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https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship[GitHub Pages] | https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship[GitHub project] | https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/archive/gh-pages.zip[HTML download]
Chinese "Communist" <<dictatorship,"Dictatorship">> "facts". 中国《共产主义》<<dictatorship,《独裁统治》>>的《事实》。<<faq,FAQ>>, <<news,news compilation>> and <<restaurants,restaurant>> and <<music,music>> recommendations. <<faq,常见问答集>>，<<news,新闻集>>和<<restaurants,饭店>>和<<music,音乐>>建议。<<xi-abolishes-term-limits-2018-03,Heil Xi 卐>>. <<xi-abolishes-term-limits-2018-03,习万岁>>。
This README is too large and so https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/1610[GitHub cuts it up] on https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship[github.com]. You can view it fully at https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship[] or by downloading it locally as shown at: <<mirrors>>.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_Jinping_The_Governance_of_China_photo.jpg[height=600]
This repo has the following goals:
* allow copy pasting links to answers to questions/comments that have been posted a million times before by <<wumao>>, mostly under: <<faq>>. This was the original goal.
* serve as a censorship bomb to block <<github>> in China: <<keyword-attack>> to destroy the <<gfw>> and <<dictator-needs-gfw,therefore the CCP>>. Or more realistically get added to the <<github-gov-takedowns>> hall of fame.
* be a fun and sometimes silly source of Chinese mostly anti-CCP culture like a better https://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/China[Unencyclopedia] / https://web.archive.org/web/20191209021646/http://encyclopediadramatica.rs/China[Encyclopedia Dramatica] without the stupid stereotype jokes. Just quickly browse the pictures with Ctrl + F "Figure" and have fun.
* serve as a place where people can post interesting related stuff in the issues: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues see also: <<shitpost>>
* highlight positive about China's culture outside of its shitty government, such as <<the-best-chinese-supermarket-food-products,food>> and <<music>>. This has two goals:
** teach foreigners (maybe even Chinese people on certain points) about amazing Chinese things that they can consume
** show wumaos that <<ciro-santilli>> is not as clueless about China as they think
== Copypasta
Here's an image/sentence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copypasta[copypasta]/summary of key events for the <<keyword-attack>>.
Another advantage of this is that since it comes first in the repo, it ensures that key elements show up on github.com despite file size cutups: https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/1610[].
Each summary section contains a link to the main section, which contains sources and description of each image.
Text only:
* <<xi-abolishes-term-limits-2018-03>> (2018包子露宪)
* <<the-709-crackdown>>
* <<panama-papers>> (邓家贵)
* <<low-end-population>>
* <<tibetan-unrest-2008>>
Text and image:
**六四事件 Tiananmen square protests 1989**
https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship#tiananmen
Music!
* https://youtu.be/-JTWXqUPQ7I[Joan Baez - China]
* https://youtu.be/6OOlXJs4I8k[Philip Morgan - Blood is on the square]
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Tiananmen_students_sitting.jpg[height=400]
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Tank_Man.jpg[height=400]
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Tianmen_crushed_dead.jpg[height=600]
**法轮功 Falun Gong 1999 70M believer religion banned**
https://cirosantilli.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship#falun-gong
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Falun_Gong_Ghuangzhou.jpg[height=600]
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Falun_Gong_lady_silenced.jpg[height=600]
**新疆改造中心 Xinjiang re-education camps 2018**
https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship#xinjiang
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xinjiang_prisoners_sitting_identified.jpeg[height=400]
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xinjiang_prisoners_march.jpg[height=400]
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Uyghur_sale_website.jpg[height=500]
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xinjiang_camp_in_camp.jpg[height=600]
**小熊维尼 Winnie the Pooh 2018**
https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship#winnie-the-pooh
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_Pooh_Obama.webp[height=400]
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_Abe_Pooh.webp[height=400]
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_Jinping_heart.jpeg[height=400]
**郝海东 Hao Haidong Chinese soccer superstar turns against the CCP 2020**
https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship#hao-haidong
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Hao_Haidong_kick.jpg[height=500]
**冠状病毒审查 Censorship of the 2019 Corona Virus**
https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship#corona
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Li_Wenliang_covid.jpg[height=400]
https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship#christianity
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Church_demolition.jpg[height=400]
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Last_Supper_Mao.jpg[height=400]
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Pope_CCP_deal.jpeg[height=400]
**LGBT权利 The suppression of homosexuality**
https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship#gay-rights
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Tianmen_lesbian_kiss.jpg[height=500]
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Addicted_bed.jpg[height=400]
**996.ICU**
https://cirosantilli.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship#nine-nine-six-icu
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/996ICU.png[height=400]
**Gay Putin**
https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship#gay-putin
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Gay_Putin.jpg[height=400]
https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship#thai-king-hamtaro
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Side_by_side_comparison_between_Thai_king_Vajiralongkorn_and_Hamtaro.jpg[height=400]
You can download the webpage locally from GitHub at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/archive/gh-pages.zip
Media such as images are not stored in this repository, but rather at https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship-media to keep the lightweight clone. The locally downloaded HTML will then read images from that repository. But we've learnt after creating that repository that the subdomain that serves the images is censored: <<github-censored-subdomains>>, so they might still be broken.
....
git clone https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship
cd china-dictatorship
git checkout gh-pages
xdg-open README.html
....
make
xdg-open README.html
....
You can also build with local images:
....
git clone https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship
git clone https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship-media
cd china-dictatorship
make MEDIA=../china-dictatorship-media
....
Given <<github-censored-subdomains>>, this might be the only way to view the images from China.
The cool thing about Git is that we can maintain several mirrors on multiple websites very easily:
* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship Canonical source and rendered output. If ever <<github-gov-takedowns>> we do this: <<strategy-if-this-repo-gets-added-to-github-gov-takedowns>>
* https://gitlab.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship Maybe some day https://gitlab.cn/ ? :-)
* https://bitbucket.org/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship
* https://gitee.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship on <<gitee>>, blocked after 12 hours: <<gitee-censorship>>
GitHub Pages: https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship trade-offs with https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship[]:
** cut up to 512KB of source, and therefor unacceptable as the only source: https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/1610[]
** https://help.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/about-anonymized-image-urls[GitHub's camo] keeps hiccuping and not showing images
** and YouTube videos show inline there
* cons
** domain will eventually get blocked in China. <<greatfire>> https://zh.greatfire.org/https/cirosantilli.com shows that in 2020-01-19 the domain was unblocked, but on the next text at 2020-05-23 it was "contractictory".
** Camo bypasses the need for VPN, since most images are served from <<wayback-machine>> which is <<censorship,blocked in China>>.
It is really interesting to see how many people star the GitHub repository, and then a few minutes later they think about how they might get put in jail, and then unstar it. Talk about <<chilling-effect>>!
GitHub Pages was first enabled in 2020-03-22 at https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/commit/0b362a83fb5dd55f67b9d351551d0c18e7f3229a[].
The perfect solution might be to download all images and upload them to https://github.com/cirosantilli/media since GitHub content does not go through Camo, we have to see if such images don't fail to load as often.
We also have a NPM Node.js package https://www.npmjs.com/package/china-dictatorship[]. After https://askubuntu.com/questions/594656/how-to-install-the-latest-versions-of-nodejs-and-npm/971612#971612[installing NPM], you can be use it as:
....
npm i -g china-dictatorship
china-dictatorship > README.html
....
This would force China to also block/curate package managers to block this repo. The package is already available in this Chinese Taobao mirror: https://registry.npm.taobao.org/china-dictatorship (https://web.archive.org/web/20200406081433/http://registry.npm.taobao.org/china-dictatorship[archive]).
We also managed to upload a Python PyPi package at: https://pypi.org/project/china-dictatorship/ Is as:
....
python3 -m pip install --user --upgrade china-dictatorship
china-dictatorship.py > README.html
....
We later found on Google by chance that libraries.io picked it up and rendered the README.adoc nicely as well: https://libraries.io/pypi/china-dictatorship (https://web.archive.org/web/20200318043050/https://libraries.io/pypi/china-dictatorship[archive]). This is why packaging is a good idea.
A programmatic inferface is also exposed on those packages, making it easy to quickly add a `--china` option to your project, e.g. from Python:
....
import china_dictatorship
print(china_dictatorship.get_data())
....
This outputs the rendered HTML, which end users should the pipe into a file:
....
./your-program --china > README.html
xdg-open README.html
....
Here's a concrete example: https://github.com/cirosantilli/linux-kernel-module-cheat/commit/082166a360c56990662c715196229016d8806ab3
TODO: create an Ubuntu PPA and Ruby gem as well.
Update all mirrors in one go with: link:push-mirrors[]:
....
./push-mirrors
....
In particular, that script calls link:push-gh-pages[]:
....
./push-gh-pages
....
which is more lightweight and pushes just to GH Pages, so we are going to be using that more often to avoid overloading package managers too much.
There is no need to update package versions or add git tags, all of that gets done automatically by the script!
=== Why attack websites with censored keywords? 用审查词攻击网站有什么用呢？
To <<effective,destroy the firewall>>.
And then <<dictator-needs-gfw,Ciro believes>> that this would also <<why-end-dictatorship,end the dictatorship>>.
The keyword attacks increase the cost of censorship.
Ciro Santilli
committed
If commies censor things, they will get worse IT technology, and thus become <<richer,less rich>> and militarily powerful.
Since all they care about, like any other politicians, is power, the only way to make them stop censorship is to make the cost of censorship higher than not censoring.
Without the threat that China will be less technologically, and therefore militarily advanced, there is no incentive for the CCP to destroy the firewall.
The goal is to put them in a position where they have to choose between either:
* having military power
* remaining a <<dictatorship,dictatorship>>
but not both, since having both means that they will <<war,start WW3 and destroy humanity>>.
Closely related/identical ideas are <<cute-cat-theory-of-digital-activism>> and <<collateral-freedom>>.
[[harm-programmers]]
==== Does Ciro Santilli want to harm the Chinese programmers? 三西猴想要伤害中国程序员吗？
Ciro Santilli
committed
This is not revenge of any kind.
Ciro Santilli
committed
He knows he is harming you in the short term, and he doesn't like that.
But he believes that this harm is a necessary means to reach his real goal, which is to destroy the firewall, and the dictatorship.
Don't you think it is worth a try? Destroying the firewall, would <<why-end-dictatorship,enormously benefit>> not only Chinese programmers, but every single other Chinese person too.
Once the firewall is destroyed, which <<dictator-needs-gfw,may destroy the dictatorship>>, he want China to develop the best science and technology in the world, and <<would-ciro-santilli-like-to-live-in-china>>.
And by the way, with his https://github.com/cirosantilli[extensive contributions to open source software], Ciro is already helping China, and all underdeveloped countries, to become stronger. His hope is that if poor countries become richer and better educated, that they will be less likely to be influenced by the CCP's money, and therefore are more likely to be allies of democracy.
See also: <<disturbs>>.
[[harm-people]]
===== Does Ciro Santilli want to make the Chinese people people look bad?
No, the opposite.
Ciro only wants their <<dictatorship,dictatorial government>> to look bad to destroy it, and help China become <<does-ciro-santilli-hate-china,the most awesome country on Earth>>.
Even the Chinese that are against their own Government <<what-should-pro-democracy-chinese-living-in-china-do-about-the-dictatorship,cannot do much about it openly>>, so it is not their fault.
And even those <<i-like-my-dictatorship,who supported their dictatorship>> must be respected, whoever <<stupid,stupid>> and <<brainwashed-by-usa,brainwashed>> you might think they are, <<democracy-is-a-religion,since it is impossible to prove who is right or wrong in politics>>.
See also: <<about>>.
[[stupid]]
==== Does Ciro Santilli think that the Chinese are stupid or brainwashed? 三西猴觉得中国人是啥子或被洗脑吗？
Obviously not, if you even thought about this, it is likely because of: <<evil-west>>.
Don't you see that this is just pure and simple politics? And likely ineffective one at that: <<effective>>.
* everyone is brainwashed by their environment: <<brainwashed-by-usa,brainwashed>>
* it is impossible to prove who is right or wrong in politics: <<democracy-is-a-religion>>
* not even the CCP is evil: <<ccp-evil>>
Adding censored words to your username: https://stackoverflow.com/users/895245
This only works on websites that show usernames everywhere.
This then leads to your username appearing on thousands of pages, depending on how much you contribute to the website.
It is also possible to do it with images, although this is less effective in taking down websites since images are harder for the firewall to track automatically. But:
* they are more memorable than words
* they also work on websites like GitHub where your real name does not show on most pages, only slug
so maybe the most effective approach is to use both keywords and images to get the best of both worlds ;-)
.<<chrysanthemium-xi-jinping>> has been used by Ciro Santilli as a profile picture censored image attack
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Chrysanthemum_Xi_Jinping_with_black_red_liusi_added_by_Ciro_Santilli.jpg[height=400]
This type of attack is essentially an <<embargo>>.
See also: <<photobombing-like-attacks>>.
[[cute-cat-theory-of-digital-activism]]
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* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cute_cat_theory_of_digital_activism
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/可愛貓理論
Someone told <<ciro-santilli>> a while after he had started doing his <<keyword-attack>> on <<stack-overflow>>, he didn't know about it before, but it is basically what he was doing.
You can never invent anything new anymore nowadays!
This is especially relevant to <<github>>! And GitHub's mascot is also a cat ;-) Some mentions of this:
* 2020-09-09 https://www.wired.com/story/china-github-free-speech-covid-information/
* 2020-09-09 https://www.xataka.com/servicios/github-inesperado-ultimo-reducto-libertad-expresion-gran-firewall-que-pone-jaque-intereses-china
Related:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_activism
===== Collateral Freedom
<<greatfire>> people called a <<cute-cat-theory-of-digital-activism>>-related project of theirs "Collateral Freedom" (a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateral_damage[collateral damage]), in which they seem to be trying to forward censored websites somehow through AWS to force the Chinese Government to block the entire AWS in China:
____
Collateral Freedom ties access to information to the Chinese economy. If [authorities] truly want to block access to this information, then they must give up certain access to economic freedoms.
____
2015 coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/30/greatfire/
There's an useless Wiki page for that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateral_freedom
https://www.theregister.com/2019/05/10/amazon_backtracks_on_s3/ clarifies that on Amazon S3 the question is about:
* `https://s3.amazonaws.com/<bucket_name>/<object_key_name>`
* `https://<bucket_name>.s3.amazonaws.com/<object_key_name>`
the second of which can be easily blocked by domain, but the first can't, and how amazon was planning on killing the first option.
=== Politics should not be posted in technical websites such as GitHub or Stack Overflow 不应该在技术网站例如Stack Overflow和GitHub讨论政治
Is the Chinese government using the Internet the way it was meant to be used, by investing billions in <<censorship>>?
What about <<nine-nine-six-icu>>? Did you also complain about it, or did you just star it like 250k of your fellow programmers?
Any act of protest will use things in ways that it was not meant to be used.
For example, the street is not meant to showcase protest banners, it is meant to be a passageway for cars.
As engineers, we have a moral responsibility towards society. We should not blindly follow orders of those in power if it violates our principles, e.g. build weapons or censorship mechanisms. And we should freely express our principles and violation concerns.
Making a statement where no one will ever see it, like a personal website, is <<effective,sure to have no effect>>.
Much of the best art and technology is about using something in a way that it wasn't meant to be used.
Ciro Santilli
committed
Finally, the political powers of each website decide what is allowed or not on their website, and what is not allowed gets blocked. So far, Stack Overflow and GitHub's Terms of Service have said to go ahead:
<<programthink>> has, of course, a beautiful reply to this at https://github.com/programthink/zhao/tree/e8eea46424549c11792dfe61cf9e7698bdbd7240#致反对此项目的墙内程序员[]:
[[programthink-meant-to-be-used]]
____
本项目上线第二天，就收获 363 个 star 兼 88 个 fork，甚至还挤进 GitHub 的"当日 Trending"——俺很荣幸，也很高兴有这么多人给俺捧场。
但是在本项目的 issue 列表中也看到好几个反对此项目的程序员（应该都来自墙内），他们担心这个项目导致 GitHub 被 GFW 封杀。
这几年来，类似的言论俺已经看了不少。就好比强盗拿刀杀人，围观者不但没有谴责强盗，反而去谴责卖刀的店家——这就是传说中的"link:https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/斯德哥爾摩症候群[斯德哥尔摩综合症]"。
有兴趣的同学，可以看俺之前的博文——《link:https://program-think.blogspot.com/2012/06/stockholm-syndrome.html[天朝民众的心理分析：斯德哥尔摩综合症]》
____
Translation:
____
In reply to: "Programmers behind the <<gfw,GFW>> who are against this project"
The second day after the project went online, it got 363 stars and 88 forks, and even squeezed into GitHub's "Trending repositories of the Day". I am honored and I am so happy that so many people gave me their support.
However, in the issue list of this project, I also saw several programmers who opposed this project (likely all from within the GFW), and they worried that this project would cause GitHub to be blocked by GFW.
Over the past few years, I have read a lot of similar comments. A good comparison would be if a robber were killing someone with a knife, and the onlookers not only did not condemn the robber, but instead condemned the shop that sold the knife. This is the legendary "link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome[Stockholm syndrome]".
Interested people can read my previous blog post: https://program-think.blogspot.com/2012/06/stockholm-syndrome.html["Psychological Analysis of the People of the Heavenly Dynasty: Stockholm Syndrome"].
____
* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Ameant-to-be-used+
* https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina/issues/89
==== Is Ciro Santilli making programming contributions with the main intent of promoting his political agenda?
For example, if that were the case, he would definitely target more widely used technologies, in particular Web and JavaScript, instead of obscure things like C and assembly in which I have spent tons of my time.
Also, <<effective,any attempt to influence a billin people is unlikely to have any effect>>. Much more likely to have any effect, would be for <<ciro-santilli>> to become rich and powerful first, and the best way to do that is to invest in whatever he thinks is most useful.
Actually, it can even be argued that Ciro's somewhat irrational, since he would be much more likely to become rich and powerful by bowing down to the CCP and trying to get their money instead.
On the other hand, becoming rich and powerful is also highly unlikely, so maybe it's justa matter of taking a low-risk low-reward path?
Ciro has have very little free time, and he will never do something for political reasons, only things that interest me technically.
Finally, do you really think he'd be able to do such awesome projects if he had primarily political considerations in mind? XD
===== Is Ciro Santilli making trivial edits on questions just to spam your name further?
No.
Ciro Santilli
committed
I just think that the website is great, and want to push it to perfection, in particular with better Google keyword hits, and uniform grammatically correct titles.
If you think that any of my edits were harmful, please ping me and open a meta thread to discuss specific edits, and I will comply with consensus.
=== Why would China be better without its Dictatorship?
Because it would make China, and the world:
* <<richer,richer>>
* less likely to get into <<war,WW3>>
* <<intolerance,safer for its own citizens>>
==== Why would democracy and freedom of speech make China richer? 言论自由让中国比较富有
There is infinite debate about this out there, some examples:
* https://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2011/05/can-poor-countries-afford-democracy-becker.html (https://web.archive.org/web/20180923192824/https://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2011/05/can-poor-countries-afford-democracy-becker.html[archive])
* https://www.quora.com/Is-democracy-or-authoritarianism-better-for-developing-countries
For:
* dictatorships are more likely to start <<war>> or other <<policies,crazy policies>> like the <<great-leap-forward,Great Leap Forward>>, which completely destroy the economy in one go
* society becomes richer when people know that they can do their startups, get rich, and stay in the country without fear of being persecuted unfairly and losing everything instead of migrating to Canada, see also: <<rule-of-law>>
* it is much harder to fix problems if you can't talk about the. Any criticism of the government, even if constructive, <<censorship,is taken as menace to power, and more likely to be shut down>>, which makes the government and just becomes less efficient since there is less feedback.
This greatly increase the probability of dealing poorly with such problems, see e.g. all the global problems listed at: <<not-chinese>>.
* governments are monopolies, and the more powerful they are, the worst it is for competition an efficiency in general. E.g.: the startup with better government ties wins, instead of the most efficient one.
* people in dictatorships tend to <<real-username-law,hide their true identities online>> and in life in general. It is best not to stand out, because if you make any mistake, you are really fucked. As a result, for example, if you do something awesome like a creating an open source project, but do it anonymously, you won't get as much fame. And therefore everyone does less of such awesome things on average.
Against:
* presidents only care about the 4-8 year horizon, while dictators can make longer term decisions to maintain power forever, their power being limited only by "the people are happy enough to not start a revolution"
* dictatorships can make changes faster without the same amount of discussion that happens in democracies, where power is more spread out.
+
Killing a million people will make us richer? No problem, let's do it.
+
That is great when they make good decisions, but it sucks when they make <<war,bad ones>> more likely.
<<ciro-santilli>> really likes https://web.archive.org/web/20180923192824/https://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2011/05/can-poor-countries-afford-democracy-becker.html[Posners'] way of putting it:
While average rate of growth do not appear to differ much between democracies and authoritarian regimes, the variability in performance does differ more among authoritarian governments. China has had remarkable growth since the 1980s, but the prolonged devastation and hardship produced by China's "<<great-leap-forward>>" (when millions of farmers starved to death) and its Cultural Revolution would unlikely have occurred in a democratic country like say India. Nor is it likely that say Cuba and many African nations would have suffered so long with such terrible economic policies if they had reasonably democratic institutions.
Maybe China was poor because of Mao's crazy communist regime. Similar regimes also made <<russia>> poor. And yes, before that exploitation by the West may have been a factor.
Definitely, the current regime is better than Mao's, but just imagine how rich China could be if it had more freedom and justice.
Imperial China lost the race for the Industrial Revolution. Will another dictatorship be able to stay on top of the next technological revolution?
.XKCD 937 "TornadoGuard" comes to mind in relationship to the <<dictatorship-variability,variable performance of dictatorships>>. https://xkcd.com/937/[Source].
image:https://web.archive.org/web/20200825230502im_/https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tornadoguard.png[height=600]
<<dictatorship,Dictatorships>> need <<censorship>> to survive, and they must control all information to make themselves always look good: <<dictator-needs-gfw>>.
As a result, knowledge of problems flows more slowly, and therefore they also take longer to solve.
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Maybe this hurts the argument, but Hillary agrees: :-)
____
But countries that restrict free access to information or violate the basic rights of internet users risk walling themselves off from the progress of the next century
____
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.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccGzOJHE1rw&t=2110 "Secretary Clinton Speaks on Internet Freedom", U.S. Department of State, 2010-01-22
video::ccGzOJHE1rw[youtube,height=400,width=600,start=2110]
Also mentioned at: link:https://youtube.com/watch?v=d3dE_LDz_9E?t=1681[Google versus China - VPRO documentary - 2011]
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This is also the basis of a <<keyword-attack>>.
This is also well illustrated in the link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_(miniseries)[HBO 2019 miniseries "Chernobyl"], which suggests that part of the reason why Chernobyl happened is because of the Soviet Union's obsession to save face.
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocBVLMHK6c8 Chernobyl supercut scene where the reactor explodes, and a chief engineer "Comrade Dyatlov" accepts the 3.6 Roentgen measurement as "Not great, not terrible" and forwards it to his superiors who take actions based on that, even though the radiation measurement apparatus only goes up to 3.6 Roentgen. Needless to say, the actual radiation was much, much higher: when a proper measurement is made, the value is 15000 Roentgen! The URSS only admitted Chernobyl three days after when Swedish nuclear plant radiation detector alarms started going off. Notably, in order to keep it secret, they for example did not cancel the https://time.com/4313139/post-chernobyl-parade/[International Workers' Day parade in Kharkov, Ukraine which happened five days after the disaster].
video::ocBVLMHK6c8[youtube,height=400,width=600]
.Photo of a CDV-717 radioactivity meter that maxes out at 3.6 Roentgen like the one that would have been used in Chernobyl. https://www.reddit.com/r/ChernobylTV/comments/bnio6n/36_roentgen_on_a_cdv717/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/3_6_Roentgen.jpg[height=400]
This suggestion is even more explicit in the fictional https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Z[World War Z] 2006 novel by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Brooks[Max Brooks] about a <<corona,virus>> outbreak in China. It was later adapted into the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Z_(film)[World War Z (2013)] movie by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramount_Pictures[Paramount]:
* https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jun/04/brad-pitt-china-world-war-z[]: Paramount cowards tried to kowtow and remove references to China from the movie, but it failed
* https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/china-barred-my-dystopian-novel-about-how-its-system-enables-epidemics/2020/02/27/cc0446f0-58e5-11ea-9000-f3cffee23036_story.html[]: no Chinese publisher dared publish the book unless China references were removed, which the author declined, and so the book was not published in China
Or https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/death-statistic/[if you prefer]:
____
The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.
____
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amartya_Sen[Amartya Sen] is another famous proponent of similar arguments in the area of hungers: https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/211/44284.html[] (https://web.archive.org/web/20170722090616/https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/211/44284.html[archive])
____
In democratic countries, even very poor ones, the survival of the ruling government would be threatened by famine, since elections are not easy to win after famines; nor is it easy to withstand criticism of opposition parties and newspapers. That is why famine does not occur in democratic countries. Unfortunately, there are a great many countries in the world which do not yet have democratic systems.
____
although like any other political argument, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/01/arts/does-democracy-avert-famine.html[some disagree].
Virus outbreaks and other natural disasters also illustrate this well: <<corona>>.
===== Censorship makes no one trust your country
Who would trust a government that does not <<censorship,trust its own journalists and citizens>>?
Even democracies cannot be trusted, but dictatorships? No one ever believes what they say, even when it's true.
The boy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Cried_Wolf[just called wolf far too many times].
And as a result, this makes it very difficult to have allies.
Sure, other dictatorships will seem to become allies with your dictatorship and collaborate.
But deep down, you know that they are all just waiting patiently to put a knife in one other's backs.
Dictators will always live in fear.
===== Censorship of the 2019 Corona Virus (2019冠状病毒病早期迹象审查)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_disease_2019
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019冠状病毒病
The Chinese Government censored the initial outbreak in January and did not inform Wuhan on January 8, which likely made the situation much worse than what it could have been.
Good timelines so without a fucking paywall:
* https://www.axios.com/timeline-the-early-days-of-chinas-coronavirus-outbreak-and-cover-up-ee65211a-afb6-4641-97b8-353718a5faab.html "Timeline: The early days of China's coronavirus outbreak and cover-up"
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2019–20_coronavirus_pandemic_in_November_2019_–_January_2020
* 2019-12-27 several genomics companies had sequenced the coronavirus and noticed the similarity to Sars. According to GeneBank, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MT019529[] the sample was collected on and 23-Dec-2019 and published on 04-FEB-2020
* 2020-01-03 findings were sent to the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Center_for_Disease_Control_and_Prevention[Centre for Disease Control] (CDC, https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中国疾病预防控制中心[中国疾病预防控制中心]) in Beijing, but then the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Commission[Chinese National Health Commission] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中华人民共和国国家卫生健康委员会[中华人民共和国国家卫生健康委员会]), China's top medical authority, issued orders to not talk about it and destroy samples
* 2020-01-08 CDC team went to Wuhan to see the situation, was not informed that contagiousness of the disease had been confirmed
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* 2020-01-20 the findings were made public, in an interview with Zhong Nanshan. He later said in an interview that the local government should be blamed:
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video::LK1Pz8FmryM[youtube,height=400,width=600,start=132]
* 2020-05-12: https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-cia-believes-china-tried-stop-who-alarm-pandemic-1503565 CIA people said China stopped the WHO from sounding the alarm from January 24 to January 30, while at the same time stockpiling protection materials
* <<caixin>> article about how early Coronavirus signs were censored:
** https://china.caixin.com/2020-03-10/101526309.html (https://web.archive.org/web/20200317111527/http://china.caixin.com/2020-03-10/101526309.html[archive]) "李文亮所在医院为何医护人员伤亡惨重？" (Why did Li Wenliang's [李文亮] hospital suffer heavy casualties?)
** https://www.caixinglobal.com/2020-02-29/in-depth-how-early-signs-of-a-sars-like-virus-were-spotted-spread-and-throttled-101521745.html (paywall) "In Depth: How Early Signs of a SARS-Like Virus Were Spotted, Spread, and Throttled"
** https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/chinese-scientists-destroyed-proof-of-virus-in-december-rz055qjnj "Chinese scientists destroyed proof of virus in December". Paywall skip: https://archive.md/xOKiu Terrible copy paste of some Caixin article with no sources/precise names.
* https://www.businessinsider.com/china-information-crackdown-on-wuhan-coronavirus-2020-1 "China spent the crucial first days of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak arresting people who posted about it online and threatening journalists" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200124113400/https://www.businessinsider.com/china-information-crackdown-on-wuhan-coronavirus-2020-1?r=US&IR=T[archive])
* https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/g5xykx/you-can-now-go-to-jail-in-china-for-criticizing-beijings-coronavirus-response "You Can Now Go to Jail in China for Criticizing Beijing's Coronavirus Response"
* https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjdn4d/doctors-in-wuhan-are-still-dying-and-beijing-is-still-trying-to-silence-them Ai Fen's (艾芬) report of how the situation was mishandling was censored
* 2020-04-13 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/12/asia/china-coronavirus-research-restrictions-intl-hnk/index.html "Beijing tightens grip over coronavirus research, amid US-China row on virus origin". The Government can now veto papers from being published on the subject of the origin of COVID-19.
Some believe that the Chinese government grossly under-reported death counts. Official figures were about only 3300 deaths, in the insanely densely populated Wuhan area, while Italy had reached 10000 deaths:
* 2020-04-19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr280LWjJT0&t=2198 Trump says on a White House briefing he does not believe China's case count
* 2020-04-01 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/china-concealed-extent-of-virus-outbreak-u-s-intelligence-says CIA speaks
* 2020-03-29 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8165717/Locals-Wuhan-believe-42-000-people-died-coronavirus.html Reports of funerary urns sold
Maybe China is saying the truth this time. Maybe the rapid Dictatorship response worked. But maybe the most important lesson to take out of this is that https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/27/china-loses-trust-internationally-over-coronavirus-handling[no one] trusts <<censorship-makes-no-one-trust-your-country,in a Dictatorship], after an infinitely long history of lies and <<censorship,the lack of freedom of the press>>.
<<li-hongzhi>> of course doubts those number :-) <<falun-gongs-view-of-epidemics>>.
On the other hand, one may argue that the "city closure" measures were stronger/faster than in democracies.
Doctor Li Wenliang (李文亮) reported the virus, but was told by authorities to stay quiet, and later died from the virus, becoming somewhat of a martyr:
* https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/2020/02/【网络民议】你能做到吗？-你听明白了吗？/
The following excerpt from his forced confession trended:
____
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你能做到吗？ +
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Can you manage? +
.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assemblage_(art)[Assemblage] of a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respirator[respirator mask] with a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gag_(BDSM)[BDSM gag ball] attached to it, suggesting that citizen reports of COVID-19 in China have been censored. https://twitter.com/FakeNewsOfChina/status/1221396086033530880[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Covid_gag_mask.jpg[height=600]
.Selfie of Li Wenliang on his hospital bed before he died. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51409801[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Li_Wenliang_covid.jpg[height=400]
.Corona Xi mural of <<xi-jinping>> morphed into a Coronavirus by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lushsux[Lushux]. Fuller composition view: https://twitter.com/lushsux/status/1243830638966235136[]. Reddit called it https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/fqku03/winnie_the_flu/[Winnie the Flu] in a reference to <<winnie-the-pooh>>. https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/fqku03/winnie_the_flu/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Covid_Xi.jpg[height=500]
====== nCovMemory
Popular GitHub repo documenting personal experiences and media reports:
* https://github.com/2019ncovmemory/nCovMemory "新冠肺炎记忆：报道、非虚构与个人叙述" 2020 New coronavirus pneumonia memories: reports, non-fictional and personal accounts.
* https://github.com/memoryhonest/nCovMemory-en translation project
Other interesting GitHub repositories: <<github-repositories-with-censored-information>>.
====== People arrested for reporting on the 2019 Corona Virus
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Qiushi[Chen Qiushi] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/陈秋实_(律师)[陈秋实])
** Twitter: https://twitter.com/chenqiushi404
** YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv361SF6FKznoGPKEFG9Yhw
** https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/09/asia/wuhan-citizen-journalist-intl-hnk/index.html "Chen Qiushi spoke out about the Wuhan virus. Now his family and friends fear he's been silenced"
** 2020-04-18 https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/epgek4/he-traveled-to-wuhan-to-report-on-coronavirus-and-hasnt-been-heard-from-since "He Traveled to Wuhan to Report on Coronavirus – and Hasn't Been Heard From Since"
** https://youtube.com/watch?v=Iwpr55PZEJ8 "Lawyer Chen Qiushi documenting coronavirus epicentre disappears" by <<scmp>>
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video::Iwpr55PZEJ8[youtube,height=400,width=600]
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fang_Bin
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/方斌
** Twitter: https://twitter.com/GuqZJRTOvbqbGub
** YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRItarzSwqakT-EZkSvuy3A
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*** The last YouTube video simply says:
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全民反抗 +
https://zh.m.wiktionary.org/zh-hans/还政于民[还政于民] +
方斌书
____
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which translates as:
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____
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All the people, revolt. +
Return the country (politics) to its people. +
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video::_7VIG2qp0j4[youtube,height=400,width=600]
** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUvBNpkxrJo "Fang Bin is second Chinese citizen journalist to vanish while reporting from coronavirus epicentre" by <<scmp>>
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video::sUvBNpkxrJo[youtube,height=400,width=600]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Zehua[Li Zehua] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/李泽华_(记者)[李澤華])
** YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJHUpBCNKrZwBhxfcIrP8Aw
** Twitter https://twitter.com/kcrissli
** 2020-02-28 https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjdejp/a-chinese-citizen-journalist-covering-coronavirus-just-live-streamed-his-own-arrest
* 2020-04-25: Chen Mei, Cai Wei and his girlfriend, who contributed to <<terminus2049>>
* 2020-04-14: Zhang Zhan (张展)
** https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsNKkvZGMURFmYkfhYa2HOQ
** https://www.scmp.com/video/coronavirus/3084983/coronavirus-chinese-citizen-journalist-detained-after-live-streaming
*** 2020-11-16 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/16/citizen-journalist-facing-jail-in-china-for-wuhan-covid-reporting-zhang-zhan[], finally accused of <<picking-quarrels>>
TODO maybe not arrested but relevant:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fang_Fang[Fang Fang] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/方方_(作家)[方方]) published in 2020 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan_Diary[Wuhan Diary] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/方方日記[方方日記], 方方日记)
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Possible free Chinese version: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGF5YWJvb2suY29tfHd3d3xneDo3ZGUzZWZjZDgyZDkxNjc0 (http://web.archive.org/web/20200720084342/https://doc-10-bk-apps-viewer.googleusercontent.com/viewer/secure/pdf/3nb9bdfcv3e2h2k1cmql0ee9cvc5lole/0cr4s4veutmm50d7alffk68perm7us3s/1595234550000/lantern/%2A/ACFrOgDGbspvoNIJBVI1N2-EwaZHJPCTgPKmJeFaWgposQKpu5Eu0aqwA_CIZfLkobNVy1-xKcxKzw2CMAyxH4aUPjcHsp2w1JB2fwoX1g_39gVGh38SxfK-UrQyhy_3n19wbWhWErj_a41hMVR4?print=true[archive])
[[war]]
==== Why would democracy and freedom of speech make China less likely to start a war?
This has been discussed to death:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_peace_theory
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_Peace:_A_Philosophical_Sketch
Some arguments include:
* the people who will actually fight and die on the front can't vote against it
* dictators have huge power, so if they put it in their heads that they want to start a war, it is much harder for sensible people to stop them
* dictators need <<evil-west,to keep the people in fear all the time to keep their power>>, and a war is a great way to achieve that
Of course China won't say that they are starting a war when they do.
They will of course start with territories which they claim as theirs, to add to <<separatism,other recent additions which were not theirs>> until the recent past, even though their inhabitants desperately want to leave China:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_China–India_skirmishes | https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/beijing-said-to-fund-separatist-india "Beijing Said to Fund Separatist India Movement"
Which reminds us of... <<nazi>>:
* 1939 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleiwitz_incident[Gleiwitz incident], a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag[false flag attack]
* 1938 Annexation of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudetenland[Sudetenland] from Czechoslovakia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_World_War_II explains:
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____
A decisive proximate event was the 1938 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement[Munich Conference], which formally approved Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. Hitler promised it was his last territorial claim, but in early 1939 he became even more aggressive, and European governments finally realized that appeasement was not guaranteeing peace."
____
* 1935-1938 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Causes_of_World_War_II&oldid=968409781#Expansionism_and_militarism comments:
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____
In Italy, Benito Mussolini sought to create a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Empire[New Roman Empire], based around the Mediterranean. It invaded Ethiopia as early as 1935, Albania in early 1938, and later Greece. That provoked angry words and an oil embargo from the League of Nations, which failed.
____
* 1931 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasion_of_Manchuria[1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria], with one false flag event preceding it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident[Mikden Incident].
When China <<evil-west,calls the USA Imperialist>> (帝国主义), there is of course some truth to it, but it is also very ironic, because as https://youtu.be/GiVs05yq9-o?t=74[Lindybeige mentions], China is obviously the largest empire on Earth! Despite its <<xinjiang,uniformization>> efforts, China is highly diverse since it is obviously made up of a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_China[large stitched up carpet of nations that were conquered by a single empire]. E.g. <<xinjiang>> translates literally as "The New Frontier"! Not to mention obviously the Qin unification of the <<warring-states-period>>.
===== The United States has recently started several wars and killed millions!
Not even democracies can fully protect people from other countries, because they don't vote. Yes, congratulations, <<western-democracies-are-not-perfect>>.
But if the USA were a <<dictatorship,dictatorship like China>> it would kill way more, because it would censor every report against the war internally to its own people, and the wars would just go on like in <<nineteen-eighty-four-war-is-peace>>.
How many times do we have to bring <<nazi,Hitler>> up? 70-85 million deaths in one go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties
The only reason China has not started wars is because it is a poor country, and it would lose them. If it were rich, it would have started more wars and killed 100 times more people.
Finally, some wars are good.
If a country is oppressed by a dictatorship, and most of its people want to be free, it might be right to help them be free.
If a country sponsors terrorism, it might be a good idea to take out their Government.
This has to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis, and maybe a verdict will never be reached. But at least in a democracy the people can decide based on varied information. In a dictatorship, whatever the dictator decides happens.
Also, most of those small wars that he USA started end up being https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_war[proxy wars] between the USA and <<russia>>/China, with the USA pushing for democracy, and Russia/China pushing for more dictatorships.
==== The Chinese masses are still uneducated, and not fit for free speech and democracy 中国大众愚昧，不能好好选领导
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When will they be ready? Who decides? What if they think that they are <<tiananmen,ready now>>?
In George Bernard Shaw's "Maxims for Revolutionists" words:
____
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for <<corruption,appointment by the corrupt few>>.
____
Many democracy supporters jokingly recognize democracy's shortcomings.
A https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-141/red-herrings-famous-quotes-churchill-never-said/[fake Churchill quote]:
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The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.
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Art Spander:
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The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid.
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Laurence J Peter:
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Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.
____
===== The Chinese masses are not interested in politics and therefore not ready to vote
But how would they be interested in politics or be able to discuss it, if it is <<dissidents,impossible to have a different view without going to jail>>?
What about the <<tiananmen,1 million people in Tiananmen>> and the 70 million <<falun-gong>> followers? Did they not care?
[[overlook-human-rights-for-profit]]
==== As long as China is developing economically, it is fine to violate the human rights of a few million people
This argument can be made, but it is a risky way to live: <<intolerance>> and borderline <<nazi>>.
Do the <<violence,ends always justify the means>>?
What is the point of having all that wealth, when you risk <<rule-of-law,being put into jail for unfair reasons>>?
<<ciro-santilli>> argues that China would be even richer if it weren't for the CCP: <<richer>>, and that the CCP only violates people's human rights as a tool to stay in power: <<ccp-evil>>.
.<<rebel-pepper>> cartoon about a pig who does not care about politics because it cannot be eaten. 民主又不能当饭吃 https://twitter.com/remonwangxt/status/1131398147253710850[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Pig_politics_Chinese.jpg[height=600]
.Translation by Ciro Santilli of the Rebel Pepper cartoon about the pig who does not care about politics because it cannot be eaten.
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Rebel_pepper_pig_can%27t_eat_democracy_cartoon_translated_to_English_by_Ciro_Santilli.jpg[height=600]
.https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shut-up-and-take-my-money[Shut up and take my freedom] meme by <<ciro-santilli>>.
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Shut_up_and_take_my_freedom.jpg[height=400]
[[corruption]]
==== Democracies have less corruption than dictatorships
One of the key points of <<xi-jinping,Xi Jinping's>> governments has been to quench corruption. And use that as an excuse to get rid of rivals while at it.
However, there is one much better solution to that: democracy and freedom of speech.
The reason is obvious: with censorship, <<chinese-politicians-really-care-about-the-chinese-citizens,corrupt politicians>> can <<internal-censorship,censor>> anything bad that they did, and so it becomes much harder to destroy corruption.
In George Bernard Shaw's "Maxims for Revolutionists" words:
____
Democracy substitutes election <<uneducated-masses,by the incompetent many>> for appointment by the corrupt few.
* 2020 Ren Zhiqiang
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren_Zhiqiang
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/任志强
** https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/22/asia/china-ren-zhiqiang-xi-jinping-intl-hnk/index.html "Chinese tycoon who criticized Xi Jinping's handling of <<corona,coronavirus>> jailed for 18 years"
* 2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ling_Jihua[Ling Jihua] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/令计划[令计划]): son died in Ferrari crash with two women on the car, which put the spotlight on him
* 2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Xilai[Bo Xilai] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/薄熙来[薄熙来]): trigerred by the murder of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Heywood[Neil Heywood], of which Bo's wife was accused
Related events:
* <<panama-papers>>
===== Operation Fox Hunt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fox_Hunt
Trying to prevent corruption is fine, but violating the laws of other countries in doing so, or the <<rule-of-law>> of their family is not.
Publicized by China itself: <<china-daily>> http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2015-11/05/content_22375920.htm
* 2020-10-28 "Eight Individuals Charged With Conspiring to Act as Illegal Agents of the People's Republic of China" https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/eight-individuals-charged-conspiring-act-illegal-agents-people-s-republic-china
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[[liu-changming]]
====== The detention of Liu Changming's (刘昌明) family (2018)
China imposed an exit ban on the ex-official's family, who are also USA citizens:
* officer Liu Changming (刘昌明)
* wife Sandra Han
* children Victor Liu (born July 1999 in the USA) and Cynthia Liu (27 in 2019, born in China, but also American citizen)
China says that the children and wife do have valid Chinese documents, so maybe those idiots did not give up their Chinese citizenship and went to China. Why, why, why would you do that? Don't they know anything about China?
Cynthia claimed her father has left home a long time ago and that they are not in contact with their father.
Liu is a so called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_official[naked official] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/裸官[裸官]), who let his family go live outside of China to prevent such problems with the CCP.
The wiki page also explains that in 2014 rules were added to prevent promotion of officials whose spouses live abroad.
This reminds Ciro of a Mafia movie, maybe Godfather II, where the bad guy says he "likes doing business with a man that has a family, because he has more collateral".
Coverage:
* 2018-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/liu-changming-china-holds-officials-family-hostage-to-force-return-2018-11
.2019-05-09 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2hBtXdaYsQ Cynthia Liu, daughter of Liu Changming (刘昌明) pleas freedom on YouTube. Commented upload by CBS, TODO can't find original video on YouTube, maybe they sent straight to CBS?
video::t2hBtXdaYsQ[youtube,height=400,width=600]
[[effective]]
=== Will the keyword attacks really help to destroy the firewall?
It is both unlikely, and hard to be sure.
Just like it is unlikely that the activity of on individual can have a big influence in any group of 1 billion people.
Every action is statistical: I just push the balance a little bit towards freedom.
This FAQ and any talk is useless. You and I are wasting our time here.
The possibility of blocking Stack Overflow and GitHub is 1000x more useful than any talk, but it is still useless.
However, potentially blocking those websites takes <<better-to-do,0 of my time>>, I just leave the content there, so it is worth my time.
To have an idea, in 2015 there are about:
* 20M developers in the world
* 2M in China : https://www.quora.com/Approximately-how-many-programmers-are-there-in-the-world https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/european-technology/there-are-185-million-software-developers-in-the-world-but-which-country-has-the-most/
* 5M Stack Overflow users https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/227868/select-count-from-users
* TODO I wonder what percentage of GDP those programmers control. I'll bet any programmer on Stack Overflow is at least 5x more powerful than the average Chinese.
And if we never start somewhere, nothing will ever happen.
Furthermore, even if the <<gfw,GFW>> falls, it is not clear that this will imply the end of the dictatorship: <<effective>>.
Even if it is not, it does not matter, since <<ciro-santilli>> spends so little time doing it: <<better-to-do>> and has fun in doing it.
.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Cards_(American_TV_series)[House of Cards] S01E02 "Nobody can hear you. Nobody cares about you. Nothing will come of this." GIF. https://houseoflessons.tumblr.com/post/43967209684/on-protesters-nobody-can-hear-you-nobody-cares[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Nobody_can_hear_you.gif[height=400]
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==== Embargoes make dictatorships stronger (禁运使独裁更强大)
The <<keyword-attack,keyword attack>> is basically an embargo.
Ciro Santilli
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There is already a lot of literature about this, especially in the cases of Cuba and North Korea. It is basically a libertarian vs conservative/Cato vs Heritage thing in the US:
* https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/no-embargo-harms-cubans-gives-castro-excuse-policy-failures-regime
* https://www.heritage.org/trade/report/why-the-cuban-trade-embargo-should-be-maintained
* https://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_big_idea/2006/08/thanks_for_the_sanctions.html
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The key dilemma is:
* if we keep contact with the Dictatorship, maybe its people will see that democracy is better and start a liberating revolution
* if we keep giving technology to the Dictatorship and it does not become a democracy, we are making a Dictatorship more technologically advanced, and therefore <<war,dangerous>>
Some interesting aspects of the keyword attack embargo:
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* it is immediately self-enforcing: we don't need politicians to decide and enforce the complex "if you do this, we punish you like that" question.
By political and technological information is together, and this immediately puts the dictatorship in a bad spot, without us having to decide anything.
* by affecting programmers in particular through Stack Overflow and GitHub, we make them more likely to develop better <<censorship-circumvention,Firewall climbing>> tools themselves
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One point in favor of the embargo is that China has opened up since the '80s '90s, but did freedom improve at all? Under <<xi-jinping>>, it may be argued that it did not, and maybe that we should just stop feeding them technology and accept that they won't become free.
Trump's link:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/02/trump-banning-huawei-beginning-of-biggest-trade-war-ever-united-states[2019 China trade war], and in particular the <<huawei>> ban, is an event that has brought this question to the spotlight once again.
===== Keyword attacks could be used by certain CCP political groups to justify blocking off the entire external Internet, and make the dictatorship even more pervasive
It is a risk, but it would make China drastically <<richer,less powerful>>, so at least they wouldn't be able to start or sustain <<war,WW3>>. So I don't think it will go that way.
[[so-block-cost]]
==== Stack Overflow and GitHub could be blocked at no cost by the Chinese government
Ciro Santilli
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Hitting the block button has, of course, no cost.
The cost of blocking Stack Overflow lies of course in the loss of information, and slower technological development, see also: <<why-keyword-attack>>
Remember that it is not possible for the Chinese government to block only certain pages of HTTPS websites due to encryption: either the entire IP/domain name is blocked, or nothing.
The 2019 <<nine-nine-six-icu>> event however brought to my attention that Chinese (usually WebKit-based) browsers are already censoring HTTPS websites selectively of course, see e.g.: https://github.com/996browser/996.BROWSER/tree/77f28a36a862e3cc4d238dc47c19872156096bc4
But Ciro doubt developers use those browsers, right? The only way would be for China to forbid foreign browsers entirely.
BTW, <<ensi>> brings a whole new dimension to HTTPS by encrypting the domain name as well!
There was no clear evidence of that as of April 2020: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/267715/is-stack-overflow-accessible-in-china/288497#288497
It worth noting however 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.
For example, Stack Overflow relied on Google for some of its JavaScript and on Imgur for images, both of which are blocked in China.
[[disturbs]]
==== Keyword attack profiles disturb me
But isn't it better to be annoyed than having <<war,war>>, <<richer,being poor>> or <<xinjiang,put into jail unfairly>>?
If the truth is too much for you to bear, worry not, you can use either:
* Greasyfork browser extensions
** https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/32236-stackoverflow净化器 "StackOverflow净化器" (Stack Overflow cleanup)
*** GitHub user with the same username: https://github.com/EternalPhane
*** https://web.archive.org/web/20181211094818/https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/32236-stackoverflow%E5%87%80%E5%8C%96%E5%99%A8
*** https://web.archive.org/web/20181211094917/https://greasyfork.org/en/forum/discussion/47981
** 2020-07-09 https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/406756-ciro-santilli "Ciro Santilli"
*** https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/406756-ciro-santilli/discussions/53697
*** Some possible authors (of course, with that name, there must be 10 thousand Chinese people at least):
**** https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/users/156741/li-xiaodong
**** https://github.com/DoyleLi from Intel
* a custom ad terminator expression shown at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/87 `stackoverflow.com##a[href="/users/895245/ciro-santilli-%e6%96%b0%e7%96%86%e6%94%b9%e9%80%a0%e4%b8%ad%e5%bf%83%e6%b3%95%e8%bd%ae%e5%8a%9f%e5%85%ad%e5%9b%9b%e4%ba%8b%e4%bb%b6"]`
Another good option is to use the trusty <<cac-report-website>>.
Installing any of those immediately give you <<social-credit-system,10 Sesame Points>>, <<xi-abolishes-term-limits-2018-03,习万岁>>.
See also: <<harm-programmers>>.
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwCyQINNXwE "What is more obscene: sex or war?" scene from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_People_vs._Larry_Flynt[The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)]. Ciro just can't stop thinking about that scene when someone tells him that <<disturbs,his profile disturbs them>>. What is more obscene? <<xi-jinping-memes>> or human rights violations?
video::SRPiE59e8NU[youtube,height=400,width=600]
=== Non-Chinese people should not interfere in Chinese politics (外国人不应该干预中国政治)
* For better or worse, China and other countries happen to be located in the same planet.
If China's <<richer,economy>> is bad, the economy gets worse in other countries.
If China's <<howey-ou,environment is bad>>, the environment gets worse in other countries.
If China <<war,starts a war>>, other countries will have to fight it.
If China <<corona,fails to control a viral outbreak>>, other countries might get infected.
* <<tiananmen,Millions of Chinese people>> disagree with their government, but can't say anything about it, otherwise <<t-shirt,they will go straight to jail>>. See also: xref:most-chinese-people-like-their-dictatorship[xrefstyle=full]
* The CCP would likely not be in power today if the Japanese hadn't weakened the Guomindang and the link:https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/how-stalin-elevated-the-chinese-communist-party-to-power-xinjiang-1949[Soviet Union helped out Mao]:
+
** https://www.quora.com/How-much-is-Japan-to-blame-for-the-KMT-losing-control-of-the-Chinese-mainland
** https://china-journal.org/2018/02/26/why-did-chiang-kai-shek-lose-china-the-guomindang-regime-and-the-victory-of-the-chinese-communist-party
And China would be much much less technologically advanced had it come in contact with the West, from which it is still trying to learn/steal from: <<university-espionage>>.
Foreign influence can be both good or bad.
* Chinese people have been brainwashed by the <<evil-west,commies who say that all foreigners are bad>>, more than the West has been brainwashed to think that he CCP is bad: <<brainwashed-by-usa>>
* China would never ever try to influence foreign countries, would it? E.g. <<belt-and-road-initiative>>, <<confucius-institute>>, <<cgtn>>.
* If I <<wife,marry a Chinese woman>>, my <<ciro-santilli-mother-in-law-jail,mother-in-law might be unfairly put in jail>> :-)
In the end, this is what all politics comes down to: power.
In some sense, this may be similar to the CCP and any other political party.
+
But conversely: <<effective>>.
+
.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Cards_(American_TV_series)[House of Cards] S01E02 "Nobody can hear you. Nobody cares about you. Nothing will come of this." GIF. https://houseoflessons.tumblr.com/post/43967209684/on-protesters-nobody-can-hear-you-nobody-cares[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Nobody_can_hear_you.gif[height=400]
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=SRPiE59e8NU House of Cards S01E02 Officer: "Some guy was trying to get into the building, when we said "no" he started tearing his clothes off." Frank: "Nobody can hear you. Nobody cares about you. Nothing will come of this. Why don't you let these nice gentlemen take you home?" video clip. Interpretation: https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/94608/what-can-we-make-out-of-the-final-scene-from-house-of-cards-season-1-ep-2
Why don't you go instead <<shitpost,shitpost>> in one of the following repositories and which are written in Chinese by Chinese citizens, many of which have many times more stars than china-dictatorship, and therefore <<keyword-attack,are much more effective at taking down the GFW>>? <<github-repositories-with-censored-information>>.
Duplicate pool: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Ayou-are-not-chinese-argument
[[brainwashed-by-usa]]
==== Non-Chinese people have been brainwashed by the USA know nothing about China
Everyone is "brainwashed" by their environment.
E.g. people in the West are brainwashed to believe in democracy, freedom of speech and human rights.
<<ciro-santilli>> doesn't doubt that Chinese people know more about China than him.
Saying that "someone is not Chinese, he does not understand China", is just an useless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem[ad hominem] argument and closely related to <<not-chinese>>.
Since you know so much about China, why why don't you just actually prove your point by teaching Ciro one single interesting about China that Ciro didn't know about? He loves learning new things.
But please, link to reference material instead of just saying it, it will be much more convincing.
But if you are Chinese, also consider that you have been brainwashed by the commies, so likely much more than Ciro since you live in a dictatorship.
See also: <<western-democracies-are-not-perfect>>.
[[evil-west]]
==== The commies exaggerate the threat of the West to keep in power
First, obviously, <<western-democracies-are-not-perfect>>.
However, the CCP greatly exaggerates how evil the West is, because making your people constantly afraid is a classic strategy used by dictators to stay in power.
Or in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fable[fable] form:
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____
Once upon a time, there was a farmer with a farm.
One day, the animals on the farm started feeling a bit trapped, and started bumping against the fence to get out.
The farmer, however, was smart, and told the animals:
_____
Careful! There is a wolf outside! If you go out, you will be eaten by the wolf!
_____
The animals, were not that smart, and listened to the farmer, they were afraid!
From time to time, one of the animals would disappear (and without their knowledge, reappear on the farmer's dinner table).
But the farmer kept giving the animals delicious food without them making any effort, so they decided to believe the farmer's explanation that animal had escaped and been eaten by the wolf.
Maybe, there was actually a wolf outside. But if they had escaped, only some of the animals would have been eaten by that wolf.
But by staying on the farm, all the animals were, sooner or later, eaten one by one.
____
TODO source.
This theme is also highlighted in many well known works/events.
North Korea for example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_North_Korea[China's good and trusty friend], is just a caricatural level of this, since it manages to be more a <<dictatorship,dictatorship>> than even China itself!
In fiction, <<nineteen-eighty-four>> is undoubtedly the most prominent example, in which the Party constantly switches from being at <<war,war>> with one country to the other in a never ending https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_war[perpetual war] (exactly like North Korea vs South Korea, or China vs <<taiwan>>).
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One of the best related quotes comes in Part Two, Chapter 9 when Winston reads Emmanuel Goldstein's subversive text, one of the chapters contains (emphasis by Ciro):
[[nineteen-eighty-four-war-is-peace]]
____
The war, therefore, if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are set at such an angle that they are incapable of hurting one another. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that a hierarchical society needs. **War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair**. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact. The very word 'war', therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist. The peculiar pressure that it exerted on human beings between the Neolithic Age and the early twentieth century has disappeared and been replaced by something quite different. The effect would be much the same if the three super-states, instead of fighting one another, should agree to live in perpetual peace, each inviolate within its own boundaries. For in that case each would still be a self-contained universe, freed for ever from the sobering influence of external danger. A peace that was truly permanent would be the same as a permanent war. This--although the vast majority of Party members understand it only in a shallower sense--is the inner meaning of the Party slogan: WAR IS PEACE.
____
This is also the first line of the party slogan, which perfectly resonates with the CCP:
____
WAR IS PEACE +
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY +
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
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or in Part One, Chapter 3:
____
Since about that time, war had been literally continuous, though strictly speaking it had not always been the same war. For several months during his childhood there had been confused street fighting in London itself, some of which he remembered vividly. But to trace out the history of the whole period, to say who was fighting whom at any given moment, would have been utterly impossible, since no written record, and no spoken word, ever made mention of any other alignment than the existing one. At this moment, for example, in 1984 (if it was 1984), Oceania was at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia. In no public or private utterance was it ever admitted that the three powers had at any time been grouped along different lines. Actually, as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia. But that was merely a piece of furtive knowledge which he happened to possess because his memory was not satisfactorily under control. Officially the change of partners had never happened. Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.
____
The theme is also mentioned in <<v-for-vendetta>>, where a <<corona,viral outbreak>> is used by governments to increase their power over the people.
Duplicate pool: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Aevil-west+
Bibliography:
* https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md
.French political cartoon from 1898 by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Meyer[Henri Meyer] showing leaders of Western powers, Russia and Japan splitting up China between them. The CCP would arguably <<not-chinese,not have raised to power if not due to Japanese interference>>. Maybe the West deserves the CCP they helped create. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:China_imperialism_cartoon.jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/China_imperialism_cartoon.jpg[height=500]
=== Ciro Santilli and this page are completely biased against the Chinese Government!
<<ciro-santilli>> prefers the term focused :-)
That being said, <<ciro-santilli>> takes the agenda of information sources very seriously.
E.g. he tries to clearly classify <<biased-media,Communist Party, Falun Gong, and Western government-linked information sources>>.
If we had more <<western-democracies-are-not-perfect>> content, then maybe this repository would be considered a more reputable source by Chinese people.
However, there are a few practical problems to that:
* there is freedom of speech in the West and people can already see that information on newspapers who have a million times more viewers than this repo (and still obviously no conclusion was reached), there's no need to repeat that here
+
Conversely, bad China news are always OK because, because those are all censored in China and help Chinese people learn about it.
* flooding <<evil-west>> posts is a primary <<wumao>> tactic
* <<evil-west>> information is already abundantly accessible to Chinese people in Chinese via any CCP media: <<chinese-government-media>>.
* <<preconceived,people's minds cannot be changed>>, and notably <<effective,not in a language that most people of a country don't understand>>. This is why the primary goal of this repo is the <<keyword-attack>>: it does not require changing people's opinions.
For those reasons, we currently forbid, posting several evil-West news without explaining why dictatorships handle it better. It would just generates more noise than signal.
If you do explain however why dictatorships/China handle it better, then the post is welcome.
Any political material that is censored by any country besides China, will also be readily accepted.
Any evidence of positive political progress towards freedom will also be added to this repo, e.g. people openly discussing politics online, human rights activists doing political stuff and not being put into jail, etc.
==== Ciro Santilli's claim to the Qing Dynasty throne 三西猴清朝皇帝觊觎
Ciro Santilli's <<wife>>, her mother, and paternal cousin, believe that Ciro's wife is the descendant of the brother of a recent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qing_dynasty[Qing emperor] through her father's family.
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Although they have not been able to produce concrete evidence, which could be explained by the endless political turmoils in 20th century China, Ciro decided that this would be a good bet to take, and married her anyway.
If anyone is able to provide further evidence of this relationship, please, please, please get in touch.
One thing to keep in mind is that the Qing dynasty, like the previous Ming dynasty, used https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_name[Generation names] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/行辈[行辈]), such that the first character of the given name is the same for all people in a given generation (counted directly from the first emperor that adopted the rule.
For example, this wiki page contains a good family tree of the most important Qing people: link:++https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree_of_Chinese_monarchs_(late)#Qing_dynasty++[] and we see that many important people around 1861 were Zai 載something, e.g.: Zaichun, Zaiyi, Zaitian, etc.
The last emperor was Puyi, so Pu is the last well known mark. But there were others planned that never got used for after him as shown at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisin_Gioro#List_of_generation_prefixes[].
* Zai (before Pu)
* Pu (wife's great-grandfather)
* Yu (wife's grandfather)
* Heng (wife's father)
* Qi (wife)
* Dao (wife's children). At least one thing is decided from this: Ciro's children Chinese names will all be Ai Dao Something.
The family tree that Ciro has reconstructed orally from his mother-in-law is:
* Ciro's wife:
** Father: Ai Dayi (艾大义) born: 1932 in Shenyang
*** Father: Ai Xikang (艾锡康) So why did he not use Yu?
**** Father: Ai Pushan (艾溥?), so the Pu character is presumed from the generation name, to be the same generation as Puyi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaitao has a Pushen (溥伸), but he died at 13 years old in 1928, so its not the one.
**** Younger brother 2: Ai Xiyuan (艾锡?) Professor at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeastern_University_(China) Apparently had no Children.
**** Younger brother 3: Ai Xicong (艾锡?) Graduated in law in Japan in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waseda_University[Waseda University] Was the top official of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Police_Agency_(Japan) in China when it was occupied by Japan (警察廳长) Passed first by Taiwan.
**** Younger brother 4: Ai Xiying (艾锡?)
**** Younger brother 5: Ai Xifu (艾锡?) Together with Ai Xiying, they were went to the Republic of China Military Academy and were high ranking officials in the war against the Japanese in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War[] (八年抗战). Later was a congressman in Taiwan.
** Younger sister: Ai Shiping (艾世？)
** Older brother: Zhao Yingjie. Studied law in Japan also at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waseda_University[Waseda University].
Many of them have had different names in different places/countries, notably many used the name 肇(Zhao) rather than 艾.
Further anecdotal indicators follow.
Ciro's wife and family are clearly of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchu_people[Manchu ethnicity] just by looking at them, and they originally lived in the North East of China
His wife's family name is the very unusual 艾, pronounced "ai4", which she claims is a reference to the 愛(also pronounced ai4) in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisin_Gioro[愛新覺羅], which is the name of the Manchu ruling clan of the Qing dynasty.
Ciro's father-in-law, who he barely met, was very old when he had his daughter, and passed away before Ciro could talk a lot with him, which is consistent with the claims that he spent several years in jail during <<mao-zedong,Mao's>> purges, see also: <<wife>>.
Bibliography:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_of_the_House_of_Aisin_Gioro
* https://www.zhihu.com/question/34813921 现在清朝皇室的后代现状如何？ What is the current status of the descendants of the Qing royal family?
* https://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-descendants-of-the-Qing-Dynasty-left-currently
* https://arxiv.org/pdf/1412.6274.pdf "Y Chromosome of Aisin Gioro, the Imperial House of Qing Dynasty" unknown year. Unfortunately Ciro's wife does not have an Y chromosome like her father. This does however mention the book used as a genealogy reference: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/愛新覺羅宗譜.html?id=Pj4EAQAAIAAJ 愛新覺羅宗譜 On Douban: https://book.douban.com/subject/4162448/ gives ISBN 9787507713428 On Amazon unavailable: https://www.amazon.com/dp/7507713423
.Ciro Santilli's portrait as Qing emperor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:清_郎世宁绘《清高宗乾隆帝朝服像》.jpg[Original image].
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Ciro_Santilli_portrait_as_Qing_emperor.jpg[height=600]
==== Ciro Santilli has a preconceived opinion about China that cannot be changed 三西猴对中国成见很深，无法改变
<<ciro-santilli>> tries to justify why he think China would be <<richer,better with democracy>>, but I know that ultimately all of this is useless.
Everyone's opinions are all determined genetically and by <<brainwashed-by-usa,bring-up>>, and there is nothing he can do to change yours, or you change his.
From that point of view, all of this is just a cold blooded political game, in which Ciro tries to force the CCP to take down the Firewall: <<why-keyword-attack>>.
Ciro never gets mad about China, even if your opinion is contrary to his, and therefore wrong.
Using the <<reply-policy,reply policy>> is one of the reasons why Ciro never gets mad.
Ciro also has doubts about the efficiency of certain things I do as expressed throughout this FAQ, e.g. <<embargo>>.
In the end, he just end up thinking about new replies to things people say to him, and add them to this FAQ so that future replies will be faster to copy paste. See also: <<better-to-do>>.
The real goal of any online discussion, is not to convince people, but rather to determine who is an ally and who is not, and get those allies together to defeat the commies.
[[flg-bias]]
==== Does Ciro Santilli support FLG just because his wife and mother-in-law do it?
Not consciously, Ciro thinks would likely support them even if I didn't have family ties to <<falun-gong>>.
Likely he wouldn't have started this campaign if he didn't know them of course.
But of course, this is impossible to answer objectively.
Wouldn't you be rather upset if your <<ciro-santilli-mother-in-law-jail,mother in law were put into jail unfairly for 15 days>>?
But don't you think that <<flg-important,**70 million** people (6% of the total population in 2000!)>> getting completely squashed by the Party illustrates extremely well the dangers of the dictatorship?
Or if a <<nazi,Jew has escaped a concentration camp>> and told the world about its horrors, would you just dismiss their claims due to their biased opinion?
With that in mind, Ciro tries his best to give FLG only the right level of exposure I think it deserves relative to other events, according to these guidelines: <<keyword-choice>>.
Ciro Santilli
committed
If more recent events of mass human rights violations happen, especially affecting in the order of tens of million people, I will probably rank higher than Falun Gong, this was the case for <<xinjiang,Xinjiang in 2019>> for example, even though it only affected a measly million.
==== Why did Ciro Santilli start his keyword attack?
Ciro Santilli
committed
The last straw that led <<ciro-santilli>> to start the <<keyword-attack>> on <<stack-overflow>> was when on March 2015 his girlfriend's mother was arbitrarily kept 15 days in jail for doing <<falun-gong>>. He posted about this at:
* https://twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/579270450984984576
* https://www.facebook.com/cirosantilli/posts/952661734753174
He then continued because he hate political <<censorship,censorship>>, and because <<does-ciro-santilli-hate-china,I love China>>.
Every time Ciro thinks about this, he notices how stupid humans are. We see the forest fire smoke, and just never think that it will ever reach your home on the border of the forest.
Until it actually does, and then you are really fucked.
So in a sense it was a good thing that Ciro had this little backyard fire with this mother-in-law, as it woke him up further to how serious the CCP thread was, and led him to action.
Because before that, he was one of the majority who just constantly hears about the increasing mountain of evidence of human rights violations, and does nothing about it.
The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkest_Hour_(film)[Darkest Hour (2017) film] comes to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA1Uz_TMzhs[]. The movie shows that Britain was truly hesitant whether to negotiate or fight Hitler, even after the Nazis had already started invading other European countries, and would clearly not stop. Luckily, we are not at a position of war yet, and might never be due to nuclear weapons. But still, a similar blindness applies. <<corona>> woke up many people, but even then some haven't faced it.
[[ciro-santilli-mother-in-law-jail]]
===== Ciro Santilli's post when his mother-in-law was put into jail
Maybe some people would be happy if their mother-in-law were put into jail. But unfortunately, this wasn't the case for <<ciro-santilli>>.
.<<ciro-santilli>> with his soon-to-be mother-in-law before his wedding in 2017. Annoying? Sometimes. But threat to the fucking Chinese State? How fucked does your political system have to be for the answer to be a "yes"?
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Ciro_Santilli_with_his_mother_in_law_during_his_wedding_in_2017.jpg[height=600]
====== Jail post en
My girlfriend's mother, a 63 year old lady, was kept 15 days inside a Chinese "correctional facility" because she does Falun Gong.
She had to stay all the time in a small room with a bed and a toilet, under video surveillance, being fed three meager meals a day.
I see Falun Gong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong as just another <<flg-religion,moderate religion>> which causes no harm to its believers. The only reason that it is unofficially outlawed in China is because the communists fear it as a political competitor.
There was no trial and no explanation. She was going to take a train to visit her sister. But she didn't know that there was an important political event happening in the capital: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_National_People's_Congress So the police at the station, who already knew she did Falun Gong, took her away.
When she came back home, the house had been searched and was all messed up. Her religious books and computer were missing.
I'm glad she was not physically harmed. I find it fascinating how even well educated Chinese support a government which simply does not represent some of its people. How will you feel <<intolerance,when something like that happens to your own family, and there is nothing you can do about it>>?
====== Jail post zh
Translation by <<why-does-ciro-santilli-love-china-so-much,my wife>>:
我女朋友的母亲，一位63岁的女士被监禁在一个中国的"劳教所"，只因为她炼法轮功。
她被迫待在一个小屋子里面，只有一张床和一个排泄的地方，一直处在监视器下，每天两个窝头一碗只有几个白菜叶的汤。
我看过法轮功https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong 只是一个和平的信仰，对相信它的人没有任何坏处。它在中国被非官方的定为违法（其实没有一项明确法律禁止），唯一的原因就是工产党害怕它是一个政治竞争对手。
没有审讯没有任何解释。她正准备坐火车去看她的姐姐。但是她并不知道那个时候有重要的政治会议正在首都进行：https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_National_People's_Congress
所以那些知道她炼法轮功的铁路警察把她带走了。
当她回到家中时，房子被搜查过了，四处一切混乱。她的信仰书籍和电脑都没有了。
我很庆幸的是她身体并没有受到伤害。我觉得很意思的是一些受过良好教育的中国人怎么能够迫害一部分它的人民的政府呢？如果这样的事情发生在你的家庭，而你什么都不能做，你会怎么想？
====== Jail post pt
Translation by myself:
A mãe da minha namorada ficou 15 dias num "centro de correção" chines porque ela faz Falun Gong.
Ela ficou o tempo todo num quarto pequeno com uma cama e banheiro, sobe videovigilância, recebendo 3 refeições pequenas por dia.
Para mim, o Falun Gong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong é apenas mais uma religião moderada que não causa nenhum problema para seus crentes. A única razão pela qual ele é proibido na China é porque os comunistas tem medo dele como competidor politico.
Não houve julgamento nem explicação. Ela ia pegar um trem para ver sua irmã, mas ela não sabia que teria um evento político importante na capital: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_National_People's_Congress Então a polícia da estação, que já sabia que ela faz Falun Gong pegou ela.
Quando ela voltou pra casa, a casa tinha sido procurada pela polícia e estava uma bagunça. Os livros religiosos e seu computador foram confiscados.
Eu fico feliz apenas que ela não sofreu abuso físico. Eu acho fascinante como mesmo muitos chineses educados apoiam ainda um governo que não representa parte do povo. Como você vai se sentir quando algo do tipo acontecerá com a sua família, e você não pode fazer nada sobre isso?
===== Further details about Ciro Santilli's mother-in-law's persecution
March 2015: 15 days in jail for no reason: https://www.facebook.com/cirosantilli/posts/952661734753174
June 2017: 3 cops came to her house. She was there. They asked if she still did Falun Gong. She said yes. They took photos of her Falun Gong books / posters. They were polite.
October 2017: 7 - 8 cops came to her house _at 11PM_. They knocked the door strongly and made noise, and questioned neighbours of her whereabouts. Luckily she was not there.
=== China is fine as it is, stop making it worse
Welcome to the wonderful world of democracy, a world where people can have different political opinions than you :-)
If you are so fine, why are you reading this at all? Go back to being fine.
See also:
* <<why-end-dictatorship>>
* <<preconceived>>
[[i-like-my-dictatorship]]
==== I like my Dictatorship 我喜欢我的独裁统治
It must feel good to have <<li-hongzhi,absolute truth>> in the <<ccp-cult,Cult of Xi>>, and let the black police <<against-censorship-and-flg,get rid of weirdos for you>>.
But when the dictatorship turns again you our your family, will you fight, or will you just let them do whatever they want because they can never be wrong? See also: <<intolerance>>.
And when your son <<man-in-the-high-castle,betrays you or sacrifices himself for the Dictator>>, will you just smile and accept it?
See: <<seventeen-moments-of-spring>>
[[seventeen-moments-of-spring]]
===== Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Moments_of_Spring
* https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Семнадцать_мгновений_весны_(телефильм)
<<russia,Soviet>> mini-series about about Stierlitz, who is an undercover Soviet spy acting as a Nazi officer in <<nazi,Nazi Germany during WW2>>.
As a fun note, it seems that <<putin>> is a Stierlitz fan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stierlitz#cite_note-Sakwa-5[], and Putin also served in Germany like Stierlitz, but in Dresden, which was in East Germany.
A scene from the awesome mini-series comes to mind when thinking about <<i-like-my-dictatorship>>.
In Episode 7, Stierlitz travels on a train with a Nazi officer.
No democracy in our Reich!
Any democracy in our country is doomed to end up with one thing: the dictatorship of small shopkeepers.
The more freedom we have, the sooner we want to be controlled by SS troops again.
And then we want our the secret police back, and concentration death camps again, and the universal fear everywhere! Only then we feel calm and secure.
Ciro Santilli
committed
No need to prove your point of view in defending the fate of the homeland.
Ciro Santilli
committed
Just raise your hand in honor of him, <<xi-jinping,who will take care of everything for you>>,
Just shout out "Hail Hitler!" and everything will become understandable.
.https://youtu.be/pc6DP1jNEec?list=PLHiAMOiVIvsD2u8g0RLwvdRScEe9yiUr5&t=1527 Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973), Episode 7, general confession scene.
video::pc6DP1jNEec[youtube,height=400,width=600,start=2086]
Ciro Santilli
committed
It is amusing to see Soviet series criticizing dictatorships, given that the Soviet Union was itself a major dictatorship!
[[most-chinese-people-like-their-dictatorship]]
===== Most Chinese people like their dictatorship 中国大众支持他们的独裁
It is easy to reach an agreement, when everyone who disagrees goes to jail or gets killed for to <<inciting-subversion>> or <<picking-quarrels>>.
Also ask the millions of people who were affected by <<tiananmen>>, <<falun-gong>>, <<xinjiang>> or <<dissidents>>.
See also: <<seventeen-moments-of-spring>>.
One is reminded of the game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Happy_Few["We Happy Few" (2018)], which which people are forced to be happy. <<nineteen-eighty-four>> also comes to mind of course.
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zndzntIDLFE IGN review of the "We Happy Few" (2018) game.
.Westerner: "How is life in China?" Chinese: "Oh, we can't complain." Westerner: "That's awesome." Chinese: "No, seriously... we can't." is a word play between the more common "we can't complain because everything is great" and "we can't complain because <<xi-jinping,Xi>> will <<censorship,make us disappear>>". https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3933168[Source]
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/We_cant_complain.jpg[height=600]
[[chilling-effect]]
====== Chilling effect (寒蝉效应)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilling_effect
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/寒蟬效應_(法律)
It is really interesting to see how many people star the <<mirrors,GitHub repository>>, and then a few minutes later they think about how they might get put in jail, and then unstar it. <<ciro-santilli>> is able to see this because the star notification remains in the GitHub dashboard even after unstarring. This is very rare in his other repositories.
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[[intolerance]]
===== Most Chinese people don't care about the minorities
How can you be that certain that your children won't have dissident ideas and be punished unfairly for them?
Intolerance is a risky way to live. Everyone is part of one minority in one way. If all minorities were oppressed, everyone would be oppressed.
Dictatorships crush minorities much more than democracies.
Do think the majority of the Chinese people would vote to put 50 year old <<falun-gong>> meditating <<ciro-santilli-mother-in-law-jail,aunties in jail>>, if the CCP hadn't made a huge propaganda campaign and used an iron fist?
Are the Chinese really that selfish to vote for this oppression, even as the <<censorship,free media>> would show videos of meditating old ladies in jail on national television? <<ciro-santilli>> does not believe this.
Minorities are put in jail because the CCP fears them. Dictatorships can only survive if there is zero difference in opinion in the population.
The famous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...[First they came ...] text comes to mind in which <<nazi,the priest Martin Niemöller regrets not having supported the rights of his opponents that were unfairly treated by the Nazi Government>>:
[[first-they-came]]
____
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out +
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out +
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out +
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me +
and there was no one left to speak for me.
____
See also:
* <<rule-of-law>>
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intolerance_(film)[Intolerance (1916) film]
====== This is Ciro Santilli's personal problem, we have nothing to do with it, stop punishing us for it
We have to fight for justice for our fellows, or else when injustice happens to us, no one will fight for use either: <<intolerance>>.
Every form of protest incurs some damage. E.g., if we manifest on the street, it generates a traffic jam.
<<ciro-santilli>> doesn't like it, but he thinks it is worth it.
If you just work to make money and have a good life, without any plans to improve the government, you are just making the economy of the dictatorship stronger, then when they start a <<war,war>> or kill yet another minority, blood will also be on your hands. See also: <<what-should-western-countries-do-about-china>>.
[[stability]]
====== If anyone disagrees with the government they must be punished to keep the stability of the country
Destroying diversity is the best way to reach a point where everyone can agree to start <<war,a new big war and destroy everything>>.
The CCP thrives on the excessive <<evil-west,fear it instigates into its own people>>.
How can society improve, if we are never allowed to try new things out?
Change in democracies does not require <<violence,violence>>. Violence happens because the government punishes any dissidence, even if pacific, to retain its own power.
In democracies, radical policy changes happen without dropping a single drop of blood. People vote, and policies change, end of the story. In https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy[JFK's] words:
____
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable
____
See also:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_revolution#As_it_relates_to_democracy
* https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Address_on_the_First_Anniversary_of_the_Alliance_for_Progress
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXRG7yiqR3I Passage of Kennedy's discourse that contains the quote "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable".
video::Iwpr55PZEJ8[youtube,height=400,width=600]
=== There are bad things happening all over the world, why doesn't Ciro Santilli fight for those causes as well/instead?
We have to choose the one we think is the worst, and focus on it.
What is worse is a subjective choice. For <<ciro-santilli>>:
* he <<why-does-ciro-santilli-love-china-so-much,loves China and Ciro's Chinese wife>>, see also: <<bias>>, and doesn't want it to get fucked further by the CCP
* he hates dictatorships, and China is the largest one by population/GDP/link:https://www.ploughshares.org/world-nuclear-stockpile-report[nuclear stockpile], and therefore <<war,the most dangerous>>
Ciro <<keyword-choice,SO username>> and <<better-to-do,protest time>> are not infinite.
However, it is good that different people have different interests, and someone will surely be fighting for whatever cause you care about.
See also:
* <<russia>>
* <<thailand>>
* <<western-democracies-are-not-perfect>>
That is definitely true.
Nothing is perfect in this world.
<<ciro-santilli>> just believes that they are way better than a <<dictatorship>> like China, and that the Chinese government <<evil-west,brainwashes its people to think that the West is evil to stay in power>>.
As link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority[Churchill] once brilliantly link:https://richardlangworth.com/worst-form-of-government[put it]:
____
Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
____
However, this is all obviously subjective, and believing that dictatorship is a better form of government is also a valid belief.
If you find an event on a Western democracy that you would like to highlight, send a pull request.
We will not however include events that are not currently censored.
Every country did fucked-up things in the past, the question is if they currently allow discussion about it or not.
Posts that only mention <<evil-west,"evil West">> non-censored events without adding anything to the discussion will be marked as <<shitpost>> and treated as such, since spamming those is the primary <<wumao>> technique to stop intelligent discussion.
The reason why "Evil China" posts are not shitposts in general on the other hand, is that they have one specific purpose: <<why-keyword-attack, to destroy censorship>>.
Ciro Santilli
committed
This "Western censorship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copypasta[copypasta] string" https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/gct0ox/all_moderation_services_suspended_for_the_next_24/fpeends/[was posted automatically] by a bot during <<anti-ccp-info-sources,r/China>> purge day:
____
North Dakota Access Pipeline Protests 北达科他州接入管道抗议 +
Ferguson Riots 弗格森暴动 +
2017 St. Louis protests2017 年圣路易斯抗议活动 +
Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll 比基尼环礁的核试验 +
Unite the Right rally 团结右集会 +
Charlotte riots 夏洛特暴动 +
Attack on the Sui-ho Dam 袭击穗河水坝 +
Milwaukee riots 密尔沃基骚乱 +
Shooting of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile 奥尔顿·斯特林和菲兰多·卡斯蒂利亚的射击 +
Occupation of the Malheur NationalWildlife Refuge Malheur国家野生动物保护区的占领 +
death of Freddie Gray 弗雷迪·格雷的死 +
Shooting of Michael Brown迈克尔·布朗的拍摄 +
death of Eric Garner, Oakland California 奥克兰奥克兰市埃里克·加纳（Eric Garner）逝世 +
Operation Condor 神鹰行动 +
Occupy WallStreet 占领华尔街 +
My Lai Massacre 我的大屠杀 +
St. Petersburg, Florida 佛罗里达州圣彼得堡 +
Kandahar Massacre 坎大哈屠杀 +
1992 Washington Heights riots 1992年华盛顿高地暴动 +
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No Gun Ri Massacre 无枪杀案 +
L.A. Rodney King riots 洛杉矶罗德尼·金暴动 +
1979 Greensboro Massacre 1979年格林斯伯勒大屠杀 +
Vietnam War 越南战争 +
Kent State shootings肯特州枪击案 +
Bombing of Tokyo 轰炸东京 +
San Francisco Police Department Park Station bombing 旧金山警察局公园站爆炸案 +
Assassination of MartinLuther King, Jr. 小马丁·路德·金遭暗杀。 +
Long Hot Summer of 1967 1967年炎热的夏天 +
Bagram 巴格拉姆 +
Selma to Montgomery marches 塞尔玛到蒙哥马利游行 +
Highway of Death 死亡之路 +
Ax Handle Saturday 星期六斧头 +
Battle of Evarts 埃瓦茨战役 +
Battle ofBlair Mountain 布莱尔山战役 +
McCarthyism 麦卡锡主义 +
Red Summer 红色夏天 +
Rock Springs massacre 岩泉大屠杀 +
Pottawatomie massacre 盆大屠杀 +
Jeju uprising 济州起义 +
Colfaxmassacre 科尔法克斯大屠杀 +
Reading Railroad massacre 阅读铁路大屠杀 +
Rock Springs massacre 岩泉大屠杀 +
Bay viewMassacre 湾景大屠杀 +
Lattimer massacre 拉蒂默大屠杀 +
Ludlow massacre 拉德洛屠杀 +
Everett massacre 埃弗里特屠杀Centralia Massacre 中部大屠杀 +
Ocoee massacre Ocoee大屠杀 +
Herrin Massacre 赫林大屠杀 +
Redwood Massacre红木大屠杀 +
Columbine Mine Massacre 哥伦拜恩矿难 +
Guantanamo Bay 关塔那摩湾 +
extraordinary rendition 非凡的演绎 +
Abu Ghraib torture and prison abuse 阿布格莱布的酷刑和监狱虐待 +
Henry Kissinger 亨利·基辛格
____
Some quick replies to the idiotic things wumaos like to post:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_George_Floyd[George Floyd] https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/乔治·弗洛伊德之死[乔治·弗洛伊德之死]: the murder video went viral and was not taken down (would have been in China), all four officers were charged, and the event sparked nation wide protests
+
And the Chinese are also obviously at least as racist, if not more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/25/coronavirus-exposed-china-history-racism-africans-guangzhou
+
Wumao example: https://web.archive.org/web/20200618071130/https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/112#issuecomment-645716105
See also:
* <<richer>>
* <<preconceived>>
* <<bias>>
* <<the-united-states-has-recently-started-several-wars-and-killed-millions>>
.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signe_Wilkinson[Signe Wilkinson] 2017 Free Speech "Can you just move it so it doesn't cover them?" umbrella cartoon. Ciro once saw a <<wumao>> post this. It made him smile. If the cartoon were about <<dictatorship,dictatorships>>, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Sam[Uncle Sam] would be instead <<intolerance,decapitating and raping the people on one half of the umbrella>>. Of course humans are <<flg-intolerance,shit in democracies as well>>, but at least that system makes it harder for them to oppress each other. http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=161799[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Free_speech_umbrella.jpg[height=400]
===== Western democracies have invaded other countries and crushed separatism
Yes, <<western-democracies-are-not-perfect,Western democracies are not perfect>>.
What matters is that citizens can disagree with those actions, publicly say it, vote accordingly, and not go to jail, so that policy will be changed if the majority so wants.
In China, the minority controls the majority, and the majority cannot say anything even if they disagree.
If the majority wants to do evil however, evil will get done, it is impossible to prevent that.
See also:
* <<separatism>>
* <<richer>>
===== Western democracies also censor subjects such as child porn and hate speech
First, child porn and hate speech are also banned in China, so shut up. <<china-has-more-freedom-of-speech-than-the-usa,every type of speech>> is less free in <<dictatorship>>.
Second, if you don't think child porn should be banned, there isn't much point in arguing with you.
Now, hate speech is a very complex subject. <<ciro-santilli>> does feel that we should be very careful when banning hate speech, and he is not sure if it should be banned at all, as perhaps it might just make matters worse.
But of course, there is also censorship in Western democracies, and there is a gray area between what should be censored or not.
<<ciro-santilli>> only argues that there is on type of speech that must never ever be <<censorship,censored>>: political speech.
This way, the majority can always discuss and vote to change what can be censored or not.
In China, however, trying to discuss such changes in laws <<internal-censorship,puts you in jail>>, so bad laws cannot be changed. This lack of freedom <<most-chinese-people-like-their-dictatorship,also gives the impression to many brainwashed Chinese>> that dicatorships are better because you see less conflict online. Which is great, until your human rights are violated, and you've got no one to talk to.
The lack of ability to discuss political problems leads to extremely serious problems:
* <<corruption>>: politicians can <<internal-censorship,censor>> anything bad that they did to stay in power
* <<war>>: if the CCP leaders decide that a war must be made, everyone who opposes it will go to jail, and the war will be made
* <<intolerance>>: if the CCP decides that <<xinjiang,some minority>> is <<falun-gong,a danger to their power>>, this minority gets fucked
Deciding on hate speech, means having to decide what level of hardcoreness we are willing to accept, and there is no clear right or wrong answer.
For example, which of the following do you think should be banned:
* This scientific study suggests that white people do less well in IQ tests.
* This scientific study suggests that black people do less well in IQ tests.
* I'm an idiotic irrational racist and I dislike white/black people. I won't kill them, but I dislike them, and I can't change that, I'm really sorry.
* Let's all gather together and kill our black/white/gay/straight/Muslim/Christian neighbours tomorrow.
* Let's all gather together and kill our oppressive dictator/president tomorrow.
Ciro believes that none of the above should ever be censored, because any form of "hate-speech censorship" immediately opens a precedent for political censorship.
If someone is idiotic enough to organize illegal acts like hurting someone publicly before doing it, it will just make it easier for them to get caught.
And if its just empty words, just block those idiots to not see their posts, or downvotes their posts to reduce their impact.
And if the majority supports idiotic acts like killing someone because of their race, it will get done in a democracy regardless, because that's what democracies do: they cater to what the majority wants.
There's not point in censoring them. Such censorship only makes things worse, as the perpetrators will use that as publicity for their cause.
Recent cases in which Ciro feel that Western countries have gotten it wrong:
* 2020-10-12 https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/12/facebook-in-a-reversal-will-now-ban-holocaust-denial-content-under-its-hate-speech-policy/
* 2020 https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/06/20/trump-says-he-wants-to-punish-flag-burning-with-a-year-in-prison/#4d00781b3404 "Trump Says He Wants To Punish Flag Burning With A Year In Prison". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_desecration#United_States[]. If this were to pass, Ciro would be very temped to upload a GIF. Flag dessacration laws are bullshit.
* 2020-08 Kevin Cernekee fired from Google for conservative views
** 2020-08-27 https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/06/google-whistleblower-cernekee-pushed-alt-right-views-former-colleague.html "Internal Google memo claimed conservative whistleblower promoted alt-right views"
** It appears to be legal in the US for companies to fire employees based on political beliefs:
*** https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/can-employers-discriminate-based-on-political-beliefs-or-affiliation.html
+
<<ciro-santilli>> however believes that discussing politics at work is not an efficient way to go about it, because you will be discussion amongst a small group of people since companies are opaque to the outside. Unless maybe if you feel that you employee is directly attempting to influence politics in a way that you feel is unfair.
+
Ciro believes without evidence that unfortunately anti-discrimination-hiring laws are likely inefficient, as it is too hard to convict anyone. And that providing equal education through scholarships to unprivileged groups and university entry selection where examiners cannot see the applicant's race is the only way.
===== Fake news
When a government controls all information to make it look good, and no one can challenge it, you cannot trust _any_ of the news produced by that country, as anything could be fake.
It is much better to have some fake news, but also few sources that are likely telling the truth.
<<ciro-santilli>> is also extremely critical of Western social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook which have censored "fake news" from real legitimate accounts or real people, which is a point that Trump has justly criticized in Ciro's opinion.
If it is from a Chinese/Russian botnet, sure, destroy those accounts.
But from legitimate accounts of citizens? The people have to decide for themselves what is fake or real, not you, Twitter and Facebook. If the majority is made of idiots who believe in fake news, then so be it, that's how democracy works.
Censoring any citizen, no matter how stupid you think they are, creates a precedent for dictatorship, and even an <<luxor,incentive to terrorism>>.
More interesting case is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_First_Amendment_Institute_v._Trump[]. Ciro feels strongly that people who try to have meaningful discussions on Twitter should automatically lose a lawsuit, and that people should be able to block whoever they want from their personal controlled accounts or forums. It is only the companies who provide the forum service that must be neutral.
** 2020-12-09 https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/9/22165355/youtube-biden-election-victory-misinformation-rules-remove-content-oan "YouTube will now remove videos disputing Joe Biden's election victory".
*** YouTube's announcement: https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/supporting-the-2020-us-election
** 2020-11-24 https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/24/youtube-suspends-and-demonetizes-one-america-news-network-over-covid-19-video/ "YouTube suspends and demonetizes One America News Network over COVID-19 video"
* Facebook
** 2020-11-10 https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/09/parler-app-store-facebook/ "'Free speech' social network Parler tops app store rankings following Biden's election win"
* Twitter
** 2020-10-06 https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/28/21273241/section-230-explained-trump-social-media-twitter-facebook "Section 230, the internet free speech law Trump wants to repeal, explained". While repealing the law entirely would be stupid, Trump is right that it has given platforms too much control over the media. <<mark-government-controlled-social-media,Except for dictatorial foreign governments>>, or explicitly illegal material, social media platforms should never remove or comment on any content.
** 2020-05-29 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52846679 Twitter "hides Trump tweet for 'glorifying violence'". The people elected that idiot, Twitter leftists have to swallow that.
[[life-of-brian-1979]]
===== Life of Brian (布莱恩的一生, 1979)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_Life_of_Brian
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/蒙提·派森之布莱恩的一生
This movie was almost banned in Britain at the time due to lobbying by Christian groups as shown in <<the-secret-life-of-brian-2007>>.
Key scenes:
* <<life-of-brian-nazi-jew>>
====== The secret Life of Brian (2007)
Documentary about <<life-of-brian-1979>>.
Key points:
* <<sacred-cows>>
video::hdU_6jUQI9s[youtube,height=400,width=600]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/爱德华·斯诺登
Censoring anyone who says "my president is shit", which is what China does, is much, much more serious than censoring intelligence leaks.
The problem with dictatorships, is that they make _every_ information that makes them look bad a "state secret". Including any information that hundreds of thousands of people have witnessed, or economic performance metrics! See also: <<internal-censorship>>.
The level of unknown surveillance that Snowden uncovered is a bad thing about the US.
Snowden's prosecution was inevitable. Countries need secret services. Secret services need laws that prevent leaking classified information that was produced by government officials.
<<ciro-santilli>> has never and will never criticize China or any other country for spying or prosecuting spies.
If Snowden were Chinese, the Chinese government would ban talking about him or anything he uncovered. A <<keyword-attack,keyword attack>> with "Snowden" in the West has no effect.
It is obvious that the level of surveillance in any dictatorship will be infinitely higher, since the Government has much more power and no-one can criticize.
On the West however, the debate Snowden sparked cannot be censored, and has helped to control excessive and secret state power.
Ultimately, Ciro thinks camera surveillance is somewhat inevitable, because people will always want to fight crime and terrorism and surveillance technology keeps getting cheaper and cheaper.
Ciro Santilli
committed
He also believes that a good solution to balance out government power is the second amendment. It is better to have more school shootings and less full-blown dictatorship led genocides / mass human rights violations.
In 2019 China amusingly censored passages Snowden's "Permanent Record" autobiography book, which Snowden then published on Twitter:
* https://twitter.com/snowden/status/1194092273170038784 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191112083232/https://twitter.com/snowden/status/1194092273170038784[archive])
* https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dv5q8o/china_censors_edward_snowdens_new_book_he/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20191112083147/https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dv5q8o/china_censors_edward_snowdens_new_book_he/[archive]).
As a https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dv5q8o/china_censors_edward_snowdens_new_book_he/f7axckl/[Redditor put it]:
I don't think they understand that what Snowden stands for is completely the opposite of what the Chinese gov is lol
Snowden then later released the entire Chinese version of the book for free online with the censored parts underlined: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/10/snowden_china_censorship (https://web.archive.org/web/20200213001653/https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/10/snowden_china_censorship[archive]), link to the book: link:++https://a.temporaryrecord.com/Permanent_Record_-_CN_edition_with_underlined_redactions.pdf++[] (https://web.archive.org/web/20200212144108/https://a.temporaryrecord.com/Permanent_Record_-_CN_edition_with_underlined_redactions.pdf[archive]). One wonders why he didn't just do that in the first place for all versions, maybe he needed to pay the writer that helped him?
.Snowden highlighted defects on abuses of power in a Western democracy, and the discussion he sparked helped to control such abuses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edward_Snowden-2.jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Snowden.jpg[height=400]
===== Bad things have been done in the name of freedom
E.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks[September 11th].
Bad things have been done in the name of anything.
It's just that <<war,much>>, <<xinjiang,worse>> <<tiananmen,things>> are done without freedom than with it.
Democracies cannot necessarily protect weak countries from powerful ones either. No political system can do that, because humans are trash essentially.
What democracy do is to protect its own people against its own government. Because when the government turns against part of the population in a dictatorship, that part of the population gets crushed entirely, without any chance to fight, because they don't have an army or ally countries like other countries do.
Here are some images that <<wumao>>'s like to post:
* Left Right Slaughterhouse comic: https://9gag.com/gag/ayn7KmW?ref=fbp
[[ccp-evil]]
=== Is the Chinese government evil? 中国共产党是邪恶吗？
Obviously not, just <<richer,inefficient>> and <<war,dangerous>>.
It is just another non-democratic empire like the Qing Dynasty, we might as well cal it:
____
共产朝 +
The Communist Dynasty
____
Expression previously mentioned at: https://web.archive.org/web/20161025220242/http://tieba.baidu.com/p/752094668
Like any other organization and individual everywhere in the entire world, they are just doing everything that they can to maintain their own power.
It just happens that China's the current is political system allows the CCP to do really bad things.
And it should also be noted that <<henri-meyer,it is in part the West's fault>> that China currently has this shitty system.
<<falun-gong>> thinks otherwise of course, they think the CCP is actually made up of real actual devils in some dimension: <<does-ciro-santilli-believe-in-or-practice-falun-gong>>. E.g. on the https://endccp.com/ Falun Gong lead campaign:
____
The demon CCP has plundered the ancient land of China
____
==== Chinese politicians really care about the Chinese citizens
Sometimes people say Ciro Santilli is naive.
Politicians are the same all over the world.
Some might have good intentions, but don't give a shit about anyone else.
But all must play a careful political game, and sometimes betray their own beliefs to not lose power entirely.
China's problem is not its politicians.
It's the current shitty political organization, which allows/convinces those politicians to do really bad things: <<richer>>, <<war>> and <<corruption>>.
==== Is Chinese politician X evil?
The term evil does not make sense unless you are <<falun-gong,religious>>.
The best definition of evil is a psychopath with zero empathy for anyone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy although this can be better characterized as a disease or extreme personality trait.
The huge majority of those politicians are just regular dudes with a knack for politics but brought up in a fucked up political situation.
Just like you, Ciro Santilli and other politicians in any country.
[[nazi]]
=== Comparisons between the CCP and Nazi Germany 纳粹德国
* Xitler (习特勒). 习 "xi2" is very close in sound to the Chinese name of Hitler: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/阿道夫·希特勒[希特勒] (xi1 te4 le4)
* Chinazi (赤纳粹). TODO why 赤. Means Red, but where else is it used?
* link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum[Reductio ad Hitlerum]
The most notable aspect is the persecution of minorities of course, notably <<xinjiang>> and <<falun-gong>> which closely ressembles that of the Jews, see also: <<first-they-came>>.
* http://yashalong.blog.caixin.com/archives/188877 这么好的人民，不倒点霉都对不起他们 "These are such good people, if they have a bit of bad luck, excuse them." article by yashalong 押沙龙 published on <<caixin>>. The article discusses how Nazi Germany propaganda worked, without mention to the CCP, but it was still apparently https://www.bannedbook.org/bnews/baitai/20190816/1175647.html[banned in China].
https://www.southbankresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2020/01/ZHA-issue-2510-free.pdf has a good quote:
____
Would you have stood up to Hitler when he came to power? Or would you have been an appeaser, like Chamberlain? Or perhaps even a supporter of fascism, like the Daily Mail's owner at the time?
We all like to imagine we're courageous enough to stand up to tyranny and persecution. That we would have stood up to the villains of the past. Seen them for what they really were, even helped rescue their victims from danger. We certainly don't like to think we would have bought their goods or funded, invested in their economies...
Well today, you're going to find out what you're made of
.Photoshopped <<xi-jinping>> with raised fist with Nazi uniform and flag on the background. https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/cuf3p7/chinazi_xitler/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_Nazi_war_flag.jpg[height=400]
.Likely original or similar image of <<xi-jinping>> with raised fist as he took oath when coming into or renewing office. http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2018-03/19/content_50723040.htm[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_raised_fist.jpg[height=400]
.German's 1938-1945 war flag called the "War Ensign of Germany" in English or "Reichskriegsflagge" in German. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichskriegsflagge[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Nazi_war_flag.png[height=400]
.Hitler has of course a few raised fists on Google Images, but they tend to be more aggressive, and less compatible with Xi's apathic poker face. https://bodylanguageproject.com/xarticles/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Hitler-4.jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Hitler_angry_rehearsal.jpg[height=400]
.Photoshopped cover of Mein Kampf with Xi's face on top of Hitler's and other modifications such as Mian instead of Mein, likely the same 面 (mian4, face) as the Chinese character at the bottom right. https://foreignerinformosa.typepad.com/the_foreigner_in_formosa/2017/07/president-xitler-of-china-murders-political-dissident-liu-xiaobo.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_mein_kampf.jpg[height=400]
.Original cover of Mein Kampf. link:++https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adolf_Hitler_-_Mein_Kampf_(855._Auflage,_1943).pdf++[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Mein_kampf.jpg[height=400]
.Photoshopped photo of Hitler giving the Nazi salute from a car with Himmler on the background with Xi's face on top of Hitler's. https://chinhdangvu1.blogspot.com/2017/09/xitler-chinazism.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_Nazi_car_salute_photoshop.jpg[height=400]
.Original photo of Hitler giving the Nazi salute from a car with Himmler on the background. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/heinrich-himmler-holocaust[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Hitler_Himmler_salute.jpg[height=400]
.Chinazi flag by <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests,Hong Kong protesters>>. Seen https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/2019/08/【盛世一景】赤纳粹旗（chinazi-flag）/[on streets]. https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/dbrken/google_bomb_china_flag_search_query_into_chinazi/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Chinazi_flag.png[height=400]
[[xi-salute-young-pioneers-nazi]]
.Xi Jinping basically <<nazi,Nazi saluting>> kids from <<young-pioneers-of-china>> in Beijing, June 1, 2015. http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-06/01/c_138108706.htm[Source] (http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-06/01/c_138108706.htm[biased]).
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_scout_salute.jpg[height=500]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD53MEbLDIE <<serpentza-laowhy86,laowhy86>> video "Can We Compare China to Nazi Germany?" published on 2020-04-29. Good side-by-side video comparisons. Says that China is mor like Nazi than <<russia>>, but Ciro disagrees, all three are <<is-chinese-politician-x-evil,evil dictatorships>>.
video::wD53MEbLDIE[youtube,height=400,width=600]
=== Contributing guidelines
[[shitpost]]
==== I want to take my chances and make a shitpost in cirosantilli/china-dictatorship
So, have you reached the conclusion that your https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shitposting[shitpost] is link:CONTRIBUTING.md[worth the risk of getting blocked]?
Remember that shitposts can also be creative: if you are going to insult Ciro Santilli, at least do it in a creative way, or else you look like an even bigger idiot than you really are.
A collection of shitposts for you to take inspiration from can be found at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Ashitpost+
Also, when opening a shitpost you may mark it clearly such with the shitpost issue template which automatically assigns the shitpost label. Doing so will make you look like less of an idiot.
While we require polite replies to polite posts, no matter what which side they are defending, if a post is marked as a shitpost, things are much more relaxed and fun, and you can generally get away with telling the OP to fuck themselves link:CONTRIBUTING.md[without getting blocked].
.Real shit photos may be posted in reply to shitposts. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Feces_(cropped).jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Shit.jpg[height=400]
.Amazing shitposts may recieve a Golden Shit award. The image is from a Japanese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin_no_unko[Kin no unko (金のうんこ)], which is likely inspired by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sycee[golden Sycees]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kin_no_unko.jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Kin_no_unko.jpg[height=500]
.To censor or not to censor good shitposts: that is not the question, <<ciro-santilli>> will never censor them! https://imgur.com/gallery/rA0K90g[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Like_shitposts.jpg[height=600]
.The legendary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mud_Horse[Grass Mud Horse 草泥马 (caonima)] is also said to appear in shitposts from time to time.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Caonima.jpg[height=600]
==== I am going to write a huge wall of text to prove my point
Feel free to do that, but no one will ever read most of it.
If you want your comment to be read, choose your key point well, and deliver it.
It is a shame that most people who are ever able to do that are <<shitpost,shitposters>>, but credit where credit is due.
==== Can I contact Ciro Santilli in Chinese?
If you don't know English well enough, that's fine though, go for Chinese, Ciro Santilli will likely understand it: <<does-ciro-santilli-speak-chinese>>.
But if you do, use English.
It is more productive for you to write in English, so that the rest of the West can also learn something new.
Especially since it seems that most Chinese already know what you are talking about, so you are better off teaching Western people about it.
[[slang]]
===== I am going to use a bunch of Chinese slangs because it makes me feel smart 我知道网络语言，我很聪明
Obviously, if you want to be understood, use simple and standard Chinese, since as Ciro has already stated clearly, his Chinese sucks: <<does-ciro-santilli-speak-chinese>>.
Avoid slangs, otherwise Ciro might not have patience to Google your useless slangs down <<zhihu,Zhihu>> questions.
Of course, if you have to read this, you likely are not going to say anything useful in the first place, so not reading your post is likely fine, just make sure to mark it as a <<shitpost>> if you don't want Ciro to think you are a complete idiot.
Using slangs makes some people feel smart due their advanced knowledge of a specific subculture, or makes them feel part of that subculture to gather allies, or they just want to waste Ciro's time.
It mainly comes down to a way of avoiding any rational conversation about China's obvious problems by highlighting <<not-chinese>>.
Such idiots don't see however that every major slang is Googleable, and that every overly obscure slang is already not understandable by a large part of the Chinese population, and won't be understood by anybody in 5 years, so that you are wasting your time writing this gibberish. But since you are an idiot, it's not like you have anything better to do with your time, so maybe it doesn't matter.
If you want to efficiently prevent anyone from understanding your stuff, Ciro recommends that you just use SHA-256 instead:
....
$ printf 'heil xi' | sha256sum
286b183bf41d6c9de5315bbd64f1ca35a58157ae2e7f38086978c108e67c4882 -
....
A Chinese insult tip 101, avoid similar sound euphemisms. If you are going to say shit at least grow some balls or tits and use the proper characters, Ciro will respect you more for it:
* 屄 cunt, most often for https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/傻屄[傻屄]
** 逼
*** "sb"
*** "B": https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/105
* 肏 fuck: 操
* 傻 idiot: 沙
* 屌 dick: 雕
Places to try and decrypt Internet slang when you feel like wasting your time:
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中国大陆网络用语列表
** "网络用语" is the most common word for "Internet Slang", so also useful for Google searches
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Internet_slang
Random slangs of interest and related concepts:
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/火星文[火星文] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_language[Martian language]). This figures for example in the language rules of the <<ptt>> joke board: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/joke/M.1602005687.A.E4D.html (禁止使用簡體字、注音文、火星文、外國語言或其他無法直觀理解之內容作為文章主體).
GitHub issue label: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Ai-know-slangs-i-smart+
[[vagina]]
.A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagina[Vagina] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/阴道[阴道]) also known as cunt (屄), is the female reproductive organ, including the naturally occurring black hole that appears in front of it whenever a picture is taken to prevent <<github>> from taking down this page. Even though <<porn,you've never seen one>>, there's no need to be afraid of it, and refer to it in euphemisms like "SB". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rugae_vaginales.jpg[Background source] and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Hole_Milkyway.jpg[black hole source].
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Rugae_vaginales_with_black_hole.jpg[height=400]
[[internet-number-slang]]
====== Internet number slang (网络数字语言)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Internet_slang#Numeronyms
* https://baike.baidu.com/item/网络数字语言#2 on <<baidu>>
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeronym
https://newrepublic.com/article/117608/chinese-number-websites-secret-meaning-urls highlights how numeric emails and URLs are especially popular in China, in part due to the ASCII/West-centrism of web standards: https://www.quora.com/What-is-126-com-and-why-are-they-the-owner-of-millions-of-good-domain-names/answer/Ciro-Santilli
Examples in this page:
* <<nine-nine-six-icu>> is an example that is not phonetic, but just about meaning
* 六四 used to refer to <<tiananmen>>
* https://www.12321.cn/web and http://12377.cn from <<cac-report-website>> are likely examples where older well known official phone numbers were just directly converted to URLs
Bibliography:
* https://www.fluentu.com/blog/chinese/2017/10/16/chinese-number-slang/
* https://www.quora.com/What-does-126-and-163-mean-in-Chinese-language
==== Has Ciro Santilli you ever lived in China?
Not as of 2019, he has only visited once in 2012, and it was <<does-ciro-santilli-hate-china,amazingly beautiful>>.
.Ciro Santilli with a stone carved https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budai[Budai (布袋和尚)] in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maitreya_and_disciples_carving_in_Feilai_Feng_Caves.jpg[Feilai Feng caves (飞来峰)] near the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingyin_Temple[Lingyin Temple (灵隐寺)] in Hangzhou taken during his legendary 2012 touristic trip to China. Will he ever be able to go to China again to re-experience such marvelous locations? If the CCP falls before he dies, and if the statue hasn't been destroyed by the commies, Ciro will return to that exact spot and take a second picture. How will he look like?
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Ciro_Santilli_with_a_stone_carved_Budai_in_the_Feilai_Feng_caves_near_the_Lingyin_Temple_in_Hangzhou_in_2012.jpg[height=500]
But he doesn't think it is a good idea for him to do that now, in case his Visa got accepted, because he is not interested in learning about the Chinese jail system! :-)
He knows that if you don't mind contributing to making <<war,WW3>> deadlier and shut up and obey the CCP, China is already a fine place to live as much as any other developing country.
===== Would Ciro Santilli like to live in China?
If the dictatorship ends, <<ciro-santilli>> would like to <<does-ciro-santilli-hate-china,migrate to China>> if given a decent job to help China develop and become awesomer.
Before the Dictatorship, Ciro likely won't be able to enter/it wouldn't be a good idea: <<would-ciro-santilli-be-able-to-visit-china-before-the-ccp-ends>>.
And it is immoral to help make dictatorships richer by working for their companies: <<what-should-western-countries-do-about-china>>.
===== Would Ciro Santilli be able to visit China before the CCP ends?
It would be interesting to apply for a VISA to find out.
But Ciro won't do it because it is too risky that it would be a waste of Ciro's precious <<better-to-do,time and money>>.
Firstly, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45812399[Jamal Khashoggi] taught us that walking into enemy into consulates of enemy countries is a bad idea.
Then, even if the VISA were accepted, Ciro could still be turned back on entering the country, thus wasting the flight time and money. This could either be a genius plot to waste the money of enemies of the state, or due to a crappy divided IT system between the border control and the VISA people.
Finally, even after the border, there is still the possibility that Ciro could be stopped in the country half-way through the visit and sent back, or be interrogated for a few days, or less likely murdered with poison.
Therefore, if you think that living in China is fundamental to understand it, please just explain what you think one can learn from the experience instead. Do you really need to live there to see its censorship machine working? It would arguably be harder to see it from the inside.
See also: <<what-should-pro-democracy-chinese-living-in-china-do-about-the-dictatorship>>.
Bibliography: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/93
[[is-ciro-santilli-chinese]]
==== Is Ciro Santilli Chinese? 三西猴是中国人吗？
See: https://cirosantilli.com/#ciro-santilli
And it does not matter: <<not-chinese>>.
But <<why-does-ciro-santilli-love-china-so-much,his wife is>>.
[[does-ciro-santilli-speak-chinese]]
==== Does Ciro Santilli speak Chinese? 三西猴会说中文吗？
As of 2019, oral enough for daily things, but not understand most natural casual dinner conversation or watch TV series, because they go too quickly into vocabulary subject areas that he doesn't know. And obviously, using <<slang,slangs>> just makes things really hard.
When it matters, and with some patience, he can make himself understood though with https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/[some analogies] (https://web.archive.org/web/20190908144612/https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/[archive]) and a dictionary.
From the HSK vocabulary list, he estimates that he is definitely HSK 3, but not quite HSK 4. This would likely equate A2/B1 in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages[European system].
Phonetics wise, Ciro can't distinguish or produce a few sounds, notably `-ing` vs `-in` and his off-tone rate is high, but it tends to not matter at all compared to his lack of vocabulary. Except for his <<wife,mother-in-law>>, who sometimes does not understand it at all without correct tones!
Ciro reads with link:https://www.perapera.org/[Perapera] when he wants to learn new words/has patience/something is very important, and can basically understand everything in that way.
When he has no patience or for larger not very important chunks of text though, he reads with Google Translate as it tends to work, and then if there is an important sentence that was translated to garbage with Perapera.
Ciro writes with a mixture of link:https://www.pleco.com/[Pleco], Google translate and Googling to see if Chinese actually say the sentences that way, never Google translate alone as it would be too imprecise.
Ciro really wishes he could learn more Chinese. Ciro really loves the Chinese language. But he has other more important endeavors at the moment. There simply aren't enough hours in a day.
Spoken Chinese is in Ciro's opinion a relatively easy language to learn from scratch, because word formation is so often logical:, e.g.:
* volcano = fire + mountain: 火山(huo shan)
* train = fire + car: 火车 (huo che), a reference to old https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_locomotive[steam locomotives]
and there is no useless crap like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_conjugation[verb grammatical conjugation], https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_gender[grammatical gender], https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural[plural inflection], capitalization, etc. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latino_sine_flexione[latino sine flexione] anyone?)
Ciro <<characters,hasn't tried to learn characters>> because <<chinese-characters-are-insane,too much effort>>, but he did learn some of the most common ones without trying.
Ciro initially learnt from book that come with audio recordings in the first 6-months to 1 year in 2010, but that got impossibly boring afterward, so he later moved to just basically talking as much as possible non-important things to <<why-does-ciro-santilli-love-china-so-much,his wife in Chinese>>, and whenever he reaches one that he doesn't know that seems useful, he Plecos it up or just 怎么说 to his <<wife>> and then Pleco.
It should also be mentioned that Ciro also feels that it would be better if all countries more officially adopted English as an international language that everyone should learn for reasons explained at: https://cirosantilli.com/#having-more-than-one-natural-language-is-bad-for-the-world
[[chinese-characters-are-insane]]
Maybe the commies for once <<richer,did something good>> by introducing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Chinese_characters[simplified Chinese characters (简化字)]?
But they should have gone further and reduced it to pinyin like the Korean and Vietnamese did, this will make your culture much easier to export.
No foreign adult will every learn to read and write Chinese unless they are completely obsessed by the culture or need it as part of their jobs. And even then, they will avoid it at all costs, because life is just too short!
Japanese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furigana[furigana] also comes to mind. The characters are so insane that you need a well specified and widely used phonetic reading aid!
Yes, ideograms are:
* beautiful
* https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/2003/can-chinese-readers-scan-large-amounts-of-text-faster-more-accurately-than-their[maybe you can read faster]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_and_vertical_writing_in_East_Asian_scripts[vertical text (纵排)] is awesome (but is it more efficient? https://www.zhihu.com/question/22104723[Zhihu], https://www.quora.com/Can-literate-Chinese-people-easily-read-vertical-writing[Quora]).
* more historically stable, and you can still read/learn more or less quickly to read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Chinese_language[texts written more than two thousand years ago]
* single character emoticons like "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiong[囧]", before the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoticons_(Unicode_block)[Emoticons Unicode block]! Yes, when your language has a character so useless that it becomes an emoticon, maybe you should start to worry that something went wrong somewhere.
but they just take too much time for any sane person adult to learn, it's harder than {cpp}!
<<ciro-santilli>> smirked when he came across the character "蒄" in Pleco, and the translation was: "meaning unknown (herb mentioned in old books)". Yes, at the word level, the same like exists in phonetic systems, but that it takes up a modern dictionary and Unicode slot is still funny.
Posts that express similar ideas:
* <<evil-chinese-characters-by-ted-chiang>>
.The "fictional" Chinese character "Dou" from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncyclopedia[Uncyclopedia] is roughly translated as "Impossibly complex pictogram-based writing system that takes a person a thousand thousand years to learn." and illustrates well why pictograms are a bad idea. https://uncyclopedia.ca/wiki/File:Chinese_character_extreme.svg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Chinese_character_extreme.svg[height=400]
.The Sweet Brown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain%27t_Nobody_Got_Time_for_That[Ain't Nobody Got Time for That] meme (https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sweet-brown-aint-nobody-got-time-for-that[knowyourmeme]) fits perfectly into how Ciro feels about learning Chinese characters.
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Sweet_brown_chinese_characters_meme.jpg[height=500]
////
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_cbW5JK9WM "The most complex Chinese character" by Vladimir Skultety does a reasonable analysis of which Chinese character is the most complex
video::t_cbW5JK9WM[youtube,height=400,width=600]
////
[[evil-chinese-characters-by-ted-chiang]]
====== 坏汉字 by Ted Chiang
https://www.douban.com/group/topic/162835411/
Ciro's <<does-ciro-santilli-speak-chinese>> was mentioned in a related Zhihu answer: <<zhihu-ted-chiang-answer>>.
[[radical]]
==== Is Ciro Santilli a radical?
Saying that someone is a radical is useless <<brainwashed-by-usa,ad hominem>>.
If you want to say something useful, give specific reasons why you think one specific thing that <<ciro-santilli>> said is incorrect.
Do you consider him a radical because it is unthinkable that China is not perfect?
Or just because he's trying to <<keyword-attack,take down>> some more websites that your dictatorship still does not dislike enough to block: <<china-is-fine-as-it-is-stop-making-it-worse>>?
Don't you think that it is much more radical to <<intolerance,be put in jail for your beliefs>> and <<censorship,silenced if you disagree with anything the government says>>?
Ciro doesn't think either China or West is perfect: <<western-media-has-exaggerated-reports-on-flg-for-propaganda-reasons>>.
He's just listing arguments why he thinks democracy is better, e.g.: <<richer>>, <<war>>.
* <<preconceived>>
* <<bias>>
And Ciro never gets mad. Only a slightly sad or annoyed sometimes.
But maybe no radical ever considers themselves a radical? Hmmm...
Or maybe: link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efHCdKb5UWc[The Dark Knight - Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Burn]?
SJW: there is a seed of SJW in me.
One major difference between me and the stereotypical SJW is that I never engage in lengthy discussions.
I limit myself to listening as much as I can to learn new arguments.
So the rationale of my actions is _not_ to convince anyone, but rather:
* increase the monetary cost of censorship by binding politics to tech
* group up like-minded people who don't like censorship
[[does-ciro-santilli-hate-china]]
==== Does Ciro Santilli hate China? 三西猴讨厌中国吗？
On the contrary. China has his favorite:
* <<restaurants,food>>
* <<does-ciro-santilli-speak-chinese,language>>
* <<music>>
* history
* nature
* culture, notably:
** intense respect for older people. Whenever Ciro was with his <<ciro-santilli-mother-in-law-jail,mother-in-law>> and asked for help from young Chinese people, they were extremely nice.
+
It is hard to understand how the same people have not managed to speak up when <<flg-persecution,70 million old ladies were put into jail when Falun Gong was banned>>. Only the extreme fear of also going to jail could explain it. Living in China is living in constant fear if you can think for yourself.
** enormous importance given to education. One must not forget however: grades are useless, and all that matters is how much you improve society
And because of that: <<would-ciro-santilli-like-to-live-in-china>>.
As link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjarne_Stroustrup[Bjarne] said:
____
There are only two kinds of programming languages: those people always bitch about and those nobody uses
____
Ciro only focus here on negative things to provide content that will <<keyword-attack,activate the Great Firewall>>.
____
持华反党 +
爱国恨党
____
[[yuyuan-garden]]
.Round gate at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Garden[Yu Garden 豫园] in Shanghai. link:++https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shanghai_-_YuYuan_Gardens_and_Old_Town_(584867794).jpg++[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Yuyuan_garden_door.jpg[height=600]
[[chinese-traditional-painting]]
===== Chinese traditional painting 中国传统绘画
Some free online collections:
* Smithsonian collection at a search for Paintings before 1800. Drill down further by "topic" e.g. "Mountains" or "scholar"
** https://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=&fq=online_visual_material%3Atrue&fq=online_media_type%3A%22Images%22&fq=culture%3A%22Chinese%22&fq=object_type%3A%22Paintings%22&view=list&date.slider=300s%2C1800s
."Plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum" (梅兰竹菊) painting by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_Xie[Zheng Xie (郑燮)] representing the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Gentlemen[four gentlemen (四君子)]. Ciro is a big fan of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird-and-flower_painting[traditional Chinese bird-and-flower painting (花鸟画)] like this. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/315744623848820315/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Four_gentlemen.jpg[height=600]
===== Why does Ciro Santilli love China so much?
<<ciro-santilli>> does not <<does-ciro-santilli-believe-in-or-practice-falun-gong,believe in reincarnation>>, but sometimes he's tempted to.
It is interesting how different people get <<does-ciro-santilli-hate-china,different impressions>>!
Of course, the fact that his wife is Chinese and <<flg-bias,does Falun Gong>> may or may not have played a role in it :-)
It was like this: Ciro started getting interested in Chinese culture, then he started hanging out with Chinese people, and then he started hanging out with his wife!
So yes, it is a chicken and egg type of thing. The fact that she is one of the most intelligent, morally upright, cute, and "never give up" person I know may have helped me choose too.
[[selfish]]
==== Ciro Santilli's China freedom campaign is selfish
* <<flg-bias>>
* <<throne>>
* <<harm-programmers>>
[[famous]]
===== Ciro Santilli is doing his China freedom campaign to become famous
No, he am a selfless human being, only concerned with the greater well being of humankind.
* he believes in this. As evidence, it has limiting effects on his technological career: <<does-your-employer-support-this>>, and he doesn't think he can/wants to become a politician in China if the CCP ever falls
* the more famous Ciro is, the more impact he will have in the future
* the more famous Ciro is, the more feedback he have that what he's been doing has been working
Ciro Santilli
committed
Ciro Santilli
committed
* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/5
Ciro Santilli
committed
===== Ciro Santilli is doing his China freedom campaign because it makes him feel important
Ciro Santilli
committed
===== Ciro Santilli is doing his China freedom campaign to vent off his anger
Ciro Santilli
committed
No, he is not angry at all, see also: <<harm-programmers>>.
[[cia-funding]]
===== Is Ciro Santilli's china-dictatorship campaign funded or otherwise supported by some organization?
Sure, the CIA sends Ciro 10 thousand USD checks from time to time, but that doesn't change at all what he would be doing.
A shady supporting organization might require that he does not disclose their support, so maybe the best answer is that you will never know for sure.
Of course, a hidden support would represent a reputation hit for both such organizations and for me, which makes it less likely that I would have accepted or had such an offer.
Also consider Ciro's motivation. If your <<ciro-santilli-mother-in-law-jail,mother in law were put into jail unfairly for 15 days>>, for following the same religion that <<flg-bias,your wife follows>>, and if you had a social media presence, wouldn't you be tempted to do the same?
What about you, are you funded by the CCP?
See also: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/blob/48a95bf57a16b85619a6ae68702d18c9a5078797/FAQ.md#flg-has-been-funded-by-the-us-government-at-least-once-therefore-it-is-evil
==== Would Ciro Santilli be doing his China freedom campaign if he was in China?
Not with his real name attached to it, see also:
* <<what-should-pro-democracy-chinese-living-in-china-do-about-the-dictatorship>>
* <<not-chinese>>
===== Does your employer support this?
My employer has nothing to do with this.
He doesn't approve or disapprove of the Chinese government or of my private actions.
The only thing that my employer _does_ believe in is that employees can have their own political opinions, and that this should not affect hiring decisions.
Obviously, this action limits my ability to lead high profile deals with China.
Also I'm quite curious if this would limit my ability to go to China for business, but I haven't applied for a visa since I've started this. It likely wouldn't be a good idea for me to go to China :-)
But my employer believes that inclusion and non-discrimination are more valuable.
I will always do my best to not let my personal opinions affect my professional decisions, as that would be unfair to my employer.
[[better-to-do]]
==== Doesn't Ciro Santilli have anything better to do than pissing off China?
In 1989, besides <<tiananmen>> and <<ciro-santilli>>'s birth, a beautiful thing called the World Wide Web was invented!
The Internet gives everyone the magic power of writing something, and having million people read it for free!
This is how much time Ciro spends on this project to give you an idea:
* every week or two, someone sends me a message, he reply with "read the FAQ", and usually update
* Ciro https://www.reddit.com/r/China amongst many other programming subs, and all major bad news show up there. See also: <<anti-ccp-info-sources>>
* when something bad enough comes up, Ciro go to https://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/sensitive-words-series/ and update <<keyword-attack,his keyword attack>>. He's only been updating it on Stack Overflow and GitHub these days.
Then Ciro just contributes to programming websites exactly as he would if he weren't making this campaign, and voila.
Edit: to be fair, the end of 2019 and start of 2020 was such as hot year with <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests>> and <<corona>> that Ciro might have spent a tiny little bit more ;-)
But Ciro did it only when his brain was too tired of technical stuff and unable to do more, or as a brain warm up routine in the morning.
Telling the CCP to fuck off is surprisingly relaxing, you should try it some time too. It uses a different part of your brain other than the programming one. It is, one could say, an art form.
=== People in China have already considered democracy, and rejected it
OK, shall we put that to an anonymous vote just to make sure?
Dear sir or madam: do you want more control over your government? y/n
Oops, I forgot that <<most-chinese-people-like-their-dictatorship,proposing such a vote would put in you jail>>, nevermind.
[[violence]]
=== Would it be right to use violence to overthrow the CCP?
In an ideal world, Ciro Santilli is of course "against violence".
But what if you could prevent a lot of future violence with some violence today?
Ah, the eternal question which only God can answer:
* https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-origin-of-the-quote-The-end-justifies-the-means "What is the origin of the quote 'The end justifies the means?'"
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequentialism[Consequentialism]
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem[Trolley problem]
* link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_resistance[Nonviolent-resistance]
Do you really think that the communists will step down if you ask them nicely enough? Even after <<tiananmen>>?
A quote from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film)[V for Vendetta (2005)] comes to mind:
____
Q: If they do, what do you think will happen [the people protest against their Government]?
A: What usually happens when people without guns stand up to people with guns.
____
[[v-for-vendetta]]
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=TcoBv6ibh8M V for Vendetta (2005) "What you think will happen" scene.
video::TcoBv6ibh8M[youtube,height=400,width=600]
How do you think the CCP or any other party got into power and maintained that power in the first place? Obviously https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Communist_Revolution[through violence]. And likely due to earlier <<not-chinese,Japanese invasions which weakened the Guomindang>>.
And the CCP actually uses "the ends justify the means" as an argument to justify its own actions: <<overlook-human-rights-for-profit>>.
The question of if anything is morally right or wrong makes no sense. All that matters is: what is the government that maximizes the happines of its own people, and who has the power to do what? <<richer,Getting richer,>> is part of the equation, but so is <<rule-of-law,not being constantly affraid that you will be randomly put in jail for no good reason>>.
If you do decide to strike though, <<what-should-pro-democracy-chinese-living-in-china-do-about-the-dictatorship,stay safe, gather your forces on the Internet, and only strike when victory seems certain>>.
For "violence is illegal" arguments, see also: <<follow-the-law>>.
.One baby <<nazi,Hitler>> or 5 Million Jews https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem[trolley problem] illustrates well the moral dillema of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequentialism["the ends justify the means"].
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Baby_Hitler_vs_5_million_Jews_trolley_problem.jpg[height=400]
==== It is fine for the CCP to treat some of its citizens unfairly if the majority is better off
Basically same discussion as: <<violence>> but with the tables turned.
See also: <<uneducated-masses>>
[[dictatorship]]
=== Why does Ciro Santilli say that China is a dictatorship? 中国不是独裁！
Ciro is using the word in an slightly extended/joking sense.
Maybe "authoritarian" is a more precise term, but it is just too much of a mouthful.
In particular, dictatorships are harder to sustain than authoritarianism, since it generally implies even less freedom, and a single leader whose death can destabilize everything.
The CCP is more like a social class with a large number of members and various sub-layers, and it is therefore much harder to take down on the other hand.
Dictatorship is becoming link:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/world/asia/china-xi-jinping-party-term-limit.html[more and more precise under Xi] however.
Even <<mao-zedong>> admits it and put it into the constitution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_democratic_dictatorship[People's democratic dictatorship 人民民主专政], so funny.
Well known <<evil-west,Evil Western media>> that also call China a dictatorship:
* 2020-01-29 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/opinion/coronavirus-china-government.html "Coronavirus Spreads, and the World Pays for China's Dictatorship"
* 2018-03-04 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/04/xi-jinping-from-president-to-china-new-dictator "Xi Jinping's power play: from president to China's new dictator?"
* 2017-10-11 https://www.ft.com/content/cb2c8578-adb4-11e7-aab9-abaa44b1e130 "Under Xi Jinping, China is turning back to dictatorship"
Further discussions about this useless terminology question:
* https://www.quora.com/Is-China-a-dictatorship
[[anti-ccp-info-sources]]
==== What are the best sources of anti-CCP news?
https://www.reddit.com/r/China[], see also: <<reddit>>
Catches all the important news.
A large part of the posts has controversial material.
Has some noise of course as well, but less than other media I find.
Reddit was banned in China in August 2018: https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/965k4c/reddit_banned_in_china/
Tencent will invest 150 million on Reddit in 2019: https://gizmodo.com/reddit-banned-in-china-is-reportedly-set-to-land-150-1832375439 See also: <<biased-media>>.
===== Reddit
Subs with lots of anti-commie info:
* https://www.reddit.com/r/China is arguably the best as of 2020, see also: <<anti-ccp-info-sources>>
* https://www.reddit.com/r/fucktheccp/ small as of 2020 but promising
* https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong had 3x more users than r/china as of 2020 after <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests>>.
* https://www.reddit.com/r/CCP_virus/ for <<corona>>
* China Circle Jerk subs (CCJ). TODO: these appear to be politically incorrect subs, but they do seem to allow anti-commit info. As of 2020, they were either banned or private:
** https://www.reddit.com/r/CCJ
** https://www.reddit.com/r/CCJ2
* https://www.reddit.com/r/tibet/ 3k subs 2020
TODO review:
* https://www.reddit.com/r/taiwan/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/China_Flu/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Sino/
Any comment critical of China and mods immediately ban you, e.g. on 2020-08-21 at https://www.reddit.com/r/Sino/comments/ie0mak/china_is_building_a_github_alternative_called/ which is related to <<gitee>>, <<ciro-santilli>> commented:
____
Let's see how long it takes them to block my repo/account: https://gitee.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship | http://web.archive.org/web/20200821202450/https://gitee.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship
____
____
You have been permanently banned from participating in r/Sino. You can still view and subscribe to r/Sino, but you won't be able to post or comment.
Try https://www.reddit.com/r/westerner/[r/westerner] TRASH doesn't get by mods here. Tiananmen Square is vindicated by China's development. Anti terror system in Xinjiang is working. End result for HK is the same since 1997, regardless of rioters. Scientology-esque FLG/Shen Yun cult show has failed for decades, if you believe their claims, it's all of them losing badly.
Dec 31 China informed WHO about mysterious pneumonia. Jan 11 Chinese reveal virus genome Jan 23 Wuhan quarantine - businessinsider/sciencemag
You had the genome and saw the lengths China went to. Don't blame others for failing months later.
US accused of 'modern piracy' after diversion of masks meant for Europe - theguardian
Democracies Are Better at Fighting Outbreaks - theatlantic XD
The US leads in coronavirus cases, but not pandemic response - sciencemag XD
Beliefs of founder cultleader of Falun Gong from own lectures on official falundafa site https://redd.it/42wlvf
====== r/russia
Completely pro-Putin, e.g. removed https://www.reddit.com/r/russia/comments/kd21ck/cnnbellingcat_investigation_identifies_russian/ about <<the-poisoning-of-alexei-navalny-2020>>
===== Telegram
* https://t.me/anticcpbase
* https://t.me/ccp_unmasked see also: <<knowlesys>>
==== Where can I find good words for a keyword attack?
* List of blacklisted keywords in China
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_blacklisted_keywords_in_China
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中华人民共和国网络审查
* https://github.com/jasonqng/chinese-keywords
* https://github.com/cirosantilli/media/raw/master/complete-gfw-rulebook-for-wikipedia-v3.0.pdf[Complete GFW Rulebook for Wikipedia v3.0]
* https://chinadigitaltimes.net This is was an amazing source, extremely comprehensive and up-to-date, but the series was stopped in September 2018:
** https://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/word-of-the-week/?view=all word of the week
** https://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/directives-from-the-ministry-of-truth/?view=all censorship directive reports
*** https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/category/有关部门/真理部指令/?view=all chinese version
** https://chinadigitaltimes.net/space/Main_Page a wiki version of the censored word lists, the ,"<<shitpost,Grass-mud horse>> index" (cao3n2ma3 草泥马), with a censored term of the week section.
** https://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/sensitive-words-series/?view=all sensitive words list
** Fun 2015 ebook: https://github.com/cirosantilli/decoding-chinese-internet-pdf-download
* <<censorship-monitoring>>
* <<tiananmen-square-protests-keywords>>
[[keyword-choice]]
==== How do you choose keywords for the keyword attack?
I haven't counted, but the limit for Stack Overflow is quite low, and I'm always almost at the maximum, which is about "Ciro Santilli" + 3 3-4 Chinese character events with a separator.
These are some of my prioritization guidelines:
* recent cases receive a large prime over the raw death toll, because older cases can always be attributed to other people.
+
E.g., I've heard there is even some opening towards acknowledging the Great Famine, thus 烏坎事件 (and others from my previous profile names)
* words must refer to a precise event, and must be clearly summarizable in very few chars, for increased impact, and profile name length limitations.
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E.g. "High <<corruption,corruption>> rates, high pollution", although very serious, feel too generic.
* events that relate directly to freedom of speech receive a prime, since they can only happen in China and very few other countries.
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E.g.: <<falun-gong>>, <<tiananmen>>.
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Non e.g.: corruption and pollution. Those are hard to quantify, and there is always an immediate reply: china GDP per capita is low, same happens in India, Brazil, etc.
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Freedom of speech however, is immediately verifiable (e.g. "my Weibo was taken down"), and undeniably caused by the current central government.
* the more people affected, and the more deeply they have been affected, the more important obviously
I am currently trying to maintain in my Stack Overflow Location a ranking of events in a single string, so that it can be easily copy pasted around. The location appears on every page if you hover over my account name, so it is likely in the HTML at least.
If you think that this list can be improved, please open an issue explaining how and why.
==== Other notable keyword attacks
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notepad++
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notepad++
It might be a newbie text editors for newbie Windows users, but at least they use it to good use by doing keyword attacks:
* 2020-08: https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/17/notepad-plus-plus-blocked-in-china/ "Text editor Notepad{plus}{plus} banned in China after ‘Stand With Hong Kong' update" where "banned" means "the download page where they keywords are shown is now blocked in Chinese browsers". The rest of the website is still up. So no domain block due to HTTPS, browser only action for now.
* 2019-10: "In October 2019 Notepad{plus}{plus}'s GitHub issue tracker was flooded with pro-Chinese and anti-western messages after a version codenamed "Free Uyghur" (v7.8.1) was released"
** https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/31/notepad_china_spam/
** https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dp3icm/notepad_after_voicing_their_support_for_the/ "Notepad{plus}{plus}, after voicing their support for the Uyghurs, is now being bombarded by Chinese nationalists on Github." See e.g.: https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues/7489 and earlier issues
* 2008-03: "In March 2008 the "Boycott Beijing 2008" banner was placed on Notepad{plus}{plus}'s SourceForge.net homepage": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerns_and_controversies_over_the_2008_Summer_Olympics#Boycotts
The creator appears to be a Vietnamese immigrant or descendant living in France. There are many such immigrants due to Vietnam being an ex-colony: https://github.com/donho Also he must have good reason to dislike the commies due to similar commit bullshit in Vietnam. He was at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Diderot_University[Paris Diderot] in 2000: https://donho.github.io/#education (https://web.archive.org/web/20190424004100/https://donho.github.io/#education[archive]).
[[separatism]]
=== Separatism 分离主义
If a large number of people in a given region want to leave an country strongly or have greater autonomy, <<ciro-santilli>> believes that they should be allowed to do so.
* if they don't feel they are getting a good deal out of your country, it is unfair to keep them in
* keeping them in the country forcibly implies large scale violation of human rights: mass incarceration and removing freedom of speech.
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Which in turn implies terrorist backslash.
+
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=eouBCMPtNDQ?t=1170 "It happened in ... Luxor" by Al Jazeera English (2011) is a short documentary about the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxor_massacre[Luxor massacre in Egypt (1997)]. At this timestamp, survivor https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_E._Müller[Felix Mueller] whose girlfriend was killed in the attack comments that it is when people don't have an official way to express their needs due to censorship that they are more likely to turn to terrorism to express themselves.
video::fASh2_RzMuE[youtube,height=400,width=600,start=1170]
What makes Ciro the maddest is the censorship. If you are going to put people in jail, write a clear law about it, and let international reporters come to see the situation.
But why do you do something and then hide it? Maybe because you are not doing the right thing?
Ciro also believes that although terrorists must be fought with all our strength, they must also be given some degree respect (interspersed simultaneously <<sacred-cows,with humour>>). He sometimes prefers the term "warriors" or "fighters", because their actions are largely indistinguishable from many ideological or purely greed based actions that larger nation states have done many times over and over. It is just a war, plain and simple.
The reason why they kill mostly civilians is that they don't have the means to kill the presidents those civilians elected. An amazing scene from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Algiers[The Battle of Algiers (1966)] comes to mind. After the head of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_War[Algerian independence] movement and terrorist, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larbi_Ben_M%27hidi[Larbi Ben M'hidi] is arrested, the French military let him be interviewed by the press on 4 March 1967 https://youtu.be/uHWZkiBuKGY?t=5312 (TODO real words? Cannot find source):
Translation:
____
Journalist: Don't you think that it is cowardly to use the handbags and pushchairs of your women to transport your bombs? Those bombs that make so many innocent victims? [Earlier in the movie, we saw women carriying bombs into the French areas of Algiers through those means]
Larbi Ben M'hidi: And you, don't you think that it is much more cowardly to drop on defenseless villages your napalm bombs that kill thousands times more? Obviously, with airplanes, it would have been much more convenient for us. Give us your bombers, and we will give you the pushchairs.
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Original text:
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Journalist: Ne trouvez-vous pas plutôt lâche d'utiliser les sacs et les couffins de vos femmes pour transporter vos bombes? Ces bombes qui font tant de victimes innocentes?
Larbi Ben M'hidi: Et vous, ne vous semble t-il beacoup plus lache de larguer sur des vilages sans défence vos bombes au napalme qui tuent mille fois plus d'innocents? Évidement, avec des avions, ca aurait été beaucoup plus comode pour nous. Donnez vous vos bombardiers monsieur, et on vous donnera les couffins.
____
See also: <<western-democracies-have-invaded-other-countries-and-crushed-separatism>>.
[[taiwan]]
==== Taiwan 台湾 Republic of China 中華民國
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中华民国
If you are interested in Taiwan, one important programmer forum is: <<ptt>>.
* https://youtube.com/watch?v=6aZkM_ZLvjE?t=50 (zh) "【這就是科學｜柯文哲】EP3／從癌症治療看政治！除惡務盡→除惡「勿」盡？「與敵共存」才是生存之道！", 柯文哲, 2019-06-26. Ko Wen-je, the mayor of Taipei 台北 and a professor in medicine, applies the concept of isolation and mutation in evolution to Taiwan and China
[[one-china-policy]]
===== One China policy 一个中国
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-China_policy
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/一个中国
Taiwan is not a case of <<separatism>>.
Taiwan is a completely separate country split due to civil war, long ago.
Almost every country, and all reasonably powerful countries, have diplomatic relations with Taiwan. They just don't call them diplomatic relations to not piss off China so they can keep doing business.
The fact that most countries in the world does officially recognize Taiwan as a country is a joke, considering that the only thing keeping it afloat is the West's military threat.
<<what-should-western-countries-do-about-china,The West must not>> let China advance and take more territories. The more they take, the more they will want.
The West must protect China's neighboring countries with military support and assurance.
The West must recognize Taiwan for what it is: a separate country, under threat of invasion, and in need of support.
If China's claim to Taiwan is valid, then Taiwan also has an equally valid claim on China.
If China's claim to Taiwan is valid, then so will its claim to any other country.
China, if you want to claim that Taiwan is a part of you, just grow some balls and invade them already. Or just stop this stupid joke.
Interesting quote from https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/07/taiwans-status-geopolitical-absurdity/593371/
____
Taiwan's Status Is a Geopolitical Absurdity
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And https://www.economist.com/asia/2017/02/16/americas-affirmation-of-the-one-china-policy-pleased-taiwan-too calls the One China policy a:
____
polite fiction
____
https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/62447/how-can-a-citizen-of-mainland-china-visit-taiwan/62466#comment178495_62466 hi, I want a "not VISA" to Taiwan. Thanks.
A well educated Mainlander who lived outside of China once told Ciro:
____
Taiwan should not be considered a country by China, because then it would not join back to China when China becomes a democracy, and would be used by the USA to do evil things as they did in the Middle East
____
Ciro was shocked. He considered that person highly intelligent and not fully brainwashed! Reply:
____
China claiming that Taiwan is a part of them only drives Taiwan closer to the West! Who wants to be part of a dictatorship unless you have been brainwashed by one?
____
They truly believe in <<evil-west>>.
The US first caved in in 1972 with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Communiqué[Shanghai Communiqué].
* https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/taiwan-finalises-62-billion-purchase-of-f-16-jets-lockheed-13023336 "Taiwan finalises purchase of F-16 jets from Lockheed Martin". 90 jets, 8 billion USD.
* 2020-05-26 https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3940533 "Brazilian netizens fight back against CCP threats over Taiwan support"
** It should also be mentioned that this campaign could be being used/created by pro-Bolsanaro politicians as a way to detract focus from the COVID-19 epidemic that is reaching its deadliest phase in Brazil, e.g.: https://twitter.com/PauloMartins10/status/1265038976617984002
* 2020 <<corona>> and Taiwan:
** Taiwan was at a disadvantage during since it was not part of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization[World Health Organization] and therefore could not get information as fast and influence decisions
+
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=fASh2_RzMuE WHO officer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Aylward[Bruce Alyward] pretends not to hear question from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTHK[Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)] about the possibility of Taiwan's membership in the WHO during a one-to-one Skype interview, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/senior-who-adviser-appears-to-dodge-question-on-taiwans-covid-19-response[reference].
video::fASh2_RzMuE[youtube,height=400,width=600]
* 2020-03-27 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-usa/u-s-increases-support-for-taiwan-in-recognition-battle-with-china-idUSKBN21E0B7 "U.S. President Donald Trump has signed into law an act that requires increased U.S. support for Taiwan internationally". But he didn't recognize it as a country. Semi bullshit.
.The flag of Taiwan. Like most modern countries, Taiwan has one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_the_Republic_of_China.svg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Flag_of_the_Republic_of_China.svg[height=400]
.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Office_Building[Presidential Office Building of Taiwan] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/總統府_(臺灣)[總統府_(臺灣) | 总统府 (台湾)]). What is that flag we see on top of the central government building of Taiwan? It appears to have a blue rectangle on the top left! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TaipeiROCPresidentialOfficeBuilding.jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Taiwan_White_House.jpg[height=400]
.It is fun to see that some small random Latin American countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraguay–Taiwan_relations[like Paraguay] recognize only Taiwan and not Mainland China. Brave warriors!!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Two_Chinas.svg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Countries_that_recognize_Taiwan.jpg[height=400]
.Washington DC TECRO. Instead of "embassies", Taiwan has https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_Economic_and_Cultural_Representative_Office["Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Offices" (TECROs)] https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/臺北經濟文化代表處[(台北经济文化代表处|臺北經濟文化代表處)] The just happen to issue VISAs and passports like embassies, but remember, they are not embassies. No flag you see? This is because idiotic countries don't allow TECROs to have the Taiwan flag. In 2019 Senator Ted Cruz planned on passing a law to allow that though: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3825086[]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Taipei_Economic_and_Cultural_Representative_Office_in_the_United_States_from_VOA_(1).jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/TECRO_Washington.jpg[height=400]
.2014 cartoon by D Nguyen summarizing the Taiwan China relationship in history. Featuring: fatter and fatter <<mao-zedong>> on first three cartoons to the left, likely <<deng-xiaoping>> to left on the last, and <<chiang-kai-shek>> to the right. TODO middle figure on last cartoon. TODO find proper attribution source, originally seen at: https://i.redd.it/xb5qr3asfns41.jpg[].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Taiwan_we_are_China_cartoon.jpg[height=600]
[[taiwan-number-one]]
===== Taiwan #1 (2915)
2015 meme started by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z1_Battle_Royale[H1Z1] streamer AngryPug, in which he repeatedly taunts the Chinese streamer Em0 by pretending to be Taiwanese.
* https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/taiwan-1
* https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/3tz3jq/what_is_the_point_of_the_taiwan_1_thing/
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=vTqZ9xrxhHk ANGRYPUG's official YouTube upload of the clip "Taiwan #1" meme.
video::vTqZ9xrxhHk[youtube,height=400,width=600]
See also: <<photobombing-like-attacks>>.
===== Internal politics of Taiwan
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_Republic_of_China
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中華民國政治
As of 2020, there are two relevant parties:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuomintang["Kuomintang"], which have become a bunch of pussies, and prefer to keep the ambiguous <<one-china-policy>> status quo, to not get bombed, and do some commerce with China. Those people make <<chiang-kai-shek>> turn in his grave of shame.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Progressive_Party[], which wants independence, and was winning as of 2020
[[chiang-kai-shek]]
===== Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石, 蔣中正)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Kai-shek
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/蔣中正
[[xinjiang]]
==== Xinjiang (新疆)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/新疆维吾尔自治区
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* 2014 something very serious happened in Xinjiang.
** https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/4hmhzt/xinjiang_massacre_2014_resulted_in_30005000_deaths/
* 2010 Xinjiang 10 month Internet blackout
** https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8682145.stm
* 2009 Ürümqi riots
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2009_Ürümqi_riots
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/乌鲁木齐七五事件
** 2009 Shaoguan incident
*** https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaoguan_incident
*** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/旭日玩具厂群体斗殴事件
Terrorist attacks done by Xinjiang separatists:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_China#Chronology_of_major_events
Notable ones:
* 2014 Kunming attack
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Kunming_attack
** photo of 8 bodies lined up after the attack: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/world/asia/chinese-officials-seek-to-shift-attention-from-rampage.html
** Interestingly, https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/03/sensitive-words-attack-kunming/ points out that http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/845642.shtml#.UxYZgeddVRG said that:
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____
The public must realize that a handful of extremists are far from qualified to represent tens of millions of local residents in Xinjiang. It is not only an irrational and biased mindset to put the blame on the entire Uyghur community or the Muslim world, but the idea will also abet and aid those separatists and terrorists who are desperate to take advantage of ethnic and religious conflicts.
____
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and yet as of the <<xinjiang-re-education-camps>>, all Xinjiang Muslims were fucked. <<rule-of-law>> comes to mind.
.<<rebel-pepper,Rebel Pepper>> 2017-04 cartoon showing that Xinjiang is like a prison inside a greater prison, which is China itself. Chinese characters read: 新疆(Xinjiang) and 中国(China). TODO source.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xinjiang_camp_in_camp.jpg[height=600]
[[xinjiang-re-education-camps]]
===== Xinjiang "re-education" camps (新疆再教育營, 2017-)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/新疆再教育營
The keyword is <<rule-of-law>>: because of a few terrorists, every single Muslim was fucked even if they did not commit any crime.
Ciro Santilli
committed
* 2020-12-14 reports that Uyghurs are being forced to work on the cotton industry emmerge:
** https://cgpolicy.org/briefs/coercive-labor-in-xinjiang-labor-transfer-and-the-mobilization-of-ethnic-minorities-to-pick-cotton/ "Coercive Labor in Xinjiang: Labor Transfer and the Mobilization of Ethnic Minorities to Pick Cotton"
** https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/nz0g306v8c/china-tainted-cotton "China's 'tainted' cotton"
* https://xjdp.aspi.org.au/ The Xinjiang Data Project by the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Strategic_Policy_Institute[Australian Strategic Policy Institute]
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Also includes the <<uyghurs-for-sale>> report.
News:
* 2020-10-28 <<global-times>> https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1203861.shtml in response to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Samuel_Paty[The Murder of Ssamuel Paty] clarifies that the best way to counter terrorism is preventive mass incarceration and brainwashing: "Eradicating extremism is a huge challenge of governance for all countries. China has proactively explored feasible ways in its Xinjiang governance and generated positive outcomes."
* 2020-10-17 (paywall) https://www.economist.com/china/2020/10/17/how-xinjiangs-gulag-tears-families-apart "How Xinjiang's gulag tears families apart". "So many parents have been locked up that officials struggle to cope with the left-behind children"
* 2020-09-19 https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3101986/china-claims-vocational-training-given-nearly-13-million-people "Chinese authorities "indirectly" confirm the scale of the camps. China claims 1.3 million Xinjiang residents given 'vocational training' each year"
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The document: http://www.scio.gov.cn/zfbps/32832/Document/1687588/1687588.htm also quoted on <<peoples-daily>>: http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2020/0918/c1001-31865875.html
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Official English translation: http://english.scio.gov.cn/whitepapers/2020-09/17/content_76712251.htm
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Title: 新疆的劳动就业保障 (Employment and Labor Rights in Xinjiang)
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Quote:
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全疆年均培训城乡各类劳动者128.8万人次，其中，南疆地区年均培训45.14万人次。参训人员至少掌握1项就业技能，绝大多数取得了职业资格证书、职业技能等级证书或专项职业能力证书，实现稳定就业。
____
+
Google translation:
____
The average annual training for all kinds of workers in urban and rural areas in Xinjiang is 1.288 million, of which 451,400 are trained in southern Xinjiang. Participants have mastered at least one employment skill, and most of them have obtained vocational qualification certificates, vocational skill level certificates or special vocational ability certificates to achieve stable employment.
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* 2020-08-27 https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alison_killing/satellite-images-investigation-xinjiang-detention-camps "Blanked-Out Spots On China's Maps Helped Us Uncover Xinjiang's Camps". Good technique.
* 2020-06-29 https://apnews.com/269b3de1af34e17c1941a514f78d764c "China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization"
* 2020-06-17 https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN23O3EW "Trump signs bill pressuring China over Uighur Muslim crackdown"
* 2019-12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEkliuqQo-g "A Secret Look Inside a Chinese Labor Program for Uighurs | Visual Investigations" by "The New York Times" published on Dec 30, 2019. Description: "China is relocating Uighurs and other Muslim minorities to urban areas as part of a contentious labor program. The Times obtained rare footage taken inside one."
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video::dEkliuqQo-g[youtube,height=400,width=600]
* 2919-12: Muslim German Turkish Arsenal player link:++https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesut_%C3%96zil++[Mesut Özil] criticizes concentration camps on Twitter, and China stops broadcasting arsenal matches
** https://twitter.com/MesutOzil1088/status/1205439723302469632 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191214233550/https:/twitter.com/MesutOzil1088/status/1205439723302469632[archive])
** https://news.sky.com/story/chinas-state-tv-will-no-longer-show-arsenal-match-after-mesut-ozil-remarks-11887171
* 2019-11: "What happened to me" manga depicting Uighur torture hits 2.5m views
** https://wapipi.net/home/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/uy0830_en.pdf (https://web.archive.org/web/20191126162143/https://wapipi.net/home/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/uy0830_en.pdf[archive])
** https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/26/what-has-happened-to-me-manga-depicting-uighur-torture-hits-25m-views
* 2019-11 The Xinjiang Papers: leaked cables about Xinjiang internment camps policy, some reported by the New York Times and others by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, soure yet unknown. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_papers
** 2020-02-18 https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/02/20/more-evidence-chinas-horrific-abuses-xinjiang the "Karakax list" leaked spreadsheet contains detailed information on 331 citizens Karakax County in Xinjiang and sheds further insight on why certain people have been persecuted
*** https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/china-war-terror-uproots-uighur-families-leaked-data-shows-200218052952415.html
** https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html
** https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-cables/exposed-chinas-operating-manuals-for-mass-internment-and-arrest-by-algorithm/
** 2020-02: more leaks containing detailed records of several citizens: https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2020/02/asia/xinjiang-china-karakax-document-intl-hnk/
* 2019-09-22 Drone footage of Xinjiang prisoner transfer uploaded to YouTube. TODO confirm the location and that these are political prisoners rather than "normal criminals".
** Upload sources
*** https://twitter.com/warcombatfear/status/1174031079432310785
*** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGYoeJ5U7cQ
+
video::gGYoeJ5U7cQ[youtube,height=400,width=600]
** News coverage
*** https://news.sky.com/story/chinas-detention-of-uighurs-video-of-blindfolded-and-shackled-prisoners-authentic-11815401 Drone footage, video sources:
** Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/d78aog/chilling_video_of_chinese_police_transferring/
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.Video still of 2019-10 drone footage of blindfolded Xinjiang prisoners being marched taken at time 00:30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGYoeJ5U7cQ[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xinjiang_prisoners_march.jpg[height=400]
* 2019-07-31 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/world/asia/china-xinjiang.html "Doubt Greets China's Claim That Muslims Have Been Released From Camps"
* 2019-07-19 https://www.france24.com/en/20190712-37-countries-defend-china-over-xinjiang-un-letter "37 countries defend China over Xinjiang in UN letter"
* 2019-07-04 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-48825090 "China Muslims: Xinjiang schools used to separate children from families"
** https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/15/china-xinjiang-children-separated-families
* 2019-06-18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmId2ZP3h0c "Inside China's 'thought transformation' camps - BBC News" China gives BBC "access" to a chosen show camp where everyone claims they are happy and willing to stay. They are however clearly adults being treated like children, taking courses and even having to sing and dance for the camera. https://youtu.be/WmId2ZP3h0c?t=486[486s] is also golden, when the CCP officer Zhang Zhisheng explains how they are <<thoughtcrime,just preventing future crime from happening>>. How can they be so stupid? How can they not see that this is not what the West wants to hear? Amazing dark-comedy like stuff.
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video::WmId2ZP3h0c[youtube,height=400,width=600]
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.Propaganda picture where an adult man wearing traditional Xinjiang clothing and playing a traditional instrument inside a classroom setting inside a prison camp, as the CCP tries to show the world that they are happy and their culture is being respected, and only makes things worse. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-china-blog-48700786[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Uyghur_playing_guitar.jpg[height=400]
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* 2019-05-07 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/07/revealed-new-evidence-of-chinas-mission-to-raze-the-mosques-of-xinjiang
* 2019-05-07 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULaJVWOr4ko CNN does a few Xinjiang interviews and sends reporter to visit some of the concentration camps
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video::ULaJVWOr4ko[youtube,height=400,width=600]
* 2019-02-24 https://fortune.com/2019/02/21/thermo-fisher-xinjiang-china-uighurs/
* 2019-02-17 https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2186547/china-data-leak-exposes-vast-hi-tech-surveillance-operation "China data leak exposes vast hi-tech surveillance operation in Xinjiang", leak by SenseNets Technology.
* https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/world/asia/china-xinjiang.html
* 2019-03 https://shahit.biz/eng/ database of Xinjiang victims, with precise names, location, date of birth and ID card number of victims and testimonies
* 2018-12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=dsd1NkCKaNg In full: 'I begged them to kill me' - ex-Xinjiang detainee Mihrigul Tursun gives testimony in the US. Observers however rightly brought up the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony[Nayirah testimony].
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video::dsd1NkCKaNg[youtube,height=400,width=600]
* 2018-11 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-45812419 Xinjiang legalizes 're-education' camps
* 2018-08 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-rights-un/u-n-says-it-has-credible-reports-that-china-holds-million-uighurs-in-secret-camps-idUSKBN1KV1SU
* 2018-07 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eak3WRtcdko Sairagul Sawytbai testifies to the existence of Chinese concentration camps in Xinjiang
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video::Eak3WRtcdko[youtube,height=400,width=600]
* 2018-05 generic report https://jamestown.org/program/evidence-for-chinas-political-re-education-campaign-in-xinjiang/
* 2018-05 mapping internment camps with satellite imaging:
** https://www.albawaba.com/news/mapping-china’s-internment-camps-its-ethnic-minorities-1136100
** https://medium.com/@shawnwzhang/list-of-re-education-camps-in-xinjiang-新疆再教育集中营列表-99720372419c List of Re-education Camps in Xinjiang 新疆再教育集中营列表 Shawn Zhang https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/8mbhad/satellite_imagery_of_xinjiang_reeducation_camps/
* 2018-05 Omir Bekali's account of Xinjiang education camps:
** https://apnews.com/6e151296fb194f85ba69a8babd972e4b
** https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/former-inmates-of-chinas-muslim-re-education-camps-tell-of-brainwashing-torture/2018/05/16/32b330e8-5850-11e8-8b92-45fdd7aaef3c_story.html?utm_term=.df8ea170b18f
** https://uk.businessinsider.com/what-is-life-like-in-xinjiang-reeducation-camps-china-2018-5
* 2017-04 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/world/asia/china-xinjiang-ban-muslim-names-muhammad-jihad.html "China Bans 'Muhammad' and 'Jihad' as Baby Names in Heavily Muslim Region".
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Note that Muhammad is incredibly popular in Islamic countries, and thought to be the most popular name in the world with 150m people sharing it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_(name)#Transliterations
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It is so prevalent, that it is often shortened to just "Md." and people are just called by their second name to reduce ambiguity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_name#Ism
* 2017-04 https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/camp-photo-04262019171258.html
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.Image of prisoners wearing blue sitting down in Xinjiang concentration camp, with some prisoners identified to indicate that they are not criminals but rather detained purely for political reasons. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/camp-photo-04262019171258.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xinjiang_prisoners_sitting_identified.jpeg[height=400]
.Advertisement published by Qingdao Decai Decoration Co. claiming to supply government-sponsored Uyghur workers from Xinjiang to other provinces. Source of translation: https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale["Uyghurs for sale" report]. Original website archive from 16 Jan 2020: http://archive.ph/r7T8r[]. The ad features a caricature of two dancing Uyghurs in traditional clothing. This is evidence of the CCP's mass forced eviction and slavery of Uyghurs.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Uyghur_sale_website.jpg[height=500]
.Uyghur workers at Taekwang Shoe Manufacturing waving the Chinese flag, October 2019. Viewable on the pro-CCP China Ethnic Religion Net (中国民族宗教网) website: http://www.mzb.com.cn/html/report/191130765-1.htm[], and also shown in the https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale["Uyghurs for sale" report].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Uyghur_workers_waving_China_flag.jpg[height=400]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx0JFgwATho&t=128 "New footage shows Uyghurs bussed across China for forced labour in factories". At the given timestamp, contains 30 seconds of footage extracted from 3 social media posts showing Uyghurs being sent in busses to work in far way regions.
video::M_aXcH1zDEE[youtube,height=400,width=600,start=128]
====== Merdan Ghappar's video (2020-08-05)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-53650246
Self made video shows the ex-model chained to a bed in a camp. Text messages give further details.
Text messages and translation: https://medium.com/@millwarj/wear-your-mask-under-your-hood-an-account-of-prisoner-abuse-in-xinjiang-during-the-2020-3007a1f7437d
<iframe loading="lazy" width="400" height="500" frameborder="0" src="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/embed/p08mr1tm/53650246"></iframe>
[[other-islam-countries-speak-up-for-uyghur]]
====== Why don't many other Islamic countries speak up for the Uyghur persecution?
Either because those countries:
* are also dictatorships and completely corrupt to the brim
* or because Muslim schisms make them hate split groups even more than they hate other religions doe to the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley[uncanny valley effect]
Analyses:
* https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-09-10/long-shadow-xinjiang "The Long Shadow of Xinjiang"
* https://nationalinterest.org/feature/plight-uyghurs-why-muslims-wont-speak-their-brethren-112466
* 2020-11-23 "Uighur scholar arrested in Saudi Arabia at risk of deportation to China", "Activists and human rights advocates have raised concerns that Aimadoula Waili may be tortured in a ‘re-education' camp if sent back to China"
* 2020-10-01 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9CIZ9x3pIs "Uighurs in Exile: Arrested and deported back to China – BBC Newsnight", "Newsnight has found that Uighur people in the Middle East have been targeted by nations including Saudi Arabia"
* 2020-07-11: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/world/asia/china-iran-trade-military-deal.html "Defying U.S., China and Iran Near Trade and Military Partnership"
* 2018: vice-president https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jusuf_Kalla[Jusuf Kalla] said "we don't want to intervene in the domestic affairs of another country": https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-23/muslim-governments-stayed-silent-on-chinese-minority-uyghur/10630822
* https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/uk-muslim-activist-praises-jewish-community-for-speaking-out-for-uyghurs-635626 even the Jews are speaking lowder in some cases
.<<rebel-pepper>> 2019-07 cartoon showing <<xi-jinping>> claiming to have won the global opinion on the Xinjiang re-education camps because all other dictatorships support him, including <<other-islam-countries-speak-up-for-uyghur,Islamic dictatorships>>. https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/XiJinping-uyghur-camp-cartoon-07162019155441.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xinjiang_I_won.jpeg[height=400]
[[inner-mongolia]]
==== Inner mongolia (内蒙古)
* 2020-08-31 https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/language-08242020101614.html "China 'Will End' Mongolian-Language Education Starting This Semester: Reports"
** 2020-09-04 https://www.smhric.org/news_681.htm "Southern Mongolia turns to police state as full-blown cultural genocide unfolds" contains images of arrest orders and the like
* 2011 Inner Mongolia unrest
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Inner_Mongolia_unrest
[[tibet]]
==== Tibet (西藏)
Events linked to reducing the teaching of the Tibetan language in schools and replacing it with Mandarin:
* 2020-04 https://www.languagemagazine.com/2020/04/23/tibetan-language-phased-out-as-schools-switch-to-mandarin/
* 2010 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Tibetan_language_protest
===== 2008 Tibetan unrest (2008年西藏骚乱)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Tibetan_unrest
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008年西藏骚乱
Good gory photos from the event: https://file.wikileaks.org/file/tibet-protest-photos/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20200410200709/https://file.wikileaks.org/file/tibet-protest-photos/[archive])
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=B-tEi4uLM_E "Hundreds of Tibetan protesters clash with police after anti-China protest" published by AP Archive.
video::B-tEi4uLM_E[youtube,height=400,width=600]
===== 1987-1989 Tibetan unrest (1989年拉萨骚乱)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987–1989_Tibetan_unrest
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989年拉萨骚乱
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=qMZgoRuPJBg "Troops stormed the Tibetan holy site the Jokhang Temple and beat monks"
video::qMZgoRuPJBg[youtube,height=400,width=600]
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=3uQcGcGGepw "Latest Spate Of Violent Unrest In Lhasa And The Imposition Of Martial Law" by AP Archive
video::3uQcGcGGepw[youtube,height=400,width=600]
[[hong-kong]]
==== Hong Kong (香港)
News source: https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/ Became larger than `r/china` during the <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests>>.
Ciro Santilli
committed
There is only one solution to Hong Kong's problem:
Ciro Santilli
committed
* give inhabitants people easy VISAs to leave China, with priority to the rich/educated ones. Give them free language courses on the country of arrival, and help them find jobs
* treat Hong Kong exactly like any other part of China, removing any special commercial treaty with the reagion, which it has enjoyed for many years
These have started happening seriously in response to the <<hong-kong-national-security-law>>.
Hong Kong related posts at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Ahong-kong+
Related:
* <<hong-kong-dissidents>>
* <<lihkg>>
===== Hong Kong 97 SNES video game
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_97_(video_game)
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/香港97_(遊戲)
1995 video game realistically depicts the fight of Hong Kong against the Communist Party predicted to happen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handover_of_Hong_Kong[at the handover], featuring Bruce Lee (often represented as <<entertainers-who-support-the-ccp,Jackie Chan>>) who returned from the grave to join the fight and kick <<jiang-zemin,Jiang Zemin's>> ass.
The dead body from the game over screen was taken from a still from a video of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_War[1992 Bosnian War]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCDWyzZyNdw
The track is a sample of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Beijing_Tiananmen["I Love Beijing Tiananmen" (我爱北京天安门)] Cultural Revolution song that was popular before <<tiananmen>> and later became an ironic protest song:
____
我爱北京天安门 +
天安门上太阳升
____
____
I love Beijing Tiananmen Square +
The sun rises over the Tiananmen
____
Full song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is_Z2K7guKs
.Cover of the Hong Kong 97. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hong_Kong_97_cover.jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Hong_Kong_97_cover.jpg[height=400]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_aXcH1zDEE The venerable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_Video_Game_Nerd[Angry Video Game Nerd] made a review of Hong Kong 97.
video::M_aXcH1zDEE[youtube,height=400,width=600]
[[hong-kong-national-security-law]]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_national_security_law
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中華人民共和國香港特別行政區維護國家安全法
* 2020-11-12 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-54899171 "Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers resign after China ruling"
* 2020-08-30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWxuzuBXh1U "Chinese Police Arrest Hong Kong Activist Andy Li (李宇轩), 11 Others, for Attempting to Flee to Taiwan"
* 2020-08-22 https://hk.appledaily.com/us/20200822/QS26FF4DBFE7PG2LJJEO4NSQTQ/ they are already trying to remove sensitive materials from history textbooks
** 2020-08-21 https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/chinese-news-53846482 "香港通識科課本大幅度修改涉政治取向內容引發爭議" appears to give more concrete details. An English infographic at: https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/ig9xca/some_censorship_examples_of_the_latest_changes/
* 2020-08-10 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-10/hong-kong-media-tycoon-jimmy-lai-arrested-apple-daily-reports[] "Hong Kong Media Tycoon Arrested in Latest Blow to Democracy Camp"
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<<jimmy-lai>> is the founder of <<apple-daily>>, the flagship newspaper under Next Digital and the biggest pro-democracy paper in Hong Kong, reported that nearly 200 officers were entering their offices.
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Other notable arrests:
** <<agnes-chow>> https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/08/10/who-are-jimmy-lai-agnes-chow-two-hong-kong-democracy-advocates-arrested-monday/
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The CCP is not even pretending anymore.
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2020-08-12: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/hong-kong-media-tycoon-lai-released-bail-arrest-200811173810887.html[]: they were released on bail
* 2020-08-30 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/29/asia/hong-kong-security-law-election-intl-hnk/index.html "Four Hong Kong student activists arrested for 'secession' over social media posts": the arrests against online freedom of speech begin https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-53616583 gives the names, all are abroad it seems:
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Police in Hong Kong are seeking the arrest of six pro-democracy activists living in exile in Western countries, including the UK, media reports say.
The group reportedly includes former UK consulate worker Simon Cheng, well-known activist Nathan Law and US citizen Samuel Chu.
____
* 2020-07-08 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-protests-china-security/china-converts-hong-kong-hotel-into-new-national-security-office-idUSKBN24903Z "China converts Hong Kong hotel into new national security office"
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The name of the hotel is Metropark Hotel (維景酒店), address: 148 Tung Lo Wan Rd, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong: https://goo.gl/maps/1uR4RntpLMFaCYpq6
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Using hotels as a base of operations is of coures common in occupied regions, see e.g.:
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peninsula_Paris[The Peninsula Paris] (previously Hotel Majestique), which was used by the <<nazi,Gestapo>> and figures in the movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_Shadows[Army of the Shadows (1969)]. An important quote from that movie when a prisoner of the Nazis dies, his friend says:
+
____
All debts will be paid. +
Toutes les dettes se paieront.
____
* 2020-06-29 https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2020/06/statement-us-secretary-commerce-wilbur-ross-revocation-hong-kong "Statement from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Revocation of Hong Kong Special Status"
With the Chinese Communist Party's imposition of new security measures on Hong Kong, the risk that sensitive U.S. technology will be diverted to the People's Liberation Army or <<ministry-of-state-security,Ministry of State Security>> has increased, all while undermining the territory's autonomy. Those are risks the U.S. refuses to accept and have resulted in the revocation of Hong Kong's special status.
____
* 2020-06-03 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/03/britain-could-change-immigration-rules-for-hong-kong-citizens "Boris Johnson lays out visa offer to nearly 3m Hong Kong citizens"
* 2020-05-29 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52842303 "UK could offer 'path to citizenship' for Hong Kong's British passport holders"
* 2020-05-24 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/24/beijing-to-impose-hong-kong-security-laws-without-delay
.Over 100 police officers raid the Apple Daily Hong Kong newspaper soon after the <<hong-kong-national-security-law>> started. https://hongkongfp.com/2020/08/10/scores-of-police-raid-office-of-hong-kong-pro-democracy-newspaper-apple-daily/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Apple_Daily_raid.webp[height=600]
====== Hong kong national security department hotline
2020-11-06 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-54835955 "Hong Kong: Snitch hotline gets more than 1,000 calls"
An official source: https://www.police.gov.hk/ppp_en/03_police_message/nsdrh.html (https://web.archive.org/web/20201106164104/https://www.police.gov.hk/ppp_en/03_police_message/nsdrh.html[archive]).
The contacts:
* Wechat id: NSD62717171
* SMS: 62717171
* Email: nsd-public@police.gov.hk
Related: <<cac-report-website>>
Discussion:
* https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/jp3s8a/hong_kong_snitch_hotline_to_report_people/ on <<reddit>>
* https://lihkg.com/thread/2272029/page/1 on <<lihkg>>
===== 2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protests
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Hong_Kong_anti-extradition_bill_protests
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEvalUQuClE "Last Hong Kong governor Chris Patten: Gov't defense of extradition bill 'absolute nonsense'", Hong Kong Free Press
** 2019-10 https://twitter.com/Slasher/status/1181442535962632193 Blizzard bans top Hearthstone esports player Blitzchung (Ng Wai Chung) for pro Hong Kong message in interview
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Wiki page of the event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitzchung_controversy
Songs:
* Glory to Hong Kong
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_to_Hong_Kong
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/願榮光歸香港
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=YhN6jipSHFI Hong Kong Yoga - Sammy J S2 (ep31) published by ABC Comedy on 2019-09-19. Very good.
video::YhN6jipSHFI[youtube,height=400,width=600]
Ciro Santilli
committed
====== LeBron James opposes Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protests (2019)
Ciro Santilli
committed
NBA is huge in China.
Ciro Santilli
committed
On 2019-10-05 (Friday) 7:41PM Daryl Morey, NBA's Houston Rockets manager sent a tweet with an image that read:
Ciro Santilli
committed
____
Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.
____
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20191005025317if_/https://twitter.com/dmorey/status/1180312072027947008
Then Daryl was a coward, removed this tweet, and apologized on 2019-10-07 (Monday) 1:18 AM https://twitter.com/dmorey/status/1181000808399114240 (https://archive.is/6Sdpn[archive]), so by then it was already deleted.
Ciro Santilli
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____
I did not intend my tweet to cause any offense to Rockets fans and friends of mine in China
____
Then TODO date the uberstar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeBron_James[LeBron James] (not a Houston Rockets player), a big supporter of black rights in the US, criticized this.
https://apnews.com/article/dd96d002394f45a6859c280c889afcb7[LeBron's words]:
____
I don't want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn't educated on the situation
____
Related video of LeBron saying similar things on interview (TODO same?): 2019-10-15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjM43blzaRc "LeBron addresses Daryl Morey's tweet and Lakers' trip to China | NBA on ESPN"
Ciro Santilli
committed
Led to: <<sport-event-live-broadcast-image-attacks>>.
* 2019-10-15 https://apnews.com/article/dd96d002394f45a6859c280c889afcb7 "LeBron: Rockets' Morey 'wasn't educated' on China tweet"
* 2019-10-07 (Monday) "Rockets' general manager's Hong Kong comments anger China"
* 2019-10-07 Lakers vs. Heat NBA Tencent Live Stream cancelled due to fan wearing the <<taiwan,Taiwanese>> flag
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.Fan wearing Taiwan flag in 2019-10-07 Lakers vs. Heat showing fan and text (TODO from Tencent?) saying that the match will be cancelled. https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dtrx4b/tencent_nba_live_broadcast_got_cancelled_because[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/NBA_Taiwan_flag.jpg[height=600]
** https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49956385
** https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/07/business/houston-rockets-nba-china-daryl-morey/index.html
Some good LeBron cartoons:
* https://twitter.com/Christi71386739/status/1312730174497058816/photo/1 <<rebel-pepper>> 2019-10-15 "You are the king"
* https://twitter.com/Christi71386739/status/1312730174497058816/photo/2 Adam Zyglis "Kneeling", NFL vs NBA
.In 2020-10-04 American billboard company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outfront_Media[Outfront Media] refused to post this ad by the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Legal_and_Policy_Center[NLPC conservative think tank] critical of LeBron James' stand on Hong Kong. The ad shows the NBA superstar with a Chinese flag covering his mouth and the message "Silence is Violence." and URL http://freedom4china.com/[]. https://www.foxnews.com/sports/billboard-company-refuses-to-post-ad-critical-of-lebron-james-stand-on-china[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Silence_is_violence.jpg[height=400]
=== What should all pro-democracy people do about China?
A propaganda slogan from a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance[French Resistance] flyer (see also <<nazi>>):
To obey is to betray. +
To disobey is to serve.
Obéir c'est trahir. +
Désobéir c'est servir.
____
."Obéir c'est trahir. Désobéir c'est servir." flyer featuring the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Lorraine[cross of Lorraine] https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/images/Obéir_cest_trahir_Désobéir_cest_servir/1314227[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/To_obey_is_to_betray.jpg[height=400]
==== Photobombing-like attacks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photobombing
* 2020-04-08 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-08/nintendo-s-animal-crossing-becomes-new-hong-kong-protest-ground Animal Crossing
* <<taiwan-number-one>>
Explicitly forbidden in China by the law: <<real-username-law>>.
See also: <<keyword-attack>>.
An appropriation attack is one where the attackers attempt to associate an existing symbol to their cause.
For example during the <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests>> attackers attempted to use this technique to associate a generic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chun-Li[Chinese Chun-Li-like] character Mei from Blizzard's link:++https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overwatch_(video_game)++[Overwatch game] to try and get it blocked in China after the gaming company punished a pro gamer for defending the Hong Kong protests. Coverage https://www.businessinsider.com/blizzard-fans-overwatch-mei-hong-kong-protests-memes-2019-10 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191012094950/https://www.businessinsider.com/blizzard-fans-overwatch-mei-hong-kong-protests-memes-2019-10[archive]).
.Mei from Blizzard's Overwatch was used in an attempted <<appropriation-attack>> during the <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests>>. https://twitter.com/marnofavonlea/status/1182557311539150849[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Mei_with_Hong_kong.jpg[height=600]
===== Sport event live broadcast image attacks
NBA in particular is super popular in China, and people sitting at the front row can easily bomb emissions due to the small court size:
* China's Tencent halts NBA live broadcast over <<taiwan,Taiwanese>> flag
* https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3813842
Ciro Santilli
committed
Started in particular due to the <<lebron-james-opposes-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests-2019>>
==== What should Western countries do about China?
Force all their Western servers to accept <<ensi>> connections only: <<ensi>>.
Western governments must reciprocate unfair Chinese practices: https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/18508/why-dont-western-countries-penalize-chinese-companies-in-the-same-way-that-chin
Companies only care about money and have no long term view, the following must be imposed by governments on Western companies.
Serious sanctions must be pot on companies that sell sensitive things to dictatorships:
* <<western-companies-that-sell-censorship-technology-to-dictatorships,censorship or anti-privacy software>>
Related approaches taken by the CCP that should also be stopped dead by strict enforcement of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Agents_Registration_Act[Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)]:
* <<chinese-interference-in-western-media>>, notably <<china-watch>>, must
* <<ccp-apologists>>
Physical presence influence must be completely blocked, e.g. cultural centers that report directly to the CCP such as <<confucius-institute>> and <<cssa>> must be banned.
News about Chinese state media using Western social media:
* 2016 https://qz.com/671211/chinas-propaganda-outlets-have-leaped-the-top-of-facebook-even-though-it-banned-at-home/ "China's propaganda news outlets are absolutely crushing it on Facebook"
Accounts that are not labelled as being from the Chinese government, but which support the CCP, must be investigated to determine if they are actually funded by the Chinese government.
TODO what to do with websites of: <<chinese-government-media>>? Blocking them has the downsides that:
* it would be harder to monitor what crazy shit the commies are doing
* those censorship mechanisms could be reused to block good websites by Western governments that are becoming Evil
Let's just leave them up to start with, who gives a fuck about them? :-) If they are getting too many page views, we can make search engines add the disclaimer too.
Chinese social media such as WeChat and <<tiktok>> must be banned. This is less serious than regular websites, because you can always repost on Western social media but without getting spied on:
* 2020-08-07 https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-wechat-executive-order-014615752.html "Trump executive order seeks to ban <<tiktok,TikTok>>, WeChat 'transactions' in 45 days"
Whenever China kicks out a western journalist who is in China and reports there, the Western country must do the same and kick out a Chinese journalists for a Chinese media.
An upside of restricting Chinese servies is that it would hugely bolster <<censorship-circumvention>> technologies, as every Chinese expat would need to buy a VPN.
* https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/18508/why-dont-western-countries-penalize-chinese-companies-in-the-same-way-that-chin
Western governments must identify raw material dependencies on China, and reduce them, while at the same time forbidding technology transfer to China. China has been trading cheap resources for technology, and we must stop that now.
Unfair Chinese commercial practices must be reciprocated. Chinese companies should be forced to open joint ventures to operate outside of China, which is a trick China uses to control profits and more easily steal IP from Western companies:
* https://www.msn.com/zh-hk/news/other/us-entrepreneurs-make-a-choice-rewards-of-doing-business-in-china-often-outweigh-risks-of-losing-trade-secrets/ar-BBSPC69 (https://web.archive.org/web/20190905071456/https://www.msn.com/zh-hk/news/other/us-entrepreneurs-make-a-choice-rewards-of-doing-business-in-china-often-outweigh-risks-of-losing-trade-secrets/ar-BBSPC69:[archive])
* https://www.chinalawblog.com/2019/02/china-joint-ventures-the-long-version.html (https://web.archive.org/web/20190905071738/https://www.chinalawblog.com/2019/02/china-joint-ventures-the-long-version.html:[archive])
Sanctions must be imposed directly on Chinese officials. They must not be allowed to "escape to a better life or have investments in the West":
* 2020-08-08 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53699084 "Hong Kong: US imposes sanctions on chief executive Carrie Lam"
.<<rebel-pepper>> 2016-09-07 cartoon entitled "宽衣<<xi-jinping-memes,撒币>>" depicting <<xi-jinping>> as a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_dance[pole dancer] and throwing money at other world leaders during the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_G20_Hangzhou_summit[2016 G20 Hangzhou summit] is a reference to how China buys political influence in other countries by promising profitable trade deals with those countries. https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/biantailajiaomanhua/biantailajiaomanhua-09072016131637.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_pole.jpg[height=400]
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===== Mark government controlled social media
All posts of all state-sponsored social media accounts must be clearly marked as such.
This should be done not only for China, but of all countries, including Western democracies.
Even better, they should add funny censored images on top of those that are from dictatorship countries.
Furthermore, marked media from dictatorships must be forbidden to both monetize and pay to promote its content.
Any outlets that do not announce themselves as state sponsored but are, must be banned forever when they are found out.
What to do about personal accounts is much harder to decide however, and especially so in the case of <<ccp-apologists>>, where they might really not be state sponsored, and the creator's nationality won't help make the decision either.
Some websites have started marking such accounts, which is a great start.
* YouTube in 2018: https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/2/16964190/youtube-state-funded-broadcasters
* Facebook in 2020: https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/04/facebook-adds-labels-identifying-state-controlled-media/
* 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"
[[spy]]
===== China spy stories
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>>.
* 2020-12-09 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"
* 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"
+
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
+
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.
+
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"
+
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".
+
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
* 2010-2012 about 20 CIA spies in China were killed. One was shot right in the courtyard of a government building as a message to others.
** https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-espionage-idUSKCN18G0UM "China killed CIA sources, hobbled U.S. spying from 2010 to 2012: NYT"
[[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.
===== The West must ban the Chinese telecommunications software and hardware
They are an entry point to spying, censorship and fake news.
* 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"
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_Video_Communications
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom
American company, with Chinese-born now American Citizen CEO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Yuan[Eric Yuan] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/袁征[袁征]), migrated to the US around 1997), and development teams largely China-based to reduce costs.
* 2020-06-10 <<zhou-fengsuo>>'s account as blocked after a celebration of <<tiananmen>>, which was attended by many people from China. The account was later reinstated, Zoom said it acted on a CCP request on error, and it won't do this for users outside of China anymore:
** https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zoom-video-commn-privacy/zoom-says-china-demanded-shutting-activists-accounts-over-tiananmen-event-idUSKBN23I3GP "U.S. lawmakers ask Zoom to clarify China ties after it suspends accounts"
** https://www.axios.com/zoom-closes-chinese-user-account-tiananmen-square-f218fed1-69af-4bdd-aac4-7eaf67f34084.html "Zoom closed account of U.S.-based Chinese activist 'to comply with local law'".
** https://docs.google.com/document/d/12DM3ccTe70yzqCDPu9uXlCD7WmfJq-yzvKdKBH0oppc/edit
.2020-03-27 photo showing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson[UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson] using Zoom on a Cabinet meeting (a high level Government meeting) during <<corona>>. If you don't properly ban risky dictatorship-linked software, it will get used at the highest levels of Government by clueless people. https://news.sky.com/story/coronairus-cabinet-talks-held-on-zoom-days-after-software-was-banned-by-ministry-of-defence-11963889[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Zoom_Boris.jpg[height=400]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huawei
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/华为
Just look at the Chinese name of the company:
* 华 (China)
* 为 (to do something for)
Ciro Santilli
committed
How can the West not see this?
Ciro Santilli
committed
No proof is needed. They belong to a <<dictatorship>>, and therefore must not be trusted. Doing so is always a risk which we should not take.
Also have a look at their Wikipedia page:
____
Ren sought to reverse engineer foreign technologies with local researchers. At a time when all of China's telecommunications technology was imported from abroad, Ren hoped to build a domestic Chinese telecommunication company that could compete with, and ultimately replace, foreign competitors.
During its first several years the company's business model consisted mainly of reselling private branch exchange (PBX) switches imported from Hong Kong. Meanwhile, it was reverse-engineering imported switches and investing heavily in research and development to manufacture its own technologies. By 1990 the company had approximately 600 R&D staff and began its own independent commercialization of PBX switches targeting hotels and small enterprises.
The company's first major breakthrough came in 1993 when it launched its C&C08 program controlled telephone switch. It was by far the most powerful switch available in China at the time. By initially deploying in small cities and rural areas and placing emphasis on service and customizability, the company gained market share and made its way into the mainstream market.
Huawei also won a key contract to build the first national telecommunications network for the People's Liberation Army, a deal one employee described as "small in terms of our overall business, but large in terms of our relationships". In 1994, founder Ren Zhengfei had a meeting with Party general secretary Jiang Zemin, telling him that "switching equipment technology was related to national security, and that a nation that did not have its own switching equipment was like one that lacked its own military." Jiang reportedly agreed with this assessment.
Another major turning point for the company came in 1996 when the government in Beijing adopted an explicit policy of supporting domestic telecommunications manufacturers and restricting access to foreign competitors. Huawei was promoted by both the government and the military as a national champion, and established new research and development offices.
____
At any point the Chinese government could make a request that they cannot deny.
* 5G 2019-2020
** in 2020 the UK was trying hard to get kicked out of the 5 eyes in 2020 by using 5G equipment from Huawei
** 2020-06-25 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-53178998 "Huawei's £1bn research centre near Cambridge approved" so despite all the 5G stuff, the UK still allows them to create a new research center in the UK... are they blind?
** https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/28/tech/huawei-5g-uk/index.html (https://web.archive.org/web/20200129023355/https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/28/tech/huawei-5g-uk/index.html[archive]) "UK will allow Huawei to help build its 5G network despite US pressure"
** 2020-04-17 only after more than 10 thousand people died in the country during <<corona>> did the brits finally change their minds: https://nypost.com/2020/04/17/uk-moves-to-drop-huawei-as-5g-vendor-citing-china-coronavirus-transparency/ "UK moves to drop Huawei as 5G vendor, citing China coronavirus transparency"
* 2018-12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meng_Wanzhou[Meng Wanzhou] (孟晚舟), daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei (任正非) and Huawei CFO as of 2018, was arrested in Canada because the US accused her of breaking Iran sanctions
** https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-michael-kovrig-michael-spavor-canadian-detainees-china-explainer/ "Why are Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor still detained in China?" in apparent retaliation, under accusation of espionage.
** 2020-05-27 https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/27/canada-court-finds-against-huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhou-on-double-criminality-extradition-trial-to-continue/ "Canada court finds against Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou on double criminality; extradition trial to continue"
* 2019-11 https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/11/29/has-huaweis-darkest-secret-just-been-exposed-by-this-new-report/#7896db9d4061 "Has Huawei's Darkest Secret Just Been Exposed By This New Surveillance Report?" Xinjiang Papers reveal the extent of Huawei's involvement in <<xinjiang>>
."When you send a good joke from your Huawei phone", <<xi-jinping>> is also listening and laughing with you, girls. https://i.redd.it/nodgcqmwtcg31.jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/When_you_send_a_good_joke_from_your_Huawei_phone.jpg[height=600]
.<<rebel-pepper>> 2018-12-10 "Why does the whole world hate me" Huawei cartoon, where Huawei's shadow shows the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_and_sickle[hammer and sickle] to suggest that Huawei is controlled by the CCP. https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/Huawei-cartoon-12102018152050.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Huawei_why_does_the_whole_world_hate_me.jpeg[height=400]
.<<rebel-pepper>> 2019-03-08 showing Huawei slapping the Statue of Liberty with "The Constitution of the United States" when Huawei sued the US Government for violating the Constitution when it banned government agencies from buying Huawei equipment. This illustrates the usual dilemma where <<what-should-western-countries-do-about-china,China uses Western freedom of speech as a weapon against the West itself>>. https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/chinashuawei-03082019162541.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Huawei_Statue_of_Liberty.jpeg[height=400]
.Cartoon showing a huge China flag branded USB sucking up Western personal and military information like a vacuum cleaner in 2019-04-29 article entitled "Britain will regret doing business with Huawei". TODO cartoon author. https://retro-blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/04/britain-will-regret-doing-business-with-huawei/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/China_USB_theft.jpg[height=400]
.Cartoon suggesting that Huawei's 5G is a like a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Horse[Trojan Horse] being gifted to Europe. TODO: source of original non-China generic Trojan Horse background image that was edited and repurposed. https://twitter.com/DaichiWatanbe/status/1231189285325475840[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Huawei_5G_Trojan.jpg[height=400]
.<<rebel-pepper>> 2019-06-22 cartoon depicting Germany, Hungary and the United Kingdom as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gollum[Gollum]s from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings[The Lord of The Rings] and China as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauron[Sauron] offering a ring which reads "5G to rule them" and "Huawei" to the Gollums who are eager to obtain it. This is a reference to The Lord of the Rings backstory in which Sauron bribed and controlled the rulers of the world by giving them https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Power[rings of power]. Now that Ciro thinks about it, maybe this was actually Tolkien making a reference to the political situation of his time. https://twitter.com/RadioFreeAsia/status/1100504518142365698[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Huawei_5G_my_precious.jpg[height=400]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/抖音
* 2020-11-05 https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-censor-china-critical-content-uighur-uighurs-2020-11?r=US&IR=T "A senior TikTok executive admitted the company used to censor content critical of China, 'specifically with regard to the Uighur situation'", related to: <<xinjiang-re-education-camps>>
* 2020-07 https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/23/tiktok-creator-fund-200-million-us/ "TikTok unveils $200 million fund for U.S. creators": TikTok is trying to buy their stay in the West.
* 2020-07 https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/06/26/warning-apple-suddenly-catches-tiktok-secretly-spying-on-millions-of-iphone-users/#5265c8d734ef "pple Suddenly Catches TikTok Secretly Spying On Millions Of iPhone Users" by reading from the clipboard
* 2020-06 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53225720 India bans TikTok after Ladakh border tensions
* 2020-05 <<liu-keqing-singer>>
* 2019-11-28 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/28/tiktok-says-sorry-to-us-teenager-blocked-after-sharing-xinjiang-videos[]: "TikTok sorry for blocking teenager who disguised Xinjiang video as make-up tutorial". Subtitle: "Chinese-owned video sharing platform blocked Feroza Aziz after she posted film disguised as makeup tutorial"
* 2019-11 https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/11/25/20976964/chinese-americans-censorship-wechat-hong-kong-elections-tiktok
Reports:
* 2020-08 https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3982027 photo of ByteDance top brass with CCP members in Beijing and description of their meeting. Because obviously they have strong ties with the CCP like any other Chinese company.
* 2020-03 https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/fug8i1/the_chinese_tiktok_just_began_an_uninterrupted/ "The Chinese Tik-Tok just began an uninterrupted propaganda stream." during <<corona>>
* https://twitter.com/JoshuaDummer/status/1280877750245453828 "Wife trying livestreaming on Douyin. Comes over to me in the middle of a stream and puts me on camera. After about a minute, notice pops up saying that foreigners are not allowed to appear on livestreams 'without permission'."
** https://twitter.com/JoshuaDummer/status/1280881420047511552/photo/1
** https://twitter.com/JoshuaDummer/status/1280882119913291776/photo/1
Douyin does not seem to have a web interface: https://www.zhihu.com/question/269102675 "有没有抖音网页版或者抖音电脑版？"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidu
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* Search engine: original business and still served at the toplevel domain
** https://www.baidu.com/
** Autocomplete suggestion for "Ciro Santilli": "cirosantilli的妻子" (Ciro Santilli's wife and Children)
** Clearly and obviously censors pages with <<keyword-attack,keywords>>, e.g.:
*** https://www.baidu.com/s?wd=Ciro%20Santilli%20Stack%20Overflow["Ciro Santilli Stack Overflow"] hits https://stackoverflow.com/users/9160762/ciro-santilli and not https://stackoverflow.com/users/895245/ciro-santilli-郝海东冠状病六四事件法轮功 which has way greater reputation (https://web.archive.org/web/20200807071610/https://www.baidu.com/s?wd=Ciro%20Santilli%20Stack%20Overflow[archive]). For example, a much smaller account with a much more common name hits: https://stackoverflow.com/users/763246/james-hill | https://web.archive.org/web/20200807072446/https://www.baidu.com/s?wd=james%20hill%20stack%20overflow
*** https://www.baidu.com/s?wd=cirosantilli%20github["cirosantilli github"] does not hit https://github.com/cirosantilli (https://web.archive.org/web/20200807071807/https://www.baidu.com/s?wd=cirosantilli%20github[archive])
*** but there does appear to be a manual aspect to the block possibly. For example, Ciro's top answer does hit, even though he has keywords in the page: https://www.baidu.com/s?&wd=dependencies%20devDependencies%20peerDependencies to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18875674/whats-the-difference-between-dependencies-devdependencies-and-peerdependencies (https://web.archive.org/web/20200807072151/https://www.baidu.com/s?&wd=dependencies%20devDependencies%20peerDependencies[archive])
*** Pages censored in China do hit outside of China at least however, e.g.: https://www.baidu.com/s?wd=twitter first hits https://twitter.com (https://web.archive.org/web/20200807071312/https://www.baidu.com/s?wd=twitter[archive])
* Tieba blogging
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidu_Tieba
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/百度贴吧
** https://tieba.baidu.com
* Maps
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidu_Maps
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/百度地图
** Google Maps is not allowed to film in China for Streetview, so Baidu has its own
* Analytics
** https://tongji.baidu.com/web/help/article?id=174
** 百度统计代码介绍
** the <<cac>> uses their analytics as of 2020
* Baike wiki
** https://baike.baidu.com/
** The leading Chinese Wikipedia
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidu_Baike
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/百度百科
** obviously completely censored, e.g.: <<baidu-baike-censorship-of-hao-haidong>>
** seems to not have edit history. That would be bad for censorship :-)
===== 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.
Ciro Santilli
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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>>
Some hell known companies and events:
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* 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/
* LinkedIn
** 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."
* Apple
** https://applecensorship.com App Store monitoring by <<greatfire>>, source: https://github.com/greatfire/applecensorship
** 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]
* 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]
===== Chinese interference in Western media
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/[]. No direct evidence that this has affected the news however.
[[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
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.
===== bandinchina GitHub repository
https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina
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Contains a "List of companies who have apologized to the Chinese government and implemented censorship requests".
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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>>.
===== Entertainers who support the CCP
* 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
Related about university interference:
* 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
[[confucius-institute]]
==== Confucius institute (孔子学院)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius_Institute
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/孔子学院
News and reports:
* 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"
==== University espionage
Lists:
* 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
People:
* 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
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* 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
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 staty away from ideas democracy and freedom.
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOArB434ykU
video::aOArB434ykU[youtube,height=400,width=600]
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.
Video also commented at:
* 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
Key markings:
* "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]]
* 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]]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Students_and_Scholars_Association
Abbreviation: CSSA.
News and reports:
* 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]]
* 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
China's "Diaspora management" organ.
The likely organizers behind <<confucius-institute>> and <<cssa>>.
=== What should pro-democracy Chinese living in China do about the dictatorship?
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.
____
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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.
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.
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.
If you are not a wumao, consider this:
* 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.
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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.
Then 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.
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If the user keeps generating notifications, block them as per link:CONTRIBUTING.md[], replying to a single person multiple times is useless.
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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. Only block if the user is generating multiple notifications.
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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:
Ciro Santilli
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____
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:
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大家你好
在我的GitHub中国FAQ repository我已经回答了好几个关于我常见的问题。
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]:
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Don't answer the foolish arguments of fools, or you will become as foolish as they are.
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which is now usually seen in the form https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/66460/origin-of-do-not-argue-with-idiots[of unclear attribution]:
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Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.
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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:
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Playing the <<music,qin>> to a cow.
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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>>.
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