README.adoc

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::https://web.archive.org/web/20200618091710im_/https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/biantailajiaomanhua/biantailajiaomanhua-09072016131637.html/Untitled.jpg/image[height=400]

[[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 true for all countries however, and we do 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 that the West should not underestimate this menace that comes from a <<dictatorship>>.

Some Chinese spy stories:

* 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"

See also: <<university-espionage>>.

===== 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"

====== Zoom

* 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.

News:

* 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::https://web.archive.org/web/20200404102642im_/https://e3.365dm.com/20/03/1600x900/skynews-zoom-cabinet-coronavirus_4955732.jpg?20200326102528[height=400]

[[huawei]]
====== Huawei 华为

* 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)

How can the West not see this?

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.

Some news:

* 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/ "link:https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/27/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::https://web.archive.org/web/20190814074955/https://i.redd.it/nodgcqmwtcg31.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::https://web.archive.org/web/20181211133001im_/https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/Huawei-cartoon-12102018152050.html/181210RFA-Huawei.jpg/@@images/7cbd8e6e-aede-4c53-98be-3c9a8d40e293.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::https://web.archive.org/web/20200423092420im_/https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/chinashuawei-03082019162541.html/190308RFA-en1.jpg/@@images/90bf4dbb-1019-40a5-b58a-865672f6c808.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::https://web.archive.org/web/20200423092410im_/https://retro-blogs.spectator.co.uk/files/2019/04/6507703-1.jpg?auto=compress[height=400]

.Cartoon suggesting that Huawei 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::https://web.archive.org/web/20200222121210im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ERYQHj_XYAEQsfN.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::https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0XHAnBWkAIP8nj?format=jpg&name=small[height=400]

[[tiktok]]
====== TikTok 抖音 (Douyin)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/抖音

News:

* 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

[[baidu]]
====== Baidu 百度

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

The "Google of China":

* 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.

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:

* 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
** 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>>"
+
.Chinese flag with Apple characteristics. https://techcrunch.com/2015/08/11/apple-shares-tumble-5-amidst-china-concerns/[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200305101324/https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/apple-china.png?w=1390&crop=1[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::https://web.archive.org/web/20191013075353if_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGmvMb6XUAQgYq9?format=jpg&name=900x900[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::https://web.archive.org/web/20191011092825if_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGikEkFXkAE-A8m?format=jpg&name=4096x4096[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::https://web.archive.org/web/20191013080151if_/https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/China-Apple-cartoon-08242017103540.html/170731Apple-700.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,BIASED MEDIA >> 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

Contains a "List of companies who have apologized to the Chinese government and implemented censorship requests".

It only lists companies that implemented censorship outside of China however (with Hong Kong, <<taiwan,Taiwan>> and Macau defined as outside of China), therefore it is basically a Taiwan flag takedown + Hong Kong / Taiwan censorship list:

* https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina/pull/56#issuecomment-541230090
* https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina/pull/84

Other interesting GitHub repositories: <<github-repositories-with-censored-information>>.

===== Entertainers who support the CCP

Boycott those:

* 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
** 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[]

=== 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.
____

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.

[[reply-policy]]
=== Ciro Santilli's reply policy 三西猴的回答政策

People get kind of passionate sometimes about politics. And some of them might also be just malicious <<wumao,wumaos>>, although it is generally not possible to distinguish between them.

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, <<effect,only the keyword attack has any chance of having any effect, and even that is slim>>

In order to not waste too much time on those, Ciro Santilli uses the following strategy.

If the original thread post is not very interesting, try to parse it quickly and reply once, always <<better-to-do,linking to the FAQ>>, and then unfollow the thread. This shows that you're still alive, and takes little effort.

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.

If the user keeps generating notifications, block them as per link:CONTRIBUTING.md[], replying to a single person multiple times is useless.

Never block users for an initial <<shitpost,shitposts>>, just reply with a stupid joke instead. This approach creates more uncertainty and makes you look cooler. Only block if the user is generating multiple notifications.

If a shitpost is made on most other social media except GitHub issues in this repository, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, immediately block the user on that website if you have the permission to do that, with a canned reply:

____
Hi <idiot's name>, I don't reply to China issues here, please open an issue at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues instead, cheers.
____

Note however that this is not possible on idiotic websites like <<quora>> where such comments may be deleted, possibly automatically, who the fuck knows, e.g. as done at: https://www.quora.com/What-would-happen-if-I-walked-around-Beijing-with-a-t-shirt-that-said-freedom-of-speech-is-pretty-great/answer/Ciro-Santilli/comment/143227962 In that case just link to sections of the FAQ, or mute people, or maybe just block all comments on the post to not waste time with new useless notifications.

This is because it is not worth answering anywhere else where the information will be scattered and impossible to find later on, and especially on websites that are already blocked in China. Shitposts on Stack Overflow and other non-blocked websites are encouraged however, as they further help to get the website blocked in China.

For outbursts of activity from Chinese websites, usually programming (<<backlinks,v2ex, hacpai, pincong>>), only post the following canned answer and nothing else, because cowards/people who don't know English from the website might delete your posts, so you shouldn't waste time there with that shit:

____
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。

我不要再在这个网页评论。
____

Finally, don't forget the golden rule from https://biblehub.com/proverbs/26-4.htm[Proverbs 26:4]:

____
Don't answer the foolish arguments of fools, or you will become as foolish as they are.
____

which is now usually seen in the form https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/66460/origin-of-do-not-argue-with-idiots[of unclear attribution]:

____
Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.
____

Where basically idiot == someone who creates posts that obviously aren't teaching you any new useful thing, or that not praising you :-)

Alternatively, there is also the Chinese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengyu[chengyu] version:

____
对牛弹琴
____

which means:

____
Playing the <<music,qin>> to a cow.
____

which means to talk to someone who does not have intellectual conditions of understanding what you are trying to say, bibliography:

* https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-idiom-playing-the-qin-to-a-cow_766205.html
* https://baike.baidu.com/item/对牛弹琴/3490

More <<wumao,wumao>> focused strategies at: <<how-to-deal-with-wumaos>>.

.Cartoon depiction of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengyu[chengyu] "Playing the <<music,qin>> to a cow" 《对牛弹琴》. https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/438181067.html[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200120094357im_/https://iknow-pic.cdn.bcebos.com/a8773912b31bb051adcb2e6a3b7adab44bede081?x-bce-process=image/resize,m_lfit,w_600,h_800,limit_1[height=600]

.XKCD 386 "Duty Calls" and the famous "Someone is wrong on the Internet" quote. It is a waste of time to be like that. https://xkcd.com/386/[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191113231107if_/https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png[height=400]

=== Who is behind this amazing FAQ?

[[ciro-santilli]]
==== Ciro Santilli 三西猴

Original creator of https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship[]: https://cirosantilli.com/

.Ciro testing his webcam for https://askubuntu.com/questions/348838/how-to-check-available-webcams-from-the-command-line/848390#848390[an Ask Ubuntu answer].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200628143715/https://i.stack.imgur.com/21BFR.png[height=400]

[[wife]]
===== Ciro Santilli's wife 三西猴的老婆

Born and raised in China: <<why-does-ciro-santilli-love-china-so-much>>.

She and her mother do <<falun-gong>>, see also: <<flg-bias>>.

Believes to be descendant of the brother of a recent Qing emperor, see also: <<throne>>.

For this same reason, her father, who Ciro's wife worships, spent around 10 years in the 50's for being branded a counter revolutionary rightist (右派) during one of <<mao-zedong,Mao's>> purges, possibly:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_to_Suppress_Counterrevolutionaries https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/镇压反革命运动
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Rightist_Campaign https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/反右运动

It is also for this reason that many Manchu changed their names to hide their Manchu origins, which makes reconstructing their family tree much harder, as mentioned at: https://www.scmp.com/article/982136/proud-manchu-reclaims-his-rich-heritage for the purposes of <<throne>>.

Ciro's wife:

* studied in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Science_and_Technology_of_China[one of the best universities of China]
* met Ciro his wife when they were in possibly the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/École_Polytechnique[best engineering university in France] after she had refused opportunities to go to the USA
* obtained a PhD in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_theory[number theory] in one of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_and_Marie_Curie_University[best mathematics universities in the world]

and is way smarter than Ciro.

<<wumao,Wumaos>> can say many things about her, but claiming that she is not intelligent or has no culture or would have any difficulty in obtaining a qualified worker VISA without a marriage, is a lost argument from the start, she would likely kick your butt in a raw intelligence competition.

Ciro is actually the lucky one for having found her!

The fake "the woman makes the man" Obama story comes to mind https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/spousal-success-story/[] (Obama would never say that in public):

____

One night President Obama and his wife Michelle decided to do something out of routine and go for a casual dinner at a restaurant that wasn't too luxurious. When they were seated, the owner of the restaurant asked the President's Secret Service if he could please speak to the First Lady in private. They obliged and Michelle had a conversation with the owner.

Following this conversation President Obama asked Michelle, "Why was he so interested in talking to you?" She mentioned that in her teenage years, he had been madly in love with her. President Obama then said, "So if you had married him, you would now be the owner of this lovely restaurant," to which Michelle responded, "No. If I had married him, he would now be the President."
____

=== How do different websites view Ciro Santilli's profile?

<<meant-to-be-used>> contains a more general overview. This contains website specifics.

==== Stack Overflow

This is where <<ciro-santilli>> started his <<keyword-attack>> originally in 2015 as explained at: <<why-did-ciro-santilli-start-his-keyword-attack>>.

The current consensus says that keyword attacks are allowed:

* https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/286082/does-the-be-nice-policy-require-se-users-to-be-nice-to-people-who-are-not-se-u
* https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/267368/are-political-avatars-and-profiles-ok
* https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/299882/can-a-username-be-considered-spam
* https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/349131/users-political-display-name-triggering-government-action-against-users-who-vie

The Chinese law doesn't I'm afraid: <<real-username-law>>

===== Other openly dissident users on Stack Overflow

For non-Stack Overflow specific ones see: <<chinese-dissidents>>

Query to find them: https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/312860/chinese-dissidents-by-keyword-aboutme-or-displayname

Notable ones only here (high rep or innovative criticism):

* "GNUSupporter 8964民主女神 地下教會"
** Real name: Vincent Tam from social media links.
** https://math.stackexchange.com/users/290189/gnusupporter-8964民主女神-地下教會#
** https://web.archive.org/web/20180924203410/https://math.stackexchange.com/users/290189/gnusupporter-8964%E6%B0%91%E4%B8%BB%E5%A5%B3%E7%A5%9E-%E5%9C%B0%E4%B8%8B%E6%95%99%E6%9C%83
** Keyword attack inspired by me
* Yu Hao
** https://stackoverflow.com/users/1009479/yu-hao
** https://archive.is/76FCb
** "<<gfw,GFW (Great Firewall of China)>> is one of the most notorious inventions in the history of Internet. Anyone working for it should be ashamed."
* gotqn
** "Free Tibet From China Domination"
** https://stackoverflow.com/users/1080354/gotqn
** https://web.archive.org/web/20190821105901/https://stackoverflow.com/users/1080354/gotqn
* Scott 混合理论
+
https://stackoverflow.com/users/1230329/scott-混合理论
+
The same message as Yu Hao, I wonder if it is an external thing or direct copy of Yu, but no Google hits besides them.
* Terry Wang
** https://stackoverflow.com/users/1801697/terry-wang
** https://archive.is/V0aSK
** Lego recreation of Tankman on the profile picture: <<lego-tank-man>>

Users who had <<gfw,GFW>> references but removed it:

* https://stackoverflow.com/users/4594532/gnimuc-key
** https://web.archive.org/web/20170331144256/https://stackoverflow.com/users/4594532/gnimuc
* https://stackoverflow.com/users/651907/jclin
** https://web.archive.org/web/20160516065151/https://stackoverflow.com/users/651907/jclin

Misc interesting stuff:

* <location>火车站酒店小姐 (about 20 accounts with that pattern)
** https://stackoverflow.com/users/7040504/莆田火车站酒店小姐
** https://web.archive.org/web/20190428090348/https://stackoverflow.com/users/7040504/%E8%8E%86%E7%94%B0%E7%81%AB%E8%BD%A6%E7%AB%99%E9%85%92%E5%BA%97%E5%B0%8F%E5%A7%90
** Interesting list of prostitution spam/sockpuppets? All have the exact same profile information.
** Hitting query due to "审查", but the usage is unrelated to the Firewall.

Query to find them: https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/312863/mentioned-ciro-santilli-on-aboutme-or-displayname

====== Stack Overflow anti-dissident users

* https://stackoverflow.com/users/815408
** https://web.archive.org/web/20170602054631/https://stackoverflow.com/users/815408/%E8%AF%B7%E5%B0%81%E6%8E%89ciro-santilli-%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%85%B1%E4%BA%A7%E5%85%9A%E4%B8%87%E5%B2%81
** username: "请封掉Ciro Santilli 中国共产党万岁"
** profile: "中国万岁！ 中国共产党万岁！ 法轮功，民运，台独在中国共产党的铁蹄下不过是螳臂当车！"
** mentioned at https://v2ex.com/t/378274 from <<v2ex>>
* https://stackoverflow.com/users/9393161
** https://web.archive.org/save/https://stackoverflow.com/users/9393161/ciro-santilli-%E7%9A%84%E9%80%A0%E8%B0%A3%E6%98%AF%E5%8F%AF%E8%80%BB%E8%A1%8C%E4%B8%BA
** username: "Ciro Santilli 的造谣是可耻行为" https://web.archive.org/save/https://stackoverflow.com/users/9393161/ciro-santilli-%E7%9A%84%E9%80%A0%E8%B0%A3%E6%98%AF%E5%8F%AF%E8%80%BB%E8%A1%8C%E4%B8%BA
* https://stackoverflow.com/users/8454187
** username: "Snowden Assange Wounded Knee"
** profile: "燃(ri)烧(si)您(ni)的(de)梦(ma)，Ciro Santilli. StackOverflow上的一个用户. The Oliver Stone Experience"
** explanation:
*** "燃烧您的梦": http://www.nq6.com/dj/1674.html
*** "Wounded Knee": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_Massacre

==== GitHub

GitHub's site policy can be seen at: https://help.github.com/en/github/site-policy

If you believe this page violates those policies, you can click the report abuse button on https://github.com/cirosantilli[Ciro's profile], which links to: https://github.com/contact/report-abuse?report=cirosantilli+%28user%29 or you can just contacat support@github.com

If you do so, please feel free to also open an issue on this repository saying why you believe the site policy has been violated.

Those issues will be marked with: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Aabuse-report+

It will be fun to watch you try, and fail.

This is because you do not understand how important the concept of <<richer,freedom of speech is>> in the West, and how amazing it feels when you are right, and it protects you.

The only thing that would work is if the Chinese government makes a gov-takedown on this repo: <<github-gov-takedowns>>, in which case: <<strategy-if-this-repo-gets-added-to-github-gov-takedowns>>.

China's GitHub censorship history is documented at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_GitHub#China

* 2019-07-29 https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/29/github-ban-sanctioned-countries/ "GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea". "As part of the push, Friedman said GitHub has enforced new restrictions to prevent users in sanctioned countries from accessing private repositories and GitHub Marketplace, as well as maintaining private paid organization accounts"

===== Gitee

For our mirror there, see: <<mirrors>>.

Linked to "Open Source China" (开源中国) according to TechCrunch:

____
The project will be carried out by a consortium led by Open Source China, the Shenzhen-based firm behind its namesake open-source community and Gitee.
____

* https://github.com/oschina GitHub OAuth goes through that organization
* https://www.oschina.net/ their website

News:

* 2020-08-21 https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/21/china-is-building-its-github-alternative-gitee/ "China is building a GitHub alternative called Gitee"
** https://github.com/1995parham/github-do-not-ban-us protest repo against the sanctions, archived as of 2020-08

====== Gitee censorship

After posting our <<mirrors>> there, it was blocked in 12 hours:

* https://gitee.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship
** archive immediately after: creation: https://web.archive.org/web/20200821202450if_/https://gitee.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship
** blocked archive 12 hours later: https://web.archive.org/web/20200822111436/https://gitee.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship
+
____
{"status":404,"data":null,"message":"404 Not Found"}
____
* https://gitee.com/cirosantilli
** archive immediately after: https://web.archive.org/web/20200821202055/https://gitee.com/cirosantilli
** archive 12 hours later: https://web.archive.org/web/20200822111721/https://gitee.com/cirosantilli
+
____
{"status":403,"data":null,"message":"The user has been blocked"}
____

The block email is:

____
通知

仓库 cirosantilli/China Dictatorship 已被锁定

原因： 根据相关法律法规和政策，本仓库暂停访问。
____

===== GitHub gov-takedowns

https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns

GitHub has absolute transparency on Government takedowns, which is awesome: https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/tree/master/China

This makes that repo into a list of fun things.

As of 2019-05 there had only been only two takedowns by China however, compared to dozens by <<russia>>. The Chinese commies are not big fans of transparency it seems.

As of 2020-03, besides the Zhao takedown, all other takedowns happened in 2019, and most seem to be <<falun-gong>>/<<epoch-times>> sponsored ways to <<censorship-circumvention,climb the wall>>.

The message GitHub shows on the blocked countries is:

____
Repository unavailable in your location

This repository is currently disabled in your location. For more details please see the takedown notice.
____

Here are some examples of people reacting to the blocking of https://github.com/programthink/zhao/issues/38 as per https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/blob/78775b09e64d85f08547287cab204b48b2491192/China/2016/2016-06-08-programthink-zhao.md from China (and likely on the entire repository, which appears to be the block granularity implemented):

* https://github.com/programthink/books/issues/31 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191023093618/https://github.com/programthink/books/issues/31[archive])
* https://www.zhihu.com/question/284445884/
* https://program-think.blogspot.com/2018/04/Zhao-at-GitHub.html?comment=1524671692761#1524671692761

See also: <<programthink>>

To check China only takedowns such as this, we cannot use <<censorship-monitoring,Great Fire Analyzer>>, which reports the page as accessible: the only tool I could find so far to capture a page from China a bit like Web Archive was: https://www.geoscreenshot.com which takes screenshots of the websites, but the free trial is very limited, and you can't share the screenshots. See also: <<censorship-monitoring>>.

====== Strategy if this repo gets added to GitHub gov-takedowns

If this happens, we well proceed to create alternative repos `china-dictatorship-2`, `china-dictatorship-3`, etc. and it would be fun to see how that gets handled.

Can they add an entire user to gov-takedowns?

But remember that we also have: <<mirrors>>, and that this can be easily rendered as a single HTML page and uploaded to any static website host.

===== GitHub repositories with censored information

For lists of censored information outside of GitHub see: <<lists-of-material-censored-in-china>>.

Content outside of GitHub: <<lists-of-material-censored-in-china>>.

* taibangle (太棒了)
** https://github.com/taibangle/awesome-china
** https://github.com/taibangle/lennon-wall
* https://github.com/sikaozhe1997/Xin-Yue
** Open letter by student activist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yue_Xin_(activist)[Yue Xin] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/岳昕[岳昕]) about the events described at https://web.archive.org/web/20200104064812/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/world/asia/china-metoo-gao-yan.html["China's #MeToo: How a 20-Year-Old Rape Case Became a Rallying Cry"]
** https://github.com/sikaozhe1997/Xin-Yue/blob/master/letter.md in-tree translation
** 2018-04 https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2018/04/translation-open-letter-on-peking-university-metoo-case/ "TRANSLATION: OPEN LETTER ON PKU #METOO CASE"

Mentioned in other sections:

* <<nine-nine-six-icu>>
* <<nCovMemory>>
* <<bandinchina-github-repository>>
* https://github.com/jasonqng/chinese-keywords mentioned at <<where-can-i-find-good-words-for-a-keyword-attack>>
* https://github.com/programthink/zhao from <<programthink>>

Interesting users:

* https://github.com/gfw-breaker
** appears to give a lot of focus to <<falun-gong>>, e.g.:
*** https://github.com/gfw-breaker/truth Falun Gong information repository
*** https://github.com/gfw-breaker/banned-news1 automatic scraper of news from banned websites into the repository, with top sites being <<falun-gong-media>>
* https://github.com/bannedbook
** https://github.com/bannedbook/fanqiang is the main repository, TODO what it contains exactly? Code, or just documentation of existing methods?

Non-information but also interesting:

* https://github.com/lurongkai/anti-baidu

[[terminus2049]]
====== Terminus2049 端点星计划

* https://github.com/Terminus2049/Terminus2049.github.io
* https://terminus2049.github.io/
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/端点星事件

Jekyl GitHub Pages repository that saves full text copies of censored articles:

____
本仓库存放被删文章

This repository stores deleted articles.
____

Also accompanies a dynamic forum https://2049bbs.xyz/ which appears to be where content for the static pages gets discussed and brought up. But it possible that the website has been compromised and is leaking identity of users.

The "Terminus" in the repo name seems to be a reference to Isaac Asimov's fictional https://asimov.fandom.com/wiki/Terminus[Terminus planet] which is called https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/端点星[端点星] in Chinese, but it is not clear where the 2049 comes from in that context. Forgetting the Chinese name, Terminus2049 could be a reference to the fictional https://bladerunner.fandom.com/wiki/World_War_Terminus["World War Terminus"] from the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_2049[Blade Runner 2049 (2019)] movie, which also explains the 2049.

First commint on 2018-04-27, GitHub pages domain blocked in China at least since 2019-03 according to <<greatfire>>: https://zh.greatfire.org/search/all/https%3A//terminus2049.github.io but not in <<github-gov-takedowns>> as of 2020-04.

The full post list can be seen most conveniently at: https://github.com/Terminus2049/Terminus2049.github.io/tree/master/_posts The number of articles is insane, usually several every day.

Most articles appear to be taken from recent news at the time of writting, although there are a few from before the repo started. As of 2020-04, the oldest article was from 2016 Metoo events reported by Yue Xin (岳昕), some other topics include:

* <<gay-rights>> https://github.com/Terminus2049/Terminus2049.github.io/blob/master/_posts/2018-04-14-LGBTRights-advocacy-china.md
* <<nine-nine-six-icu>> https://github.com/Terminus2049/Terminus2049.github.io/blob/master/_posts/2019-04-04-996-ICU.md
* <<daryl-morey-tweet>> https://github.com/Terminus2049/Terminus2049.github.io/blob/master/_posts/2019-10-11-NBA.md

They use Jekyll tags a lot, which makes for a good grouping of the topics.

In 2020-04-25, it was reported that three Beijing-based contributors were arrested during <<corona>>:

* https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3081569/chinese-activists-detained-after-sharing-censored-coronavirus
* https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/7-04252020144555.html Chinese article, gives the Chinese names, and some background on the arrested people
* https://qz.com/1846277/china-arrests-users-behind-github-coronavirus-memories-page/

People:

* Chen Mei (陈玫)
** https://www.linkedin.com/in/玫-陈-1607b735/ a LinkedIn account with matching photo and name
* Cai Wei (蔡伟)
* Xiao Tang (小唐), who is also Cai Wei's girlfriend

In 2020-06-12 their families received calls saying that they had been charged with <<picking-quarrels>>:

* https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3089002/coronavirus-chinese-activists-held-posting-censored-articles
* https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/10-06122020154234.html

Ciro's petition to free them: https://github.com/cirosantilli/chen-mei-cai-wei-ziyou

TODO what are their GitHub accounts? Contributions appear to be anonymized behind: https://github.com/TerminusBot That appears to be just a shared account though, not an actual bot. So how did the police find their true identities? https://github.com/Terminus2049/Terminus2049.github.io/issues/598

.Side-by-side photos of Chen Mei (陈玫) and Cai Wei (蔡伟). https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/7-04252020144555.html[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200426091658im_/https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/7-04252020144555.html/image1.png/@@images/6a3e66d5-bf3d-41c1-9add-21dd48ac0b87.png[height=400]

====== chinatimeline

https://github.com/chinatimeline/chinatimeline.github.io

Explores several sentitive topics through interesting timelines with many pictures, for example:

* <<tiananmen>>: https://chinatimeline.github.io/tiananmen/
* <<corona>>: https://chinatimeline.github.io/wuhan-coronavirus/
* religious persecution, including <<falun-gong>>: https://chinatimeline.github.io/religion_tl1/

[[zhihu]]
==== Zhihu 知乎

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

The Chinese <<quora,Quora>> clone, but highly censored: <<zhihu-censorship>>.

Some interesting questions not related to <<ciro-santilli>>. Ciro related questions at: <<zhihu-questions-related-to-ciro-santilli>>.

* <<censorship>>
** https://www.zhihu.com/question/29279520/answer/110611566 "为什么有人一边支持审查制度一边还喜欢看美剧、日漫？" "Why are some people in favor of censorship, but at the same time still like to watch American series?" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200429091047/https://www.zhihu.com/question/29279520/answer/110611566[archive])
** Censorship in Zhihu
*** https://www.zhihu.com/question/23376181 "你对知乎的审查系统有何意见？" "What is your view of Zhihu's censorship system?" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200329115919/https://www.zhihu.com/question/23376181[archive]) "由于众所周知的原因，知乎上的文章和答案一旦涉及某些字眼，就会触发审查，其方式是让你的文字暂时仅自己可见"
*** https://www.zhihu.com/question/21099730 从知乎建站以来被封禁的用户都有哪些？Since Zhihu's founding, which accounts have been blocked on the website? (https://web.archive.org/web/20200112103049/https://www.zhihu.com/question/21099730[archive]) (https://archive.is/dH9pK[archive]). The top answer contains a list, and a brief explanation of why some of them were banned:
**** Ciro Santilli: S/O 红人 (fStack Overflow celebrity)
**** "ww" in explanations means "big laugh" according to: https://hinative.com/zh-CN/questions/8349706 because a single "w" means a small laugh
**** several accounts are linked to one specific answer or comment
**** other accounts are classified as often commenting on politically sensitive material (政治敏感)
* <<falun-gong>>
** <<flg-daily>>
*** https://www.zhihu.com/question/27659795 (https://web.archive.org/web/20200429084153/https://www.zhihu.com/signin?next=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zhihu.com%2Fquestion%2F27659795[blocked as of 2020-04], https://web.archive.org/web/20150603025013/http://www.zhihu.com/question/27659795[archive from 2015]) 家里有人练法轮功是一种怎样的体验？ How is it like to live with Falun Gong believers?
** <<flg-changed>>
*** https://www.zhihu.com/question/23988890 (https://web.archive.org/web/20200429084640/https://www.zhihu.com/signin?next=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zhihu.com%2Fquestion%2F23988890[blocked as of 2020-04], https://web.archive.org/web/20160311140407/https://www.zhihu.com/question/23988890[2016-03 archive]) "全能神教在境外，法轮功也在境外，为什么他们不祸害境外人民、偏偏只祸害大陆人？"<<eastern-lightning,Eastern Lightning>> exists outside of the country [China], Falun Gong exists outside of the country, so why is is that they don't harm people in those countries, but only harm people in Mainland China?"
* <<gay-rights>>
** https://www.zhihu.com/question/370080866/answer/1046195468 "为什么中国影视作品不允许LGBT的出现？" "Why is it not allowed to show LGBT content in Chinese film and television?" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200429091622/https://www.zhihu.com/question/370080866/answer/1046195468[archive])
* <<zhihu-censorship-of-hao-haidong>>

.The Zhihu 404 page image. When they take the posts down as of 2020, it shows the 404 page which reads "你似乎来到了没有知识存在的荒原" (you seem to have come to a wasteland about which does does not exist any knowledge), and shows this symbol. https://web.archive.org/web/20200614114534/https://www.zhihu.com/topic/20080590/intro[Source].
i mage::https://web.archive.org/web/20200614114535im_/https://static.zhihu.com/heifetz/assets/liukanshan_wire.e7247fbf.svg[height=500]

==== Zhihu censorship

More general censorship discussion at: <<censorship>>.

Examples of Zhihu censorship:

* <<zhihu-purge>>
* <<zhihu-censorship-of-hao-haidong>>

Other discussions:

* https://www.quora.com/How-strict-is-Zhihus-content-censorship

[[zhihu-purge]]
===== Ciro Santilli's Zhihu purge 2019-11-03

On this day, not only the posts made by Ciro himself were deleted: he had never asked any questions or made any Zhuanlan posts himself, only replied to those. But that content made by other users was still removed. Therefore, this is not just a simple user ban, but active censorship.

Ciro received an email from account@mail.zhihu.com:

____
您好，Ciro Santilli，很抱歉您的回答受到了牵连，您回答过的问题「github.com@cirosantilli 是谁维护的，为什么会收集邮箱地址？」因「违反互联网相关法律法规」已被删除。
____

followed by Ciro's answer to <<zhihu-46957710>>. Ciro could not login anymore, the login screen showed:

____
帐号已停用，请联系：user@zhihu.com
____

So likely someone must have used the fact that this was an edgy personally information release subject issue, and then someone from Zhihu decided to purge Ciro and anyone posts that ever talked about him.

Ciro's blocked account:

* before deletion: https://web.archive.org/web/20190821075907/https://www.zhihu.com/people/cirosantilli/activities
* after deletion (redirects to login page): https://web.archive.org/web/20191103071033/https://www.zhihu.com/signin?next=http://www.zhihu.com/people/cirosantilli/activities

Random unblocked control account: https://www.zhihu.com/people/lu-zhen-yu-96-65/activities (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103070652/https://www.zhihu.com/people/lu-zhen-yu-96-65/activities[archive]).

Furthermore, all questions related to Ciro, including the posts criticizing him such as https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/25600138[] (https://archive.is/DkooN[archive]), were taken down. This made Ciro laugh: in China, you can't even criticize that which is censored, or your post also gets taken down.

Ciro then created an anonymous Zhihu account after this event.

Interestingly however, the following answer came up later on: <<zhihu-ted-chiang-answer>> and stayed up for at least 5 months, which indicates that Zhihu did a one-off removal, and did not set up a filter for Ciro's name.

====== Ciro Santilli's Zhihu ban 2018-06-25

<<ciro-santilli>> was banned from Zhihu on 2018-06-25 for "politically sensitive" content.

As a result, since that time I will be answering Zhihu questions as issues in this repo with the `zhihu` label: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Azhihu+

I have however never posted anything politically sensitive on Zhihu, unless my name and profile picture have reached that distinction, and therefore the ban is clearly an unfair per-person ban.

But of course, all is fair in love and war, and politics.

Posting any sensitive content on Chinese websites is a waste of time, since it only means that they will be removed and you will waste time creating a new account, I will never do that.

The only significant content I ever posted on Zhihu is the answer to: https://www.zhihu.com/question/46957710/answer/122827944 which is purely technical, and trivial replies on threads that other people have started about me. Have those people been blocked like me?

My posts are still up and it does not appear to be possible for people to see that I have been banned, but whenever I try to take any action on the website a popup appears saying:

____
由于严重违反 知乎社区管理规定 ，该帐号已被永久禁言
____

This includes liking, commenting, answering, asking or trying to update my profile to say that I have been blocked.

This message also shows on my public page for everyone to see: https://www.zhihu.com/people/cirosantilli/activities but they use some JavaScript scheme complicated enough that archive.is cannot capture it.

I still get notifications however, but I am unable to reply to them, especially given that all Chinese accounts, unlike mine, have no personal identifiable information due to the understandable fear Chinese citizens have of their own government, even though such accounts might be illegal in theory: <<anonymous-accounts-ban>>.

The only action that I can take now is to report abusive comments people make to me.

Obviously, the only effect of such ban is that I will create an <<anonymous-accounts-ban,anonymous account>> under Tor with a second cell phone if I wish to contribute in the future, and China will have less information about my political interests than before.

The private messages the website sends while banning you are:

____
知乎管理员 ：您好，根据用户举报，您的帐号发布了「政治敏感」内容，帐号已根据知乎社区规范被永久禁言。处理详情可查看社区服务中心。具体规范请查看知乎社区管理规定。 6月25日 16:37 回复 | 删除

知乎管理员 ：您好，根据用户举报，您的部分个人信息由于不符合知乎用户信息管理规范已被重置。用户名可以在设置页面中修改，修改后会自动进入审核等待通过；其他个人信息可以在个人主页中编辑。感谢您对知乎社区的理解和支持。 6月25日 16:37 回复 | 删除
____

Those messages contain links to: https://www.zhihu.com/terms2 | https://archive.is/wdXSz and https://www.zhihu.com/question/19551824 | https://archive.is/BrgV2

The ban came soon after I posted a link to my GitHub repo as a comment at: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/21/ice-employee-list-github-linkedin/ maybe they are related.

====== Who reported Ciro Santilli on Zhihu

At the same time the ban happened I received a public comment from user "Eureka" https://www.zhihu.com/people/crb912/activities | https://archive.is/1F3t6 on this thread: https://www.zhihu.com/question/46957710 | https://archive.is/PVOLd saying:

____
你滥用了github， 也滥用了Stackover。这个一个纯粹计算机、编程和知识分享的地方，请不要带入政治性的色彩。请不要这么做， 维护社区的非政治性、中立和技术性纯粹，是每个热爱cs的人应尽的义务。
____

I am unable to get a URL that shows the comment on archive.is, so I have no proof of this claim. If you trust me, then here is a screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/YCiEEax

Since I expect the ban lists to be private, I find it extremely likely that this was the user who reported me, unless both were simultaneously triggered by a third event which I have not seen. So correct me if I'm wrong here.

Users with the same user id `crb912`, related "Eureka" username or same profile picture, can be found at:

* https://www.weibo.com/crb912 (unable to archive)
* https://github.com/crb912 | https://archive.is/heGfd which suggests a possible real name

By Googling the email found on the GitHub repos, we find: http://www.360doc.com/content/15/0809/11/25724933_490492490.shtml | https://archive.is/2UnGL which might, at last, contain a photo of my nemesis.

My public message to the reporter whomever he may be:

____
While you have also raised issues that were raised a thousand times before, and clearly answered in the FAQ, at least you were able to take some actual action leading to an actual ban, and I respect you for that.

I hope that one day you will redirect that cunning and initiative towards taking down the root cause of the problem, which are the Chinese communist Party and their Firewall themselves.
____

===== Zhihu questions related to Ciro Santilli

Parent section: <<backlinks>>

All Zhihu posts related to Ciro Santilli were deleted following <<zhihu-purge>>. Some had been deleted before.

* 2019-06-12: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/68869259 (https://web.archive.org/web/20190905071450/https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/68869259[archive before deletion], (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103072349/https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/68869259[archive after deletion])) "德国极端分子黑我们大中国！犯我中华者，虽远必诛！！". Ciro wonders why the poster thought Ciro was German.
* 2019-03: https://www.zhihu.com/question/316700162 (https://archive.is/ewxqb[archive before deletion], (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103065512/https://web.archive.org/screenshot/https://www.zhihu.com/question/316700162[archive after deletion])) "如何看待Github Trending上Ciro Santilli的众多开源项目？". Due to: https://github.com/cirosantilli/x86-bare-metal-examples being featured on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19428700
* 2018-11: https://www.zhihu.com/question/302738350 (https://archive.is/lkQxS[archive before deletion], (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103065759/https://www.zhihu.com/question/302738350[archive after deletion])) "如何评价Ciro Santilli对Stack Overflow和GitHub的扰乱？"
* 2017-03-07: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/25600138 (https://archive.is/DkooN[archive before deletion], (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103065808/https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/25600138[archive after deletion])) "StackOverflow 上的一个智障用户"
** 2017-03 https://sololand.moe/2017/03/06/brain-fucked-user-on-stackoverflow (https://web.archive.org/save/https://sololand.moe/2017/03/06/brain-fucked-user-on-stackoverflow/[archive]) by https://github.com/brglng/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20180802090918/https://github.com/brglng/[archive]) "StackOverflow 上的一个智障用户" contains a copy of the post by the same author. It just makes Ciro smile whenever he thinks that their post criticizing Ciro was deleted by the CCP, and they still might support the CCP, <<meant-to-be-used,Stockholm syndrome comes to mind>>.
* 2015-08-18: https://www.zhihu.com/question/34775392 (https://web.archive.org/web/20160219094646/https://www.zhihu.com/question/34775392[archive before deletion], (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103065816/https://www.zhihu.com/question/34775392[archive after deletion])) "你们怎么看stackoverflow上某人故意屏蔽中国访问的事件？"

A random control question that shows that archive.org 404's are actually deleted questions: https://www.zhihu.com/question/316700165 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103065449/https://www.zhihu.com/question/316700165[archive]).

Mentions not yet deleted as of writing:

* https://www.zhihu.com/question/21099730 at <<zhihu>>

[[zhihu-ted-chiang-answer]]
====== Answer to the Zhihu question "How do you evaluate Ted Chiang's 'Evil Chinese Characters' essay?" "如何评价姜峯楠（Ted Chiang）在纽约客上的随笔《坏汉字》？"的回答

https://www.zhihu.com/question/47205991/answer/967940202 (http://web.archive.org/web/20200628101940/https://www.zhihu.com/question/47205991/answer/967940202[archive])

Contains reactions to the post: <<evil-chinese-characters-by-ted-chiang>>, and this answer says that even though Ciro Santilli is amazingly smart, he cannot be bothered to learn Chinese characters, quoting Ciro's comments from: <<does-ciro-santilli-speak-chinese>>.

This post was interesting because it happened after <<zhihu-purge>>, which indicates that Zhihu did not setup an automated "Ciro Santilli" filter.

[[zhihu-46957710]]
====== github.com@cirosantilli 是谁维护的，为什么会收集邮箱地址？

https://www.zhihu.com/question/46957710 (https://archive.is/PVOLd[archive before deletion], (https://web.archive.org/web/20191103065828/https://www.zhihu.com/question/46957710[archive after deletion])).

Asked in 2016-09 after Ciro published: https://github.com/cirosantilli/all-github-commit-emails

Deleted after <<zhihu-purge>>. Ciro's answer before deletion:

____
你用的git config user.email当然是公开的：谁都会git clone就知道了。

问题就是git repository很大，我们不会都clone.

但是github有一个API，收集很多信息，包括邮件。

然后，Google用了那个API给他们的https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/...信息。

BigQuery对程序员很容易提取信息，是我用的。

我发表邮件以后，两个东西变化了：

1. Google 把邮件从BigQuery删除
2. GitHub 更新他们的隐私声明GitHub Privacy Statement

这就是我的木比：保护人们的隐私权

我的README.md更详细地解释。
____

==== Quora

https://www.quora.com/profile/Ciro-Santilli

Quora is a generally shitty website, with mechanisms that allow <<wumao,wumaos>> to quench freedom of speech.

Ironically, as usual, is it also blocked in China:

* according to <<greatfire>>: https://en.greatfire.org/https/www.quora.com
* 2018-03 news coverage https://www.businessinsider.com/china-banned-zhihu-over-censorship-2018-3?r=US&IR=T

Examples of activity related to Ciro Santilli:

* 2016 Ciro Santilli's profile was blocked because it had Chinese keywords on both my username and credentials. Justification: "non-English".
+
* 2017 created one in English: Cook <<tiananmen,Tiananmen Square>> Noodle Shop, from <<falun-sweden>>
+
Added my Noodle shop to maps: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Tiananmen+Square+Noodle+Shop/@60.6132538,15.6687509,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x94603408e3c63fb3!8m2!3d60.6132538!4d15.6687509
+
Leach websites that picked it up: https://kvalster.se/Falu/Uthyres/Lagenheter/Gammelvagen_49_1417351

Quora is also shitty because wumaos can downvote your answer privately regardless of reputation and make it become collapsed as "Answer may need improvement", which means it goes to the bottom and readers have to click an "expand collapsed answers" button to see it, so that very few people will ever see it.

Then have to appeal and wait for moderators to evaluate it.

This happened for example 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 (see also <<t-shirt>>).

Ciro appealed in 2020-03-10 and the answer was reinstated on day later, but by then the question was already not being suggested as much to readers, and the other wumao answers (which criticize the USA rather than answering the question about China).

While there is some probability that the answers themselves are not wumaos, their upvoters almost certainly are and must be investigated.