China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media • Hacker News Board

Re: China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media

#31

Post by chongli » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:28 PM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #24

chongli wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The monarchies of old changed hands and flipped over due to war (civil and otherwise) so often that they're not really comparable to a modern state dictatorship. Tons of monarchs had extremely short reigns, far less stable than the Chinese Communist party.

In that case, is it really valid to count those monarchs as different governments and not continuations of the same system?

Yes. It's completely valid, since their borders, their laws, and the identities of the people were constantly in flux. Nothing at all like the continuity of modern nation states through successive governments.

Re: China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media

#32

Post by dontbenebby » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:29 PM UTC

spectramax wrote: post #20

Powerful ad. My gut feeling is that there will be a day in the future where everything in China is going to boil-over just like any other totalitarian regimes in the past. It could be 20 years from now when Xi dies or some type of student uprising again, or could be from the HK/Taiwan situation. The behavior of the Chinese government and as they call it "the hand of Beijing" has a self-propelling streisand effect, th…

>My gut feeling is that there will be a day in the future where everything in China is going to boil-over just like any other totalitarian regimes in the past.

Isn't that what happened in the referenced photo? And the regime murdered the protesters and put in place a draconian censorship system to avoid it happening again.

Re: China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media

#33

Post by mbroncano » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:30 PM UTC

Squarex wrote: post #8

Does anyone have the mentioned video?

https://youtu.be/dQpKcw-n330

Re: China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media

#34

Post by tjalfi » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:30 PM UTC

devoply wrote: post #3

Would it not be better for these idiots to simply apologize for Tienanmen Square and promise not to do it again? And also stop all their asshole human right violations?

Absolute power doesn't mean that you can act with impunity. Xi must retain the support of the heads of the army, secret police, and such or he will be replaced. The Dictator's Handbook[0] discusses this topic in detail. The Rules for Rulers[1] is an 18 minute video that summarizes some of the principles of the book.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dictator%27s_Handbook

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs

edited to add video title to second link

Re: China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media

#35

Post by paulsutter » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:33 PM UTC

spectramax wrote: post #20

Powerful ad. My gut feeling is that there will be a day in the future where everything in China is going to boil-over just like any other totalitarian regimes in the past. It could be 20 years from now when Xi dies or some type of student uprising again, or could be from the HK/Taiwan situation. The behavior of the Chinese government and as they call it "the hand of Beijing" has a self-propelling streisand effect, th…

It’s tempting to think we have x-ray vision into the true narrative of world events, but isn’t that a little naive?

Re: China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media

#36

Post by devoply » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:33 PM UTC

tjalfi wrote: post #34

devoply wrote: post #3

Would it not be better for these idiots to simply apologize for Tienanmen Square and promise not to do it again? And also stop all their asshole human right violations?

Absolute power doesn't mean that you can act with impunity. Xi must retain the support of the heads of the army, secret police, and such or he will be replaced. The Dictator's Handbook[0] discusses this topic in detail. The Rules for Rulers[1] is an 18 minute video that summarizes some of the principles of the book. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dictator%27s_Handbook [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7n…

Winnie the Pooh changed all sorts of things for the worse that his predecessor had made progress on. He's an idiot. He should be replaced by someone more wise.

Re: China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media

#37

Post by ralph84 » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:33 PM UTC

spectramax wrote: post #25

anbop wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The official position is “don’t talk about that.”

That's exactly why the rest of the world needs to speak up.

To what end? It was 30 years ago. The Eight Elders are all dead. You really think a bunch of westerners tutting at China about lowlights in their history will do anything other than galvanize Chinese nationalism?

Re: China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media

#38

Post by HNthrow22 » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:34 PM UTC

Why are discussions surrounding Chinese Politics permitted but no other political discussions? Seems like a double standard. Just quickly looking at the removals here's a 4 hour old Mueller report thread instantly removed - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19712217.

Re: China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media

#39

Post by _0w8t » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:34 PM UTC

spectramax wrote: post #20

Powerful ad. My gut feeling is that there will be a day in the future where everything in China is going to boil-over just like any other totalitarian regimes in the past. It could be 20 years from now when Xi dies or some type of student uprising again, or could be from the HK/Taiwan situation. The behavior of the Chinese government and as they call it "the hand of Beijing" has a self-propelling streisand effect, th…

Totalitarian regime in North Korea seems pretty stable after 70 years. Ancient Egypt was extremely totalitarian regime yet its worst period lasted centuries.

Re: China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media

#40

Post by apo » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:38 PM UTC

The Chinese are innovating totalitarianism faster than any other country. Take this, for example:

> ... When undergraduate students at Peking University, which was at the center of the incident, were shown copies of the iconic photograph [of Tank Man] 16 years afterwards, they were "genuinely mystified." One of the students said that the image was "artwork." It is noted in the documentary Frontline: The Tank Man that he whispered to the student next to him "89," which led the interviewer to surmise that the student may have concealed his knowledge of the event.

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

The fact that Leica, a foreign company, is now apologizing about the ad (and has deleted it from their YouTube account) shows just how effective the Chinese government has become at their trade. From the article:

> “Leica Camera AG must, therefore, distance itself from the content shown in the video and regrets any misunderstandings or false conclusions that may have been drawn,” Emily Anderson, a spokesperson for Leica, told SCMP.