Skip to content
Snippets Groups Projects
README.adoc 266 KiB
Newer Older
= China Dictatorship 中国独裁统治
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
:cirosantilli-media-base: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cirosantilli/media/master/
:idprefix:
:idseparator: -
:sectanchors:
:sectlinks:
:sectnumlevels: 6
:sectnums:
:toc: macro
:toclevels: 6
:toc-title:

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>>。
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
image:{cirosantilli-media-base}/Chrysanthemum_Xi_Jinping_with_black_red_liusi_added_by_Ciro_Santilli.jpg[height=300]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
image:https://web.archive.org/web/20191013080128if_/https://i.redd.it/c9q6vdybr7i31.jpg[height=300]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[faq]]
== FAQ 常见问答集

[[why-keyword-attack]]
=== Why attack websites with censored keywords?

<<keyword-attack, The attack>>.

To <<effective,destroy the firewall>>.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
This would then end <<censorship>>.

And then <<dictator-needs-gfw,I believe>> that this would also <<why-end-dictatorship,end the dictatorship>>.

The keyword attacks increase the cost of censorship.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
If commies censor things, they will get worse IT technology, and thus become less <<richer,less rich>> and militarily powerful.

Since all they care about, like any other politicians, is power, the only way to make them stop censorship is to make the cost of censorship higher than not censoring.

Without the threat that China will be less technologically, and therefore militarily advanced, there is no incentive for the CCP to destroy the firewall.

The goal is to put them in a position where they have to choose between either:

* having military power
* remaining a <<dictatorship,dictatorship>>

but not both, since having both means that they will <<war,start WW3 and destroy humanity>>

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Related attack: <<photobombing-like-attacks>>.

[[harm-programmers]]
==== Do you want to harm the Chinese programmers?

No.

This is not a revenge of any kind.

I know I am harming you on the short term, and I don't like myself for it.

But I believe that this harm is a necessary means to reach my real goal, which is to destroy the firewall, and the dictatorship.

Don't you think it is worth a try? Destroying the firewall, would <<why-end-dictatorship,enormously benefit>> not only Chinese programmers, but every single other Chinese person too.

Once the firewall is destroyed, which <<dictator-needs-gfw,may destroy the dictatorship>>, I want China to develop the best science and technology in the world, and <<would-you-like-to-live-in-china>>.

And by the way, by contributing to open source, I am already helping China, and all underdeveloped countries become stronger.

See also: <<disturbs>>.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[meant-to-be-used]]
=== Politics should not be posted in technical websites such as GitHub or Stack Overflow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Finally, the political powers of each website decide what is allowed or not on their website, and what is not allowed gets blocked. So far, Stack Overflow and GitHub's Terms of Service have said go ahead.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Stack Overflow threads: <<do-stack-overflow-policies-allow-for-keyword-attacks>>.

Duplicate pool:

* https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina/issues/89
* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/57
* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/66#issuecomment-528165637 (https://web.archive.org/web/20190911212149/https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/66[archive])
* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/75
* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/78
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
If you disagree with GitHub's Terms of Service, you can write an email to them to: support@github.com telling them that.

==== 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 much more likely 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 make 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 website is great, and want to push it to perfection, in particular with better Google keyword hits, and uniform gramatically 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>>

[[richer]]
==== Why would democracy and freedom of speech make China richer?

There is infinite debate about this out there, some examples:

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2011/05/can-poor-countries-afford-democracy-becker.html (https://web.archive.org/web/20180923192824/https://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2011/05/can-poor-countries-afford-democracy-becker.html[archive])
* https://www.quora.com/Is-democracy-or-authoritarianism-better-for-developing-countries

For:

* dictatorships are more likely to start <<war>> or other 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.
+
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.
+
Killing a million people will make us richer? No problem, let's do it.
+
That is great when they make good decisions, but it sucks when they make <<war,bad ones>> more likely.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
I really like https://web.archive.org/web/20180923192824/https://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2011/05/can-poor-countries-afford-democracy-becker.html[Posner's] 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?

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== Censorship makes countries poorer

<<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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccGzOJHE1rw&feature=youtu.be&t=2110 "Secretary Clinton Speaks on Internet Freedom", U.S. Department of State, 2010-01-22 :-)

____
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
____

This is also the basis of a <<keyword-attack>>.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Also mentioned at: link:https://youtu.be/d3dE_LDz_9E?t=1681[Google versus China - VPRO documentary - 2011]

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.

.Chernobyl 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. The URSS only admitted Chernobyl three days after when Swedish nuclear plant alarms started going off. 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]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6kYod3_gwk[Source].
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
video::M6kYod3_gwk[youtube,height=400,width=600]

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.Photo of a CDV-717 radioactivity meter that maxes out at 3.6 Roentgen like the one that would have been used in Chernobyl. https://www.reddit.com/r/ChernobylTV/comments/bnio6n/36_roentgen_on_a_cdv717/[Source]
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191102143219if_/https://i.redd.it/f806kp316ox21.jpg[height=400]

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Or https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/death-statistic/[if you prefer]:

____
The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.
____
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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])
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
____
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]]
====== Initial censorship of the 2020 Corona Virus

The Chinese Government censored the initial outbreak, which likely made the situation much worse than what it could have been:

* 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" (http://web.archive.org/web/20200124113400/https://www.businessinsider.com/china-information-crackdown-on-wuhan-coronavirus-2020-1?r=US&IR=T[archive])
* https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/g5xykx/you-can-now-go-to-jail-in-china-for-criticizing-beijings-coronavirus-response "You Can Now Go to Jail in China for Criticizing Beijing’s Coronavirus Response"

Doctor Li Wenliang reported the virus, but was told by authorities to stay quiet, and later died from the virus, becoming somewhat of a martyr:

* https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51409801
* https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/2020/02/%E3%80%90%E7%BD%91%E7%BB%9C%E6%B0%91%E8%AE%AE%E3%80%91%E4%BD%A0%E8%83%BD%E5%81%9A%E5%88%B0%E5%90%97%EF%BC%9F-%E4%BD%A0%E5%90%AC%E6%98%8E%E7%99%BD%E4%BA%86%E5%90%97%EF%BC%9F/

The following excerpt from his forced confession trended:

____
你能做到吗?
你听明白了吗?
____

Translation:

____
Can you manage?
Do you understand?
____

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
People that got arrested for reporting on it:

* Li Zehua 李澤華
** 2020-02-28 https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjdejp/a-chinese-citizen-journalist-covering-coronavirus-just-live-streamed-his-own-arrest

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.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]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

[[war]]
==== Why would democracy and freedom of speech make China less likely to start a war?

This has been discussed to death:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_peace_theory
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_Peace:_A_Philosophical_Sketch

Some arguments include:

* the people who will actually fight and die on the front can't vote against it
* dictators have huge power, so if they put it in their heads that they want to start a war, it is much harder for sensible people to stop them
* dictators need <<fear-of-west,to keep the people in fear all the time to keep their power>>, and a war is a great way to achieve that

[[fear-of-west]]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== 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:

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
____
Once upon a time, there was a farmer with a farm.

One day, the animals in 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:

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
_____
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 doing any effort, so they decided to believe the farmer's explanation that 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 in the farm, all the animals were, sooner or later, eaten one by one.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
____

TODO source.

==== The Chinese masses are still uneducated, and not fit for free speech and democracy

When will they be ready? Who decides? What if they think that they are ready now?

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== 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?

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.<<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::http://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.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Rebel_pepper_pig_can%27t_eat_democracy_cartoon_translated_to_English_by_Ciro_Santilli.jpg[height=600]
[[effective]]
=== Will the keyword attacks really help to destroy the firewall?

==== Embargoes make the dictatorship stronger

The <<keyword-attack,keyword attack>> is basically an embargo.

There is already a lot of literature about this, specially 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
* http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_big_idea/2006/08/thanks_for_the_sanctions.html

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

Some interesting aspects of the keyword attack embargo:

* 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.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* by affecting programmers in particular through Stack Overflow and GitHub, we make them more likely to develop better <<censorship-circumvention,Firewall climbing>> tools themselves
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
One point in favor of the embargo is that China has opened up since the 80's 90's, but did freedom improve at all? Under <<xi-jinping>>, it may be argued that it did not, and maybe that we should just stop feeding them technology and accept that they won't become free.

Trump's link:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/02/trump-banning-huawei-beginning-of-biggest-trade-war-ever-united-states[2019 China trade war], and in particular the Huawei ban, is an event that have 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 which 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 times 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 http://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 http://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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

But I doubt developers use those browsers right? The only way would be for China to forbid foreign browsers entirely.
===== GitHub gov-takedowns

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

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

As of 2019 there have only been only 2 takedowns by China however, compared to dozens by <<russia>>. The Chinese commies are not big fans of transparency it seems.
The message GitHub shows is:

____
Repository unavailable in your location

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

Here are some examples of people reacting to the blocking of https://github.com/programthink/zhao/issues/38 as per https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/blob/78775b09e64d85f08547287cab204b48b2491192/China/2016/2016-06-08-programthink-zhao.md from China (and likely on the entire repository, which appears to be the block granularity implemented):
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* https://github.com/programthink/books/issues/31 (http://web.archive.org/web/20191023093618/https://github.com/programthink/books/issues/31[archive])
* https://www.zhihu.com/question/284445884/
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* https://program-think.blogspot.com/2018/04/Zhao-at-GitHub.html?comment=1524671692761#1524671692761
See also: <<programthink>>

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
To check China only takedowns such as this, we cannot use Great Fire Analyzer, which reports the page as accessible: the only tool I could find so far to capture a page from China a bit like Web Archive was: https://www.geoscreenshot.com which takes screenshots of the websites, but the free trial is very limited, and you can't share the screenshots. See also: <<censorship-monitoring>>.
[[dictator-needs-gfw]]
=== Would ending the great firewall truly end the dictatorship?

Not 100% sure.

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

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

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

=== 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.

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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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>>.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== Most Chinese people don't care about the minorities

How can you be that certain that your children won't have dissident ideas and be punished unfairly for them?

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Intolerance is a risky way to live. Everyone is part of one minority in one way. If all minorities were oppressed, everyone would be oppressed.

Dictatorships crush minorities much more than democracies.

Do think the majority of the Chinese people would vote to put 50 year old <<falun-gong>> meditating aunties in jail, if the CCP hadn't made a huge propaganda campaign and used an iron fist?

Are the Chinese really that selfish to vote for this oppression, even as the <<censorship,free media>> would show videos of meditating old ladies in jail on national television? I don't believe this.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Minorities are put in jail because the CCP fears them. Dictatorships can only survive if there is zero difference in opinion in the population.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[stability]]
=== If anyone disagrees with the government they must be punished to keep the stability of the country

Destroying diversity is the best way to reach a point where everyone can agree to start <<war,a new big war and destroy everything>>.
The CCP thrives on the excessive <<fear-of-west,fear it instigate 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.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
In democracies, radical policy changes happen without dropping a single drop of blood. People vote, and policies change, end of story.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== Keyword attack profiles disturb me
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
But isn't it better to be annoyed than having <<war,war>>, <<richer,being poor>> or <<xinjiang,put into jail unfairly>>?
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
If the truth is too much for you to bear, worry not, you can use either:

* this cool browser extension to clean up Stack Overflow: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/32236-stackoverflow%E5%87%80%E5%8C%96%E5%99%A8
* 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>>, 
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

See also: <<harm-programmers>>.

[[not-chinese]]
=== Non-Chinese people cannot interfere in Chinese politics

. 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 <<war,starts a war>>, I might have to fight it.
. If I lived under a dictatorship, I would welcome foreign intervention.
+
Even if you don't, I know several Chinese who do.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
+
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.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
. 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.

Duplicate pool:

* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/1
* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/66 (https://web.archive.org/web/20190911212149/https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/66[archive])

[[brainwashed-by-usa]]
==== Non-Chinese people have been brainwashed by the USA know nothing about China

Everyone is "brainwashed" by their environment.

I don't doubt that you know more about China than me.

But if you are Chinese, also consider that you have been brainwashed by the commies, so likely much more than me since you live in a dictatorship.

So, instead of saying that, why don't you just actually prove your point by teaching me something interesting about China that I don't know about? I love learning new things.

But please, link to reference material instead of just saying it, it will be much more convincing.

See also: <<western-democracies-are-not-perfect>>.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[bias]]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
=== Ciro Santilli and this repository are completely biased against the Chinese Government!
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
<<ciro-santilli>> prefers the term focused :-)
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
That being said, Ciro take the agenda of information sources very seriously.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
See also:

* <<flg-bias>>
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* <<radical>>
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[throne]]
==== Ciro Santilli's claim to the Qing Dynasty throne

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 anyways.

If anyone is able to provide further evidence of this relationship, please, please, please get in touch.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
The family tree that Ciro has reconstructed orally is:

* Ciro's wife:
** Father: Ai Dayi (艾大义) born: 1932 in Shenyang
*** Father: Ai Xikang (艾锡康)
**** Father: Ai Pushan (艾??)
**** 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.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

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++[]

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>>.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.Ciro Santilli's portrait as Qing emperor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%E6%B8%85_%E9%83%8E%E4%B8%96%E5%AE%81%E7%BB%98%E3%80%8A%E6%B8%85%E9%AB%98%E5%AE%97%E4%B9%BE%E9%9A%86%E5%B8%9D%E6%9C%9D%E6%9C%8D%E5%83%8F%E3%80%8B.jpg[Original image].
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Ciro_Santilli_portrait_as_Qing_emperor.jpg[height=600]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[preconceived]]
==== You have a preconceived opinion about China that cannot be changed

I try to justify here why I think China would be better with democracy, but I know that ultimately all of this is useless.

Our opinions are all determined genetically and by bring-up, and there is nothing I can do to change yours, or you change mine.

From that point of view, all of this is just a cold blooded political game, in which I try to force the CCP to take down the Firewall: <<why-keyword-attack>>.

Unfortunately I'm still still human and do get annoyed or sad sometimes, but never mad, even if your opinion is contrary to mine, and therefore wrong :-) The <<reply-policy,reply policy>> helps reduce such frustrations tremendously however.

I also have doubts about certain things I do as expressed throughout this FAQ.

Also, I have never said that that anyone else is wrong.

In the end, I just end up thinking about new replies to things people say to me, 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 this FAQ it 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.

=== 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 :-)

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
If you are so fine, why are you reading this at all? Go back to being fine.

See also:

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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== I like my Dictatorship

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Ciro Santilli can understand that.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

It must feel good to have 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>>.

A scene from the awesome mini-series link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Moments_of_Spring[Seventeen Moments of Script (1973)] comes to mind.

In link:https://youtu.be/YsXhgzX56cA?t=2086[Episode 7, 34:46], the main character, Stierlitz, who is an undercover Soviet spy in Germany during WW2, travels on a train with a <<nazi,nazi-officer>>.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
The war is almost over, and the desolate officer tells Stierlitz:
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

____
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
I told my children: I hate any democracy!
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

No democracy in our Reich!

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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
The more freedom we have, the sooner we want to be controlled by SS troops again.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
And then we want our the secret police back, and concentration death camps again, and the universal fear everywhere! Only then we feel calm and secure.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

No need to prove your point of view in defending the fate of the home land.

No responsibility.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Just raise your hand in the honor of him, who will take care of everything for you,
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Just shout out "Hail Hitler!" and everything will become understandable.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

No more worries.
____

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
It is amusing that there is a <<russia,Soviet>> movie criticizes dictatorships.

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>>.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== Most Chinese people like their dictatorship

It is easy to reach an agreement, when everyone who disagrees goes to jail or gets killed.

One is reminded of the game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Happy_Few["We Happy Few"]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zndzntIDLFE

=== 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:

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* 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>>

==== Western democracies are not perfect

That is definitely true.

Nothing is perfect in this world.

I just think that they are way better than dictatorships.

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 an Western democracy that you would like to highlight, send a pull request. We will not however include events which 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.

See also:

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

===== 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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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 on arguing with you anymore.

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>>.
===== Snowden

The level of unknown surveillance that Snowden uncovered is a bad thing about the US.

However, it is obvious that the level of surveillance in any dictatorship will be infinitely higher, since the Government has much more power.

Snowden's prosecution was inevitable. Countries need secret services. Secret services need laws that prevent leaking classified information that was produced by government officials.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
<<ciro-santilli>> has never and will never criticize China or any other country for spying or prosecuting spies.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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>>.

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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
On the West however, the debate Snowden sparked cannot be censored, and has helped to control excessive and secret state power.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Ultimately, Ciro thinks camera surveillance is somewhat inevitable, because people will always want to fight crime and terrorism and surveillance technology keeps getting cheaper and cheaper.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
He is however strictly against the ban of cryptography.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
He also believes that a good solution to balance out government power is the second amendment. It is better to have more school shootings and less full blown dictatorship led genocides / mass human rights violations.

In 2019 China amusingly censored passages Snowden's "Permanent Record" autobiography book, which Snowden then published on Twitter:

* https://twitter.com/snowden/status/1194092273170038784 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191112083232/https://twitter.com/snowden/status/1194092273170038784[archive])
* https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dv5q8o/china_censors_edward_snowdens_new_book_he/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20191112083147/https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dv5q8o/china_censors_edward_snowdens_new_book_he/[archive]).

As a https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dv5q8o/china_censors_edward_snowdens_new_book_he/f7axckl/[Redditor put it]:
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

____
I don’t think they understand that what Snowden stands for is completely the opposite of what the Chinese gov is lol
____

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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?
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

.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 which are likely telling the truth.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== 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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Here are some images that wumao's like to post:

* Left Right Slaughterhouse comic: http://9gag.com/gag/ayn7KmW?ref=fbp

==== Russia

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.

I've always been curious to how Russia can be both oppressive and a democracy, unlike China which doesn't even try to pretend. This is what I gather:

* 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.
* just like China, they emphasise 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 2 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. is fine, 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

While I'm at it, some interesting news:

* 2018-04 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43752337 Russia to block Telegram app over encryption
* 2017 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40635267 Russia Jehovah's Witnesses banned after they lose appeal
* 2017 http://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
* 2014 link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putin_khuylo![]
* 1995 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladislav_Listyev

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
=== Is the Chinese government is evil?

No, just <<richer,inefficient>> and <<war,dangerous>>.

It is just another non-democratic empire like the Qing Dynasty, we might as well cal it:

____
共产朝
The Comunist Dinasty
____

Expression previously mentioned at: http://web.archive.org/web/20161025220242/http://tieba.baidu.com/p/752094668

==== Chinese politicians really care about the Chinese citizens

Sometimes people say Ciro Santilli is naive.

Politicians are the same all over the world.

Some are good, some are evil.

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>>.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== Is Chinese politician X evil?

The term evil does not make sense.

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.

[[xi-jinping]]
===== Xi Jinping 习近平
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

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

[[chrysanthemium-xi-jinping]]
====== Chrysanthemium Xi Jinping 菊花习近平
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Got creator Dai Jianyong (戴建勇) arrested in 2015:

* https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/chinese-artist-who-posted-funny-image-of-president-xi-jinping-facing-five-years-in-prison-as-10282630.html
* https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/05/artist-detained-after-posting-humorous-photo-of-xi-jinping/

.Chrysanthemum Xi Jinping with <<tiananmen,六四>> spice added by Ciro Santilli
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Chrysanthemum_Xi_Jinping_with_black_red_liusi_added_by_Ciro_Santilli.jpg[height=400]

.Original Chrysanthemum Xi Jinping by Dai Jianyong published in 2015. https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/05/artist-detained-after-posting-humorous-photo-of-xi-jinping/[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200113200256im_/https://chinadigitaltimes.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/daijianyong.jpeg[height=400]

.Possible original Xi Jinping photo used for Chrysanthemum Xi, possibly from 2012. The light blue gradient background was used for the official photos of many Communist officials of the era. http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2111975_2111976_2112111,00.html[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20190417164247im_/http://img.timeinc.net/time/2012/t100/t100_xi_alt.jpg[height=400]

====== Xi abolishes term limits 2018-03
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

* 包子露宪 https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2018/03/phrase-week-steamed-bun-betrays-constitution
* https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/world/asia/china-xi-jinping-term-limit-explainer.html

.<<rebel-pepper>> cartoon showing Xi Jinping preparing to sleep in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Mao_Zedong[Mao Zedong's tomb], meaning that Xi also wants to reach Mao's "eternal ruler" status when he abolished term limits in 2018. https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/XiJinping-Eternity-cartoon-02282018104813.html[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191013080140if_/https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/XiJinping-Eternity-cartoon-02282018104813.html/180227RFA-XiJinping-Eternity.jpg[height=400]

.1977 photo showing Mao's actual glass tomb during his funeral, with famous politicians in the background. It is interesting to see that Mao https://mummipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Mao_Zedong[features on the "Fandom Mummipedia Wiki"]. https://apnews.com/a94a0d7a824b474fb11545e8c4481c21[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200121105502if_/https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:c65bb5f4e2664bb88aae7881f8adbba0/800.jpeg[height=400]

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist[The Economist] "Let’s party like it’s 1793" cover from May 4th – 10th 2013 depicting a painting of Xi Jinping dressed as emperor of China. The famous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qianlong_Empero[Qianlong Emperor] was in power at that time. https://twitter.com/TheEconomist/status/329929668155293696[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200225220314/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BJQlSP_CQAA52BG?format=jpg[height=600]

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[winnie-the-pooh]]
====== Comparisons between Xi Jinping and Winnie-the-Pooh 小熊維尼
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Got censored due to comparisons between Xi Jinping and Winnie in 2017: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie-the-Pooh#Censorship_in_China

Some good photoshops:

.Comparison image between Xi Jinping waking with then USA president https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama[Barack Obama] with a Winnie-the-Pooh cartoon still of Winnie walking with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigger[Tigger, the tiger]. The original photo is from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-09/obama2c-xi-forge-rapport-in-debut-summit/4742616[Xi's 2013 visit to the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands, California]. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/17/oh-bother-chinese-censors-block-winnie-pooh-meme-comparing-xi/[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20170801011641if_/http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02590/TIGGER_2590531b.jpg[height=400]

.Comparison image between Xi Jinping shaking hands with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinz%C5%8D_Abe[the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe] and a Winnie-the-Pooh cartoon still of Winnie shaking hands with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eeyore[Eeyore, the donkey]. The original photo is from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/world/asia/leaders-of-china-and-japan-hold-long-awaited-meeting.html[Abe's lacklustre 2014 visit to Beijing]. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/china-bans-winnie-the-pooh-film-to-stop-comparisons-to-president-xi[Source].
image::http://web.archive.org/web/20191012100528im_/https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/84b60992d857bccf54c384e4ebeb0ea7f207246b/37_0_752_451/master/752.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=e33410b2fb10c3d6de6a6ed65b6a7d8e[height=400]

.Comparison image between Xi Jinping on a car in a 2015 military parade and a toy Winnie-the-Pooh on a car. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-china-blog-40627855[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191012100855oe_/https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/DD1F/production/_96970665_4587b36b-011f-4007-b16f-34389d385aec.jpg[height=400]

[[mao-zedong]]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== Mao Zedong 毛泽东

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/毛泽东

[[great-leap-forward]]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
====== Great Leap Forward 大跃进 (1958-1960)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/大跃进

.A high tower of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax_gourd[winter gourds] "冬瓜上高楼" propaganda poster for the Great Leap Forward by https://chineseposters.net/artists/jinmeisheng.php[Jin Meisheng] published in 1959. <<western-democracies-are-not-perfect,Even in democracies>>, politicians promise the fat gourds. But when there is <<censorship,no free media to control their>> lies, things can get really out of hand. http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/chairman/chn11.php[Source].
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200131210244/https://live.staticflickr.com/4135/4754681204_1784cd9f89_w.jpg[height=600]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[cultural-revolution]]
====== Cultural Revolution 文化大革命 (1966-1976)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/文化大革命

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[nazi]]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
=== Comparisons between the CCP and Nazi Germany 纳粹德国
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Keywords:

* Xitler (习特勒). 习 "xi2" is very close in sound to the Chinese name of Hitler: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%98%BF%E9%81%93%E5%A4%AB%C2%B7%E5%B8%8C%E7%89%B9%E5%8B%92[希特勒] (xi1 te4 le4)
* Chinazi (赤纳粹). TODO why 赤. Means Red, but where else is it used?
* link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum[Reductio ad Hitlerum]

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
See also: <<communist-youth-league>>.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.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]

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.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. http://bodylanguageproject.com/xarticles/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Hitler-4.jpg[Source].
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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].
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

.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. http://chinhdangvu1.blogspot.com/2017/09/xitler-chinazism.html[Source].
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/%E3%80%90%E7%9B%9B%E4%B8%96%E4%B8%80%E6%99%AF%E3%80%91%E8%B5%A4%E7%BA%B3%E7%B2%B9%E6%97%97%EF%BC%88chinazi-flag%EF%BC%89/[on streets]. https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/dbrken/google_bomb_china_flag_search_query_into_chinazi/[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191003190442if_/https://i.redd.it/c0d340rtswp31.png[height=400]

=== 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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Obviously, in that case, use simple and standard Chinese. Avoid slangs, otherwise I might not have patience to Google your useless slangs down <<zhihu,Zhihu>> questions. Of course, if I have to tell you this, you likely are not going to say anything useful in the first place, so not reading your post is likely fine. I think 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 my time.

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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
See also: <<does-ciro-santilli-speak-chinese>>.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[shitpost]]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== I want to take my chances and make a shitpost in cirosantilli/china-dictatorship

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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]?
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

A Chinese insult tip 101, avoid similar sound euphemisms. If you are going to say shit at least grow some balls or tits and use the proper characters, Ciro will respect you more for it:

* 屄 cunt: 逼
* 肏 fuck: 操
* 傻 idiot: 沙
* 屌 dick: 雕

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
A collection of shitposts for you to take inspiration from can be found at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/labels/shitpost

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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].

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.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]

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.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]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.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.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
image::http://web.archive.org/web/20200209012342if_/https://kpopalypse.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/alca.jpg[height=600]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== Has Ciro Santilli you ever lived in China?
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Not as of 2019, he has only visited once in 2012, and it was <<does-ciro-santilli-hate-china,amazingly beautiful>>.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.Ciro Santilli with a stone carved https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budai[Budai] in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maitreya_and_disciples_carving_in_Feilai_Feng_Caves.jpg[Feilai Feng caves] near the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingyin_Temple[Lingyin Temple] 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?
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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?

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== 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.

Bibliography: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/93

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== Is Ciro Santilli Chinese?

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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
But <<why-does-ciro-santilli-love-china-so-much,his wife is>>.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== Does Ciro Santilli speak Chinese?

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 I don't know.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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].
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Phonetics wise, Ciro can't distinguish or produce a few sounds, notably `-ing` vs `-in` and my off-tone rate is high, but it tends to not matter at all compared to the lack of vocabulary.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Ciro reads with link:http://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.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
He hasn't tried to learn characters, too much effort, but he did learn the most common ones without trying.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Ciro really wishes he could learn more, but he has other more important endeavours at the moment :-(
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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 afterwards, 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 reachs one that I don't know that seems useful, he Plecos it up or just 怎么说 and then Pleco.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Spoken Chinese is in Ciro's opinion a relatively easy language to learn from scratch, because word formation is so often logical:, e.g.:

* volcano = fire + mountain: 火山(huo shan)
* train = fire + car: 火车 (huo che), a reference to old https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_locomotive[steam locomotives]

and there is no useless crap like verb conjugation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_gender[Grammatical gender], plural variants, capitalization, etc.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Ciro loves this language.

Please just get rid of the Chinese characters and move to pinyin like the Korean and Vietnamese did, this will make your culture much easier to export. Characters are beautiful, but just take too much time for any sane adult to learn, it's harder than C++!
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.The "fictional" Chinese character "Dou" from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncyclopedia[Unencyclopedia] is roughly translated as "Impossibly complex pictogram-based writing system that takes a person a thousand thousand years to learn." and illustrates well why pictograms are a bad idea. https://uncyclopedia.ca/wiki/File:Chinese_character_extreme.svg[Source].
image::https://uncyclopedia.ca/w/images/e/e1/Chinese_character_extreme.svg[height=400]

==== Why did you start the keyword attack?

The last straw was when in March 2015 my girlfriend's mother was arbitrarily kept 15 days in jail for doing Falun Gong. I posted this at:

* https://twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/579270450984984576
* https://www.facebook.com/cirosantilli/posts/952661734753174

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
I then continued because I hate political <<censorship,censorship>>, and because <<does-ciro-santilli-hate-china,I love China>>.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[ciro-santilli-mother-in-law-jail]]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== Ciro Santilli's post when his mother-in-law was put into jail
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

====== 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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
I see Falun Gong http://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: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_National_People's_Congress So the police at the station, who already knew she did Falun Gong, took her away.

When she came back home, the house had been searched and was all messed up. Her religious books and computer were missing.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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>>?
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
====== Jail post zh
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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http://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:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_National_People's_Congress
所以那些知道她炼法轮功的铁路警察把她带走了。

当她回到家中时,房子被搜查过了,四处一切混乱。她的信仰书籍和电脑都没有了。

我很庆幸的是她身体并没有受到伤害。我觉得很意思的是一些受过良好教育的中国人怎么能够迫害一部分它的人民的政府呢?如果这样的事情发生在你的家庭,而你什么都不能做,你会怎么想?

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
====== 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 http://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: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_National_People's_Congress Então a polícia da estação, que já sabia que ela faz Falun Gong pegou ela.

Quando ela voltou pra casa, a casa tinha sido procurada pela polícia e estava uma bagunça. Os livros religiosos e seu computador foram confiscados.

Eu fico feliz apenas que ela não sofreu abuso físico. Eu acho fascinante como mesmo muitos chineses educados apoiam ainda um governo que não representa parte do povo. Como você vai se sentir quando algo do tipo acontecerá com a sua família, e você não pode fazer nada sobre isso?

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== Further details about Ciro Santilli's mother-in-law's persecution
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[radical]]
==== Are you a radical?

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Why am I a radical?

Do you consider me a radical because it is unthinkable that China is not perfect?

Or just because I'm trying to <<keyword-attack,take down,>> some more websites that your dictatorship still does not dislike enough to block: <<china-is-fine-as-it-is-stop-making-it-worse>>?

Don't you think that it is much more radical to <<intolerance,be put in jail for your beliefs>> and <<censorship,silenced if you disagree with anything the government says>>?
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Why am I a radical when I speak my point of view, while you are not when you speak yours?

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
I don't think either China or West is perfect: <<western-media-has-exaggerated-reports-on-flg-for-propaganda-reasons>>.

I'm just listing arguments why I think democracy is better, e.g.: <<richer>>, <<war>>.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
I don't consider myself a radical because of:

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

I never get mad. Only a slightly sad or annoyed sometimes.

But maybe no radical ever considers himself radical? Hmmm...

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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>>

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== Does Ciro Santilli hate China?
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
On the contrary. China has his favorite:
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

* <<restaurants,food>>
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* <<does-ciro-santilli-speak-chinese,language>>
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* <<music>>
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* history
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* nature
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* 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
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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
____

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Ciro only focus here on negative things to provide content that will <<keyword-attack,activate the Great Firewall>>.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
____
持华反党。
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
爱国恨党。
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
____

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.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]

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== Chinese traditional painting

Some free online collections:

* Smithsonian collection at a search for Paintings before 1800. Drill down further by "topic" e.g. "Mountains" or "scholar"
** http://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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
."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]

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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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!
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[famous]]
==== Are you doing this just to become famous?
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
No, I am a selfless human being, only concerned with the greater well being of humankind.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
More serious answer:

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* I believe in this. As evidence, it has limiting effects on my technological career: <<does-your-employer-support-this>>, and I don't think I can / want to become a politician
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* the more famous I am, the more impact I will have in the future
* the more famous I am, the more feedback I have that what I've been doing has been working

Keyword: attention whore.

Duplicate pool:

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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== Are you doing this because it makes you feel important?

See: <<famous>>.

==== Would you be doing this if you were in China?

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Not with my real name attached to it, see also: <<what-should-pro-democracy-chinese-living-in-china-do-about-the-dictatorship>>
==== Is your campaign funded or otherwise supported by some organization?

Nope.

But then, a shady supporting organization might require that I don't 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 organization and for me, which makes it less likely that I would have accepted or had such an offer.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Also consider my 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

===== 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 is 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]]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== Doesn't Ciro Santilli have anything better to do?

In 1989, 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!

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
This is how much time Ciro spends on this project to give you an idea:
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* every week or two, someone sends me a message, he reply with "read the FAQ", and usually update
* Ciro https://www.reddit.com/r/China amongst many other programming subs, and all major bad news show up there. See also: <<anti-commie-info>>
* 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.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Then Ciro just contributes to programming websites exactly as he would if he weren't making this campaign, and voila.

=== 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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[violence]]
=== Would it be right to use violence to overthrow the CCP?
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
In an ideal world, Ciro Santilli is of course "against violence".
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
But what if you could prevent a lot of future violence with some violence today?
.One baby <<nazi,Hitler>> or 5 Million Jews https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem[trolley problem].
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Baby_Hitler_vs_5_million_Jews_trolley_problem.jpg[height=400]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Ah, the eternal question which only God can answer:
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-origin-of-the-quote-The-end-justifies-the-means[the ends justify the means]
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequentialism[consequentialism]
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem[trolley problem]
* link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_resistance[nonviolent resistance]

Do you really think that the communists will step down if you ask them nicely enough?

A quote from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film)[V for Vendetta (2005)] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcoBv6ibh8M

____
Q: What do you think will happen [when the people protest against heir Government]?

A: What usually happens when people without guns stand up to people with guns.
____

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
How do you think the CCP or any other party got into power and maintained that power in the first place? Violence.

The question of if violence is right or wrong makes no sense. All that matters is: what is the most <<richer,efficient form of government>> and who has the power to do what.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
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>>.

==== It is fine for the CCP to treat some of its citizens unfairly if the majority is better off

Basically same discussion as: <<violence>> but with the tables turned.

See also: <<the-chinese-masses-are-not-interested-in-politics-and-therefore-not-ready-to-vote>>

[[dictatorship]]
=== Why does Ciro Santilli say that China is a dictatorship?

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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Even <<mao-zedong>> admits it and put it into the constitution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_democratic_dictatorship[People's democratic dictatorship 人民民主专政], so funny.

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

* 2020-01-29 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/opinion/coronavirus-china-government.html "Coronavirus Spreads, and the World Pays for China’s Dictatorship"
* 2018-03-04 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/04/xi-jinping-from-president-to-china-new-dictator "Xi Jinping’s power play: from president to China’s new dictator?"
* 2017-10-11 https://www.ft.com/content/cb2c8578-adb4-11e7-aab9-abaa44b1e130 "Under Xi Jinping, China is turning back to dictatorship"

Further discussions about this useless terminology question:

* https://www.quora.com/Is-China-a-dictatorship

[[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 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
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
image::{cirosantilli-media-base}/Chrysanthemum_Xi_Jinping_with_black_red_liusi_added_by_Ciro_Santilli.jpg[height=400]

This type of attack is essentially an embargo.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
See also: <<photobombing-like-attacks>>.

==== Do Stack Overflow policies allow for keyword attacks?

The current consensus is yes:

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

The Chinese law doesn't I'm afraid :-( https://advox.globalvoices.org/2015/04/16/new-internet-rules-in-china-target-usernames-avatars-as-subversive-tools/

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[anti-commie-info]]
==== What are the best sources of anti-commie news?

https://www.reddit.com/r/China

Catches all the important news

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
A large part of the posts is 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/

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Tecent 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>>.

==== Where can I find good words for a keyword attack?

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_blacklisted_keywords_in_China | https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E8%8F%AF%E4%BA%BA%E6%B0%91%E5%85%B1%E5%92%8C%E5%9C%8B%E5%AF%A9%E6%9F%A5%E8%BE%AD%E5%BD%99%E5%88%97%E8%A1%A8
* 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://qz.com/698990/261-ways-to-refer-to-the-tiananmen-square-massacre-in-china/ 261 ways to refer to the Tiananmen Square Massacre in China
* https://chinadigitaltimes.net This is was an amazing source, extremely comprehensive and up-to-date, but the series was stopped in September 2018:
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
** 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/%E6%9C%89%E5%85%B3%E9%83%A8%E9%97%A8/%E7%9C%9F%E7%90%86%E9%83%A8%E6%8C%87%E4%BB%A4/?view=all chinese version
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
** 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.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
** https://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/sensitive-words-series/?view=all sensitive words list
** Fun 2015 ebook: https://github.com/cirosantilli/decoding-chinese-internet-pdf-download

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[keyword-choice]]
==== How do you choose keyword 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.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
These are some of my prioritization guidelines:
* recent cases receive a large prime over raw death toll, because older cases can always be attributed to other people.
+
E.g., I've heard there is even some opening towards acknowledging the Great Famine, thus 烏坎事件 (and others from my previous profile names)
* words must refer to a precise event, and must be clearly summarizable in very few chars, for increased impact, and profile name length limitations.
+
E.g. "High 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.
+
E.g.: Falun Gong, Tiananmen.
+
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.
+
Freedom of speech however, is immediately verifiable (e.g. "my Weibo was taken down"), and undeniably caused by the current central government.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* 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.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

If you think that this list can be improved, please open an issue explaining how and why.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== Are there other openly dissident users on Stack Overflow?

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

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

* "GNUSupporter 8964民主女神 地下教會"
** Real name: Vincent Tam from social media links.
** https://math.stackexchange.com/users/290189/gnusupporter-8964%E6%B0%91%E4%B8%BB%E5%A5%B3%E7%A5%9E-%E5%9C%B0%E4%B8%8B%E6%95%99%E6%9C%83
** https://web.archive.org/web/20180924203410/https://math.stackexchange.com/users/290189/gnusupporter-8964%E6%B0%91%E4%B8%BB%E5%A5%B3%E7%A5%9E-%E5%9C%B0%E4%B8%8B%E6%95%99%E6%9C%83
** Keyword attack inspired by me
* Yu Hao
** http://stackoverflow.com/users/1009479/yu-hao
** http://archive.is/76FCb
** "GFW (Great Firewall of China) is one of the most notorious inventions in the history of Internet. Anyone working for it should be ashamed."
* iBug
** https://stackoverflow.com/users/5958455/ibug
** iBug http://web.archive.org/web/20190507140910/https://stackoverflow.com/users/5958455/ibug
** "The Communist Party of China is a state criminal that is continuously committing state crime to ordinary Chinese citizens!" followed by an event list.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* gotqn
** "Free Tibet From China Domination"
** https://stackoverflow.com/users/1080354/gotqn
** https://web.archive.org/web/20190821105901/https://stackoverflow.com/users/1080354/gotqn
* Scott 混合理论
+
https://stackoverflow.com/users/1230329/scott-%E6%B7%B7%E5%90%88%E7%90%86%E8%AE%BA
+
Same message as Yu Hao, I wonder if it is an external thing or direct copy of Yu, but no Google hits besides them.
* Terry Wang
** http://stackoverflow.com/users/1801697/terry-wang
** http://archive.is/V0aSK
** Lego recreation of Tankman on profile picture.

Users who had GFW references but removed it:

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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Misc interesting stuff:

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

Anti-dissident users:

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

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

==== Other notable keyword attacks

===== Notepad++

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notepad%2B%2B

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]).


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.
+
Which in turn implies terrorist backslash.
+
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]]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== Taiwan 台湾 Republic of China 中華民國
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/中华民国
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Taiwan is not a case of separatism.

Taiwan is a completely separate country split due to civil war, long ago.

The fact that most countries in the world does officially recognize Taiwan as a country is a joke, considering that the only thing keeping it afloat is the West's military threat.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
<<what-should-western-countries-do-about-china,The West must not>> let China advance and take more territories. The more they take, the more they will want.

The West must protect China's neighbouring countries with military support and assurance.

The West must recognize Taiwan for what it is: a separate country, under threat of invasion, and in need of support.

If China's claim to Taiwan is valid, then Taiwan also has an equally valid claim on China.

If China's claim to Taiwan is valid, then so will it's claim to any other country.

If Taiwan is a part of China, why doesn't China put the Chinese flag on all major Taiwanese government buildings?

Oh, I forgot, it is because they have absolutely no control over Taiwan. Just like the have absolutely no control over any other country.

China, if you want to claim that Taiwan is a part of you, just invade them already. Or just stop this joke.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Someone once told Ciro:

____
Taiwan should not be considered a country by China, because then it would not join back to China when China becomes a democracy, and would be used by the USA to do evil things like they did in the Middle East
____

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Reply:

____
China claiming that Taiwan is a part of them only drives Taiwan closer to the West! Who wants to be part of a dictatorship unless you have been brainwashed by one?
____

Interesting quote from https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/07/taiwans-status-geopolitical-absurdity/593371/

____
Taiwan’s Status Is a Geopolitical Absurdity
____
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
If you are interested in Taiwan, one important programmer forum is: <<ptt>>.

Some interesting links:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-China_policy every country has private relations with Taiwan through some trade organizations, they just don't call them embassies
* http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/62447/how-can-a-citizen-of-mainland-china-visit-taiwan/62466#comment178495_62466 hi, I want a "not VISA" to Taiwan. Thanks.
* https://youtu.be/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
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.The flag of Taiwan. Like most modern countries, Taiwan has one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_the_Republic_of_China.svg[Source].
image::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Flag_of_the_Republic_of_China.svg[height=400]

[[taiwan-number-one]]
===== Taiwan #1

2015 meme started by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z1_Battle_Royale[H1Z1] streamer AngryPug, in which he repeatedly taunts the Chinese streamer Em0 by pretending to be Taiwanese.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTqZ9xrxhHk ANGRYPUG's official YouTube upload of the clip
* https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/taiwan-1
* https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/3tz3jq/what_is_the_point_of_the_taiwan_1_thing/

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[xinjiang]]
==== Xinjiang 新疆

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps

In 2017 - 2018, details of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghurs[Uyghur] internment camps are emerging.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.<<rebel-pepper,Rebel Pepper>> 2017-04 cartoon showing that Xinjiang is like a prison inside a greater prison, which is China itself. Chinese characters read: 新疆(Xinjiang) and 中国(China). TODO source.
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191013085312if_/https://i.stack.imgur.com/mQFKa.png[height=600]
* 2019-12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEkliuqQo-g "A Secret Look Inside a Chinese Labor Program for Uighurs | Visual Investigations" by "The New York Times" published on Dec 30, 2019. Description: "China is relocating Uighurs and other Muslim minorities to urban areas as part of a contentious labor program. The Times obtained rare footage taken inside one."
* 2919-12: Muslim German Turkish Arsenal player link:++https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesut_%C3%96zil++[Mesut Özil] criticizes concentration camps on Twitter, and China stops broadcasting arsenal matches
** https://twitter.com/MesutOzil1088/status/1205439723302469632 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191214233550/https:/twitter.com/MesutOzil1088/status/1205439723302469632[archive])
** https://news.sky.com/story/chinas-state-tv-will-no-longer-show-arsenal-match-after-mesut-ozil-remarks-11887171
* 2019-11: "What happened to me" manga depicting Uighur torture hits 2.5m views
** https://wapipi.net/home/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/uy0830_en.pdf (https://web.archive.org/web/20191126162143/https://wapipi.net/home/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/uy0830_en.pdf[archive])
** https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/26/what-has-happened-to-me-manga-depicting-uighur-torture-hits-25m-views
* 2019-11 The Xinjiang Papers: leaked cables about Xinjiang internment camps policy, some reported by the New York Times and others by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, soure yet unknown. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_papers
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
** 2020-02-18 https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/02/20/more-evidence-chinas-horrific-abuses-xinjiang the "Karakax list" leaked spreadsheet contains detailed information on 331 citizens Karakax County in Xinjiang and sheds further insight on why certain people have been persecuted
*** https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/china-war-terror-uproots-uighur-families-leaked-data-shows-200218052952415.html
** https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html
** https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-cables/exposed-chinas-operating-manuals-for-mass-internment-and-arrest-by-algorithm/
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
** 2020-02: more leaks containing detailed records of several citizens: https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2020/02/asia/xinjiang-china-karakax-document-intl-hnk/
* 2019-09-22 Drone footage of Xinjiang prisoner transfer uploaded to YouTube. TODO confirm location and that these are political prisoners rather than "normal criminals".
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
** Upload sources
*** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGYoeJ5U7cQ
*** https://twitter.com/warcombatfear/status/1174031079432310785
** News coverage
*** https://news.sky.com/story/chinas-detention-of-uighurs-video-of-blindfolded-and-shackled-prisoners-authentic-11815401 Drone footage, video sources:
** Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/d78aog/chilling_video_of_chinese_police_transferring/
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
+
.Video still of 2019-10 drone footage of blindfolded Xinjiang prisoners being marched taken at time 00:30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGYoeJ5U7cQ[Source].
image::https://ia601505.us.archive.org/27/items/cirosantilli/Video_still_of_2019-10_drone_footage_of_blindfolded_Xinjiang_prisoners_being_marched_taken_at_time_00%3A30.png[height=400]
* 2019-07-31 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/world/asia/china-xinjiang.html "Doubt Greets China’s Claim That Muslims Have Been Released From Camps"
* 2019-07-19 https://www.france24.com/en/20190712-37-countries-defend-china-over-xinjiang-un-letter "37 countries defend China over Xinjiang in UN letter"
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.<<rebel-pepper>> 2019-07 cartoon showing <<xi-jinping>> claiming to have won the global opinion on the Xinjiang re-education camps because all other dictatorships support him, including <<other-islam-countries-speak-up-for-uyghur,Islamic dictatorships>>. https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/XiJinping-uyghur-camp-cartoon-07162019155441.html[Source].
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191012074352im_/https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/XiJinping-uyghur-camp-cartoon-07162019155441.html/190716RFA-en-1000.jpg/@@images/c8c9143a-3a01-4116-9322-6aeb4857100f.jpeg[height=400]
* 2019-07-04 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-48825090 "China Muslims: Xinjiang schools used to separate children from families"
* 2019-05-07 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/07/revealed-new-evidence-of-chinas-mission-to-raze-the-mosques-of-xinjiang
* 2019-05-07 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULaJVWOr4ko CNN does a few Xinjiang interviews and sends reporter to visit some of the concentration camps
* 2019-02-24 http://fortune.com/2019/02/21/thermo-fisher-xinjiang-china-uighurs/
* 2019-02-17 https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2186547/china-data-leak-exposes-vast-hi-tech-surveillance-operation "China data leak exposes vast hi-tech surveillance operation in Xinjiang", leak by SenseNets Technology.
* https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/world/asia/china-xinjiang.html
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* 2019-03 https://shahit.biz/eng/ database of Xinjiang victims, with precise names, location, date of birth and ID card number of victims and testimonies
* 2018-12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=dsd1NkCKaNg In full: 'I begged them to kill me' - ex-Xinjiang detainee Mihrigul Tursun gives testimony in the US
* 2018-11 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-45812419 Xinjiang legalises 're-education' camps
* 2018-08 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-rights-un/u-n-says-it-has-credible-reports-that-china-holds-million-uighurs-in-secret-camps-idUSKBN1KV1SU
* 2018-07 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eak3WRtcdko Sairagul Sawytbai testifies to the existence of Chinese concentration camps in Xinjiang
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* 2018-05 generic report https://jamestown.org/program/evidence-for-chinas-political-re-education-campaign-in-xinjiang/
* 2018-05 mapping interment camps with satelite imaging:
** https://www.albawaba.com/news/mapping-china%E2%80%99s-internment-camps-its-ethnic-minorities-1136100
** https://medium.com/@shawnwzhang/list-of-re-education-camps-in-xinjiang-%E6%96%B0%E7%96%86%E5%86%8D%E6%95%99%E8%82%B2%E9%9B%86%E4%B8%AD%E8%90%A5%E5%88%97%E8%A1%A8-99720372419c List of Re-education Camps in Xinjiang 新疆再教育集中营列表 Shawn Zhang https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/8mbhad/satellite_imagery_of_xinjiang_reeducation_camps/
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* 2018-05 Omir Bekali's account of Xinjiang education camps:
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
** https://apnews.com/6e151296fb194f85ba69a8babd972e4b
** https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/former-inmates-of-chinas-muslim-re-education-camps-tell-of-brainwashing-torture/2018/05/16/32b330e8-5850-11e8-8b92-45fdd7aaef3c_story.html?utm_term=.df8ea170b18f
** http://uk.businessinsider.com/what-is-life-like-in-xinjiang-reeducation-camps-china-2018-5
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* 2017-04 https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/camp-photo-04262019171258.html
+
.Image of prisionners wearing blue sitting down in Xinjiang concentration camp, with some prisionners identified to indicate that they are not criminals but rather detained purely for political reasons. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/camp-photo-04262019171258.html[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191107091847/https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/camp-photo-04262019171258.html/uyghur-photo.jpg/@@images/58e9361a-f0e3-4886-a80a-6c9668ee678f.jpeg[height=400]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[other-islam-countries-speak-up-for-uyghur]]
===== Why don't other Islamic countries speak up for the Uyghur persecution?

* https://nationalinterest.org/feature/plight-uyghurs-why-muslims-wont-speak-their-brethren-112466

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
News source: https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/ Became larger than `r/china` during the <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests>>.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== Hong Kong 97 SNES video game

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_97_%28video_game%29

1995 video game realistically depicts the fight of Hong Kong against the Communist Party predicted to happen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handover_of_Hong_Kong[at the handover], featuring Bruce Lee (often represented as Jackie Chan) who returned from the grave to join the fight and kick Jiang Zemin's ass.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
The dead body from the game over screen was taken from a still from a video of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_War[1992 Bosnian War]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCDWyzZyNdw
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

The track is a sample of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Beijing_Tiananmen["I Love Beijing Tiananmen" (我爱北京天安门)] Cultural Revolution song that was popular before <<tiananmen>> and later became an ironic protest song:

____
我爱北京天安门
天安门上太阳升
____

which means:

____
I love Beijing Tiananmen Square
The sun rises over the Tiananmen
____

Full song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is_Z2K7guKs

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.Cover of the Hong Kong 97. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hong_Kong_97_cover.jpg[Source].
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
image::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a8/Hong_Kong_97_cover.jpg[height=400]

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.The venerable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_Video_Game_Nerd[Angry Video Game Nerd] made a review of Hong Kong 97. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_aXcH1zDEE[Source].
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
video::M_aXcH1zDEE[youtube,height=400,width=600]

===== 2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protests

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Hong_Kong_anti-extradition_bill_protests
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEvalUQuClE "Last Hong Kong governor Chris Patten: Gov't defence of extradition bill 'absolute nonsense'", Hong Kong Free Press
** 2019-10 https://twitter.com/Slasher/status/1181442535962632193 Blizzard bans top Hearthstone esports player blitzchung for pro Hong Kong message in interview

====== Daryl Morey Tweet
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

2019-10 Daryl Morey, NBA's Houston Rockets manager sent tweet supporting the Hong Kong protests.

But then he was a coward, removed this tweet, and apologized: https://twitter.com/dmorey/status/1181000808399114240 (http://archive.is/6Sdpn[archive]).

NBA is huge in China.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* 2019-10-07 Lakers vs. Heat NBA Tencent LIve Stream cancelled due to fan wearing the <<taiwan,Taiwanese>> flag
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
+
.Fan wearing Taiwan flag in 2019-10-07 Lakers vs. Heat showing fan and text (TODO from Tencent?) saying that the match will be cancelled. https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dtrx4b/tencent_nba_live_broadcast_got_cancelled_because[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191109172810/https://i.redd.it/y8y7esngllx31.jpg[height=600]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
** https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49956385
** https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/07/business/houston-rockets-nba-china-daryl-morey/index.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20191109172810/https://i.redd.it/y8y7esngllx31.jpg

Led to: <<sport-event-live-broadcast-image-attacks>>.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== Photobombing-like attacks

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

See also: <<keyword-attack>>.

===== Appropriation attack

An appropriation attack is one where the attackers attempt to associate an existing symbol to their cause.

For example, during the <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests>> attackers attempted to use this technique to associate a generic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chun-Li[Chinese Chun-Li-like] character Mei from Blizzard's link:++https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overwatch_(video_game)++[Overwatch game] to try and get it blocked in China after the gaming company punished a pro gamer for defending the Hong Kong protests. Coverage https://www.businessinsider.com/blizzard-fans-overwatch-mei-hong-kong-protests-memes-2019-10 (http://web.archive.org/web/20191012094950/https://www.businessinsider.com/blizzard-fans-overwatch-mei-hong-kong-protests-memes-2019-10[archive]).

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.Mei from Blizzard’s Overwatch was used in an attempted <<appropriation-attack>> during the <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests>>. https://twitter.com/marnofavonlea/status/1182557311539150849[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191013075823if_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGlJmSEUYAE7F7G?format=jpg&name=900x900[height=600]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== Sport event live broadcast image attacks

NBA in particular is super popular in China, and people sitting at the front row can easily bomb emissions due to the small court size:

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* China’s Tencent halts NBA live broadcast over <<taiwan,Taiwanese>> flag
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3813842

Started in particular due to the <<daryl-morey-tweet>>

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== What should Western countries do about China?
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Western governments must reciprocate unfair Chinese practices.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Companies only care about money and have no long term view, the following must be imposed by governments on Western companies.

First of all, serious sanctions must be pot on companies that sell sensitive things to dictatorships:

* <<western-companies-that-sell-censorship-technology-to-dictatorships,censorship or anti-privacy software>>
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

The most obvious thing is to go https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tit_for_tat[tit for tat] on Censorship and completely ban all Chinese-sponsored news and culture media, e.g.:

* https://twitter.com/globaltimesnews | http://archive.is/7oshu
* https://www.youtube.com/user/ChinaViewTV/featured
* https://www.facebook.com/globaltimesnews/

Their websites should also be blocked e.g.: http://www.globaltimes.cn/

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Chinese controlled social media apps such as WeChat, Zhihu, etc. must stop censoring people outside of China, or face sanctions, e.g.:

* 2020-02 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-media/u-s-imposes-new-rules-on-state-owned-chinese-media-over-propaganda-concerns-idUSKBN20C2G1 U.S. imposes new rules on state-owned Chinese media over propaganda concerns, the companies are: Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, China Daily Distribution Corp. and Hai Tian Development USA, Inc. See also: <<chinese-government-media>>.
* https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/11/25/20976964/chinese-americans-censorship-wechat-hong-kong-elections-tiktok
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
And the same must be done for cultural centers that report directly to the CCP such as <<confucious-institute>> and <<cssa,CSSAs>>.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Western governments must identify raw material dependencies on China, and reduce them, while at the same time forbidding technology transfer to China. China has been trading cheap resources for technology, and we must stop that now.

Unfair Chinese commercial practices must be reciprocated. Chinese companies should be forced to open joint ventures to operate outside of China, which is a trick China uses to control profits and more easily steal IP from Western companies:

* https://www.msn.com/zh-hk/news/other/us-entrepreneurs-make-a-choice-rewards-of-doing-business-in-china-often-outweigh-risks-of-losing-trade-secrets/ar-BBSPC69 (http://web.archive.org/web/20190905071456/https://www.msn.com/zh-hk/news/other/us-entrepreneurs-make-a-choice-rewards-of-doing-business-in-china-often-outweigh-risks-of-losing-trade-secrets/ar-BBSPC69:[archive])
* https://www.chinalawblog.com/2019/02/china-joint-ventures-the-long-version.html (http://web.archive.org/web/20190905071738/https://www.chinalawblog.com/2019/02/china-joint-ventures-the-long-version.html:[archive])
Do not underestimate the CCP and its control over every Chinese companies and people. Every Chinese company and person is a potential spy.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

This is true for all countries however, and we do not reproach China for its secret service, e.g. <<snowden>> used https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#NSA_sub-contractee_as_an_employee_for_Dell[Dell] as an NSA front-end.

The point is that the West should not underestimate this menace.

Some Chinese spy stories:
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

* 2019-11: Wang Liqiang spy defection to Australia
** https://www.smh.com.au/national/defecting-chinese-spy-offers-information-trove-to-australian-government-20191122-p53d1l.html
* 2019-11: Jerry Chun Shing Lee, naturalized American, convicted for being double agent while working at CIA after being in custody for 2 years
** https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/former-cia-officer-sentenced-19-years-conspiring-chinese-spies-n1089341

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Stories showing how big Chinese companies are closely involved with the government:

* 2019-11 https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/11/29/has-huaweis-darkest-secret-just-been-exposed-by-this-new-report/#7896db9d4061 Xinjiang Papers reveal the extent of Huawei's involvement in <<xinjiang>>

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== The West must ban the import telecommunications devices from China

Chinese computer and telecommunications hardware, in particular, should be avoided at all costs, as it is an entry point to spying.

The UK for example was trying hard to get kicked out of the 5 eyes in 2020 by using 5G equipment from Huawei:

* https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/28/tech/huawei-5g-uk/index.html (https://web.archive.org/web/20200129023355/https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/28/tech/huawei-5g-uk/index.html[archive]) "UK will allow Huawei to help build its 5G network despite US pressure"

."When you send a good joke from your Huawei phone", <<xi-jinping,Xi>> is also listening and laughing with you girls.  https://i.redd.it/nodgcqmwtcg31.jpg[Source]
image::http://web.archive.org/web/20190814074955/https://i.redd.it/nodgcqmwtcg31.jpg[height=600]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
===== What should Western media do about China?

When you report something about a person, for fuck's sake include the person's name in the title of the article, at the very least the pinyin.

Yes, Chinese people also have names.

==== Companies that comply to Chinese censorship requests

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Western government should prevent companies from complying to Chinese censorship requests, or at least impose fines and sanctions on them.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Citizens should boycott such companies and require them to be punished.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina contains a "List of companies who have apologized to the Chinese government and implemented censorship requests". It only lists companies that implemented censorship outside of China however (with Hong Kong, <<taiwan,Taiwan>> and Macau defined as outside of China), therefore it is basically a Taiwan flag takedown + Hong Kong / Taiwan censorship list: https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina/pull/56#issuecomment-541230090 | https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina/pull/84
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Some whell known companies and event:
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomberg_L.P.[Bloomberg L.P.]: https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/ "When Bloomberg News’s Reporting on China Was Challenged, Bloomberg Tried to Ruin Me for Speaking Out"
* 2019-12 Shutterstock implements censorship for searches from China https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/08/in-wake-of-shutterstocks-chinese-censorship-american-companies-need-to-relearn-american-values/
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* Apple
** 2020-02025 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/25/apple-censorship-requests-china-shareholder-groups-proposal
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Boycott entreteiners who support the CCP:
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Chan#Political_views_and_controversy[Jackie Chan 陳港生] even though he is born in Hong Kong
** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3T_Dd3O1UM spoke against the <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests>>
** https://www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news/fc/21/216376/Police-chief-says-Jackie-Chan-made-him
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Yifei#Controversy[Liu Yifei 刘亦菲] who starred in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulan_(2020_film)[Mulan 2020] Disney movie
** https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/16/disneys-mulan-star-sparks-call-for-boycott-with-hong-kong-stance opposed the <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests>>, notably saying "What a shame for Hong Kong". The <<chinese-government-media,People's Daily>> later quoted her: https://web.archive.org/web/20190816162331/http://en.people.cn/n3/2019/0816/c90000-9606859.html[]

.2019 summary of companies that kowtow to China. https://twitter.com/hoho90272496/status/1182669015937966080[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191013075353if_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGmvMb6XUAQgYq9?format=jpg&name=900x900[height=600]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.<<rebel-pepper>> 2019-10 carton showing several brands kowtowing to <<xi-jinping>>, while South Park alone gives the middle finger. https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/china-hongkong-us-10102019153228.html[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191011092825if_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGikEkFXkAE-A8m?format=jpg&name=4096x4096[height=400]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.<<rebel-pepper>> 2017-07 showing <<xi-jinping>> eating an Apple Inc. logo referring to the many events where Apple gave in to Chinese demands to have access to the Chinese market. https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/China-Apple-cartoon-08242017103540.html[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191013080151if_/https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/China-Apple-cartoon-08242017103540.html/170731Apple-700.jpg[height=400]
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4WBsahU3X4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Colbert[Stephen Colbert] comments in 2015 on how American films make a good image of China to be allowed in China by censors to increase sales.
video::V4WBsahU3X4[youtube]

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
=== What should pro-democracy Chinese living in China do about the dictatorship?

First of all, hide and stay safe, unless you can deal the final blow. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_at_War[World at war, 1973], ep. 16:

____
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
A dictatorship is like a snake. If you put your foot on its tail as you do it, it will just bite you and no body will be helped. You have to strike the head.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
____

Once that is taken care of, a few good options are:

* if you are a psychopath, while hiding your thoughts, manipulate your enemies, infiltrate the power circles, and go up the ladder
* if you are an innovator, leave China and come work for the West. Don't strengthen commie power.

And regardless: remember your kids that the commies are bastards every day.

[[reply-policy]]
=== Ciro Santilli's reply policy
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

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

If you are not a wumao, consider this:

* Ciro Santilli is one, and antagonists are millions. It is therefore not possible to reply to all antagonists.
* Ciro has in the past tried to be nice to stupid people, and they gave nasty replies
* all discussion is useless, <<effect,only the keyword attack has any chance of having any effect, and even that is slim>>

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
In order to not waste too much time on those, Ciro Santilli use the following strategy.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Then do your best to never read the inevitable reply again. An interesting reply never follows from a non-interesting original post. It is hard at first, but you will eventually get the hang of it.
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
If the user keeps generating notifications, warning + temporary block as per link:CONTRIBUTING.md[].
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
If initial post is outright useless and offensive, direct user block, with a link to the link:CONTRIBUTING.md[].
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Another reply strategy by C.K. Hung which might be of interest is: https://ckhung0.blogspot.com/2017/07/50-cents-party.html
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

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

____
大家你好

关于我常见问题我在我的GitHub中国FAQ repository回答了好几个。

你们要是在那儿找不到一个回答,清在那个repository开一个issue,我马上就回答。

我不要再在这个网页评论。
____

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

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

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

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

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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Alternatively, there is also the Chinese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengyu[chengyu] version:

____
对牛弹琴
____

which means:

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

which means to talk to someone who does not have intellectual conditions of understanding what you are trying to say, bibliography:
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

* https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-idiom-playing-the-qin-to-a-cow_766205.html
* https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%AF%B9%E7%89%9B%E5%BC%B9%E7%90%B4/3490

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

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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
=== Who is behind this amazing FAQ?

==== Ciro Santilli

Original creator: https://cirosantilli.com/

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[wife]]
===== Ciro Santilli's wife

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stack Overflow mentioned at: <<meant-to-be-used>>.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[zhihu]]
=== Zhihu 知乎
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhihu
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
The Chinese <<quora,Quora>> clone with Chinese characteristics (<<censorship,political censorship>>).
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[zhihu-purge]]
==== Ciro Santilli's Zhihu purge 2019-11-03

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

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

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

____
帐号已停用,请联系:user@zhihu.com
____

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

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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Ciro's blocked account:

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

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

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

Ciro then created an anonymous Zhihu account after this event.

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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
<<ciro-santilli>> was banned from Zhihu on 2018-06-25 for "politically sensitive" content.

As a result, since that time I will be answering Zhihu questions as issues in this repo with the https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/labels/zhihu[label `zhihu`].

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

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

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

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

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

____
由于严重违反 知乎社区管理规定 ,该帐号已被永久禁言
____

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

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

I still get notifications however, but I am unable to reply to them, specially given that all Chinese accounts, unlike mine, have no personal identifiable information due to the understandable fear Chinese citizens have of their own government (even though such accounts https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/27/china-doubles-down-on-real-name-registration-laws-forbidding-anonymous-online-posts/[might be illegal in theory to my understanding]).

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

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

The private messages the website sends while banning you are:

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

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

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

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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
====== Who reported Ciro Santilli on Zhihu

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My public message to the reporter whomever he may be:

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

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

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
==== Zhihu questions related to Ciro Santilli

Parent section: <<backlinks-to-this-repository>>

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

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

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

Mentions not yet deleted as of writing:

* https://www.zhihu.com/question/21099730 从知乎建站以来被封禁的用户都有哪些?Since Zhihu's founding, which accounts have been blocked on the website? (http://web.archive.org/web/20200112103049/https://www.zhihu.com/question/21099730[archive]) (http://archive.is/dH9pK[archive]). The top answer contains a list, and a brief explanation of why some of them were banned:
** Ciro Santilli: S/O 红人 (fStack Overflow celebrity)
** "ww" in explanations means "big laugh" according to: https://hinative.com/zh-CN/questions/8349706 because a single "w" means a small laugh
** several accounts are linked to one specific answer or comment
** other accounts are classified as often commenting on politically sensitive material (政治敏感)

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

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

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

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

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

问题就是git repository很大,我们不会都clone.

但是github有一个API,收集很多信息,包括邮件。

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

BigQuery对程序员很容易提取信息,是我用的。

我发表邮件以后,两个东西变化了:

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

这就是我的木比:保护人们的隐私权

我的README.md更详细地解释。
____

==== Quora

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

* 2016 blocked Chinese keywords on both my username and credentials. Justification: non-English.
* 2017 created on in English: Cook Tiananmen Square Noodle Shop.
+
Added my Noodle shop to maps: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Tiananmen+Square+Noodle+Shop/@60.6132538,15.6687509,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x94603408e3c63fb3!8m2!3d60.6132538!4d15.6687509
+
Leaches that picked it up: http://kvalster.se/Falu/Uthyres/Lagenheter/Gammelvagen_49_1417351

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
[[ptt]]
==== PTT Bulletin Board System 批踢踢實業坊
Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
Popular <<taiwan,Taiwanese>> forum system and server from 1995, pre HTML, works from telnet terminal, so likely very programmer heavy, and ovbiouvly anti-CCP.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTT_Bulletin_Board_System
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%89%B9%E8%B8%A2%E8%B8%A2

Ciro Santilli's appearances on PTT:

* 2020-01-31: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/Gossiping/M.1580484253.A.37A.html "stackoverflow菁英卻痛恨中國" by https://pttweb.tw/user/Eric0605/["Eric0605 (我還有點餓)"] on the Gossiping board
* 2017-06-19 https://pttweb.tw/s/2K9zV "Ciro Santilli 709大抓捕 六四事件 法轮" on the Gossiping board
* 2016-10-03 https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/Soft_Job/M.1478104872.A.916.html "Github也出現網軍了嗎?" by gocreating on the Soft_Job board

Archaic, fucking impossible to learn how to use. Ciro Santilli hasn't managed yet, so if you want a reply from him, open an issue on this repo instead.

Ciro Santilli's avatar
Ciro Santilli committed
TODO: can anyone comment, without having a Taiwanese university address? This suggests no: https://www.reddit.com/r/taiwan/comments/1etbvb/anyone_on_pttcc_advice_suggestions/ Also asked at:

* https://www.quora.com/unanswered/Can-you-comment-on-the-PTT-Bulletin-Board-System-at-ptt-cc-from-Taiwan-without-working-or-studying-at-a-Taiwanese-university
* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/92

Normal people see it on a web viewer hosted on: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/index.html

However it is fucking impossible to web archive that web interface because there is a cookie I'm 18-years-old confirmation before the first connection.

This shows how to connect for the first time: https://www.ptt.cc/index.firstbbs.html

One attempt is:

....
luit -encoding big5 telnet ptt.cc
....

But the main page says:

"本站目前暫停開放新帳號註冊。" "This site is currently suspended for new account registration."

And you try `new` it says: "目前無法註冊帳號![按任意鍵繼續]" "Account cannot be registered at this time."

OK, ptt2 went further:

....
luit -encoding big5 telnet ptt2.cc
....

Then there is a registration process that seem to require you to prove that you work at Taiwanese university, but not sure it is mandatory to post.

But I couldn't find Gossiping there either, which is the only board that matters, so not sure it is on this server.

Loading
Loading full blame...