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Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

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Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#151

Post by frik »

Hondor wrote: post #68

In older news - entire Google Play store removed from Android phones in China. Google cooperates by preventing its play store app being sideloaded and disallowing app downloads from its website to a computer or phone without the play store app.

Google Playstore is blocked, as well as all other Google domains. Your Android phone feels like a useless brick - you cannot even connect to a WiFi, as it tries to connect to a Google domain to check if it should show up a input WiFi password page served from 1.1.1.1 (iOS does the sae, but Apple.com works fine). Anyway, iOS works fine, as do Android without Google services preloaded. Bing.com is available, but Baidu is way better.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#152

Post by PakG1 »

anigbrowl wrote: post #79
schoen wrote: post #61

Something that might be comparably shocking is the extent to which Chinese investors and government representatives influence the content of Hollywood movies that depict or refer to China. There were some news reports about this in the last couple of years; I sat next to a Hollywood studio executive on a flight last month and (rather than arguing about copyright policy) commiserated about this issue. He confirmed tha…

That third link is fascinating - not just for he insights into how Chinese censors indirectly guide producers, but also for the lack of ironic detachment and self-awareness shown by the American analysts, eg Red Dawn, a remake of a 1980s action movie about a Soviet invasion of the United States, was originally shot featuring China as the antagonist invading the United States. According to Mr. Shiao, however, the Chin…

A 'Captain Phillips' executive identified the tone of the film as a source of discomfort for censors, particularly “the big Military machine of the U.S. saving one U.S. citizen. China would never do the same and in no way would want to promote this idea.”

I was watching Argo on my Chinese IPTV streaming service in Shenzhen with my Chinese roommate and my roommate was blown away by the idea that the movie was based on a true story. He said that the Chinese government would never take such extreme steps to rescue its citizens from any such situation. I never really thought about his comment and his shock (it was a lot of shock) until reading this just now. Wow, interesting.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#153

Post by seanmcdirmid »

nradov wrote: post #148
gbog wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American film industry is also a huge propaganda machine which is aimed at consolidating western cultural dominance over the world, expect it's not western culture anymore, it's just the U.S. Entertainment industry. In the movie and cartoon sectors only the Indians, the French and the Japanese can have a tiny slice of the cake, the Chinese have nothing. So it's the only survival path for them as an original form…

Nonsense. Since around 1970 the American film industry isn't aimed at anything more than making a profit (with an occasional bit of art for art's sake). Any propaganda effect is entirely incidental.

The film industry has been oriented at making a profit since the late 1800s.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#154

Post by rodgerd »

throwaway122916 wrote: post #97
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except a movie could be totally subversive of the American government (the CIA or military is the bad guy, a national/state/local government is corrupt, etc...) and the movie could still go into wide production and make millions of dollars. Heck, it even is super easy to find examples of that (you want to know the truth? You can't handle the truth!). Now try doing that in China. Make the PLA the enemy or portray a co…

There are a lot of US movies that go the other way - praising the US military/portraying conflicts in good vs evil way. Example is Battle Los Angeles (2011) and American Sniper (2015). So such things are in effect "soft propaganda". In China, to protect themselves against such soft influence, they enact regulations. Letting people watch all US movies without a filter is effectively letting US set the cultural standar…

Those are mild examples compared to the trend that started with, IIRC, Top Gun, where the US millitary trades use of millitary assets as props in return for the "right" spin being put on the movie.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#155

Post by olalonde »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #132
olalonde wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "China bashing" is simply a euphemism for being critical on china I understand it as being overly or gratuitously critical of China but of course, it's hard to define objectively. Personally, I feel like most American media is biased against China but I hold a relatively positive view of China.

Try living in china for a few years, once the honey moon is over :). Dealing with the air pollution, GFW, hideous traffic, and currency controls will wear a guy down.

I lived there for 6 years and my wife is from Guangxi. Of course China isn't perfect but it isn't as bad as most Western media depict it to be. For one, it isn't a dictatorship as most people in the West seem to think it is. I certainly don't support the censorship but I quite like their foreign policy for example.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#156

Post by int_19h »

throwaway122916 wrote: post #97
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except a movie could be totally subversive of the American government (the CIA or military is the bad guy, a national/state/local government is corrupt, etc...) and the movie could still go into wide production and make millions of dollars. Heck, it even is super easy to find examples of that (you want to know the truth? You can't handle the truth!). Now try doing that in China. Make the PLA the enemy or portray a co…

There are a lot of US movies that go the other way - praising the US military/portraying conflicts in good vs evil way. Example is Battle Los Angeles (2011) and American Sniper (2015). So such things are in effect "soft propaganda". In China, to protect themselves against such soft influence, they enact regulations. Letting people watch all US movies without a filter is effectively letting US set the cultural standar…

> Letting people watch all US movies without a filter is effectively letting US set the cultural standards and values.

No, it's letting the people set the cultural standards and values, by deciding what to watch and what not to watch.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#157

Post by int_19h »

eternalban wrote: post #53
hackuser wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your demonstration is one incident. Just look at the NY Times homepage daily; you will find continual challenges to those in authority in the U.S. Perhaps they should do more or differently, but they certainly do it. And regardless, my main point was they challenge U.S. authority more than Chinese authority, which also seems hard to debate if you look at their website.

> Your demonstration is one incident. Are you telling me that if the equivalent of /The Patriot Act/ was created in China, or Russia, or take-your-pick-enemy-dujour, and passed unread by the legislature of that nation The New York Times would not skewer them in print and run multipage spreads in the Sunday Magazine detailing every questionable aspect? Remind me: How did The New York Times cover that event.

> Are you telling me that if the equivalent of /The Patriot Act/ was created in China, or Russia, or take-your-pick-enemy-dujour, and passed unread by the legislature of that nation The New York Times would not skewer them in print and run multipage spreads in the Sunday Magazine detailing every questionable aspect?

We can try to find out. Did NYT ever run a single page on SORM-2 in Russia?

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#158

Post by sangnoir »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #128
gbog wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American film industry is also a huge propaganda machine which is aimed at consolidating western cultural dominance over the world, expect it's not western culture anymore, it's just the U.S. Entertainment industry. In the movie and cartoon sectors only the Indians, the French and the Japanese can have a tiny slice of the cake, the Chinese have nothing. So it's the only survival path for them as an original form…

China does not make films that American consumers would want to consume. The best Chinese movies last year were mermaid and monster hunt...I saw both (bored on an air china flight), they were both absolutely awful. There was a time in the late 90s when the golden Beijing Institute of Film class (the first one after the cultural revolution) was producing wonderful art house films that DID get viewership abroad. Sadly,…

> China does not make films that American consumers would want to consume

This is empirically false: Crouching Tiger, Ip Man 1-3 were all well-received[1] in the US. I could add anything by Jackie Chan (and for a while Jet Li), but not all if them were Chinese productions.

1. The first had some overt propaganda in the form of a sadistic but inept Japanese occupying officer.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#159

Post by chipperyman573 »

Hondor wrote: post #68

In older news - entire Google Play store removed from Android phones in China. Google cooperates by preventing its play store app being sideloaded and disallowing app downloads from its website to a computer or phone without the play store app.

Why would google cooperate server side? I see no point in blocking Chinese connections if google isn't allowed to operate in China anyway.

Re: Apple Removes New York Times Apps from iTunes Store in China

#160

Post by gambiting »

schoen wrote: post #61

Something that might be comparably shocking is the extent to which Chinese investors and government representatives influence the content of Hollywood movies that depict or refer to China. There were some news reports about this in the last couple of years; I sat next to a Hollywood studio executive on a flight last month and (rather than arguing about copyright policy) commiserated about this issue. He confirmed tha…

I work in the games industry and we had to remove "Taiwan" as a country option if we wanted to release our game in China. There's a lot of push if you want to release anything on the market there.
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