README.adoc

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Asia
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/自由亚洲电台

Website: https://www.rfa.org

Just because they are/were funded/founded by the CIA, it doesn't mean that we can't use their xref:rebel-pepper[amazing satirical cartoons] to fight xref:dictatorship[], right?

[[hong-kong-media]]
=== Hong kong media (香港媒体)

[[scmp]]
==== South China Morning Post (南华早报)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_China_Morning_Post
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/南華早報

<<hong-kong>> based, but bought by <<alibaba>> in 2016, but it still continued to publish censored stuff widely, e.g.:

* <<hao-haidong>>

[[apple-daily]]
==== Apple Daily (蘋果日報)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Daily
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/蘋果日報_(香港)

Website: https://hk.appledaily.com/

Founded by <<jimmy-lai>>.

Pro-democracy. Raided soon after <<hong-kong-national-security-law>> started.

[[hkfp]]
==== Hong Kong Free Press

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Free_Press
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/香港自由新聞

Website: https://hongkongfp.com/

=== Media that we are not sure is biased or not

[[caixin]]
==== Caixin (财新传媒)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caixin
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/财新传媒

Beijing based, but does publish stuff that seems to be very sensitive:

* <<corona>> Government fuckups
* https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-35761277 "China magazine Caixin defiant on censorship of article"

[[videos]]
== Videos (视频)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcZOZrP1P_V5d7RMOKXF1PT70fcfYJpgY[]: <<ciro-santilli>>'s "China Politics" playlist. It is a collection of all sensitive videos he has ever found on YouTube. Ping him if you find any he hasn't included.

Interesting videos that were deleted/made private since he added them:

* 2019-04-17 https://web.archive.org/web/20190424021220/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPnnHCeRH3w the Leica ad: https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/19/18508009/leica-china-censored-ad-tiananmen-square-protests-weibo Re-upload by <<scmp>>: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcuLZDHLFt8
* 2019-05-18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAEUafI_lyI not on Web Archive, lesson learned

[[funny]]
== Funny (搞笑)

Humour is the greatest weapon against <<dictatorship,dictators>>:

* <<xi-jinping>>
** <<chrysanthemium-xi-jinping>>
** <<winnie-the-pooh>>
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Religious_Affairs_Bureau_Order_No._5 officially named "Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas" (藏传佛教活佛转世管理办法)
* https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/3pqljx/zimbabwes_ruthless_dictator_mugabe_wins_chinas/ 2015 Zimbabwe dictator wins Confucius prize
* http://www.miniharm.com/
* South Park S32 E1 "Band in China" (2019), episode criticizing <<censorship,Chinese censorship>>
** free preview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6DI6XuvCwE
** free episode but only for US / Canada... https://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s23e02-band-in-china
** reply from show creators to censorship https://twitter.com/SouthPark/status/1181273539799736320
** BBC's report https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-49968867
* https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGPZYFeUUAAYMQf?format=jpg&name=large "Tibet, Uyghur, Hong Kong, World" China death knocking door cartoon. TODO source, originally seen at: https://twitter.com/Lawrence_HKer/status/1181026542786203648 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191008075035/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGPZYFeUUAAYMQf?format=jpg[archive])

See also:

* <<life-of-brian-1979>>
* <<zone-theory>>

.Weibo logo vs Sauron's eye 微博标志vs索倫魔眼 by Ciro Santilli.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Weibo_Sauron.jpg[height=400]

=== Cartoonists (漫画家)

Reasonable lists:

* https://caglecartoons.com/?s=China The website blocks Web Archive.

Other cartoonists/illustrators:

* Greta Samuel
** https://gretasamuel.com/
** https://mobile.twitter.com/samuel_greta
** https://idzpodprad.pl/aktualnosci/chinczycy-groza-smiercia-polskiej-ilustratorce-pracodawca-chce-ja-zwolnic/ "Chińczycy grożą śmiercią polskiej ilustratorce! Pracodawca chce ją zwolnić?¨" Google translates to: "The Chinese are threatening the death of the Polish illustrator! Employer wants to fire her?"

[[rebel-pepper]]
==== Rebel Pepper 变态辣椒

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_Pepper
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/王立銘

Real name: Wang Liming (王立铭)

Personal media:

* https://twitter.com/remonwangxt
* https://rebelpeppercartoons.com/

Without a doubt, the greatest anti-Communist joke cartoonist of the 2010s.

As of 2019 he does work for xref:rfa[], so a possible list of all cartoons of this era can be found at: https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/story_archive

His best work can be found scattered throughout this document in the relevant sections.

.Rebel Pepper's self portrait as a perverted pepper (the literal translation of his Chinese name "变态辣椒") used in his Sina and Tencent accounts before those got deleted https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/china_watch/2014/08/140827_china_cartoonist[according to the BBC]. https://ecdm.fandom.com/zh/wiki/变态辣椒[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Rebel_pepper.jpg[height=400]

==== Paresh Nath

Not China only like <<rebel-pepper>>, but does have some good China ones.

* https://www.cagle.com/author/paresh-nath/
** https://www.cagle.com/paresh-nath/2018/01/china-s-manipulation "We don't seek to conquer foreign lands", "It seeks to conquer foreign minds!"
** https://media.cagle.com/78/2017/03/08/192621_600.jpg "We believe in free trade and reforms"
** https://www.cagle.com/paresh-nath/2014/10/honk-kong-protests "Communism", "Democracy" and "Hong Kong" illustrates democracies disadvantage, that it is hard to get everyone on the same boat to fight together compared to dictatorships. This was also seen clearly on WW2 when the British government hesitated for a long time to attack while seeking peace, until Churchill stepped up.
* https://twitter.com/pareshnathtoons?lang=en
* https://www.cartooningforpeace.org/en/dessinateurs/paresh/

[[badiucao]]
==== Baidiucao 巴丢草

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badiucao
* https://twitter.com/badiucao

Has a more artistic red-black-white-yellow style.

[[matsuyama-miyabi]]
==== Matsuyama Miyabi (松山雅)

Does he have anything besides the sexy BDSM gag ball 和諧/阿中哥哥 girl from February 2020 <<corona,COVID19>> time?

* https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/comments/f08s9o/unknown_english_can_anyone_translate_the_words_on/
* https://supchina.com/2020/02/14/a-third-of-china-remains-on-at-least-partial-lockdown-from-covid-19/

[[falun-sweden]]
=== Falun, Sweden 法轮，瑞典

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/法倫

A Swedish University town called "Falun", with the same "Falun" Chinese characters as those in <<falun-gong>>, which got the town blocked by the <<internal-censorship,GFW>> on some websites, mentioned at:

* https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323926104578277511385052752
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=法倫&oldid=47709870#趣闻

Known primarily for its mine, which was one of the oldest operating companies in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Mine

[[art]]
== Art (艺术)

* https://www.yuumeiart.com/fisheye-placebo-chapters Fisheye Placebo by Wenqing Yan. Webcomic that talks a lot about climbing the xref:censorship[great wall]. Artist obviously pro-democracy: https://twitter.com/Yuumei_Art/status/1174394851179167744

=== Dictatorships are bad for the arts

Ermm, fear of going to jail for not kissing up to dictators well enough? Part of <<censorship>>.

.https://youtu.be/MCxzMYVvHBg?t=227 Shostakovich - How to Compose Music Despite [ R E D A C T E D ] by Tantacrul (2019) highlights how the famous Russian composer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Shostakovich[Dimitri Shostakovich] had to continually work around the <<russia,Soviet Union>>'s censorship in his compositions.
video::MCxzMYVvHBg[youtube,height=400,width=600,start=227]

[[porn]]
==== Pornography ban (色情禁令)

This will be the fall of China:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography_in_China
* https://www.quora.com/Why-is-pornography-banned-in-China

And yet, every single Chinese teenager knows very well the meaning of "AV": Adult Video, the term https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_adult_videos_in_Japan[originating notably from Japan] (the Chinese really), which is one of the most common ways of referring to vide pornography.

Curious, right?

The <<nineteen-eighty-four>> quote "The sex instinct will be eradicated." comes to mind, see that section for fuller context.

Some news coverage:

* 2020 during <<corona>>, while https://www.pornhub.com/press/show?id=1951[Pornhub was offering free premium subscriptions], China was cracking down on porn harder than usual
** https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/06/internet-sex-coronavirus-no-porn-for-chinese-stuck-under-virus-lockdown/ FP report
** (<<chinese-government-media,biased>>) http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-12/25/c_138657340.htm "China intensifies crackdown on pornography, illegal publications"
* 2018-01-15 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-42640569 "Sora Aoi: Japan's porn star who taught a Chinese generation about sex. When Japanese actress and former porn star Sora Aoi announced her marriage online, it set off a frenzy on Chinese social media."
* 2017-06-17 https://qz.com/1001366/how-the-chinese-watch-porn-on-chinas-censored-internet/ "Watching porn on China's censored internet is an infinitely evolving cat-and-mouse game"

[[intercourse]]
.Human https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_penis[penis] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/人類陰莖[陰莖]) penetrating a human <<vagina,vagina>> while wearing a condom during https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_intercourse[human sexual intercourse] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/性交[性交]), showing the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_birds_and_the_bees[naturally occuring bees] that automatically appear during the event to obscure the view and prevent <<github>> from taking down this page. This is also basically what all porn looks like (sometimes without the bees), and it is very, very boring to watch. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coitus20092.JPG[Background source] and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Delivery_Bee.png[bee source].
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Coitus_with_bees.jpg[height=400]

[[jin-ping-mei]]
.Ming-era dynasty illustration of a scene from the novel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin_Ping_Mei[Jin Ping Mei] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/金瓶梅[金瓶梅]) where Qing Ximen (西門) and Golden Lotus (潘金蓮) are engaging in foreplay in a <<yuyuan-garden,beautiful ancient Chinese house>>. For an old depiction of homosexual male sexual activity, see: <<qing-gay-scroll,this image>>. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:金瓶梅格子门插图2.JPG[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Jin_ping_mei.jpg[height=600]

[[tattoo]]
==== Tattoo television ban 刺青电视禁令 (2018)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/augustrick/2018/03/27/china-just-banned-tattoos-on-its-soccer-players-and-it-could-cost-them/#1ff82fa07db2 notably shows soccer players covering up their tattoos. <<hao-haidong>> must have loved this!

And more generally, anything "cringey" was also banned from television in 2018-2019 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/27/business/china-war-on-fun-earrings-tattoos.html[]:

____
Men's earrings aren't the only objectionable material that China's censors are blurring, covering up or cutting out. Soccer players wear long sleeves to cover their tattoos. Women in costumes at a racy video game convention have been told to raise their necklines. Rappers can rhyme only about peace and harmony.
____

No wonder that China basically unable to produce a lot of worthwhile art with such restrictions.

* 2018-03 https://supchina.com/2018/03/29/no-tattoos-at-the-2018-strawberry-music-festival-in-hangzhou/ Funny pics at: https://app.myzaker.com/news/article.php?f=xiongzhang&pk=5ac0eb1877ac6465da676481
* 2018-01 https://time.com/5112061/china-hip-hop-ban-tattoos-television/

===== Live streaming

Fun is forbidden in China, all people must be good <<xi-jinping>> loving <<ccp-cult,Zealots>>, or else:

* 2019-04-15 http://chinafilminsider.com/the-stars-who-vanished-from-chinas-live-streaming-galaxy/ "The Stars Who Vanished from China's Live-streaming Galaxy" talks about the fall of:
** Li Tianyou: "Li Tianyou's downfall was deeply embedded in his rap lyrics and the lifestyle that he promotes in his shows. Several of his now-banned songs praised methamphetamine, calling the illicit drug "wonderful" and capable of "erasing all worries" (our translation), and describing in detail the sensation of being high on meth. Li's livestreams also featured extravagant displays of wealth, including stacks of cash, luxury watches, and expensive sports cars."
** Lu Benwei (卢本伟, alias 55kai): "As for Lu Benwei, profanity eventually became his undoing. After being accused of using cheats when live-streaming a game in November 2017, Lu vehemently defended himself on his channel, insulting the content creator who made the accusation and instigating fans to verbally abuse him."
** Chen Yifa: "offense stemmed from a single live-streaming session in 2016. According to a widely circulated video, Chen made joking mention of historical events such as the Nanjing Massacre and Japan's occupation of northeast China. She also described a game character's movement as honoring the Yasukuni"
** Yang Kaili (楊凱莉, alias 莉哥): "Yang Kaili, or "Lige," was the only one of the four banned live-streamers to have broken the law. During a live-streaming show on Huya in October 2018, Yang was seen singing China's national anthem, "March of the Volunteers," in a jovial tone while waving her arms like an orchestra conductor", so basically 
+
2018 coverage: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-45859650
*
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/杨凯莉
+
Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LKONlosqFM It was just a very small section, as part of the stream opening.

[[flag-desecration]]
====== Flag desecration (亵渎旗帜)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_desecration
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/褻瀆旗幟

Fuck countries, long live humanity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlKbg-1_7Bk "Chinese National Anthem" (2017) This crazy dud plays several tunes on trumpet on one hand, while using a handgun for the beat on the other hand.

[[books]]
== Books (书籍)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_censorship_in_China
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中华人民共和国出版物审查制度

Either banned, or relevant.

For other censored material types, see: <<lists-of-material-censored-in-china>>.

[[nineteen-eighty-four]]
=== Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel (AKA "1984") 乔治·奥威尔 一九八四 (1949)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/一九八四

Read for free from Project Gutenberg:

* http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021h.html (https://web.archive.org/web/20200109210711/http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021h.html[archive])
* http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt (https://web.archive.org/web/20200413105623/http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt[archive])
* https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxDAqt617IxNRkpfOXpXcmtmdjA/edit (http://web.archive.org/web/20200715084328/https://doc-0c-a0-apps-viewer.googleusercontent.com/viewer/secure/pdf/3nb9bdfcv3e2h2k1cmql0ee9cvc5lole/jo8piqd0g6c4k97rk020d06ubd0uk3r6/1594802550000/drive/%2A/ACFrOgACt_p0vdGu83jon_QtAZsTfO86kyCbwfwH6Az3aMe9tdepGK8RBSxiPA8HGVE1G-rjR0g_CtLQrXmabzqPVW-19nZOxF05Uk6jMf-cyi7vBR2EflQV_y2mdESkWbJ-FiMJURaye4TrSHB5?print=true[archive]) Chinese translation, text says by <<programthink>>. It also has some images added (many from the John Hurt mentioned below), which is cool.
+
Programthink also has a literary critique article about it: https://program-think.blogspot.com/2009/06/book-review-1984.html "书评：《一九八四》——反乌托邦的代表作" (Book commentary: "1984". A representative work about dystopia.) by <<programthink>>

This book is very fun to read, and it is not very long.

1984 has coined some amazing terms which perfectly describe aspects of dictatorships:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughtcrime[Thourhgcrime], see also: <<thoughtcrime>>
* <<newspeak>>

Quotes present in other sections:

* <<nineteen-eighty-four-war-is-peace>>

In Part Three, Chapter 3, O'Brien explains the end goal of their evil government system to Winston:

____
In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy--everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always--do not forget this, Winston--always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever.'
____

On Part Two, Chapter 5, Winston explains the <<censorship,erasing of the past>> to Julia:

____
Do you realize that the past, starting from yesterday, has been actually abolished? If it survives anywhere, it's in a few solid objects with no words attached to them, like that lump of glass there. Already we know almost literally nothing about the Revolution and the years before the Revolution. Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. I know, of course, that the past is falsified, but it would never be possible for me to prove it, even when I did the falsification myself. After the thing is done, no evidence ever remains. The only evidence is inside my own mind, and I don't know with any certainty that any other human being shares my memories.
____

See also:

* <<censorship-of-images-in-the-soviet-union>>
* <<baidu-baike-censorship-of-hao-haidong>>

With the advent of the Internet and <<wayback-machine>>, this has become a bit harder though :-)

There is also a decent movie made released in the year, you guessed, 1984: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four_(1984_film) starring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hurt[John Hurt].

On Part Three, Chapter 4, The Law of Gravity quote perfectly illustrates the CCPs approach to lying:

____
Anything could be true. The so-called laws of Nature were nonsense. The law of gravity was nonsense. 'If I wished,' O'Brien had said, 'I could float off this floor like a soap bubble.' Winston worked it out. 'If he THINKS he floats off the floor, and if I simultaneously THINK I see him do it, then the thing happens.' Suddenly, like a lump of submerged wreckage breaking the surface of water, the thought burst into his mind: 'It doesn't really happen. We imagine it. It is hallucination.' He pushed the thought under instantly. The fallacy was obvious. It presupposed that somewhere or other, outside oneself, there was a 'real' world where 'real' things happened. But how could there be such a world? What knowledge have we of anything, save through our own minds? All happenings are in the mind. Whatever happens in all minds, truly happens.
____

.https://youtube.com/watch?v=flhggnpCeHw Gravity scene from the 1984 movie.
video::flhggnpCeHw[youtube,height=400,width=600]

Related:

* https://ibisbill.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/nineteen-eighty-four-in-chinese/ asks how much George Orwell thought about China at the time

==== Newspeak

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/新語_(一九八四)

See also "Cult-speak" from <<orange-papers>>, related <<ccp-cult>>.

[[brave-new-world]]
=== Brave New World 美丽新世界 (1932)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World

This is basically a less good <<nineteen-eighty-four>>, but the following passage https://archive.org/stream/ost-english-brave_new_world_aldous_huxley/Brave_New_World_Aldous_Huxley_djvu.txt[from Chapter 17] rocks:

____
The Controller, meanwhile, had crossed to the other side of the room and was unlocking a large safe set into the wall between the book- shelves. The heavy door swung open. Rummaging in the darkness within, "It's a subject," he said, "that has always had a great interest for me." He pulled out a thick black volume. "You've never read this, for example."

The Savage took it. "The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments" he read aloud from the title-page.

"Nor this." It was a small book and had lost its cover.

"The Imitation of Christ"

"Nor this." He handed out another volume.

"The Varieties of Religious Experience. By William James."

"And I've got plenty more," Mustapha Mond continued, resuming his seat. "A whole collection of pornographic old books. God in the safe and Ford on the shelves." He pointed with a laugh to his avowed library to the shelves of books, the rack full of reading-machine bobbins and soundtrack rolls.

"But if you know about God, why don't you tell them?"
____

=== Classical Chinese Books

Interesting websites:

* https://ctext.org/[], has <<icp-license>>

[[confucianism]]
==== Confucianism (儒家)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucianism
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/儒家

[[analects]]
===== Analects (论语, c. 475-200 BC)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analects
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/论语

Made of 20 books, with each paragraph numbered. So e.g. 15.9 means "Boodk 15, paragraph 9".

====== Analects translation by Robert Eno (2015)

https://chinatxt.sitehost.iu.edu/Analects_of_Confucius_(Eno-2015).pdf

Includes commentary.

License: non-commercial only.

[[mencius-book]]
===== Mencius (book, 孟子 (书), c. 300 BC)

* link:++https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mencius_(book)++
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/孟子_(書)

====== Mencius translation by Robert Eno (2016)

https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/23421/Mengzi.pdf

Includes commentary.

License: non-commercial only.

[[taoism]]
==== Taoism (道教)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/道教

[[zhuangzi]]
===== Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu, 庄子, c. 300 BC)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuangzi_(book)
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/莊子_(書)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuang_Zhou
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/庄子

33 chapters. The first 7 are likely by Zhuang Zhou himself, and the rest a mishmash.

Translations:

* James Legge (1891):
  * https://ctext.org/zhuangzi side by side with Chinese, one chapter per page

[[ccp]]
== Chinese Communist Party (CCP, 中国共产党, 1949-)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Communist_Party
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中国共产党

=== CCP Shanghai member data leak (2020)

Public news: 2020-12-13. Date of extraction: 2016.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9046783/Leaked-files-expose-mass-infiltration-UK-firms-Chinese-Communist-Party.html

____
After authenticating the material, with the help of data security analysts Internet 2.0, IPAC passed the database to four media organisations around the world, including The Mail on Sunday.

Security sources believe the initial data leak came from a dissident who targeted an outwardly unremarkable office block in Shanghai which housed the records.

Despite the near certainty of being executed for treason if caught, he or she probably accessed it via a server before downloading it on to a laptop and releasing it on Telegram where it was found by <<ipac,IPAC>>.

The database was originally leaked on Telegram, the encrypted instant messaging app, and passed in September by a Chinese dissident to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), which comprises more than 150 legislators around the world who are concerned by the influence and activities of the Chinese government.
____

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6215946537001

____
Ms Markson [a journalist from The Daily Telegraph] said the data was extracted from a Shanghai server by Chinese dissidents, whistleblowers, in April 2016, who have been using it for counter-intelligence purposes. 
____

This had likely been mentioned by <<epoch-times>> on 2020-08-19 with a half censored and out of focus Microfot Excel screenshot: https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/8/18/n12340991.htm translation:

____
On the same day, the news that the personal information of 1.95 million party members in Shanghai had been leaked was suddenly widely discussed in major overseas forums. Many comments pointed out that the relevant list appeared to be authentic.

Epoch Times reporters downloaded two Excel files containing information about CCP members of Shanghai governments, institutions, and enterprises according to the relevant links.

This list appeared on the Internet as early as a month ago. On July 21, a person named "Chief Referee" (总裁判) broke the news on Overseas Chinese Network (海外中文网爆料) that "the register of all party members in Shanghai was leaked."
____

http://z1.d0ea258blal.pw/pw/simple/index.php?t4922065.html has a link to https://mega.nz/folder/hJIGhCra#EUmGEZ7RDbcvTncWCPb03w which is down, but has a web archive https://archive.vn/euhjl[] with filenames:

* 上海市黃俄黨黨員信息集合第一部分.xlsx
* 上海市黃俄黨黨員信息集合第二部分.xlsx

<<ciro-santilli>> was able to find convincing downloads with the following SHAs:

* SHA384 (上海市黃俄黨黨員信息集合第一部分.xlsx) = cb4108956d74f46ef39a5ae0e7039e365e79a1c45d44a0e589fb5b5272b0c8a760a3440f0551f233dba9a07d28589062
* SHA384 (上海市黃俄黨黨員信息集合第二部分.xlsx) = 9bf5c1b42177993a0aa05c193ba28e8a08e69b965d8d5f6f04111f5a3f9aa05fca7818d7459a5605515b55de7aca7763

An upload was apparently available at: https://gitlab.com/shanghai-ccp-member-db/shanghai-ccp-member-db but it got nuked soon after 2020-12-13 brought more visibility to it.

[[policies]]
== Policies (政策)

[[censorship]]
=== Censorship (审查)

Related:

* <<hate-speech>>
* <<os-problemas-da-imprensa-livre>>
* <<dictatorships-are-bad-for-the-arts>>

.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Drooker[Eric Drooker]'s "Censorship" (TODO year) has become one of the most recognizable censorship symbols as of 2020. https://www.drooker.com/illustrations[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Eric_Drooker_censorship.jpg[height=400]

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vpPqYYyUdU[] Inside a Chinese internet censorship centre by <<scmp>> (2019) Interview with Zhi Heng from the censorship department of the live streaming company Inke (映客), "China's largest live-streaming app" at the time according to SCMP. https://www.inke.cn[company website]. Heng proudly shows how they use machine learning to help their censoring efforts, and how the managed to block live streaming based on GPS location around a manifestation once. Pure gold. That company has close CCP ties as can be seen on <<china-daily>> https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/tech/2017-02/17/content_28239744.htm[] "Inke hires 1000 supervisors to clean up live-streaming content" (2017).
video::4vpPqYYyUdU[youtube,height=400,width=600]

https://www.inke.cn/

[[internal-censorship]]
==== Internal censorship is necessary to prevent fake USA accounts from creating harmful propaganda

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_China
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中华人民共和国言论审查

The USA cannot create enough fake accounts to overwhelm real 1.5 billion Chinese accounts, especially considering things like forcing mobile number account verification.

Chinese politicians are just using this fear as an excuse to stay in power: <<evil-west>>.

What if a Chinese person who really loves China and wants to improve the country disagrees with the Government?

What if this person is right, and wants to express this publicly to get support and make change happen?

Should this person just be put into jail as is done currently? Do you really think that the CCP can never do anything seriously wrong? <<chinese-politicians-really-care-about-the-chinese-citizens>>?

When citizens stop trying to contribute due to fear, this is known as the <<chilling-effect>>.

What if a <<is-chinese-politician-x-evil,politician>> does something bad, and <<corruption,suppresses the news to protect themselves>>?

Without freedom of speech, who will watch over the actions of those in power? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F[Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?]

____
I hear always the admonishment of my friends:

"Bolt her in, constrain her!"

But who will guard the guardians? The wife plans ahead and begins with them.
____

With internal censorship, leaders inevitably become <<xi-jinping,Gods>>, and soon zealous sons betray their fathers and brothers in loyalty to the leader and their fake ideal. See for example: <<man-in-the-high-castle>>.

[[man-in-the-high-castle]]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SymuEg6NRp0 Scene from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_High_Castle_(TV_series)[The Man in the High Castle] S04E06 in which the devoted young Thomas Smith hands himself in to be killed by the Nazis whom he worships after discovering that he has a disease, which is not acceptable in <<nazi,Nazi>> America.
video::SymuEg6NRp0[youtube,height=400,width=600]

The famous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Heine[Heinrich Heine] (German but from the 19th century, before the Nazis) saying also comes to mind:

____
Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.
____

Do you not think that this translates well to the modern version:

____
Where they have deleted online posts, they will end in deleting human beings.
____

The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_books_and_burying_of_scholars[Burning of books and burying of scholars] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/焚书坑儒[焚书坑儒], 212 BC) also comes to mind.

It is actually easier for the USA to manipulate a dictatorship than a democracy, because then all you have to do is buy/blackmail a few key corrupt politicians instead of manipulating millions of people's feeds.

.Internal censorship is so strong, that many Chinese people who leave China to live abroad continue to believe that the CCP is always right, despite having access evidence that suggests otherwise. This <<rebel-pepper>> 2019-08 cartoon shows frogs coming out of a big well still remain inside their own small wells made up of Chinese media such as <<zhihu-purge,Zhihu>> and CCTV. It is a reference to the Chinese proverb https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/井底之蛙[井底之蛙] which means that a frog in the bottom of the well can only see a very limited portion of the sky. https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/biantailajiaomanhua/lj-08302019111414.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Frog_in_well.jpeg[height=500]

.<<nazi,Nazis>> burning books in Berlin in 1933. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Nazi_book_burning.jpg[height=400]

.<<falun-gong>> books being destroyed with a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_roller[road roller] in 1999 in China in an extremely low quality early Internet still of a video TODO Ciro saw a 3s sequence in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7cz4Tkbwy8[], find timestamp again. How far do you think mass jailings and torture would be? One wonders why they didn't burn the books though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Destruction_d'ouvrages_du_Falun_Gong_lors_de_la_répression_de_1999_en_Chine.jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Falun_Gong_road_roller_book_destruction.jpg[height=400]

==== China has more freedom of speech than the USA!

When you hear that online, it really makes you wonder if those people believe it or are paid to say it.

Luckily, this is easy to verify: just create an online account on a Chinese website, and start posting about censored political subjects, and wait for your account to get banned.

Then create an account on an American website, and start posting about censored political subjects. The first good question is: what will you post about since no political subject is censored?

Here is one concrete and well documented example: <<zhihu-purge>>.

Or maybe why not <<t-shirt,go out on the street in China with a T-shirt with censored words and share some photos online>>?

[[video-bbc-local-election-interview-block-2016]]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1HdCIW2Xtk 2016-10-18 BBC reporter stopped from visiting China local election independent candidate Liu Huizhen (刘惠珍) by local thugs who block him physically from nocking the door. Funny/scary stuff. The BBC returned a few days later when the thugs weren't there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eroTCMRn2yQ[]. Accompaging article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-37997706[] "China elections: Independent candidates fight for the ballot".
video::c1HdCIW2Xtk[youtube,height=400,width=600]

[[t-shirt]]
===== What happens if you wear a T-shirt with censored words in China?

See also <<ciro-santilli>>'s answer to 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[What would happen if I walked around Beijing with a t-shirt that said "freedom of speech is pretty great"?] on <<quora>>.

Some cases where that didn't end well for them:

* 2017 Li Xiaoling (李小玲) was arrested and released "on bail" for wearing a <<tiananmen,Tiananmen>> T-shirt: https://www.nchrd.org/2017/10/li-xiaoling/ on <<chinese-human-rights-defenders>>
* 1989 <<pu-zhiqiang-shirt,Pu Zhiqiang (浦志强) freedom of speech shirt>> during <<tiananmen>>

Related:

* 2000 https://en.minghui.org/emh/articles/2000/11/8/6250.html Autralian Zhang Cuiying (张翠英) went to China to protest against Falun Gong oppression and was kept 8 months in jail there. When she returned to Australia on 2000-11-04, she wore a t-shirt saying:
+
____
为了一句公道话， +
法轮大法是正法， +
为此坐牢八个月， +
历经艰险讨公道， +
头可断，血可流， +
浩气丹心留狱中， +
中国镇压法轮功， +
将成为千古罪人。
____
+
translated as:
+
____
Because of the truth I said +
Falun Dafa is righteous +
I was imprisoned for 8 months +
I went through the hardship just to attain the justice +
I am not afraid of bleeding or other sacrifice +
My righteous mind was shown in the prison +
China suppresses Falun Gong +
Which is unforgivable
____

.In 2016 activist Quan Ping (Kwon Pyong,权平,https://twitter.com/kwonpyong[BraveJohnny]) was sent to jail for wearing a <<nazi,Xitler>>/<<xi-jinping-memes,習包子/大撒币>> t-shirt in public and posting selfies online. This photo is in front of a Government building (TODO exact location, reports say he is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jilin_City[Jilin City 吉林] transcription of the sign on top of building: 诚信立市 https://baike.baidu.com/item/工业强市[工业强市] 依法治...) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/world/asia/china-xi-jinping-xitler-tshirt-kwon-pyong.html[New York Times coverage]. He was later sentenced and served 18 months in prison because of this: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/kwon-pyong on <<front-line-defenders>>. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/xi-jinping-tshirt-activist-confirmed-held-in-northeast-china-detention-center-12082016110338.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Quan_Ping_tshirt.jpg[height=400]

[[liu-shihui-one-party-rule]]
.In 2009 activist Liu Shihui (刘士辉) was arrested for wearing a t-shirt saying "One-party rule is a disaster" (一党独裁，遍地是灾) in 2009 in Guangzhou. This is a quote from a <<chinese-government-media,Xinhua News>> editorial https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/1946/03/【历史的先声】一党独裁，遍地是灾/[from the 1940s]. On the back was another quote by former president https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Shaoqi[Liu Shaoqi (刘少奇)] "The CP [Communist Party] opposes the Kuomintang's one-party dictatorship, but the CP will not establish a one-party dictatorship". This interesting <<zhihu>> page has many other similar quotes BTW: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/59503784[] (https://web.archive.org/web/20200331202252/https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/59503784[archive]). He was later assaulted, spent 108 days in jail without a trial, and was forcefully sent back to his home town in Inner Mongolia: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/case-history-liu-shihui on <<front-line-defenders>>. Quotes from the <<hundred-flowers-campaign>> also come to mind. https://observers.france24.com/en/20090522-arrested-subversive-shirt[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Liu_Shihui_tshirt.jpg[height=500]

[[gfw]]
==== Great Firewall (GFW, 防火长城)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/防火长城

Golden Shield Project:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Shield_Project
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/全国公安工作信息化工程

And so, the spirit of Internet freedom that the Chinese themselves had at the start, was crushed :

____
越过长城
走向世界

Across the Great Wall, we can reach every corner in the world.
____

https://gist.github.com/yefuchs/4648713 "GFW Contributers" has a list of people that contributed to the GFW.

Source: the first International email sent from China in 1987 by https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/王运丰[Wang Yunfeng (王运丰)] in the Beijing-based Institute for Computer Application (ICA) of the China Ordnance Industry Corporation under the https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中华人民共和国机械电子工业部[Ministry of Machinery and Electronics of the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国机械电子工业部)] to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Zorn[Werner Zorn] from the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlsruhe_Institute_of_Technology[Karlsruhe Institute of Technology] see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_China[].

[[dictator-needs-gfw]]
===== Would ending the Great Firewall truly end the dictatorship?

Not 100% sure.

In <<russia>>, for example, the Internet is relatively free, but the government controls most professional media, which is what most people end up seeing, by suing dissidents media out of business.

But on the other hand Russia is already much freer than China.

Although I don't like them, I can't deny one thing: the commies are smart, and when they do something (e.g. censorship), it tends to keep them in power.

===== The Great Firewall is necessary to protect China from harmful USA propaganda and data collection

<<ciro-santilli>> doesn't think this is below the USA, but:

* without censorship, you would be much richer and stronger, and more able to defend yourselves
* why does China also censor its own people in addition to foreign propaganda?
* maybe this fear is greatly emphasized by the Chinese government beyond truth just to help them keep control of the country by fear and maintain their own power. Can the Americans really have that much influence in your country? <<evil-west>>
* maybe the regions that want to split from China feel like China is not giving them anything back, and they are themselves looking for allies outside of China to help them split. With democracy, people are more likely to get what they want, and there will be split parties and votes.
* the same argument can be used to justify any action, no matter how bad. E.g.: we must put all who criticize the government in jail, or else they will make China less united and weaker against the USA!

<<deng-xiaoping>> notably had this ideology, even though he explicitly recognizes that there are also <<censorship-makes-countries-poorer,benefits to not having online censorship>>:

____
打开窗户，新鲜空气和苍蝇就会一起进来。
____

which translates as:

____
If you open the window, both fresh air and flies will enter.
____

[[google-china]]
====== Google China 谷歌中国

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_China
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/谷歌中国

.Faithful Google China users/employees made a funeral-like flower tribute on the company's entry sign in Beijing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuspark[Tsinghua Science Park] when the company was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aurora[kicked/hacked out of China in the 2010 Operation Aurora]. This was one example of the unfair <<what-should-western-countries-do-about-china,joint venture technique imposed on foreign companies>> by China. https://qz.com/1352137/why-internet-users-chose-baidu-over-google-when-it-was-in-china/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Google_funeral.webp[height=400]

[[jingjing-chacha]]
===== Jingjing and Chacha 警警察察

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingjing_and_Chacha

Friendly looking mascots of Internet Censorship in China created by the Shenzhen Government in 2006.

https://youtu.be/ZB8ODpw_om8?t=583 "Roger Dingledine - The Tor Censorship Arms Race The Next Chapter - DEF CON 27 Conference" mentions that choosing friendly looking mascots for internet censorship is a comon practice in several dictatorships, so to suggest that they are just <<evil-west,protecting citizens>>, These show the cute UAE censorship page for example:

* Iran https://business.financialpost.com/technology/canadian-software-used-to-filter-internet-in-middle-east
* Quatar https://rankingdigitalrights.org/2019/06/12/arab-regions-telecommunications-companies-fail-to-respect-users-digital-rights/

The images were https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jingjing_and_Chacha&oldid=917408711[removed from Wikipedia] presumably due to fair use concerns, so Ciro asked how to check that at: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/137977/how-to-check-why-a-fair-use-image-was-removed-from-wikipedia After understanding the case, Ciro https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jingjing_and_Chacha&oldid=936842199[reuploaded the images], hopefully for good.

.Jinjing (警警) is the male cop. https://web.archive.org/web/20070825092952/http://www.e-gov.org.cn/Article/news003/2006-01-02/15229.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Jingjing.jpg[height=400]

.Chacha (警警) is the female cop. https://web.archive.org/web/20070825092952/http://www.e-gov.org.cn/Article/news003/2006-01-02/15229.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Chacha.jpg[height=400]

.Jingjing and Chacha picture shown on the street, presumably in China. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bnvy38/jingjing-and-chacha[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Jingjing_Chacha_street.jpeg[height=400]

.Image with Jingjing and Chacha together and explanations (深圳网络警察,Shenzhen Network Police), good for copy pasting. TODO a bit small. https://www.reddit.com/r/Cyberpunk/comments/84vbut/cute_official_mascot_design_of_chinese_internet/[Source]..
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Jingjing_Chacha_Shenzhen_police.jpg[height=400]

.Beijing version of the Shenzhen-created Jingjing and Chacha. TODO what does it say on the images? On car "XX网络110" (XX Internet 110) so it must be the phone number of the Internet police department. At bottom right something like (联合新作, joint XX), so likely means it is a joint action between two departments. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/20477258/ns/technology_and_science-internet/t/beijing-police-launch-virtual-web-patrol/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Jingjing_Chacha_Beijing.jpg[height=400]

.Angry Chinese cop cartoons extracted from https://web.archive.org/web/20191209021646/http://encyclopediadramatica.rs/China[Encyclopedia Dramatica] with the racist subtitles removed. It is hard to be sure what is the original image that they were Photoshopped from, but they are very similar to the Beijing Jingjing and Chacha although this is not a direct copy paste of the above since several details differ. The image was uploaded in 2011 to ED. https://web.archive.org/web/20170525180028/https://encyclopediadramatica.rs/File:Preasetoshowpapers.jpg[Source].
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Jingjing_Chacha_angry.jpg[height=400]

.The Qatar friendly censorship page likely from around 2011 sowing that China is not alone in this "cute censorship mascots" technique. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Qatar_filtering_message._Qtel_network.jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Qatar_web_censorship_page.jpg[height=600]

===== Western companies that sell censorship technology to dictatorships

To China:

* Oracle
** 2021-02-18 https://theintercept.com/2021/02/18/oracle-china-police-surveillance/ "HOW ORACLE SELLS REPRESSION IN CHINA"
* Cisco may have knowingly helped to build the Chinese internet censorship infrastructure in the 2000's
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco_Systems#Censorship_in_China
** https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/04/ciscos-latest-attempt-dodge-responsibility-facilitating-human-rights-abuses-export
*** https://www.eff.org/files/2016/01/12/113_second_amended_complaint_does_v._cisco_9.18.13.pdf they had a demo with a <<falun-gong>> module
** https://www.wired.com/2008/05/leaked-cisco-do/
*** Internal CISCO documents quote the Chinese Government saying: "The Golden Shield Project ... Combat Falun Gong evil religion and other hostiles"

To other dictatorships:

* 2019: IBM https://gizmodo.com/ibm-sells-face-recognition-surveillance-to-a-dictatorsh-1835101881
* 2017: Amesys France for facial recognition surveillance in Egypt: https://www.fidh.org/en/region/north-africa-middle-east/egypt/sale-of-surveillance-equipment-to-egypt-by-french-company-amesys
* 2011: Netsweeper Inc. from Canada to UAE
** claim: https://business.financialpost.com/technology/canadian-software-used-to-filter-internet-in-middle-east
* 2009: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forcepoint[Forcepoint], previously Websense
** claims on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forcepoint#Censorship

In 2019, the European Union was considering making stricter laws about cyber surveillance exports, to include more technologies that can be used either for Censorship or other non-evil applications (dual-use), <<what-should-western-countries-do-about-china,kudos to them>>:

* https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_BRI%282016%29589832
* https://ec.europa.eu/trade/import-and-export-rules/export-from-eu/dual-use-controls/index_en.htm
* https://www.osborneclarke.com/insights/upcoming-changes-to-bring-cyber-surveillance-technology-within-eu-export-control-regime/
* https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/eu-plans-restrict-export-dual-spy-tech-171210061410639.html

See also: <<western-companies-that-comply-with-chinese-censorship-requests>>.

.Cartoon showing how Amesys systems are used to suppress citizens in Egypt. Do you want the logo of your company to figure there instead? https://www.fidh.org/en/region/north-africa-middle-east/egypt/sale-of-surveillance-equipment-to-egypt-by-french-company-amesys[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Amesys.jpg[height=400]

===== Censorship monitoring

Projects that attempt to understand how the Great Firewall works and what it blocks:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websites_blocked_in_mainland_China
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中华人民共和国被封锁网站列表
* Garry King Harvard papers:
** https://gking.harvard.edu/50c#
** https://gking.harvard.edu/publications/how-Censorship-China-Allows-Government-Criticism-Silences-Collective-Expression
** https://gking.harvard.edu/publications/randomized-experimental-study-censorship-china
* https://gfw.report/
* https://geneva.cs.umd.edu/ from the Geneva Project of the University of Maryland. Source: https://github.com/kkevsterrr/geneva

It is also worth noting that as mentioned at <<is-stack-overflow-blocked-in-china>> that websites can become non-functional if CDNs they rely on are taken down, instead of the website being taken down itself.

====== Censorship monitoring tools on GitHub

More interesting GitHub repositories: <<github-repositories-with-censored-information>>

* https://github.com/phoeagon/gfw-sim GFW emulation
* https://github.com/citizenlab/chat-censorship data on Censorship
* https://github.com/mothran/mongol "A simple python tool to pinpoint the IP addresses of machines working for the Great Firewall of China."

[[greatfire]]
====== GreatFire (自由微博)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GreatFire
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/自由微博

A group that produces tools and websites against censorship in China, central website: https://greatfire.org/

Backed by <<rfa>> and therefore USA Government.

The GreatFire Analyzer is their most important tool, it checks if websites are blocked or not in China:

* https://en.greatfire.org/analyzer
* https://zh.greatfire.org/analyzer

It also keeps a calendar of previous checks so you can see when a website started getting blocked.

One of the highlighted collections is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexa_Internet[Alexa] Top 1000 domain block analysis: https://en.greatfire.org/search/alexa-top-1000-domains

Quite a few amazingly named porn ones, how could you live without them? <<porn>>

* https://chaturbate.com
* https://bongacams.com/

And some interesting random stuff that is hard to understand why its blocked, some of them appear to be pure protectionism:

* https://sourceforge.net/ interesting! The ex-<<github>> was blocked unlike GitHub as of 2020: https://www.quora.com/Is-SourceForge-still-relevant-to-open-source-projects/answer/Ciro-Santilli
* https://www.homedepot.com
* weirdly named <<google-mirrors,Google mirrors>>
* https://www.jw.org/en/ Jehovah's Witness
* https://www.yodobashi.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yodobashi_Camera a Japanese Electronics retailer

Other tools and projects:

* https://freeweibo.com a Weibo archive to overcome deleted posts
* https://en.greatfire.org/blog/2013/nov/google-can-bring-end-censorship-10-days-heres-how made some noise at the time
* https://twitter.com/GreatFireChina
* <<collateral-freedom>>

Their repo https://github.com/greatfire/wiki has been added to <<gov-takedowns-china>>.

Who is behind them:

* https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/30/greatfire/ from 2015 says "Started in 2011 by three anonymous individuals", and "Charlie Smith" is the pseudonym of the CEO.

[[wayback-machine]]
====== Wayback Machine (网站时光机)

Their Wayback Machine tool archive snapshots of webpages and allows youto browse the history of all archives:

* https://web.archive.org/
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/网站时光机

By the Internet Archive organization:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/互联网档案馆

This Chrome extension helps to quickly archive pages: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wayback-machine/fpnmgdkabkmnadcjpehmlllkndpkmiak

But remember that if you archive too many in a very quick succession before the previous ones have been archived, even if manually through that plugin, your account/IP might get blocked, so just give a few seconds for the current archive to terminate before starting new ones.

This happened to Ciro in 2020-06-14, but then he emailed the admins as mentioned at: https://help.archive.org/hc/en-us/articles/360016379432-Accounts-Tips-Troubleshooting- and they re-enabled it.

It is possible to request social media pages you own to be removed from the archive in some circumstances: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/143529/is-it-possible-to-request-to-remove-page-snapshots-from-a-personal-social-media

Some website specific techniques:

* YouTube videos: they do seem to download them!
** But as as of 2020, they seem to have some serious bugs failing with "Sorry the Wayback Machine does not have this video (<id>) archived (or not indexed yet)." on most videos: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/149933/why-does-the-archive-org-of-most-youtube-videos-fail-with-sorry-the-wayback-mac
** And the interface may be very broken, possibly due to the arabic youtube interface, you might just have to click around sometimes. So the best thing is to just always use the magic direct video link: of form: https://web.archive.org/web/2oe_/http://wayback-fakeurl.archive.org/yt/<video-id>
** E.g. a deleted pair from <<aaron-dewitt>>:
*** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d81mEbL8Yw8&feature=youtu.be
*** https://web.archive.org/web/20201103072718if_/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d81mEbL8Yw8&feature=youtu.be
** It is possible to get a raw mp4 link with as mentioned at https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/391951-How-to-download-a-YouTube-video-archived-by-Wayback-Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/2oe_/http://wayback-fakeurl.archive.org/yt/<video-id> e.g.: https://web.archive.org/web/2oe_/http://wayback-fakeurl.archive.org/yt/c6uFGGunRxc[], the download did work on 2020-12-31. It redirects to
* Google Docs: visit the page while logged off (e.g. via browser private mode), click the print button, and then archive the resulting PDF URL

How to search by prefix/pattern: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/146661/how-to-search-the-internet-archives-wayback-machine-by-url-prefix-or-pattern

[[archive-today]]
====== archive.today

http://archive.is/

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive.today
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive.is

Like <<wayback-machine>> by unknown shady individuals, so less trustworthy.

CrunchBase claims without source New York based: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/145817/on-which-country-are-the-creators-and-servers-of-archive-today-archive-is-base

Does not care about robots.txt, so it sometimes works where Wayback Machine fails, so its better than nothing when it does. E.g. it is a good option for <<quora>>.

And no, you can't Wayback Machine archive an archive.is, they blocked the domain.

Has specific LinkedIn handling as it has a logged scrape account, e.g.: https://archive.vn/EPaEH[]. TODO find account URL.

Also has specific GitHub handling, e.g. as seen at: https://github.com/TinkoffCreditSystems/invest-openapi/issues/278 TODO what for?

Their github account was: https://github.com/volth an archive https://archive.vn/kqftP The account was completely deleted presumaly after GitHub noticed the anti-ToS usage: all their issues created have been deleted, not converted to ghost as happens with account deletion, and non-owners cannot delete their issues, only comments. Since he was such a large NixOS contributor, this was notice by other contributors: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-was-this-treewide-pr-performed/11174/15 | https://twitter.com/grhmc/status/1334138105738256389

From the non-trivial contributions, they were a big NixOS contributor, and are clearly fluent Russian:

* https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/91184 "[staging] perlPackages: update" was merged.
* https://github.com/TinkoffCreditSystems/invest-openapi/issues/278 "Инструменты "для квалифицированных инвесторов" недоступны через API" is a sample issue in fluent Russian

By cloning NixOS NixOS/nixpkgs we obtain an email, it uses custom domain http://volth.com/ as of 2021-02-04 has a copy of the Google 404: https://web.archive.org/web/20190913083033/http://volth.com/ This is the case since 2013. In 2011 it was some other random company.

Google photo matches exactly this "Masha Rabinovich" https://www.linkedin.com/in/masha-rabinovich-52aa3a197/[], or is just some image of a well known person? Account marked as "Bachelor of Engineering" at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

The same photo seems to be used for all fetches: https://archive.vn/IPEEd[].

Googling name leads to an YouTube account whose only video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1bp1VxMwP4 | https://archive.vn/9Xq6w "How to make an archive.is link with selection hashtag", so yes, the relation is almost certain.

https://www.northkoreatech.org/2016/09/21/north-koreas-dns-files-reveal-internet-websites/ has an archive.is related comment by an user of the same name Masha Rabinovich: September 22, 2016 at 17:55 "There are some more websites in .kp: http://archive.is/*.kp"

In 2008 they had some interest in compilers: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/tinycc-devel/2008-11/msg00015.html The obvious gmail email can be obtained from there. The only hit is in this creepy email list: https://api.intelx.io/file/read?type=1&systemid=989faa9e-46a1-440f-87fa-2a98b616c66d&k=7b256c65-6ebf-4bb8-a301-070bce8dec01

Removing the space leads to more matches:

* 2012-08: https://community.f-secure.com/en/discussion/14768/what-is-the-evidence-of-harmful-behaviour#M3733 a "masharabinovich" claims the website:
+
____
Your website http://browsingprotection.f-secure.com/swp/result?x=5Jg2kWKC8d86b4F-H5cdoS8dyu04vtzGtEXhQL6COLIX0k4wrv-N*w shows that someone in your company "found evidence of harmful behaviour" on my website http://archive.is/
____
* https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3AMasharabinovich shows 2012 attempts by Masha to automate wikipedia arching of dead links with archive.is.  Later in 2016 archive** in 2016 archive.is is was blacklisted entirely: http://wikipediocracy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7578
** possibly in 2018, Wikipedia widely adopted automatic <<wayback-machine>> usage on all external links: http://blog.archive.org/2018/10/01/more-than-9-million-broken-links-on-wikipedia-are-now-rescued/

Wikipedia suggests that the name Masha Rabinovich is likely of Russian Ashkenazi Jewish origin:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masha
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabinovich

so if the LinkedIn information is real, maybe they just went to study in Germany, or their ancestors migrated there.

The name in Cyrillic would be "Маша рабинович", but we couldn't find any information of interest by searching for that.

[[google-cache]]
====== Google Cache

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1687222?hl=en

Google caches every indexed page that shows up on the search, you just have to click on the arrow and select "Cache" to see it.

The advantage over <<wayback-machine>> is that Google crawls many more pages than the Wayback Machine.

How to get the Google cache for a given URL: https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/15633/how-to-modify-a-url-to-get-a-google-cached-version-of-page

It is not possible however to see old caches, therefore you have to archive the Google caches with <<wayback-machine>> if you find anything interesting in them to not lose it:

* https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/45306/how-do-you-view-all-the-cached-versions-of-a-web-page
* https://support.google.com/websearch/thread/18638126?hl=en

The Google cache also has a text-only mode which is great for more complex webpages like those on <<zhihu>>, which due to JavaScript madness keep showing and disappearing.

====== geoscreenshot

https://www.geoscreenshot.com

Takes screenshots of the websites much like <<wayback-machine>>, but you can select the location.

Once the screenshot is made, you can "view the HTML", and that gives an Amazon AWS link, and warns that JavaScript and CSS might/will be disabled. The screenshot does not state what the origin URL/data is, so it cannot be used as a proof. But we can <<wayback-machine>> archive it to make sure it remains visible. E.g.:

* 2020-09-30 https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship | http://web.archive.org/web/20200930075102/https://s3.amazonaws.com/geoscreenshot-static/d3fdb97d-2ac3-4f57-a737-6fab2997fb1a.html see also <<github-censored-subdomains>>
* 2020-09-30 https://github.com/programthink/zhao/issues/38 | https://archive.vn/QKCMi see alo <<programthink>>
* 2020-09-30 https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship/ | https://archive.vn/bIzkH see alo <<mirrors>>

The free trial is very limited, and you can't share the screenshots on a public URL. See also: <<censorship-monitoring>>.

===== Lists of material censored in China

For materials hosted on GitHub, see: <<github-repositories-with-censored-information>>.

For books, see: <<books>>

Websites:

* <<falun-gong-media>> contains a few:
** <<bannedbook>>

===== gfwlist

https://github.com/gfwlist/gfwlist

Chinese people widely use this website list with browser extensions, so as to only use more expensive and risky <<censorship-circumvention>> traffic when accessing certain webpages.

The result is a well maintained list of interesting websites. About half of which is porn.

Get the full list with:

....
base64 -d gfwlist.txt
....

See also:

* https://github.com/gfwlist/gfwlist/issues/3 "How to use this repo?"
* https://github.com/gfwlist/gfwlist/issues/1141 "Add categories tags to each entry"

[[censorship-circumvention]]
===== Censorship circumvention (翻墙)

Lists:

* https://www.wallmama.com/ 墙妈妈 is one of the top Google hits and mentions amongst others:
** VPN obviously
** SOCKS5 (lantern, 蓝灯)
* https://github.com/vpncn/vpncn.github.io on <<github>> reviews VPN services
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantern_(software)
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/蓝灯
** https://github.com/getlantern/lantern on <<github>>
* SSR (<<shadowsocks>>)
* https://github.com/yinghuocho/firefly-proxy "A proxy software to help circumventing the Great Firewall."
* https://www.bypasscensorship.org
* https://github.com/awesome-doge/breaking-gfw-book

It is interesting to note how <<falun-gong>> is a good source of censorship-circumvention material, see e.g.: <<github-gov-takedowns>>.

Projects:

* https://github.com/Loyalsoldier/v2ray-rules-dat | https://github.com/v2ray/v2ray-core Contains cirosantilli.com: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Loyalsoldier/v2ray-rules-dat/release/geosite.dat[], victory.

More info:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_circumvention
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/突破网络审查

====== Hide destination IP until it leave the country

TODO is there any way to do use this to overcome IP blocks? You would wait until the packet leaves the country to reveal the final destination IP:

* https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/1358/what-tools-are-available-to-identify-which-country-a-specific-ip-address-is-loca
* https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9802046/identifying-country-by-ip-address
* https://stackoverflow.com/questions/409999/getting-the-location-from-an-ip-address
* https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/12857/is-it-trivial-to-bypass-ip-blocking
* https://tor.stackexchange.com/questions/15483/how-can-i-use-tor-in-china