Newer
Older
: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>>。
image:{cirosantilli-media-base}/Chrysanthemum_Xi_Jinping_with_black_red_liusi_added_by_Ciro_Santilli.jpg[height=300]
image:https://web.archive.org/web/20191013080128if_/https://i.redd.it/c9q6vdybr7i31.jpg[height=300]
=== Why attack websites with censored keywords?
<<keyword-attack, The attack>>.
To <<effective,destroy the firewall>>.
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.
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>>
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>>.
[[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.
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.
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
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 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:
* 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.
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?
===== 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>>.
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].
.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]
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.
____
Virus outbreaks and other natural disasters also illustrate this well:
* 2020 Corona Virus
** 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 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51409801
[[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]]
==== The commies exaggerate the threat of the West to keep in power
This is a common strategy, but the West is not as evil as they say:
Once upon a time, there was a farmer with a farm.
One day, the animals 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:
_____
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.
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?
===== 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?
.<<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.
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
* 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.
* by affecting programmers in particular through Stack Overflow and GitHub, we make them more likely to develop better Firewall climbing tools themselves
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.
[[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.
The cost of blocking Stack Overflow lies of course in the loss of information, and slower technological development, see also: <<why-keyword-attack>>
Remember that it is not possible for the Chinese government to block only certain pages of HTTPS websites due to encryption: either the entire IP / domain name is blocked, or nothing.
The 2019 <<nine-nine-six-icu>> event however brought to my attention that Chinese (usually WebKit-based) browsers are already censoring HTTPS websites selectively of course, see e.g.: https://github.com/996browser/996.BROWSER/tree/77f28a36a862e3cc4d238dc47c19872156096bc4
But 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):
* 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/
* https://program-think.blogspot.com/2018/04/Zhao-at-GitHub.html?comment=1524671692761#1524671692761
See also: <<programthink>>
To check China only takedowns such as this, we cannot use 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.
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>>.
==== Most Chinese people don't care about the minorities
How can you be that certain that your children won't have dissident ideas and be punished unfairly for them?
Intolerance is a risky way to live. Everyone is part of one minority in one way. If all minorities were oppressed, everyone would be oppressed.
Dictatorships crush minorities much more than democracies.
Do think the majority of the Chinese people would vote to put 50 year old <<falun-gong>> meditating 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.
Minorities are put in jail because the CCP fears them. Dictatorships can only survive if there is zero difference in opinion in the population.
=== 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.
In democracies, radical policy changes happen without dropping a single drop of blood. People vote, and policies change, end of story.
But isn't it better to be annoyed than having <<war,war>>, <<richer,being poor>> or <<xinjiang,put into jail unfairly>>?
If the truth is too much for you to bear, worry not, you can use either:
* 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>>,
[[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.
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.
. 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.
* 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 and this repository are completely biased against the Chinese Government!
That being said, Ciro take the agenda of information sources very seriously.
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.
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
[[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.
The family tree that Ciro has reconstructed orally is: TODO
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>>.
[[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 :-)
If you are so fine, why are you reading this at all? Go back to being fine.
See also:
* <<why-end-dictatorship>>
* <<preconceived>>
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>>.
No democracy in our Reich!
Any democracy in our country is doomed to end up with one thing: the dictatorship of small shopkeepers.
The more freedom we have, the sooner we want to be controlled by SS troops again.
And then we want our the secret police back, and concentration death camps again, and the universal fear everywhere! Only then we feel calm and secure.
No need to prove your point of view in defending the fate of the home land.
No responsibility.
Just raise your hand in the honor of him, who will take care of everything for you,
Just shout out "Hail Hitler!" and everything will become understandable.
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>>.
===== 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:
* 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.
Ciro Santilli
committed
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.
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.
I have never and will never criticize China or any other country for spying or prosecuting spies.
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.
Ultimately, I think camera surveillance is somewhat inevitable, because people will always want to fight crime and terrorism and surveillance technology keeps getting cheaper and cheaper.
I am however strictly against the ban of cryptography.
I also believe that a good solution to balance out government power is the second amendment. I'd rather have more school shootings and less full blown dictatorship led genocides / mass human rights violations.
In 2019 China amusingly censored passages Snowden's "Permanent Record" autobiography book, which Snowden then published on Twitter: https://twitter.com/snowden/status/1194092273170038784 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191112083232/https://twitter.com/snowden/status/1194092273170038784[archive]) | https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dv5q8o/china_censors_edward_snowdens_new_book_he/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20191112083147/https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dv5q8o/china_censors_edward_snowdens_new_book_he/[archive]). As a https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dv5q8o/china_censors_edward_snowdens_new_book_he/f7axckl/[Redditor put it]:
____
I don’t think they understand that what Snowden stands for is completely the opposite of what the Chinese gov is lol
____
===== 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.
===== Bad things have been done in the name of freedom
E.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks[September 11th].
Bad things have been done in the name of anything.
It's just that <<war,much>>, <<xinjiang,worse>> <<tiananmen,things>> are done without freedom than with it.
Democracies cannot necessarily protect weak countries from powerful ones either. No political system can do that, because humans are trash essentially.
What democracy do is to protect its own people against its own government. Because when the government turns against part of the population in a dictatorship, that part of the population gets crushed entirely, without any chance to fight, because they don't have an army or ally countries like other countries do.
Here are some images that wumao's like to post:
* Left Right Slaughterhouse comic: 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
=== 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>>.
==== 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]]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping
[[chrysanthemium-xi-jinping]]
====== Chrysanthemium Xi Jinping 菊花习近平
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
* 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]
[[winnie-the-pooh]]
====== Comparisons between Xi Jinping and Winnie-the-Pooh 小熊維尼
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]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward
.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].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20200131210244/https://live.staticflickr.com/4135/4754681204_1784cd9f89_w.jpg[height=400]
[[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
[[nazi]]
=== Comparisons between the CCP and Nazi Germany
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]
.Photoshopped <<xi-jinping>> with raised fist with Nazi uniform and flag on the background. https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/cuf3p7/chinazi_xitler/[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20191013080128if_/https://i.redd.it/c9q6vdybr7i31.jpg[height=400]
.Likely original or similar image of <<xi-jinping>> with raised fist as he took oath when coming into or renewing office. http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2018-03/19/content_50723040.htm[Source].
image::https://web.archive.org/web/20180319114422im_/http://images.china.cn/site1007/2018-03/19/18f2dcae-19f4-459a-be06-016dd13c5a1d.jpg[height=400]
.German's 1938-1945 war flag called the "War Ensign of Germany" in English or "Reichskriegsflagge" in German. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichskriegsflagge[Source].
image::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/War_Ensign_of_Germany_%281938%E2%80%931945%29.svg/320px-War_Ensign_of_Germany_%281938%E2%80%931945%29.svg.png[height=400]
.Hitler has of course a few raised fists on Google Images, but they tend to be more aggressive, and less compatible with Xi's apathic poker face. http://bodylanguageproject.com/xarticles/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Hitler-4.jpg[Source].
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].
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]
.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.
Obviously, in that case, use simple and standard Chinese. Avoid slangs, otherwise I might not have patience to Google your useless slangs down <<zhihu-ban,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.
===== I want to take my chances and make a shitpost in cirosantilli/china-dictatorship
So, have you reached the conclusion that your https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shitposting[shitpost] is link:CONTRIBUTING.md[worth the risk of getting blocked]?
Remember that shitposts can also be creative: if you are going to insult Ciro Santilli, at least do it in a creative way, or else you look like an even bigger idiot than you really are.
A 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
A collection of shitposts for you to take inspiration from can be found at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/labels/shitpost
Also, when opening a shitpost you may mark it clearly such with the shitpost issue template which automatically assigns the shitpost label. Doing so will make you look like less of an idiot.
While we require polite replies to polite posts, no matter what which side they are defending, if a post is marked as a shitpost, things are much more relaxed and fun, and you can generally get away with telling the OP to fuck themselves link:CONTRIBUTING.md[without getting blocked].
.Real shit photos may be posted in reply to shitposts. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Feces_(cropped).jpg[Source].
image::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Human_Feces_%28cropped%29.jpg/517px-Human_Feces_%28cropped%29.jpg[height=400]
.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]
.The legendary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mud_Horse[Grass Mud Horse 草泥马 (caonima)] is also said to appear in shitposts from time to time.
image::http://web.archive.org/web/20200209012342if_/https://kpopalypse.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/alca.jpg[height=400]
Not as of 2019, he has only visited once in 2012, and it was <<do-you-hate-china,amazingly beautiful>>.
.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?
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=400]
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?
If the dictatorship ends, I would like to <<do-you-hate-china,migrate to China>> if given a decent job to help you develop and become awesomer.
See: https://cirosantilli.com/#ciro-santilli
But <<why-does-ciro-santilli-love-china-so-much,his wife is>>.
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.
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.
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].
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 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.
He hasn't tried to learn characters, too much effort, but he did learn the most common ones without trying.
Ciro really wishes he could learn more, but he has other more important endeavours at the moment :-(
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.
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.
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++!
.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
I then continued because I hate political <<censorship,censorship>>, and because <<do-you-hate-china,I love China>>.
===== Ciro Santilli's post when his mother-in-law was put into jail
My girlfriend's mother, a 63 year old lady, was kept 15 days inside a Chinese "correctional facility" because she does Falun Gong.
She had to stay all the time in a small room with a bed and a toilet, under video surveillance, being fed three meager meals a day.
I see Falun Gong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong as just another 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.
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 when something like that happens to your own family, and there is nothing you can do about it?
Translation by <<why-does-ciro-santilli-love-china-so-much,my wife>>:
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？