Western news about China depends on intrepid Chinese ‘news assistants’
1–10 of 77 posts
Re: Western news about China depends on intrepid Chinese ‘news assistants’
#2China under Xi Jinping has effectively turned into a dicatatorship, and so with a dictatorship, censorship and blackouts naturally comes along with it. That's the reason why Beijing has recently cracked down on VPN, sent many of the young, brave democratic protestors in Hong Kong to prison, silenced many of its Xi critics, etc.
Will China suffer from the censorship and blackouts? As discussed heavily on HN, probably. Then again, it is most likely that China is already suffering through its own turbulence. Its economy is standing perilously on shadow debt (its going through its own 2007 real estate bubble deflation), while it engages in heavy protectionism - it recently disallowed South Korean companies from moving its assets out of the country, and its citizens, suffering from massive inflation in food and real estate, pollution, dirty water and food, are suffering.
Re: Western news about China depends on intrepid Chinese ‘news assistants’
#3China under Xi Jinping has effectively turned into a dicatatorship, and so with a dictatorship, censorship and blackouts naturally comes along with it. That's the reason why Beijing has recently cracked down on VPN, sent many of the young, brave democratic protestors in Hong Kong to prison, silenced many of its Xi critics, etc. Will China suffer from the censorship and blackouts? As discussed heavily on HN, probably.…
> China under Xi Jinping has effectively turned into a dicatatorship
How was it not one before Xi Jinping?
Re: Western news about China depends on intrepid Chinese ‘news assistants’
#4China under Xi Jinping has effectively turned into a dicatatorship, and so with a dictatorship, censorship and blackouts naturally comes along with it. That's the reason why Beijing has recently cracked down on VPN, sent many of the young, brave democratic protestors in Hong Kong to prison, silenced many of its Xi critics, etc. Will China suffer from the censorship and blackouts? As discussed heavily on HN, probably.…
> sent many of the young, brave democratic protestors in Hong Kong to prison, silenced many of its Xi critics, etc.
The crackdown on black people and BLM is very similar, but a lot more violent.
Re: Western news about China depends on intrepid Chinese ‘news assistants’
#5From my perspective, it looked like China will overtake the world and maybe prove that democracy is optional for economic prosperity, a blow to Western values and ideal.
But how true is that? I hear a lot about corruption and crackdown, and wonder how much does that impact their economy.
How critical is good information about the world? Do Western Media do a good job of it, or at least a better one than those in less democratic societies?
Re: Western news about China depends on intrepid Chinese ‘news assistants’
#6China under Xi Jinping has effectively turned into a dicatatorship, and so with a dictatorship, censorship and blackouts naturally comes along with it. That's the reason why Beijing has recently cracked down on VPN, sent many of the young, brave democratic protestors in Hong Kong to prison, silenced many of its Xi critics, etc. Will China suffer from the censorship and blackouts? As discussed heavily on HN, probably.…
> China under Xi Jinping has effectively turned into a dicatatorship How was it not one before Xi Jinping?
Previously it was a sort of vaguely Maoist gerontocracy; power was concentrated in some central committees, not just the premier.
Re: Western news about China depends on intrepid Chinese ‘news assistants’
#7China under Xi Jinping has effectively turned into a dicatatorship, and so with a dictatorship, censorship and blackouts naturally comes along with it. That's the reason why Beijing has recently cracked down on VPN, sent many of the young, brave democratic protestors in Hong Kong to prison, silenced many of its Xi critics, etc. Will China suffer from the censorship and blackouts? As discussed heavily on HN, probably.…
> sent many of the young, brave democratic protestors in Hong Kong to prison, silenced many of its Xi critics, etc. The crackdown on black people and BLM is very similar, but a lot more violent.
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Re: Western news about China depends on intrepid Chinese ‘news assistants’
#8From my perspective, it looked like China will overtake the world and maybe prove that democracy is optional for economic prosperity, a blow to Western values and ideal. But how true is that? I hear a lot about corruption and crackdown, and wonder how much does that impact their economy. How critical is good information about the world? Do Western Media do a good job of it, or at least a better one than those in less…
> maybe prove that democracy is optional for economic prosperity
That was never in question. It's been known since at least Tocqueville and certainly long before that.
"I admit that, in a democratic State thus constituted, society will not be stationary; but the impulses of the social body may be regulated and directed forwards; if there be less splendor than in the halls of an aristocracy, the contrast of misery will be less frequent also; the pleasures of enjoyment may be less excessive, but those of comfort will be more general; the sciences may be less perfectly cultivated, but ignorance will be less common; the impetuosity of the feelings will be repressed, and the habits of the nation softened; there will be more vices and fewer crimes. In the absence of enthusiasm and of an ardent faith, great sacrifices may be obtained from the members of a commonwealth by an appeal to their understandings and their experience; each individual will feel the same necessity for uniting with his fellow-citizens to protect his own weakness; and as he knows that if they are to assist he must co-operate, he will readily perceive that his personal interest is identified with the interest of the community. The nation, taken as a whole, will be less brilliant, less glorious, and perhaps less strong; but the majority of the citizens will enjoy a greater degree of prosperity, and the people will remain quiet, not because it despairs of amelioration, but because it is conscious of the advantages of its condition. If all the consequences of this state of things were not good or useful, society would at least have appropriated all such as were useful and good; and having once and for ever renounced the social advantages of aristocracy, mankind would enter into possession of all the benefits which democracy can afford."
Re: Western news about China depends on intrepid Chinese ‘news assistants’
#9From my perspective, it looked like China will overtake the world and maybe prove that democracy is optional for economic prosperity, a blow to Western values and ideal. But how true is that? I hear a lot about corruption and crackdown, and wonder how much does that impact their economy. How critical is good information about the world? Do Western Media do a good job of it, or at least a better one than those in less…
They might take over the world (I think it's unlikely), but in my opinion, the main reason isn't their political system: it's human capital (1/7 of the world population) and homogeneity (very cohesive culture due to China's history). Western countries lack the former, India and others lack the latter.
Re: Western news about China depends on intrepid Chinese ‘news assistants’
#10China under Xi Jinping has effectively turned into a dicatatorship, and so with a dictatorship, censorship and blackouts naturally comes along with it. That's the reason why Beijing has recently cracked down on VPN, sent many of the young, brave democratic protestors in Hong Kong to prison, silenced many of its Xi critics, etc. Will China suffer from the censorship and blackouts? As discussed heavily on HN, probably.…
> sent many of the young, brave democratic protestors in Hong Kong to prison, silenced many of its Xi critics, etc. The crackdown on black people and BLM is very similar, but a lot more violent.
This is what you can't say in America - that the "democracy" is not so democratic.