41–50 of 66 posts
What about using Windows 10 then which comes with a built-in VPN client? (A genuine concern of mine, we're building an embedded product based on Win 10 IoT and using its PPTP VPN for remote diagnostics.)
The man was charged with "violat[ing] state regulations and intrud[ing] into computer systems with information concerning state affairs, construction of defense facilities, and sophisticated science and technology." It's bizarre interpretations of the law like this, that don't even fit the "crime", that show that the underlying reason was to send a message instead of actually performing a legitimate arrest.
I remember seeing a documentary about China where a reporter interviewed a judge. When asked about the conflict between the law and the communist party, she said matter-of-factly, as if it were unthinkable for it to be any way else, that the party always comes first and the law second, because she is a judge appointed by the party and so she has to do what the party tells her. It was just so straight-forward; you're…
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I remember seeing a documentary about China where a reporter interviewed a judge. When asked about the conflict between the law and the communist party, she said matter-of-factly, as if it were unthinkable for it to be any way else, that the party always comes first and the law second, because she is a judge appointed by the party and so she has to do what the party tells her. It was just so straight-forward; you're…
Wow. Doc name please?
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Wow. Doc name please?
A family member is a policeman in China and this is the way it is. I won't offer proof, for reasons I hope are obvious.
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GP was describing more than just selective enforcement. And while that may happen elsewhere, it's particularly bad in China relative to their level of development and size. At what point do we stop drooling over the market size and advocate for dignity and rights for 18% of the world's population? Not to mention the danger authoritarian regimes pose just by existing. An apparatus that powerful that could be structura…
The 18%, Chinese people, do not want outsider's input on their governmental structure. On the whole (edit: "on the whole" means "most people"), they are perfectly happy with the way things are going. Standards of living increase year-over-year every single year. Until that stops, they don't want a thing to change. Now if that stops for a decade or so, maybe it will change. But that's unlikely to happen. So, it's futi…
The people I know in China are perfectly well aware of how corrupt, oppressive, arbitrary and immoral their government is. They simply believe there is nothing they can do about it. It affects everybody. For example recently in my wife's home town all holiday for all policemen for the rest of the year was cancelled with no compensation. If officials want to do something, they just do it.
Just because people can't protest about it doesn't mean they like it. They know other countries have free press and democracy, a real say and voice in society, and of course most of them want that. What kind of person wants less say and fewer basic freedoms, especially when they can see plenty of very prosperous and safe countries that have them? They just can't see any practical way to get it.
It's iffy for Chinese nationals to run VPN services. But then, it's similarly iffy for American nationals to run other sorts of services. Such as online gambling. Or money transfer businesses that don't respect KYC regulations. That's just how it is. Each country gets to choose its policies. I mean, that's one of the fundamental points of being a country, isn't it?
> That's just how it is. Each country gets to choose its policies. I mean, that's the fundamental point of being a country, isn't it? Yes, but that’s not what’s happening in China. The fundamental point of being a country is to serve the common good, and to protect the life and liberty of your citizens. In China the ruling party doesn’t care about any of those things. A policy such as this would be a lot less horribl…
China values the first more than the other two and so if it has to choose those will be compromised on. America used to value liberty over the common good, but that is slowly turning.
Can be as cheap as 3€/month. You can even put OpenVPN on top of that (SOCKS) if you need to use your company network.
I have an impression Beijing doesn't care so much about restricting IP blocks of small hosting companies from the region. It'd probably change if millions of people went this road.
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As if the CCP's "miracle" of economic development hasn't already been done in South Korea, Taiwan, etc. without the authoritarians who also brought the wonders that are The Great Leap Forward and The Cultural Revolution. Or as if India isn't already basically replicating the same feat with a democracy, but 10 years delayed. It isn't a "Western view" to understand that governments that respect human rights generally l…
Do you really think that China is capable of an easy and bloodless transition to a democratic system? Perhaps Chinese people know better than anyone just how violent revolution can be.
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> Standards of living increase year-over-year every single year I lived in China for a few years, and finally left early this year. Standard of living has been declining ever since I arrived, for me and for my local friends, many of them that were from other provinces that came to Shanghai. The declining factors included: 1.) Increasingly worse air pollution. It was not smart to exercise outdoors in the summer or win…
I'm not saying it doesn't suck for westerners. What I am saying is that from my view, which is of course constrained by all kinds of limits, my best guess hypotheses that I am putting 100% of my money on in the form of all my investments, is that it doesn't yet suck for the vast majority of Chinese in their own minds. Like a drum roll, we've been forced to give 10-20% wage increases every single year to keep my talen…
Everyone is as complaining about inflation. Inflation has gone crazy for over a decade, but since I first went there average wages in China have gone up by about 8x. The thing is they can't have high wages without High inflation. If wages go up then the workers in the factory making stuff get paid more, the truck driver that takes the goods to the shop is paid more, the shop assistants get paid more, the shop owner pays more rent. Therefore they have to charge more for their goods. But this is not a bad thing.
Meanwhile the exchange rate has made foreign goods twice as expensive. But if wages are up 8x then those foreign goods are actualy 4x more affordable. Hence all the foreign cars. It's all just the Chinese economy converging on global norms. When I first went, cars were an impossible luxury for most Chinese and in my wife's city the streets were bare except for taxis, busses and bicycles. Now there are traffic jams everywhere.
The problem is China has already almost reached international norms. The disparity that has allowed it to grow so fast is almost equalised. Factory wages are increasing because most of the untapped rural labour has been tapped. Within 10 years Chinese will be much better off, but China will have all the same problems every other advanced economy has and its economic miracle will have played out.
EDIT: Wolfram says bigger multiples than I thought. Wow, things change fast.
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> I think where we're likely to agree is that, if popular dissatisfaction does lead to fundamental change, it's not likely to be the dissatisfaction of middle class folks demanding Western-style freedoms. It's much more likely to come from the bottom layers of society, who are fed up with gross inequality and horrible injustice. This is not how revolutions work. Revolutions are always and everywhere the work of frust…
"The Party-State is secure as long as the economy keeps growing." Hmm. Interesting. This implies that the government will do everything in its power to ensure that the economy keeps growing. Would you say that contributes to long term prosperity of its subjects?