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= China Dictatorship 中国独裁统治
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:cirosantilli-media-base: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cirosantilli/media/master/
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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>>。
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Video and images may be better viewed at https://cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship or by cloning locally, see also: <<mirrors>>.
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image:https://web.archive.org/web/20191013080128if_/http://i.redd.it/c9q6vdybr7i31.jpg[height=300]
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[[about]]
== About 关于

This repo has the following goals:

* allow copy pasting links to answers to questions/comments that have been posted a million times before by <<wumao>>, mostly under: <<faq>>. This was the original goal.
* serve as a censorship bomb to block <<github>> in China: <<keyword-attack>> to destroy the <<gfw>> and <<dictator-needs-gfw,therefore the CCP>>. Or more realistically get added to the <<github-gov-takedowns>> hall of fame.
* be a fun and sometimes silly source of Chinese mostly anti-CCP culture like a better https://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/China[Unencyclopedia] / 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>>
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* 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:
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** 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
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[[faq]]
== FAQ 常见问答集

[[why-keyword-attack]]
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=== Why attack websites with censored keywords? 用审查词攻击网站有什么用呢?

<<keyword-attack, The attack>>.

To <<effective,destroy the firewall>>.

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This would then end <<censorship>>.
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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.

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>>

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but not both, since having both means that they will <<war,start WW3 and destroy humanity>>.
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Related attack: <<photobombing-like-attacks>>.

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==== Does Ciro Santilli want to harm the Chinese programmers? 三西猴想要伤害中国程序员吗?
He knows he is harming you in the short term, and he doesn't like that.
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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.

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Once the firewall is destroyed, which <<dictator-needs-gfw,may destroy the dictatorship>>, he want China to develop the best science and technology in the world, and <<would-you-like-to-live-in-china>>.
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And by the way, with his https://github.com/cirosantilli[extensive contributions to open source software], Ciro is already helping China, and all underdeveloped countries, become stronger.
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[[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>>.

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[[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: <<effect>>.

* 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>>

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finally, the political powers of each website decide what is allowed or not on their website, and what is not allowed gets blocked. So far, Stack Overflow and GitHub's Terms of Service have said to go ahead:
* <<stack-overflow>>
* <<github>>
Infinite duplicate pool:
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* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Ameant-to-be-used+
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* https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina/issues/89
==== Is Ciro Santilli making programming contributions with the main intent of promoting your political agenda?

No, that is just a side effect.

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

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

Actually, it can even be argued that I'm somewhat irrational, since I would be much more likely to become rich and powerful by bowing down to the CCP and trying to get their money instead.
On the other hand, becoming rich and powerful is also highly unlikely, so maybe I'm just taking a low-risk low-reward path?

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

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

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

No.

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

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

[[why-end-dictatorship]]
=== Why would China be better without its Dictatorship?
Because it would make China, and the world:

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

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* 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.
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Any criticism of the government, even if constructive, is taken as menace to power, and more likely to be shut down, which makes the government and just becomes less efficient since there is less feedback.
* governments are monopolies, and the more powerful they are, the worst it is for competition an efficiency in general. E.g.: the startup with better government ties wins, instead of the most efficient one.

Against:

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

I really like https://web.archive.org/web/20180923192824/https://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2011/05/can-poor-countries-afford-democracy-becker.html[Posners'] way of putting it:
While average rate of growth do not appear to differ much between democracies and authoritarian regimes, the variability in performance does differ more among authoritarian governments. China has had remarkable growth since the 1980s, but the prolonged devastation and hardship produced by China's "<<great-leap-forward>>" (when millions of farmers starved to death) and its Cultural Revolution would unlikely have occurred in a democratic country like say India. Nor is it likely that say Cuba and many African nations would have suffered so long with such terrible economic policies if they had reasonably democratic institutions.
Maybe China was poor because of Mao's crazy communist regime. Similar regimes also made <<russia>> poor. And yes, before that exploitation by the West may have been a factor.

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

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

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

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

Maybe this hurts the argument, but Hillary agrees: :-)
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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]
This is also the basis of a <<keyword-attack>>.
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This is also well illustrated in the link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_(miniseries)[HBO 2019 miniseries "Chernobyl"], which suggests that part of the reason why Chernobyl happened is because of the Soviet Union's obsession to save face.

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

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.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].
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image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191102143219if_/https://i.redd.it/f806kp316ox21.jpg[height=400]

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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

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

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

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

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

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

[[corona]]
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===== Censorship of the 2019 Corona Virus 2019冠状病毒病早期迹象审查
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* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_disease_2019
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019冠状病毒病
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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.

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

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

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

Maybe China is saying the truth this time. Maybe the rapid Dictatorship response worked. But maybe the most important lesson to take out of this is: no one trusts a Dictatorship, after an infinitely long history of lies and no freedom of the press.
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On the other hand, one may argue that the "city closure" measures were stronger/faster than in democracies.

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

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你听明白了吗?
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Translation:

____
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Do you understand?
____

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.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::https://web.archive.org/web/20200704094048if_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EPNFQ6IUcAAGo6s?format=jpg&name=large[height=600]

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.Selfie of Li Wenliang on his hospital bed before he died. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51409801[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200209173001im_/https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/10FFE/production/_110803696_drli1.jpg[height=400]
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.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::https://web.archive.org/web/20200401093459im_/https://i.redd.it/ulqhu0q38fp41.jpg[height=500]
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====== 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>>.
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====== 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"
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** 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>>
+
video::Iwpr55PZEJ8[youtube,height=400,width=600]
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* Fang Bin (方斌)
** Twitter: https://twitter.com/GuqZJRTOvbqbGub
** YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRItarzSwqakT-EZkSvuy3A
*** 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] +
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方斌书
____
+
which translates as:
+
____
All the people, revolt. +
Return the country (politics) to its people. +
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Written (calligraphed) by Fang Bin.
____
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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>>
+
video::sUvBNpkxrJo[youtube,height=400,width=600]
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* 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
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* 2020-04-25: Chen Mei, Cai Wei and his girlfriend, who contributed to <<terminus2049>>
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* 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
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[[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
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* 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
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[[uneducated-masses]]
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==== 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]:

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

Art Spander:

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

Laurence J Peter:

____

Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.
____
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===== The Chinese masses are not interested in politics and therefore not ready to vote

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

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

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.<<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::https://web.archive.org/web/20191220204455if_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7OImmpWsAEYXEN.jpg[height=600]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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,BIASED MEDIA>> http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2015-11/05/content_22375920.htm

[[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?

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Even if it is not, it does not matter, since Ciro spends so little time doing it: <<better-to-do>>.

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

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[[embargo]]
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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.

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

Some interesting aspects of the keyword attack embargo:

* it is immediately self-enforcing: we don't need politicians to decide and enforce the complex "if you do this, we punish you like that" question.
By political and technological information is together, and this immediately puts the dictatorship in a bad spot, without us having to decide anything.
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* by affecting programmers in particular through Stack Overflow and GitHub, we make them more likely to develop better <<censorship-circumvention,Firewall climbing>> tools themselves
One point in favor of the embargo is that China has opened up since the '80s '90s, but did freedom improve at all? Under <<xi-jinping>>, it may be argued that it did not, and maybe that we should just stop feeding them technology and accept that they won't become free.
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Trump's link:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/02/trump-banning-huawei-beginning-of-biggest-trade-war-ever-united-states[2019 China trade war], and in particular the <<huawei>> ban, is an event that has brought this question to the spotlight once again.

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

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

[[effect]]
==== Keyword attacks on programming websites will never have any effect
That is true with high probability, just like any other individual who tries to influence 1B people.

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

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

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

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

To have an idea, in 2015 there are about:

* 20M developers in the world
* 2M in China : https://www.quora.com/Approximately-how-many-programmers-are-there-in-the-world 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.

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Furthermore, even if the <<gfw,GFW>> falls, it is not clear that this will imply the end of the dictatorship: <<effective>>.

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[[so-block-cost]]
==== Stack Overflow and GitHub could be blocked at no cost by the Chinese government
Hitting the block button has, of course, no cost.
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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
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But I doubt developers use those browsers, right? The only way would be for China to forbid foreign browsers entirely.
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===== Is Stack Overflow blocked in China?

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
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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"]`
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>>.
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=== Most Chinese people don't care about the minorities
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How can you be that certain that your children won't have dissident ideas and be punished unfairly for them?

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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.

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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?
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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.
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Minorities are put in jail because the CCP fears them. Dictatorships can only survive if there is zero difference in opinion in the population.
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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>>:
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____
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 your personal problem, we have nothing to do with it, stop punishing us for it

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

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

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

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

[[overlook-human-rights-for-profit]]
==== As long as China is developping 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>>?

<<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>>.
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[[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>>.
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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:
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____
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]

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

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

Duplicate pool: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Anot-chinese+
[[brainwashed-by-usa]]
==== Non-Chinese people have been brainwashed by the USA know nothing about China

Everyone is "brainwashed" by their environment.

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Ciro Santilli doesn't doubt that Chinese people know more about China than him.
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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>>.
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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TODO source.

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

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

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[[bias]]
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=== Ciro Santilli and this page are completely biased against the Chinese Government!
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<<ciro-santilli>> prefers the term focused :-)
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That being said, Ciro takes the agenda of information sources very seriously.
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E.g. he tries to clearly classify Communist Party, Falun Gong, and Western government linked sources.

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

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

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See also:

* <<flg-bias>>
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* <<radical>>
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[[throne]]
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==== Ciro Santilli's claim to the Qing Dynasty throne 三西猴清朝皇帝觊觎
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Ciro Santilli's <<wife>>, her mother, and paternal cousin, believe that Ciro's wife is the descendant of the brother of a recent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qing_dynasty[Qing emperor] through her father's family.

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

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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
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.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]
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[[preconceived]]
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==== 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
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<<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.
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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.
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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>>.
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Ciro never gets mad about China, even if your opinion is contrary to his, and therefore wrong.
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Using the <<reply-policy,reply policy>> is one of the reasons why Ciro never gets mad.
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Ciro also has doubts about the efficiency of certain things I do as expressed throughout this FAQ, e.g. <<embargo>>.
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Also, Ciro have never said that anyone else is wrong.
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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.
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[[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?
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With that in mind, Ciro tries his best to give FLG only the right level of exposure I think it deserves relative to other events, according to these guidelines: <<keyword-choice>>.

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

The last straw that led <<ciro-santilli>> to start the <<keyword-attack>> on <<stack-overflow>> was when on March 2015 his girlfriend's mother was arbitrarily kept 15 days in jail for doing <<falun-gong>>. He posted about this at:
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* https://twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/579270450984984576
* https://www.facebook.com/cirosantilli/posts/952661734753174

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

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

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

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.<<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"?
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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.
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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
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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.
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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 :-)

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

See also:

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

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[[i-like-my-dictatorship]]
==== I like my Dictatorship 我喜欢我的独裁统治
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Ciro Santilli can understand that.
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It must feel good to have <<li-hongzhi,absolute truth>> in the <<democracy-is-a-religion,Cult of Xi>>, and let the black police <<against-censorship-and-flg,get rid of weirdos for you>>.
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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>>.
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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)

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<<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.
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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.
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The war is almost over, and the desolate officer tells Stierlitz:
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____
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I told my children: I hate any democracy!
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No democracy in our Reich!

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

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The more freedom we have, the sooner we want to be controlled by SS troops again.
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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.
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No need to prove your point of view in defending the fate of the homeland.
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No responsibility.

Just raise your hand in honor of him, <<xi-jinping,who will take care of everything for you>>,
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Just shout out "Hail Hitler!" and everything will become understandable.
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No more worries.
____

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.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]
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It is amusing to see Soviet series criticizing dictatorships, given that the Soviet Union was itself a major dictatorship!
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[[most-chinese-people-like-their-dictatorship]]
===== Most Chinese people like their dictatorship 中国大众支持他们的独裁
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It is easy to reach an agreement, when everyone who disagrees goes to jail or gets killed due to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inciting_subversion_of_state_power[Inciting subversion of state power 煽动颠覆国家政权罪] or <<picking-quarrels>>.
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Also ask the millions of people who were affected by <<tiananmen>>, <<falun-gong>>, <<xinjiang>> or <<dissidents>>.
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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.
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.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zndzntIDLFE IGN review of the "We Happy Few" (2018) game. 
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video::zndzntIDLFE[youtube,height=400,width=600]
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.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::https://web.archive.org/web/20200514071323im_/https://tnimage.s3.hicloud.net.tw/photos/2020/05/13/1589352986-5ebb9a1ad0a98.jpg[height=600]
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=== There are bad things happening all over the world, why don't you fight for those causes as well / instead?

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

What is worse is a subjective choice. For me:

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

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

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

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

That is definitely true.

Nothing is perfect in this world.

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Ciro just believes that they are way better than a <<dictatorship>> like China.

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.
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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:
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____
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
____

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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
+
Wumao example: https://web.archive.org/web/20200618071130/https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/112#issuecomment-645716105

See also:

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

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

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

Yes, Western democracies are not perfect.

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

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

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

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See also:

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

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

First, if you don't think child porn should be banned, I don't think there is much point in arguing with you anymore.
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But of course, there is censorship in Western democracies, and there is a gray area between what should be censored or not.

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

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

See also: <<richer>>.
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[[snowden]]
===== Snowden 斯诺登

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

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<<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.

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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.

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On the West however, the debate Snowden sparked cannot be censored, and has helped to control excessive and secret state power.
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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.
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He is however strictly against the ban of cryptography.
He also believes that a good solution to balance out government power is the second amendment. It is better to have more school shootings and less full-blown dictatorship led genocides / mass human rights violations.
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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]:
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____
I don’t think they understand that what Snowden stands for is completely the opposite of what the Chinese gov is lol
____

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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?
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.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::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Edward_Snowden-2.jpg[height=400]

===== 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.
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===== 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:
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* Left Right Slaughterhouse comic: https://9gag.com/gag/ayn7KmW?ref=fbp
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[[russia]]
==== Russia 俄罗斯
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Russia is clearly the number 2 <<dictatorship>> in the world by population / GDP and the link:https://www.ploughshares.org/world-nuclear-stockpile-report[#1 nuclear arsenal], so here we go.
Ciro has always been curious about how Russia can be both oppressive and a appear democratic, unlike China which doesn't even try to pretend. This is what he gathers:

* the government controls all major media. If any media says bad things against them, the government finds pretexts to create lawsuits or increase taxes against such companies. Therefore all people end up thinking that the government is good.
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* just like China, <<evil-west,they emphasize the threat of the foreign countries>>, especially the US, as a justification for having an oppressive power.
* the government puts pressure on any significant opposition candidate. One technique is to find some reason to put them in jail for two months, which by Russian law forbids them from participating in further elections. Only candidates that don't really stand a chance are left as a fake opposition. But if you reach some prominence, you start taking the same risks as politicians, although you are more likely to face more brutal illegal gangster violence threats as you are less visible
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See also: <<communist-youth-league>>

While we are at it, some interesting news:
* 2018-04 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43752337 "Russia to block Telegram app over encryption"
* 2017 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40635267 Russia Jehovah's Witnesses banned after they lose appeal
* 2017 https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/2085395/its-now-illegal-russia-share-image-putin-possibly-gay
* 2016 https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/kzgkv3/russians-now-need-a-passport-to-watch-pornhub
* 1995 Vladislav Listyev
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladislav_Listyev
** https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Листьев,_Владислав_Николаевич
Poisonings: Russia apparently has a long list of poisoning political enemies: https://nypost.com/2018/06/23/inside-russias-long-history-of-poisoning-political-enemies/

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* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_laboratory_of_the_Soviet_secret_services[Poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services] (link:++https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Токсикологическая_лаборатория_НКВД_—_НКГБ_—_МГБ++[Токсикологическая лаборатория НКВД — НКГБ — МГБ])
* <<skripal>>
* 2012 Alexander Perepilichny Перепеличный, Александр Юрьевич https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Perepilichny | https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Перепеличный,_Александр_Юрьевич
* 2004 Anna Politkovskaya Анна Политковская https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya | https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Политковская,_Анна_Степановна
* 2004 Viktor Yushchenko Ющенко, Виктор Андреевич https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko | https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ющенко,_Виктор_Андреевич
* <<litvinenko>>

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The Russians have very different style to the Chinese, who are much more subtle, and just put people in jail or handicap them in several ways without killing them.

Other political murders or attempts:

* 2015 Boris Nemtsov Немцов, Борис Ефимович https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Nemtsov | https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Немцов,_Борис_Ефимович

Some other interesting political suppression lists:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia[list of journalists killed in Russia] (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Список_журналистов,_убитых_в_России[Список журналистов, убитых в России]).
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Soviet_and_Russian_assassinations[List of Soviet and Russian assassinations]
* 2017 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/03/23/here-are-ten-critics-of-vladimir-putin-who-died-violently-or-in-suspicious-ways/ "Here are 10 critics of Vladimir Putin who died violently or in suspicious ways"

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Other random stuff:

* <<seventeen-moments-of-spring>>
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[[putin]]
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===== Putin Путин 普京 (1999-2008, 2012-∞)
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* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin
* https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Путин,_Владимир_Владимирович

Coverage:
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* 2019-12-19: Putin proposes abolishing term limits. <<xi-abolishes-term-limits-2018-03,Learnt from Xi>>:
** https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/putin-presidential-term-limit-russia-moscow-conference-today-a9253156.html
** https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-putin-constitution/putin-says-hes-open-to-tweaking-presidential-term-limits-idUKKBN1YN1JO
** 2020-03-25 vote delayed due to <<corona>>
* 2014 Putin khuylo!
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putin_khuylo!
** https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Путин_—_хуйло!
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[[superputin]]
====== Superputin

Meme partially supported by Putin himself, showing how physically strong and <<gay-putin,manly>> the president is.

Similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Norris_facts[Chuck Norris facts].

"Putin does manly things" photo galleries:

* 2017-06-07 https://mashable.com/2017/08/07/the-swaggering-masculinity-of-vladimir-putin/?europe=true (https://web.archive.org/web/20200412092201/https://mashable.com/2017/08/07/the-swaggering-masculinity-of-vladimir-putin/?europe=true[archive])
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* https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/vladimir-putin-doing-manly-things/

.Putin swims Butterfly stroke in a Siberian lake around August 2009. The Telegraph https://web.archive.org/web/20200412090316/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/6175324/Vladimir-Putin-gives-strong-signal-he-may-be-president-again.html[correctly interpreted this as a sign that he would be re-elected in 2012]. For reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Baikal[Lake Baikal in Siberia has a maximum temperature of 14 °C in summer]. Other dictators have used similar swim tactics before, the most notable possibly being <<mao-swim>>. https://web.archive.org/web/20200412090316/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/6175324/Vladimir-Putin-gives-strong-signal-he-may-be-president-again.html[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200412090316im_/https://secure.i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01472/Vladimir-Putin_1472816c.jpg[height=400]
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.Putin riding a horse shirtless https://nypost.com/2014/08/29/putin-its-best-not-to-mess-with-us/[near Lake Seliger in August 2009]. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/worl-photo-caption-contest-shirtless-putin_n_3263512[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200412092919im_/https://i.huffpost.com/gen/1133558/original.jpg[height=500]
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.Putin riding a bear. https://www.pinterest.fr/pin/469429961142687422/[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200412094400if_/https://i.pinimg.com/564x/07/68/05/076805e00f6ad771818d36ccef62cfd3.jpg[height=400]
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.Putin riding a shark. https://sharkdivers.blogspot.com/2011/05/russian-pm-putin-rides-great-white.html[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20160614201455if_/http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FYfgqjECs1I/TeJoA2899DI/AAAAAAAAEII/7js84oWpRPk/s400/tumblr_kuxr34jtOb1qzeu38o1_400.png[height=400]
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.Putin riding a giant eagle. https://www.quora.com/Is-this-picture-of-Vladimir-Putin-riding-a-bear-fake-or-real[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200412093557if_/https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-71e8b8cddfce751d8e0a8ed45b316731.webp[height=400]
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.Putin riding a meteor. https://www.quora.com/Is-this-picture-of-Vladimir-Putin-riding-a-bear-fake-or-real[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200412093551if_/https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-ae21d615c5a8738a7321478bc1b686c5.webp[height=400]
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[[gay-putin]]
====== Gay Putin (2017)

Coverage:

* https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-putin-gay-clown-memes-internet-extremism-opposition-president-kremlin-a7669486.html

<<gay-rights,Homosexuality>> is not super popular in Russia in general:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Russia
* 2013 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_gay_propaganda_law Russian gay propaganda law (2013) forbids the favorable depiction of homosexuality to minors

.The possibly Gay Putin clown image banned in 2017. https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/2085395/its-now-illegal-russia-share-image-putin-possibly-gay[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200312233919if_/https://cdn1.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/images/methode/2017/04/06/0a2ae706-1a94-11e7-b4ed-ac719e54b474_1280x720_145124.jpg[height=400]

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.Possibly Gay Putin kissing possibly Gay <<flg-trump,Trump>> mural entitled https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Everything_Great_Again[Make Everything Great Again] painted in Lithuania in 2016 by by artists Dominykas Čečkauskas and Mindaugas Bonanu. It references the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections[Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections]. It was https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/12/vandals-censor-image-of-putin-snogging-trump-lithuania[later vandalized]. Now we just need a Putin <<xi-jinping>> kiss. Trump Xi kiss https://www.dw.com/en/sierens-china-survival-of-the-fittest/a-49498499[can be found here]. https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/opinion/putin-will-pay-a-high-price-for-trumps-friendship/[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191022004820if_/https://en.euractiv.eu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/11/Putin-Trump-kiss-800x450.jpg[height=400]
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[[skripal]]
====== The poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal Серге́й Ви́кторович Скрипáль (2018-03-04)
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* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Sergei_and_Yulia_Skripal
* https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Отравление_Сергея_и_Юлии_Скрипаль
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In 4 March 2018, the Russian double agent and his daughter were poisoned with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novichok_agent[Novichok agent] (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Новичок_(отравляющие_вещества)[Новичо́к]), a Soviet-era nerve agent, which was likely put on their front door knob in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury[Salisbury, UK], exact address https://goo.gl/maps/oKASuLWpcSmLqL8F9[Christie Miller Road]! Straight out of a spy novel.

On 30 June 2018, the man of an unlucky drug addict couple found the counterfeit expensive looking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Ricci_(brand)[Nina Ricci] Premier Jour perfume bottle containing the poison, and gave it to the woman who died. How unlucky can you fucking be, as if heavy drug addiction weren't enough, you still have to deal with fucking Russian Novichok!
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.The assassination suspects Alexander Mishkin (Алекса́ндр Евге́ньевич Ми́шкин, alias Alexander Petrov) and Anatoliy Chepiga (Анатолий Владимирович Чепига, alias Ruslan Boshirov) in a CCTV still at Salisbury Station on 3rd March 2018 the day before the assassination. Both GRU and Alexander being a doctor, which is consistent with a poisoning assassination attempt. They later explained on an RT interview that they were visiting the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_Cathedral[world renowned Salisbury Cathedral] in their 3 day trip to the UK, and that they <<gay-putin,were not gay>>. Some Western sources interpreted this as an intentional suggestion that they are gay, which for many Russians would imply that they cannot be FSB agents. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/05/planes-trains-and-fake-names-the-trail-left-by-skripal-suspects[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200313103134if_/https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/31a18fa18d2fedb11136fc3d2c39952e4aec1ce5/0_97_1114_668/master/1114.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=19c40235440efb1be4b1b8d9ef1b87d7[height=400]
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.Counterfeit Nina Ricci Premier Jour packet that contained the Novichok. https://www.npr.org/2018/09/05/644782096/u-k-charges-2-russians-suspected-of-poison-attack-on-skripals[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200404112526im_/https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2018/09/05/skripal-perfume_wide-8e5147ab76a27976e4bde6adffce910f4f297d25-s1100-c15.jpg[height=400]
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.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku8OQNyI2i0 "Full Skripal case interview with the UK's suspects (EXCLUSIVE)" by RT with Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. Not gay moment at: https://youtu.be/Ku8OQNyI2i0?t=461[461s].
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video::Ku8OQNyI2i0[youtube,height=400,width=600]

====== Electoral fraud in Russian elections

Besides barring opposition from participating such as <<alexei-navalny>>, electoral fraud was off the charts:

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KQlCRLCw_I 2019-09-12 CCTV footage of Vasily Dyachenko (Василий Дьяченко), who had reported electoral fraud concerns regional 2019 elections, getting surprise punched in the stomach at the St. Petersburg polling station 1619, while the police who is right in front of it do nothing about it. English coverage: https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-police-stand-idly-by-as-election-observer-sucker-punched/30160427.html
video::-KQlCRLCw_I[youtube,height=400,width=600]

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oSeRyaFllY 2018-03-18 alleged https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_fraud#Ballot_stuffing[ballot stuffing electoral fraud] caught on CCTV in Lyubertsy, Moscow Oblast
video::3oSeRyaFllY[youtube,height=400,width=600]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMEqv-NNLW4 Мусора избили ребёнка и наблюдателей на выборах TODO find English version

Related:

* Golos (Голос) is the main independent election monitor organization in Russia:
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golos_(election_monitor)
** https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Голос_(мониторинг_выборов)

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[[litvinenko]]
====== The murder of Alexander Litvinenko Литвиненко, Александр Вальтерович (2006)
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* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko
* https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Литвиненко,_Александр_Вальтерович
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Poisoned with polonium-210:

* 2006-10-29
** meets with two former FSB agents Dmitry Kovtun and Andrey Lugovoy at Millenium Hotel London TODO exact address
** eats with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Scaramella[Mario Scaramella] at an Itsu in London TODO exact address. <<ciro-santilli>> believes the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itsu[Itsu] food to be the real cause of death.
* 2006-11-01 falls ill
* 2006-11-03 admitted into hospital
* 2006-11-23 dies
* 2007-01-26 UK police says they had found a teapot at Millenium Hotel containing extremely high Poloninum-210 traces
* 2010-12 US leaked cables show that Dmitry Kovtun left "positive traces" of radioactive polonium-210 in Germany before departing for Britain https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/11/wilileaks-cables-litvinenko-murder

.Litvinenko in his death bed.
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200404123347im_/https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/guardian/About/General/2010/12/11/1292079941381/Former-Russian-Agent-Pois-006.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=2a623e83efa1042cc1cd07295d54a57b[height=400]
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[[russia-mandatory-registration-of-bloggers]]
====== Mandatory registration of bloggers (2014)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28583669

Bloggers with more than 3000 daily readers must register and cannot be anonymous.

The following Chinese policies come to mind:

* <<icp-license>>
* <<anonymous-accounts-ban>>

===== Putin opposition

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

[[alexei-navalny]]
====== Alexei Navalny Алексе́й Анато́льевич Нава́льный

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Navalny
* https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Навальный,_Алексей_Анатольевич

Casually barred from the 2018 presidential campaign:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Alexei_Navalny_presidential_campaign
* https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42479909
* https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Навальный,_Алексей_Анатольевич#Президентские_выборы_2018_года

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His Wiki page does say one thing of interest though, he has right wing tendencies which scared off liberals:

____
The BBC noted in a profile of Navalny that his endorsement of a political campaign called "Stop feeding the Caucasus" and his willingness to speak at ultra-nationalist events "have caused concern among liberals". 
____

Related:

* https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-navalny-nationalist-fears/25059277.html
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVNJiO10SWw

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===== Censorship of images in the Soviet Union

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

.Before/after comparison of picture of Stalin with Nikolai Yezhov at the Moscow Canal. Nikolai was edited out form the second picture. (Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images & AFP/GettyImages) https://www.history.com/news/josef-stalin-great-purge-photo-retouching[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191014084357im_/https://www.history.com/.image/c_limit,cs_srgb,q_auto:good,w_860/MTU3ODc4NjAzNTIxNzMwMjcx/image-placeholder-title.webp[height=400]

.A meeting of the St. Petersburg chapter of the Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class in February 1897, including Lenin and Alexander Malchenko. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Union-de-Lucha.jpg[Source].
image::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/Union-de-Lucha.jpg/640px-Union-de-Lucha.jpg[height=500]

.Same as above, but with Alexander Malchenko edited out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:St_Petersburg_Union_of_Struggle_for_the_Liberation_of_the_Working_Class_-_Feb_1897_-_Altered.jpg[Source].
image::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/Union-de-Lucha.jpg/640px-Union-de-Lucha.jpg[height=500]

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[[stalin]]
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===== Stalin 斯大林 (1922-1952)
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.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_Yagami[Light Yagami] from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Note[Death Note]: "I can kill anyone by simply writing his name here". Stalin: "Bitch please". https://ifunny.co/picture/1-can-kill-anyone-by-simply-writing-his-name-here-TjXCcyuM2[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200301233451/https://img.ifunny.co/images/55cb6c5de9cde6ebe7e9d1704c7f83e6d344e8154b44299fec9b9a029aa82c34_1.jpg[height=500]
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.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT2z0nrsQ8o "Rasputin vs Stalin." Epic Rap Battles of History YouTube video. This is fire. https://epicrapbattlesofhistory.fandom.com/wiki/Rasputin_vs_Stalin/Rap_Meanings[Explanations].
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video::ZT2z0nrsQ8o[youtube,height=400,width=600]

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[[anti-russia-dictatorship-info-sources]]
==== Anti Russia dictatorship sources

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* https://www.rferl.org/ Radio Free Europe: USA funded sister media of <<rfa>>: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Liberty
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* https://meduza.io/en

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[[ccp-evil]]
=== Is the Chinese government evil? 中国共产党是邪恶吗?
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Obviously not, just <<richer,inefficient>> and <<war,dangerous>>.
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It is just another non-democratic empire like the Qing Dynasty, we might as well cal it:

____
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The Communist Dynasty
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____

Expression previously mentioned at: https://web.archive.org/web/20161025220242/http://tieba.baidu.com/p/752094668
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Like any other organization and individual everywhere in the entire world, they are just doing everything that they can to maintain their own power.

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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.
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<<falun-gong>> thinks otherwise of course, they think the CCP is actually made up of devils in some dimension: <<does-ciro-santilli-believe-in-or-practice-falun-gong>>.
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==== 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>>.

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==== Is Chinese politician X evil?

The term evil does not make sense unless you are <<falun-gong,religious>>.
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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.

See also: <<politicians>>.

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[[nazi]]
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=== Comparisons between the CCP and Nazi Germany 纳粹德国
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Keywords:

* 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)
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* 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]

Articles:

* 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].

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See also: <<communist-youth-league>>.

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.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::https://web.archive.org/web/20191013080128if_/https://i.redd.it/c9q6vdybr7i31.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::https://web.archive.org/web/20180319114422im_/http://images.china.cn/site1007/2018-03/19/18f2dcae-19f4-459a-be06-016dd13c5a1d.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::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/War_Ensign_of_Germany_%281938%E2%80%931945%29.svg/320px-War_Ensign_of_Germany_%281938%E2%80%931945%29.svg.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].
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image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191218074716if_/https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/mouth-open.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::https://web.archive.org/web/20191013080043if_/https://foreignerinformosa.typepad.com/.a/6a00d834523d5069e201b7c90b8e9c970b-pi[height=400]

.Original cover of Mein Kampf. link:++https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adolf_Hitler_-_Mein_Kampf_(855._Auflage,_1943).pdf++[Source].
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image::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Adolf_Hitler_-_Mein_Kampf_%28855._Auflage%2C_1943%29.pdf/page1-423px-Adolf_Hitler_-_Mein_Kampf_%28855._Auflage%2C_1943%29.pdf.jpg[height=400]
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.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].
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image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191013080031if_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DGlPeEmXcAAaeQa.jpg[height=400]

.Original photo of Hitler giving the Nazi salute from a car with Himmler on the background. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hitler-car.jpg[Source].
image::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b9/Hitler-car.jpg/640px-Hitler-car.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].
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image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191003190442if_/https://i.redd.it/c0d340rtswp31.png[height=400]

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[[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::https://web.archive.org/web/20200109143505im_/http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-06/01/XxjwshE007055_20190601_CBMFN1A006_11n.jpg[height=500]

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.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>>.
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video::wD53MEbLDIE[youtube,height=400,width=600]

=== Personal questions about Ciro Santilli

==== Can I contact you in Chinese?

If you don't know English well enough, that's fine though, go for Chinese.

But if you do, use English.

I am not going to learn Chinese because of your message.

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.

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See also: <<does-ciro-santilli-speak-chinese>>.
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===== 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
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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.

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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.
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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>>.
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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.
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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  -
....

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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:

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* 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
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* 肏 fuck: 操
* 傻 idiot: 沙
* 屌 dick: 雕

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Places to try and decrypt Internet slang when you feel like wasting your time:
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* 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

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]

[[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.

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A collection of shitposts for you to take inspiration from can be found at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Ashitpost+
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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.

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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].

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.Real shit photos may be posted in reply to shitposts. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Feces_(cropped).jpg[Source].
image::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Human_Feces_%28cropped%29.jpg/517px-Human_Feces_%28cropped%29.jpg[height=400]

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.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::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/Kin_no_unko.jpg/450px-Kin_no_unko.jpg[height=500]

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.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::https://web.archive.org/web/20200120095415/https://i.imgur.com/rA0K90g.jpg?1[height=600]
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.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::https://web.archive.org/web/20200209012342if_/https://kpopalypse.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/alca.jpg[height=600]
===== I am going to write a huge 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.

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==== Has Ciro Santilli you ever lived in China?
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Not as of 2019, he has only visited once in 2012, and it was <<does-ciro-santilli-hate-china,amazingly beautiful>>.
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.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?
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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]
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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 you like to live in China?

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If the dictatorship ends, I would like to <<does-ciro-santilli-hate-china,migrate to China>> if given a decent job to help you develop and become awesomer.
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===== 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.

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See also: <<what-should-pro-democracy-chinese-living-in-china-do-about-the-dictatorship>>.
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Bibliography: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/93

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[[is-ciro-santilli-chinese]]
==== Is Ciro Santilli Chinese? 三西猴是中国人吗?

See: https://cirosantilli.com/#ciro-santilli

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And it does not matter: <<not-chinese>>.

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But <<why-does-ciro-santilli-love-china-so-much,his wife is>>.
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[[does-ciro-santilli-speak-chinese]]
==== Does Ciro Santilli speak Chinese? 三西猴会说中文吗?
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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.
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When it matters, and with some patience, Can 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.
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From the HSK vocabulary list, he estimates that ihe 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].
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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 the lack of vocabulary.
Ciro reads with link:https://www.perapera.org/[Perapera], write with a mixture of link:https://www.pleco.com/[Pleco], Google translate and Googling to see if Chinese actually say the sentences that way.
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He <<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 really wishes he could learn more, but he has other more important endeavors at the moment :-(
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He 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.
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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]

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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.
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Ciro loves this language.
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Yes Chinese characters are beautiful, yes, https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/2003/can-chinese-readers-scan-large-amounts-of-text-faster-more-accurately-than-their[maybe you can read faster], and yes, 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]).

But they just take too much time for any sane adult to learn, it's harder than C++!
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

.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]

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[[chinese-characters-are-insane]]
===== Chinese characters are insane 汉字是疯狂的
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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)]?
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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.
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<<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.
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Posts that express similar ideas:
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* <<evil-chinese-characters-by-ted-chiang>>
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.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].
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image::https://uncyclopedia.ca/w/images/e/e1/Chinese_character_extreme.svg[height=400]

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.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]

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[[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>>.

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[[radical]]
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==== Is Ciro Santilli a radical?
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Saying that someone is a radical is useless <<brainwashed-by-usa,ad hominem>>.
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If you want to say something useful, give specific reasons why you think one specific thing that <<ciro-santilli>> said is incorrect.
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Do you consider him a radical because it is unthinkable that China is not perfect?
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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>>?
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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>>?
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Ciro doesn't think either China or West is perfect: <<western-media-has-exaggerated-reports-on-flg-for-propaganda-reasons>>.
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He's just listing arguments why he thinks democracy is better, e.g.: <<richer>>, <<war>>.
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See also:
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* <<preconceived>>
* <<bias>>
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And Ciro never gets mad. Only a slightly sad or annoyed sometimes.
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But maybe no radical ever considers themselves a radical? Hmmm...
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Or maybe: link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efHCdKb5UWc[The Dark Knight - Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Burn]?

==== Are you a SJW?

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

See also: <<preconceived>>

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[[does-ciro-santilli-hate-china]]
==== Does Ciro Santilli hate China? 三西猴讨厌中国吗?
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On the contrary. China has his favorite:
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* <<restaurants,food>>
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* <<does-ciro-santilli-speak-chinese,language>>
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* <<music>>
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* history
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* nature
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* 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
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And because of that: <<would-you-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
____

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Ciro only focus here on negative things to provide content that will <<keyword-attack,activate the Great Firewall>>.
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____
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____

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[[yuyuan-garden]]
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.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::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Shanghai_-_YuYuan_Gardens_and_Old_Town_%28584867794%29.jpg/683px-Shanghai_-_YuYuan_Gardens_and_Old_Town_%28584867794%29.jpg[height=600]

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[[chinese-traditional-painting]]
===== Chinese traditional painting 中国传统绘画

See also: <<museum>>.
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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
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."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::https://web.archive.org/web/20200126185832if_/https://i.stack.imgur.com/9c1fa.jpg[height=600]

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===== Why does Ciro Santilli love China so much?
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<<ciro-santilli>> does not <<does-ciro-santilli-believe-in-or-practice-falun-gong,believe in reincarnation>>, but sometimes he's tempted to.
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It is interesting how different people get <<does-ciro-santilli-hate-china,different impressions>>!
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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 :-)
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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!
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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.

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[[selfish]]
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==== Ciro Santilli's China freedom campaign is selfish
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See also:

* <<flg-bias>>
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* <<throne>>
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* <<harm-programmers>>

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[[famous]]
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===== Ciro Santilli is doing his China freedom campaign to become famous
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No, he am a selfless human being, only concerned with the greater well being of humankind.
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More serious answer:

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* 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
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Keyword: attention whore.

Duplicate pool:

* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/5

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===== Ciro Santilli is doing his China freedom campaign because it makes him feel important
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See: <<famous>>.
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===== Ciro Santilli is doing his China freedom campaign to vent off his anger

No, he is not angry at all, see also: <<harm-programmers>>.

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[[cia-funding]]
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===== Is Ciro Santilli's china-dictatorship campaign funded or otherwise supported by some organization?
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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.
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Just kidding.
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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.
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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

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==== Would Ciro Santilli be doing his China freedom campaign if he was in China?
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Not with his real name attached to it, see also:
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* <<what-should-pro-democracy-chinese-living-in-china-do-about-the-dictatorship>>
* <<not-chinese>>
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===== 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]]
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==== Doesn't Ciro Santilli have anything better to do than pissing off China?
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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!

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This is how much time Ciro spends on this project to give you an idea:
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* every week or two, someone sends me a message, he reply with "read the FAQ", and usually update
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* 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>>
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* 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.
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Then Ciro just contributes to programming websites exactly as he would if he weren't making this campaign, and voila.
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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.
=== Were you influenced by the Cute cat theory of digital activism?

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

Nope, someone told me about it after a while, but it is basically what I'm doing.

You can never invent anything new anymore nowadays.

=== 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

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Oops, I forgot that <<most-chinese-people-like-their-dictatorship,proposing such a vote would put in you jail>>, nevermind.

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[[violence]]
=== Would it be right to use violence to overthrow the CCP?
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In an ideal world, Ciro Santilli is of course "against violence".
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But what if you could prevent a lot of future violence with some violence today?
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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]
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Do you really think that the communists will step down if you ask them nicely enough? Even after <<tiananmen>>?
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A quote from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film)[V for Vendetta (2005)] comes to mind:
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____
Q: If they do, what do you think will happen [the people protest against their Government]?
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A: What usually happens when people without guns stand up to people with guns.
____

.https://youtube.com/watch?v=TcoBv6ibh8M V for Vendetta (2005) "What you think will happen" scene.
video::TcoBv6ibh8M[youtube,height=400,width=600]

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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>>.
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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>>.
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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]

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==== 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.

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See also: <<uneducated-masses>>

[[dictatorship]]
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=== 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.

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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.

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Well known <<evil-west,Evil Western media>> that also call China a dictatorship:
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* 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

[[keyword-attack]]
=== What is a screen name keyword attack?

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
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image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Chrysanthemum_Xi_Jinping_with_black_red_liusi_added_by_Ciro_Santilli.jpg[height=400]
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This type of attack is essentially an <<embargo>>.
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See also: <<photobombing-like-attacks>>.

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[[anti-ccp-info-sources]]
==== What are the best sources of anti-CCP news?
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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.

Highly worth your feed.

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>>.
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[[reddit]]
===== 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/Sino/ TODO understand what that bullshit sub is about
* https://www.reddit.com/r/CCP_virus/ for <<corona>>

==== 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
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* 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:
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** 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
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** 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.
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** https://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/sensitive-words-series/?view=all sensitive words list
** Fun 2015 ebook: https://github.com/cirosantilli/decoding-chinese-internet-pdf-download
* <<tiananmen-square-protests-keywords>>
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[[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.

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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.
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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.
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* 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.
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If you think that this list can be improved, please open an issue explaining how and why.
==== Other notable keyword attacks

===== Notepad++

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notepad++
* https://en.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:

* 2019-10: "In October 2019 Notepad++'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++, 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++'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]).

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[[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, I believe that they should be allowed to do so.

Rationale:

* 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.
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All of which are against my principles.

What makes me the most mad 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?

See also: <<western-democracies-have-invaded-other-countries-and-crushed-separatism>>.

[[taiwan]]
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==== 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
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If you are interested in Taiwan, one important programmer forum is: <<ptt>>.

Some interesting links:

* 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
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