,600 to The Des Moines Register and $76,000 to CQ-Roll Call.
Besides, spending $11 million in advertising on prominent US papers, China Daily shelled out an additional $7.6 million to The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Seattle Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Houston Chronicle, and The Boston Globe for printing copies of its own paper. For instance, the Los Angeles Times reportedly received $657,523 for printing services. The Communist party-mouthpiece had also spent $2,65,822 on advertising on Twitter.
The Washington Post is the one that had received the most attention earlier on since 2011:
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post#China_Daily_advertising_supplements
** https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/02/official-chinese-propaganda-now-online-from-the-wapo/70690/ "Official Chinese Propaganda: Now Online from the WaPo!"
They even had online distribution channel: http://chinawatch.washingtonpost.com/ It is https://web.archive.org/web/20200708133054/http://chinawatch.washingtonpost.com/[dead as of 2020-07], but https://web.archive.org/web/20180330150602/http://chinawatch.washingtonpost.com/[was alive in 2018]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraph[Daily Telegraph]: UK Daily Telegraph stops publishing section paid for by China[piece of shit] tabloid, it comes as no surprise that they would sell out to any dictatorship
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2020-04-14 https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/apr/14/daily-telegraph-stops-publishing-section-paid-for-by-china "Daily Telegraph stops publishing section paid for by China"
China Daily itself claims certain partnerships: <<china-daily>> https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/static_e/global.html[]:
____
China Daily has also developed diversified cooperation with over 40 media organizations around the world, including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, etc.
____
https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina
Contains a "List of companies who have apologized to the Chinese government and implemented censorship requests".
It only lists companies that implemented censorship outside of China however (with Hong Kong, <<taiwan,Taiwan>> and Macau defined as outside of China), therefore it is basically a Taiwan flag takedown + Hong Kong / Taiwan censorship list:
* https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina/pull/56#issuecomment-541230090
* https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina/pull/84
Other interesting GitHub repositories: <<github-repositories-with-censored-information>>.
[[western-companies-that-stood-up-against-the-ccp]]
===== Western companies that stood up against the CCP (反抗中共的西方企业)
[[western-companies-that-supported-the-ccp]]
====== Western companies that supported the CCP (支持中共的西方企业)
* <<western-companies-that-comply-with-chinese-censorship-requests>>
* <<western-companies-that-sell-censorship-technology-to-dictatorships>>
* <<xinjiang-cotton>>
[[entertainers-who-support-the-ccp]]
===== Entertainers who support the CCP (支持中共的艺人)
* 2021-05-25 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cena[] for <<one-china-policy>>
** https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/26/john-cena-very-sorry-for-saying-taiwan-is-a-country about
** https://twitter.com/tony_zy/status/1397188279322173442 Apology video with English subtitles. YouTube reupload: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqjOrsMupgg
* <<lebron-james-opposes-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests-2019>>
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Chan#Political_views_and_controversy[Jackie Chan 陳港生] even though he is born in Hong Kong
** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3T_Dd3O1UM spoke against the <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests>>
** https://www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news/fc/21/216376/Police-chief-says-Jackie-Chan-made-him
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Yifei#Controversy[Liu Yifei 刘亦菲] who starred in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulan_(2020_film)[Mulan 2020] Disney movie. To make matters more fun, some scenes were shot in <<xinjiang>>: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4004891
** https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/16/disneys-mulan-star-sparks-call-for-boycott-with-hong-kong-stance opposed the <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests>>, notably saying "What a shame for Hong Kong". The <<chinese-government-media,People's Daily>> later quoted her: https://web.archive.org/web/20190816162331/http://en.people.cn/n3/2019/0816/c90000-9606859.html[]
[[chinese-interference-in-the-western-education-systems]]
=== Chinese Interference in the Western education systems (中共对西方教育体系的干预)
* 2021-08-04 https://www.nzz.ch/schweiz/hsg-und-china-kritik-auf-twitter-kostet-doktoranden-abschluss-ld.1637789 Swiss PHD under pseudonum Oliver Gerber kicked out of doctorate for criticizing China on Twitter. Real name, his Twitter, and advisors were not disclosed because his girlfriend lives in China. University name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_St._Gallen[University of St. Gallen] (HSG, it specialises in business administration, economics, law, and international affairs, HSG also has among the most billionaire alumni in the world). On <<r-china>>: https://www.reddit.com/r/China/duplicates/oxc9qk/phd_student_in_switzerland_expelled_from_his/
* 2020-12-05 https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN28F05U "U.S. ends exchange programs with China, calling them 'propaganda'". Only five of the programs were terminated:
** Policymakers Educational China Trip Program
** U.S.-China Friendship Program
** U.S.-China Leadership Exchange Program
** U.S.-China Transpacific Exchange Program
** Hong Kong Educational and Cultural Program
* 2020-06-17 https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/US-blacklists-China-s-MIT-as-tech-war-enters-new-phase Harbin Institute of Technology denied MATLAB support for being in the entity list, apparenty since may: https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2020/05/commerce-department-add-two-dozen-chinese-companies-ties-wmd-and
* 2020-05-28 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/motion-backing-hong-kong-blocked-after-campaign-by-chinese-students-at-warwick-fsdfphr26 "Motion backing Hong Kong blocked after campaign by Chinese students at Warwick". The article mentions that "Just under 1,000 students voted in favour of the motion. Turnout was three times higher than other votes and officials said that it was a new record for participation."
* 2020-08 https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/craven-cowardice-unsw-condemned-for-deleting-posts-critical-of-beijing-20200803-p55hy5.html "'Craven cowardice': UNSW condemned for deleting posts critical of Beijing" University of New South Wales
* 2020-05 Drew Pavlou 柏乐志
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Queensland[University of Queensland], Australia, was trying to get rid of him for anti-CCP campaign
** https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/24/how-a-20-year-old-student-put-the-spotlight-on-australian-universities-cosy-relationship-with-china
** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o1sZefER0E <<china-uncensored,China Unscripted>> interview
China buying pre-University educational institutions:
* 2021-06-11 https://archive.ph/RkHjR Insider investigation reveals officials helped sell access to California public schools to Chinese elite
* 2021-02-21 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9282617/British-private-institutions-bought-Chinese-firms.html "The British schools selling out to Beijing: Not only are private institutions being bought by Chinese firms but some are giving communist-approved lessons that are a threat to free speech", gives list of 17 schools bought
** 2021-03-24 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education-and-careers/2021/03/24/chinese-buying-private-schools-should-grateful/ "The Chinese are buying into our private schools and we should be grateful" what, lady, are you nuts?
* 2019-07-10 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/chinese-buy-up-more-of-england-s-private-schools-pjr6692bq "Chinese buy up more of England’s private schools", "Chinese investors have secured another foothold in the English private school sector with the £150 million purchase of CATS colleges."
[[confucius-institute]]
==== Confucius institute (孔子学院)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius_Institute
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/孔子学院
* 2019-09 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-49511231 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191013185933/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-49511231[archive]) "Confucius Institutes: The growth of China's controversial cultural branch"
* 2019-01 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2019/01/11/u-s-universities-have-shut-down-confucius-institutes-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20190616134959/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2019/01/11/u-s-universities-have-shut-down-confucius-institutes-heres-what-you-need-to-know/[archive]) "Why U.S. universities are shutting down China-funded Confucius Institutes"
* 2021-02-08 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/8/uk-academics-investigated-over-china-military-research-report "Nearly 200 British academics at more than 12 universities in the United Kingdom are being investigated on suspicion of unwittingly helping the Chinese government build weapons of mass destruction"
* 2020-06-12 https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/fifty-four-scientists-have-lost-their-jobs-result-nih-probe-foreign-ties "Fifty-four scientists have lost their jobs as a result of NIH probe into foreign ties" and "In 93% of those cases, the hidden funding came from a Chinese institution." and "In the vast majority of cases, Lauer reported, the person being investigated has been an Asian man in his 50s."
* https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1262441045197049856.html List of professors around America caught selling secret research to the Chinese Communist Regime
* 2020-11-17 Song Guo Zheng, Ohio State University
** https://www.linkedin.com/in/song-guo-zheng-md-phd-48893641/
** https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MhjbiKIAAAAJ&hl=en
* 2020-09 Haizhou Hu from University of Virginia: https://www.cbs19news.com/story/42560934/uva-researcher-arrested-on-federal-charges
* 2020-07 Houston consulate closed due to alllegations of facilitating intellectual property theft without public proof
** https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53497193
** https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/02/politics/us-chinese-diplomat-restrictions/index.html "US imposes new restrictions on Chinese diplomats" has been another direct effect of this most likely
* 2020-07 Juan Tang
** https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/23/chinese-researcher-wanted-by-fbi-flees-to-san-francisco-consulate-as-us-china-row-deepens "Chinese researcher wanted by FBI flees to San Francisco consulate as US-China row deepens"
** https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3094511/us-charges-four-scientists-hiding-ties-chinese-government has her PLA photos
* 2020 Hao Zhang: https://www.voanews.com/usa/chinese-professor-convicted-stealing-trade-secrets-china from Avago and Skyworks
* 2020 Charles Lieber
** https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00291-2
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_M._Lieber he had won a Wolf Prize in Chemistry
* 2019 Shih Yi-chi from UCLA
** https://www.linkedin.com/in/yi-chi-shih-9884bb20/
** https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3017017/us-federal-court-finds-chinese-american-engineer-shih-yi-chi-guilty
[[german-high-school-coordinator-2020]]
==== Chinese student coordinator in Germany tells exchange students not to support democracy (2020, 德国学校开班会4反对民主)
YET UNCONFIRMED VIDEO, we have to find who that person is exactly.
The video shows what seems to be Chinese a high school dorm coordinator saying that their Chinese exchange students must stay away from ideas <<democracy>> and freedom.
And remember that "democracy" and "freedom" are two of the <<core-socialist-values>>!
Ciro Santilli
committed
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOArB434ykU (https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/508[GitHub reupload])
video::aOArB434ykU[youtube,height=400,width=600]
Ciro Santilli
committed
First ripped from uploader's <<tiktok,Douyin>> account named Michael_c118, who also appears to be the person on the video.
Original proeminent report on the West: 2020-10-04 https://twitter.com/SDeutschlands/status/1312682617888796673 by "Voice From Germany 德國之音"
https://m.yorkbbs.ca/forum/chat/5228712.aspx contains reported screenshots of the Douyin profile (no web interface it seems), include a clear face shot.
* 2020-10-31 https://forum.gamer.com.tw/C.php?bsn=60076&snA=5984833 from our friends from <<taiwan>>
* 2020-10-25 https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/jhx2mc/chinese_student_coordinator_in_germany_talking_to/ on <<reddit>>
* 2020-19-04 https://twitter.com/HKokbore/status/1312802503956848641
* "德国学校开班会4"
* "This man is a coordinator of Chinese high school students who study in Germany"
* "We have to say there's some problems in our dorm right now"
https://twitter.com/Hujo_DR/status/1312793758203748357/photo/1 is a screenshot of the Douyin profile showing a phone number, which looks like a Chinese number due to prefix 139: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_numbers_in_China#Mobile_phones
The screnshots posted on yorkbbs link him to "北京智享德意国际教育" (Beijing Zhixiang German/Italian International Education).
Googling "北京智享德意国际教育 linkedin" leads to UNCONFIRMED a Yun Xiao https://www.linkedin.com/in/xiaoyun79/ | https://archive.vn/CzZft which is not marked as working in the above organization, but could be the person in the video based on the profile picture (uncertain), and also works with education, thus the Google hit at his current organization (北京智晗未来教育咨询有限公司).
Searching for Google exact hits to "北京智享德意国际教育" leads to https://www.tianyancha.com/company/3283146644 which rejects foreign visits as of 2020-10-26, shows up on Google cache at https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:AihPPyAAZr8J:https://www.tianyancha.com/company/3283146644+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=ubuntu[on 2020-10-21] (https://archive.vn/xCfBQ[archive]).
[[thousand-talents-program]]
==== Thousand Talents Program (千人计划)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand_Talents_Plan
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/海外高层次人才引进计划
<<ciro-santilli>> believes that this is exactly the type of thing that poor countries need to do to get richer: https://cirosantilli.com/#what-poor-countries-have-to-do-to-get-richer[].
But we can't allow China to do it because China is a <<dictatorship,dictatorship>>.
[[cssa]]
==== Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA, 中国学生学者联合会)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Students_and_Scholars_Association
* 2019-10-13 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-13/cssa-influence-australian-universities-documents-revealed/11587454 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191014032348/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-13/cssa-influence-australian-universities-documents-revealed/11587454[archive]) "Chinese Students and Scholars Association's deep links to the embassy revealed" in Australia.
* 2018-03-07 https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/07/chinas-long-arm-reaches-into-american-campuses-chinese-students-scholars-association-university-communist-party/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20191012103953/https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/07/chinas-long-arm-reaches-into-american-campuses-chinese-students-scholars-association-university-communist-party/[archive])
[[ufwd]]
==== United Front Work Department (UFWD, 中共中央统一战线工作部)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Front_Work_Department
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中共中央统一战线工作部
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The likely organizers behind <<confucius-institute>>, <<cssa>>, and likely several forms of <<astroturfing>>.
==== Astroturfing
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing
[[soft-power]]
===== Soft power (软实力)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_power
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/软实力
[[what-should-pro-democracy-chinese-living-in-china-do-about-the-dictatorship]]
=== What should pro-democracy Chinese living in China do about the dictatorship? 想要民主住在中国大陆的人应该干什么？
First of all, hide and stay safe, unless you can deal the final blow. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_at_War[World at war, 1973], ep. 16:
____
A dictatorship is like a snake. If you put your foot on its tail as you do it, it will just bite you and nobody will be helped. You have to strike the head.
____
Once that is taken care of, a few good options are:
* hide your thoughts, manipulate your enemies, infiltrate the corporate, political and military power circles, and go up the ladder
* if you are an technological innovator, leave China and come work for the West. Don't strengthen commie power.
Alternatively, with technology you could also try the anonymous rebellion route, but the risk of getting caught is significant, leaving the country first is likely a good idea. See also:
If you don't manage to do either of the above, don't do any technological work. Go work on the fields or washing dishes. Working well for Chinese companies makes the Chinese <<dictatorship,Dictatorship>> stronger and <<war,more deadly>>. See also: <<embargo>>.
And regardless: remember your kids that the commies are bastards every day.
[[reply-policy]]
=== Ciro Santilli's reply policy (三西猴的回答政策)
People get kind of passionate sometimes about politics. And some of them might also be just malicious <<wumao,wumaos>>, although it is generally not possible to distinguish between them.
* Ciro Santilli is one, and antagonists are millions. It is therefore not possible to reply to all antagonists.
* Ciro has in the past tried to be nice to stupid people, and they gave nasty replies
* all discussion is useless, <<effective,only the keyword attack has any chance of having any effect, and even that is slim>>
In order to not waste too much time on those, Ciro Santilli uses the following strategy.
If the original thread post is not very interesting, try to parse it quickly and reply once, always <<better-to-do,linking to the FAQ>>, and then unfollow the thread. This shows that you're still alive, and takes little effort.
Always quote reply, and always write down the ID of the OP on your reply, because discussions like this lead to a large number of comment and account deletions, which could make your reply not make much sense without the context.
After the link addressing anything that they might have said, add three randomly selected images from this repository to it. This is fundamental because the average <<little-pink>> does not speak English. Therefore writing is pointless.
Meme images, however, cross the language barrier beautifully. It is even better if they have Chinese captions.
Another way to see it is that we are creating a harder to censor <<instagram>> channel.
You can think of them metaphorically as throwing hand grenades over the <<gfw>>. Ciro strives to add the following elements in the image itself where applicable:
* English explanation
* Chinese explanation
* date
* location
Because the <<censorship,CCP censors politics>>, and the West does not, we can never "lose" a shitargument. Even if the <<wumao>> supports his country in a thread, just being in the same thread as the censored material could already be problematic for the wumao, as it is proof that they've seen something they should not have seen.
Therefore the only option for them is to run away.
Finally, also try to extract the email of the user from one of their repositories. When successful, Ciro takes a <<wayback-machine>> snapshot of the repository as proof of SHA, and then forks it to https://github.com/wumaoland to possibly keep their email safe in case of account deletion. You never know when this information might be useful.
Ciro Santilli
committed
Then, after replying, do your best never to read the inevitable reply again, and above all, never ever reply. An interesting reply never follows from a non-interesting original post. It is hard at first, but you will eventually get the hang of it.
Ciro Santilli
committed
If the user keeps generating notifications, block them as per link:CONTRIBUTING.md[], replying to a single person multiple times is useless.
Never block users for an initial <<shitpost,shitposts>>, just reply with a stupid joke instead. This approach creates more uncertainty and makes you look cooler. It also allows you to identify who the enemy is. Only block if the user is generating multiple notifications.
If a shitpost is made on most other social media except GitHub issues in this repository, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, immediately block the user on that website if you have the permission to do that, with a canned reply:
____
Hi <idiot's name>, I don't reply to China issues here, please open an issue at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues instead, cheers.
____
Note however that this is not possible on idiotic websites like <<quora>> where such comments may be deleted, possibly automatically, who the fuck knows, e.g. as done at: https://www.quora.com/What-would-happen-if-I-walked-around-Beijing-with-a-t-shirt-that-said-freedom-of-speech-is-pretty-great/answer/Ciro-Santilli/comment/143227962 In that case just link to sections of the FAQ, or mute people, or maybe just block all comments on the post to not waste time with new useless notifications.
This is because it is not worth answering anywhere else where the information will be scattered and impossible to find later on, and especially on websites that are already blocked in China. Shitposts on Stack Overflow and other non-blocked websites are encouraged however, as they further help to get the website blocked in China.
For outbursts of activity from Chinese websites, usually programming (<<backlinks,v2ex, hacpai, pincong>>), only post the following canned answer and nothing else, because cowards/people who don't know English from the website might delete your posts, so you shouldn't waste time there with that shit:
你们要是在那儿找不到一个回答，请在那个repository开一个issue，我马上就回答。
Finally, don't forget the golden rule from https://biblehub.com/proverbs/26-4.htm[Proverbs 26:4]:
____
Don't answer the foolish arguments of fools, or you will become as foolish as they are.
____
which is now usually seen in the form https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/66460/origin-of-do-not-argue-with-idiots[of unclear attribution]:
____
Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.
____
Where basically idiot == someone who creates posts that obviously aren't teaching you any new useful thing, or that not praising you :-)
Alternatively, there is also the Chinese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengyu[chengyu] version:
____
Playing the <<music,qin>> to a cow.
____
which means to talk to someone who does not have intellectual conditions of understanding what you are trying to say, bibliography:
* https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-idiom-playing-the-qin-to-a-cow_766205.html
* https://baike.baidu.com/item/对牛弹琴/3490
More <<wumao,wumao>> focused strategies at: <<how-to-deal-with-wumaos>>.
.Chinese translation of the above.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Pokemon_political_meme_little_pink_super_effective_zh.png[height=1200]
.Cartoon depiction of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengyu[chengyu] "Playing the <<music,qin>> to a cow" 《对牛弹琴》. https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/438181067.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Play_qin_to_cow.png[height=600]
.XKCD 386 "Duty Calls" and the famous "Someone is wrong on the Internet" quote. It is a waste of time to be like that. https://xkcd.com/386/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Someone_is_wrong_on_the_Internet.png[height=400]
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==== Asymmetric information warfare
This is a term "invented" by <<ciro-santilli>> to denote the type of <<dictatorships-tend-to-work-together,democracy vs dictatorship>> propaganda warfare that naturally emerges.
* the <<dictatorship,dictatorship>> has <<censorship>> and legions of possibly non-anonymous supporters. Although most supporters are <<anonymous-account-ban,actually anonymous anyways>>
* the anti-censorship democracy has memes, and a few anonymous supporters
This concept is a mixture of the concepts of:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_warfare[asymmetric warfare]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_warfare[information warfare]
.https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/its-super-effective[It's Super Effective!] meme by <<ciro-santilli>> describing how he deals with <<wumao,wumaos>> and <<little-pink,little pinks>>. Humour is the greatest weapon against dictators, and images help cross the language barrier. Composition CC BY-SA 2021, fair use on copyrighted individual elements.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Pokemon_political_meme_little_pink_super_effective.png[height=1200]
==== china-dictatorship reply bot
Due to the nature of <<asymmetric-information-warfare>>, Ciro has created a reply bot based on <<github>> Actions that does the above automatically, therefore handling 99% of the work, see:
* link:action.js[]
* link:.github/workflows/issue.yml[]
The bot works beautifully because it makes Ciro not feel the need to reply to every idiot <<wumao>> that comes along. Also Ciro can hide like a coward behind the bot by editing the bot's comment, which is perfect. This reminded Ciro from something that was said in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Call_Saul[Better Call Saul] S01 E01:
____
And they find themselves in a little room with a detective who acts like he's their best friend.
"Talk to me," he says. "Help me clear this thing up."
"You don't need a lawyer, only guilty people need lawyers."
And, boom, hey, that's when it all goes south.
That's when you want someone in your corner.
Someone who will fight tooth and nail.
Lawyers, we're like health insurance.
You hope you never need it, but, man, oh, man, not having it? No.
____
The bot is basically Ciro's lawyer, always loyally on his corner of the fighting ring.
There is only one bug with the bot as of 2021: if a <<wumao>> with unverified email makes several comments very fast, only the first one generates the reply, see e.g.:
* https://github.com/cirosantilli/cirosantilli/actions/runs/1097719382
* https://github.com/cirosantilli/cirosantilli/issues/52#issuecomment-892632342
Ciro is however curious how those unverified accounts can comment at all, as that seemd impossible when he last tried it with a dummy account, to be confirmed.
[[who-is-behind-this-amazing-faq]]
=== Who is behind this amazing FAQ? (谁是这个惊人的常见问题解答的幕后推手？)
[[ciro-santilli]]
==== Ciro Santilli (三西猴, anti-CCP fanatic, 反中共狂热, stupid cunt, 傻屄, CIA agent, CIA特工, 肏你妈的)
Original creator of https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship[]: https://cirosantilli.com/
.Ciro testing his webcam for https://askubuntu.com/questions/348838/how-to-check-available-webcams-from-the-command-line/848390#848390[an Ask Ubuntu answer].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Ciro_Santilli.png[height=400]
[[wife]]
===== Ciro Santilli's wife (三西猴的老婆)
Born and raised in China: <<why-does-ciro-santilli-love-china-so-much>>.
She and her mother do <<falun-gong>>, see also: <<flg-bias>>.
Believes to be descendant of the brother of a recent Qing emperor, see also: <<throne>>.
For this same reason, her father, who Ciro's wife worships, spent around 10 years in the 50's for being branded a counter revolutionary rightist (右派) during one of <<mao-zedong,Mao's>> purges, possibly:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_to_Suppress_Counterrevolutionaries https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/镇压反革命运动
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Rightist_Campaign https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/反右运动
It is also for this reason that many Manchu changed their names to hide their Manchu origins, which makes reconstructing their family tree much harder, as mentioned at: https://www.scmp.com/article/982136/proud-manchu-reclaims-his-rich-heritage for the purposes of <<throne>>.
* studied in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Science_and_Technology_of_China[one of the best universities of China]
* met Ciro his wife when they were in possibly the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/École_Polytechnique[best engineering university in France] after she had refused opportunities to go to the USA
* obtained a PhD in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_theory[number theory] in one of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_and_Marie_Curie_University[best mathematics universities in the world]
<<wumao,Wumaos>> can say many things about her, but claiming that she is not intelligent or has no culture or would have any difficulty in obtaining a qualified worker VISA without a marriage, is a lost argument from the start, she would likely kick your butt in a raw intelligence competition.
Ciro is actually the lucky one for having found her!
The fake "the woman makes the man" Obama story comes to mind https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/spousal-success-story/[] (Obama would never say that in public):
One night President Obama and his wife Michelle decided to do something out of routine and go for a casual dinner at a restaurant that wasn't too luxurious. When they were seated, the owner of the restaurant asked the President's Secret Service if he could please speak to the First Lady in private. They obliged and Michelle had a conversation with the owner.
Following this conversation President Obama asked Michelle, "Why was he so interested in talking to you?" She mentioned that in her teenage years, he had been madly in love with her. President Obama then said, "So if you had married him, you would now be the owner of this lovely restaurant," to which Michelle responded, "No. If I had married him, he would now be the President."
____
[[how-do-different-websites-view-ciro-santilli-s-profile]]
=== How do different websites view Ciro Santilli's profile? (不同的网站如何看来 Ciro Santilli 的个人资料？)
<<meant-to-be-used>> contains a more general overview. This contains website specifics.
Stack Overflow is where <<ciro-santilli>> started his <<keyword-attack>> originally in 2015 as explained at: <<why-did-ciro-santilli-start-his-keyword-attack>>.
For non-programmers, Stack Overflow is by far the leading programmer question and answer forum of the Internet.
A programmer's daily job involves asking Google about 50 times a day "how to do X", and 90% of the time or more the best answer will be found on the Stack Overflow result that will be one of the top 3 results.
This makes Stack Overflow a fundamental tool of every programmer's daily jobs.
The current community consensus says that keyword attacks are allowed:
* https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/267368/are-political-avatars-and-profiles-ok
* https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/299882/can-a-username-be-considered-spam
* https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/349131/users-political-display-name-triggering-government-action-against-users-who-vie
However, you can't say "Public figure X is disgusting as a person" so <<wumao>>s, could you please report Ciro making fun of Xi Jinping X and see what they do about it?
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/361486/can-i-say-on-my-profile-that-i-find-that-an-ex-president-of-a-country-or-other
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/286082/does-the-be-nice-policy-require-se-users-to-be-nice-to-people-who-are-not-se-u
* https://twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/1365409005561147397
* https://www.reddit.com/r/DeclineIntoCensorship/comments/lt8ij5/in_stack_overflow_if_is_currently_not_allowed_to/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeSpeech/comments/lt92ni/in_stack_overflow_if_is_currently_not_allowed_to/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/lta1f8/if_a_politician_has_committed_genocide_can_i_say/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/fucktheccp/comments/ltgdpu/leading_programmer_website_stack_overflow_does/
Oh, and you can't criticize God either! https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/231334/is-it-acceptable-to-insult-god-in-a-user-profile
The Chinese law doesn't allow Ciro's profile unfortunately: <<real-username-law>>
Since you will fail through Stack Overflow moderation, please consider instead making a report on the <<cac-report-website>>.
===== Stack Overflow forbids criticizing the character of genocidal political leaders like Xi Jinping
Edit: as was made clearer later on at <<stack-overflow-mods-refuse-to-clarify-if-anti-ccp-imagery-is-allowed-or-not-2021>>, they just generally refuse to say clearly what is allowed or not.
He thought more people on Stack Overflow would have sided with him and favored stronger freedom of speech.
But this event made him notice that people in Stack Overflow simply didn't push back against Ciro's anti Xi Jinping campaign because they don't know who the fuck Xi Jinping is, or they don't care, or they are completely hypocrite and allow criticizing Xi Jinping but not Trump.
But they do know who Trump is, and "offending Trump" makes their feeble little feelings be hurt, and they must maintain their sacred "<<politically-incorrect,political correctness>>" at all costs, even when talking about politicians. Including that the cost of freedom.
This therefore morally justifies the take-down attempts made by hundreds of <<wumao>>s against Ciro's anti Xi Jinping content.
First by initiative of Stack Overflow employee https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/508266/cesar-m[Cesar Manara (Brazilian)], the sentence:
was removed from Ciro's profile and notified.
In response, Ciro created a meta thread to confirm that the community agreed, and they did: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/361486/can-i-say-on-my-profile-that-i-find-that-an-ex-president-of-a-country-or-other[Can I say on my profile that I find that an (ex) president of a country or other major political public figure is “disgusting as a person”?] and the community agreed with the removal: it reached only 5 upvotes and 25 downvotes. Ciro's profile at the time was linked to Trump's ban on social media: link:trump-ban-is-bad.md[].
Ciro then created https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/361493/if-a-politician-has-committed-genocide-can-i-say-on-my-profile-they-look-like-w[If a politician has committed genocide, can I say on my profile they look like Winnie-the-Pooh to insult them because they hate that?] was it was also mostly downvoted, and deleted, without any answer. Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20210227034430/https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/361493/if-a-politician-has-committed-genocide-can-i-say-on-my-profile-they-look-like-w also reproduced at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/198#issuecomment-787047672 The deletion voters were:
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/215590/polygeo (Australia, big Geographic Information System person, real name based on https://polygeo.com.au/elearning-videos/[] "Graeme Browning")
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/135565/journeyman-geek (Singapore). Site elected admin at the time, which implies that his deletion cannot be undone by non-admins. TODO are they born in Singapore? If yes they might also be pro Xi Jinping, which is a clear conflict of interest with freedom of speech. But their English sounds perfect, so Ciro is not sure if it is common for Singapore natives or not.
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/140890/martijn-pieters (UK, lots of Python rep)
There was no yes/no answer by anyone, because the of cowardice and hypocrisy:
* saying "you can" would imply you can criticize Trump
* saying "you can't" would imply they support genocide
So their brains just tilted, and they clicked the "delete" button as the only possible resolution. The overly speedy deletion of posts was then raised as an issue two days later for an unrelated post: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/405585/can-we-slow-down-on-the-deletes-on-meta-folks
Then Ciro created an answer to https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/286082/does-the-be-nice-policy-require-se-users-to-be-nice-to-people-who-are-not-se-u/361497#361497["Does the Be Nice policy require SE users to “be nice” to people who are not SE users (e.g. public figures)?"] which is a superset of the previous ones referred by them. That post is reproduced at https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/198#issuecomment-787047242 It cites the case in which the law was tested, but it was single-handedly by journeyman-geek (from Singapore) without any justification.
Ciro then finally updated his profile picture to contain <<xi-pooh-photoshop>>, archive at: https://archive.vn/iV1L8 to test the Winnie-the-Pooh case which people simply refused to answer. Let's see show that goes. As Ciro learned however, only wumaos will continue to complain, and due to hypocrisy their complaints will be ignored.
Other users who publicly went against freedom of speech in that case (in the name of "political correctness"):
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/665544/bad-coder ("West") replied at: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/361486/can-i-say-on-my-profile-that-i-find-that-an-ex-president-of-a-country-or-other/361495#361495
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/798831/ollie comments, ciro replies, they delete comment, comments, ciro reply, they delete comment... ciro gives up
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/361486/can-i-say-on-my-profile-that-i-find-that-an-ex-president-of-a-country-or-other?noredirect=1#comment1206900_361486 wants to close as duplicate of uber generic https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/208551/offensive-profiles-where-to-draw-the-line/208553#208553 and says:
+
we don't have to host or pay directly or indirectly to support your opinion. That's well established policy"
Freedom of speech in social media is truly threatened by the <<politically-incorrect>>.
Related issue: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/198
===== Stack Overflow political image answer placeholder (2021)
The deleted answer was https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/83446/gimp-how-to-combine-two-images-side-by-side/145543#145543
It used <<tank-man-cc-by-sa,Ciro Santilli's CC By-SA Tank Man image>>.
Of course, once again, just like mentioned at <<stack-overflow-forbids-criticizing-the-character-of-genocidal-political-leaders-like-xi-jinping>>, people prefer to:
* feel safe and good in their fake cocoon rather than have freedom. While people are dying, right now, in <<xinjiang-re-education-camps>>
* being fully inclusive means being inclusive to dictatorship supporters
* reproduced at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/269
* https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/83446/gimp-how-to-combine-two-images-side-by-side/145543#145543 (https://web.archive.org/web/20210501090745/https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/83446/gimp-how-to-combine-two-images-side-by-side/147400#147400[archive]) identical politically correct one
* analogous to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20737061/merge-images-side-by-sidehorizontally/63575228#63575228 (https://web.archive.org/web/20210430195552/https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20737061/merge-images-side-by-sidehorizontally/63575228#63575228[archive])
The full moderation team at the time can be seen publicly at https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users?tab=moderators[] (https://web.archive.org/web/20210126143732/https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/41100/piebie[archive]) and it also contains:
* https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/41100/piebie (https://web.archive.org/web/20210126143732/https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/41100/piebie[archive]) Real name: Pieter Biesemans, a front-end developer from Belgium: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pieter-biesemans/
* https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/18168/curious (https://web.archive.org/web/20210430203036/https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/18168/curious[archive]) Anonymous, from Canada.
* https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/19174/wrzlprmft (https://web.archive.org/web/20210430203038/https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/19174/wrzlprmft[archive]) Gerrit Ansmann, a brain researcher from Bonn University, Germany: https://idw-online.de/de/news646752
We're writing in reference to your Graphic Design Stack Exchange account:
https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/users/21867/ciro-santilli%e6%96%b0%e7%96%86%e6%a3%89%e8%8a%b1trump-ban-bad
We think you are already aware of what we are going to say, but we are going to say it anyway. Stack Exchange is an apolitical platform, and we like to keep politics as for away from our content as possible. Our little nook on the net is about Graphic Design, which has nothing to do with politics (even though it is used in the political arena all the time).
We acknowledge that politic profiles are somewhat allowed as per https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/267368/are-political-avatars-and-profiles-ok, although we do question the usefulness of 'campaigning' through a Stack Exchange profile.
We want to draw the line however at political content. There is no need to use images or other content that might be controversial or cause emotional distress, while another image or content would serve the same function. That is why we deleted you answer on this question.
We want to welcome you on our site and encourage you to keep contributing with answers. Your other answers are fine, and judging by the amount of votes, mostly well-received by the community. You may repost the answer if you can swap out the images for more neutral ones.
At the same time we want to warn you that this type of content will not be tolerated in the future and further infractions may lead to more severe consequences.
Ciro Santilli
committed
Thanks for your understanding an cooperation, we wish you a pleasant experience on GDSE.
Graphic Design Stack Exchange Moderation Team
____
Is this a policy specific to graphic design website, or is it network wide, and is there an open meta question for it?
____
The mods then changed their discourse to mention spam rules rather than only on the "people will feel bad" aspect:
____
The https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/conduct[code of conduct]:
Exposing others to images of violent and traumatic events is not respectful to those on whom those images have a strong effect. This is only acceptable if the topic of the question make this inevitable, which also suffices to warn of those who are triggered by those images: Images about violent events are to be expected in a question about such events, not in a question about concatenating two images.
A post should be marked as spam only if it advertises a product, service, or similar and is unsolicited or lacks disclosure.
[…]
Unsolicited means that mentioning the product serves no purpose other than promotion. […]
You were promoting a political position and including the promotional content (instead of a neutral picture) served no purpose other than promotion. It’s analogous to using a picture advertising a product as an example.
____
Ciro then hacked the images to his <<the-world-is-perfect,"The world is perfect">> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsch[kitsch] placeholder, and mods approved it, so here we go.
Ciro was planning the following meta post, but gave up on it:
____
Can I use political images as placeholders for questions involving images when it does not affect the validity of the answer?
For example when answering the following ImageMagick question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20737061/merge-images-side-by-sidehorizontally/63575228#63575228 I used an image with political content.
The choice of the placeholder was completely arbitrary, and does not affect the answer in any way.
But today admins of Graphic Design Stack Exchange https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/83446/gimp-how-to-combine-two-images-side-by-side/145543#145543 deleted the post saying it is not allowed on the Graphic Design website.
> We want to draw the line however at political content. There is no need to use images or other content that might be controversial or cause emotional distress, while another image or content would serve the same function. That is why we deleted you answer on this question.
The admins mention that on profiles it is OK linking to: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/267368/are-political-avatars-and-profiles-ok but on answers it is not.
* is this a policy specific to Graphic Design or if it applies to the entire network.
* if it applies to the entire network:
** Can I use images of myself, Ciro Santilli, or is that currently considered political content?
** At https://stackoverflow.com/a/57389607/895245 I needed several images, and I had used a list of USA presidents in chronological order without much thought. Do I have to modify that answer to use another set of images?
**Any images that can be used on a profile picture should also usable as a placeholder**
When you answer a question, you should have a very wide choice of what to use as a placeholder.
Politics is a perfectly legal topic, just like flowers, animals, and scenery.
The "can it be used on the profile picture" test should already filter out any content that is deemed unacceptable due to legal concerns.
Another issue is that it is extremely difficult and possibly unfair to classify what is political or not.
Suppose that Ciro Santilli became famous enough outside of programming circles such that he starts to be considered a political subject.
Would his images then start to be considered political content?
But that would be discriminatory against certain people and not others.
Freedom of speech is extremely valuable, and we should be very careful about restricting it.
There are people literally unfairly dying, right now, because they don't have it.
The only way to prevent history from repeating itself, is to remember it.
____
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/58032/what-are-the-spam-and-rude-or-abusive-offensive-flags-and-how-do-they-wor
* https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/260638/what-is-the-exact-definition-of-spam-for-stack-overflow
[[the-world-is-perfect]]
."The world is perfect" by Ciro Santilli, CC By-SA 4.0 (2021). After Graphics Stack Exchange forbade the usage of political images, <<ciro-santilli>> created this politically correct image to serve as a censorship placeholder, and reuploaded the answer as allowed by the moderators: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/83446/gimp-how-to-combine-two-images-side-by-side/147400#147400[]. (https://web.archive.org/web/20210501090745/https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/83446/gimp-how-to-combine-two-images-side-by-side/147400#147400[].[archive]) CC BY-SA 4.0, heart attribution: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Corazón.svg[]. <<os-problemas-da-imprensa-livre,Newspaper censorship cake recipe posts during the Brazilian military dictatorship>> and <<what-is-more-obscene-sex-or-war,"What is more obscene: sex or war?">> and <<please-enjoy-this-politically-correct-cartoon,Please enjoy this politically correct cartoon>> come strongly to mind.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base-ignore}/The_world_is_perfect.png[height=500]
."The world is perfect" as used to update Ciro Santilli's https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/83446/gimp-how-to-combine-two-images-side-by-side/147400#147400[deleted answer]. Instead of redoing the tutorial from scratch, Ciro just pasted the new image on top of the old one Stack Exchange censored: <<tank-man-cc-by-sa,Ciro Santilli's CC BY-SA Tank Man image>>. Borders of the censored image were intentionally left over however as a reminder that Stack Exchange censors. This is a work of art.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base-ignore}/The_world_is_perfect_Stack_Overflow.png[height=500]
.Politically correct version of <<tank-man-cc-by-sa,Ciro Santilli's CC By-SA Tank Man image>>. This is how <<stack-overflow,Stack Exchange>> wants the world to remember <<tiananmen>>.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Tank_Man_drawing_censored_by_Ciro_Santilli_CC_BY_SA.png[height=500]
.At one point in Richard Feynman's talk "Los Alamos from below", he describes how external letter censorship was implemented at Los Alamos, and how he went to thoroughly test the limits of what would be censored or not.
video::uY-u1qyRM5w[youtube,width=600,height=400,start=1343]
===== Stack Overflow mods refuse to clarify if anti-CCP imagery is allowed or not (2021)
Ciro Santilli
committed
This one again highlights the hypocrisy of many people in the West: we decide who is good and who is evil. The CCP is now evil, so you can criticize it, even if it shocks Chinese people. Ah, Nazism shocks us, even though it is an event from the past, so that you can't do. You can only shock the Chinese people, not us.
Ciro Santilli
committed
Or: we like human rights. But not potentially disturbing someone at work even slightly is more important.
Opened a meta thread for this at: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/366163/can-i-use-images-such-as-from-tiananmen-square-protests-to-criticise-the-chinese (https://archive.ph/56KK2[archive]) where the top answer was:
____
We refuse to make a public decision.
____
In response, Ciro wrote the following essay on his profile page: link:stack-exchange-lost-freedom-of-speech.md[].
The following quote from http://cirosantilli.com/ron-maimon[Ron Maimon] comes to mind:
____
Unfortunately, when you're in a minority, the only way to correct the consensus view is to just shout it, and repeat it, until people go and look and check for themselves. The reason is that it creates an adversarial atmosphere where the people have to pick sides, **and they don't like to pick sides, they would rather have everyone be happy**. So when you have to pick sides, what do you do? You either butt out, you just leave it alone, you run away. Or you sit and review the evidence until you know which side to pick.
____
Notable people who went against in the comments:
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/295232/glorfindel from the Netherlands commented "As the Dutch police say "if you're asking for attention, you get attention".". No attempt to address the question at all. Just a direct "I'm right, you're wrong, and I'm glad you were punished".
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/282094/rob argues for "anything that raises enough flags should be taken down",
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/353058/holyblackcat "The mods and/or SE staff might not have clear guidelines in place yet, and I bet the last thing they want to do now is to figure out such guidelines to answer your question. If you have to ask, then I would refrain from adding any of that to your profile. Let's keep excessive politics out of SO."
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/361484/luuklag "Nobody limits your free speech, we don't withhold you from going out on the street and yell whatever you want. Should SE allow everything on its platform, no. That is the same as you don't allow everything in your own house." What is it with the Netherlands? They were invaded by Hitler, and now they don't want to support human rights?
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/135565/journeyman-geek again from <<stack-overflow-forbids-criticizing-the-character-of-genocidal-political-leaders-like-xi-jinping>>
Close voters and reopen voters can be seen publicly at https://web.archive.org/web/20210609071812/https://meta.stackexchange.com/posts/366163/revisions[]
* https://web.archive.org/web/20210506210343/https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/286501/pierre-vriens presumably from Belgium
* https://web.archive.org/web/20210609000247/https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/798831/ollie again from <<stack-overflow-forbids-criticizing-the-character-of-genocidal-political-leaders-like-xi-jinping>>
* https://web.archive.org/web/20210506134050/https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/336163/robert-columbia
* https://web.archive.org/web/20210507002405/https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/154443/rory-alsop Rory Alsop from Scotland. A LinkedIn with matching name and location: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorya/ states:
+
____
I have spent most of the last 20 years not just improving technical security in large and small organisations, but improving security and risk behaviours, awareness and culture in communities."
____
* https://web.archive.org/web/20210609000250/https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/622284/spevacus "I participate in Charcoal, a user-run group that fights spam and rude/abusive content across the network. Do you hate spam? Drop by Charcoal HQ and help us catch and destroy it!". Interesting! https://github.com/Charcoal-SE/SmokeDetector
Ciro Santilli
committed
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/185080/eliah-kagan Eliah Kagan, this is an awesome Ask Ubuntu dude from New York
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/377214/sonic-the-anonymous-hedgehog
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/707129/xnero presumably from USA based on https://travel.stackexchange.com/users/105447/xnero
* https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/384528/forest-distrusts-stackexchange
Ciro Santilli
committed
The interesting thing is that none of them had the courage to actually say "forbid Tiananmen", "forbid Falun Gong". But they all said "forbid not suitable for work". But they won't clarify if "not suitable for work" includes "not suitable for work in China".
On 2021-05-29 <<ciro-santilli>> added almost all images from this page to his Stack Overflow account as shown at: https://archive.ph/nZLgI
On 2021-05-29 <<ciro-santilli>> was suspended from Meta Stack Exchange for 7 days as shown at https://web.archive.org/web/20210529081019/https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/200117/ciro-santilli%e6%96%b0%e7%96%86%e6%a3%89%e8%8a%b1trump-ban-bad received the following message from moderators: