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Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

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Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need. Shenzhen is probably the most VPN'ed city in China. Most of companies/universities have VPN connection(like the one i am using now...)

I was reading on Hacker News several years ago that the Chinese government was slowly winning the war on the VPNs. What's the story lately?

While it's purely anecdotical, in my experience vpns are blocked differently depending on where you are. It seems that vpns always work better in Shenzhen...

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#82
The reality is that mainlanders want prosperity and stability over democracy. Unless protesters could prove there is a better way to bring prosperity, the propaganda efforts would be futile. It is not 1980s any more.

VPN would not help. I learnt about what happened to Tiananmen Square, but I also learnt there is CIA agents behind a lot of these incidences. Real world is complicated. Politics is pragmatic.

I do hope different countries could put their trifles aside and focus on the big picture as a specie. But it will be a long way. Too much pride, too much at stake. Power struggle is too deep in our genes.

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#83
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Hong Kong's protesters use AirDrop" seems a drastic redaction. It would be helpful to know _what_ they're using AirDrop for. How about "Hong Kong's protesters use AirDrop to spread their message to Mainland tourists"? "Hong Kong's protesters use AirDrop to inform tourists why they protest"?

Ok, we've added an extra phrase from the main text that conveys this.

Thanks, appreciate you taking the time! :)

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#85

The reality is that mainlanders want prosperity and stability over democracy. Unless protesters could prove there is a better way to bring prosperity, the propaganda efforts would be futile. It is not 1980s any more. VPN would not help. I learnt about what happened to Tiananmen Square, but I also learnt there is CIA agents behind a lot of these incidences. Real world is complicated. Politics is pragmatic. I do hope d…

[deleted]

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#86

The reality is that mainlanders want prosperity and stability over democracy. Unless protesters could prove there is a better way to bring prosperity, the propaganda efforts would be futile. It is not 1980s any more. VPN would not help. I learnt about what happened to Tiananmen Square, but I also learnt there is CIA agents behind a lot of these incidences. Real world is complicated. Politics is pragmatic. I do hope d…

Would millions of minority citizens interned in "re-education" camps count as "trifles" in your estimation? Because a lot of people internationally are not fans of that, and it's hardly a matter of pride or power struggle. It's an authoritarian government mistreating its citizens without due cause. That's exactly what HK people are trying to prevent happening to them...

The old guard, many immigrated from the mainland, strive to one day democratize China. Hong Kong's youngsters say "screw that, let them keep their dictatorship, we just want to be left alone with the freedoms we've got"

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#87
post #66

I see several people discussing VPNs in the comments, but I'm surprised no one is mentioning Tor. Is Tor identified and blocked reliably by the great firewall, even with bridges? (The Tor UI claims meek-azure works in China, is this not accurate?)

Tor is identified and blocked reliably, whether using bridges, relays, or anything else.

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#88
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it actually work from China? Their VPN blocking has gotten really good lately.

Essentially no. As yorwba points out in a sibling post the GFW is wise to the protocols being used. Algo doesn't work either. Or more accurately they don't work for long. The GFW slowly degrades the connection over the course of some minutes, making it unusable after a while. This then resets every day or so. After a series of days or weeks the IP address associated with the server is completely blocked. The situatio…

How about a SSH tunnel (e.g. using sshuttle) on a server you have access to?

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#89
post #34

I think they're all valid points worth debating but wrt this article's framing, the contents of the AirDrop don't seem to have anything to do with the Hong Kong protests. Infant milk powder, train ticket score etc could just as well be in random Falun Gong pamphlets you get in Chinatowns abroad. At this point, I'm not even sure the protest (communist black helicopters will come pick you up to CCP black sites where yo…

> At this point, I'm not even sure the protest (communist black helicopters will come pick you up to CCP black sites where you'll get waterboarded for criticizing China) has anything to with the thing being protested (extradition for crimes punishable under HK laws with 7+ years in prison (which criticizing China hopefully is not)), but that's a different story.

Two points on this..

1) Hong Kong citizens have been kidnapped from Hong Kong to the mainland by the Chinese government, for working in a bookstore selling anti-mainland literature. This isn't some theoretical exercise, it's as real as it gets. The extradition law would to some extent legitimize the illegal breach of the two-systems policy.

2) Once in force, the HK gov could easily ram through the anti-sedition bill they've got in waiting or similar "national security" legislation, leaving people vulnerable to being extradited for speaking against the mainland. Second, Beijing is famous for revealing dissidents' "crimes" (real or often fake) committed on the mainland and demanding they be extradited there.

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#90

The reality is that mainlanders want prosperity and stability over democracy. Unless protesters could prove there is a better way to bring prosperity, the propaganda efforts would be futile. It is not 1980s any more. VPN would not help. I learnt about what happened to Tiananmen Square, but I also learnt there is CIA agents behind a lot of these incidences. Real world is complicated. Politics is pragmatic. I do hope d…

The CIA definitely was not behind Tiananmen square and there is no way it could be behind a two million person strong protest...

Conspiracy theory is one of the strongest forms of propaganda. Alex Jones is dumb but effective. It’s a slippery slope before you start blaming the Jews for everything.

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