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China's growing threat to academic freedom

japantimes.co.jp

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Re: China's growing threat to academic freedom

#51

Post by dtwest »

pasabagi wrote: post #49
dtwest wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is interesting. I wish there were more data points, they only show opinion in France in 1945, 1994 and 2004. The USSR may have saved Europe from Germany, but the USA saved Western Europe from the USSR. The French in 1945 were likely aware of this.

The French in 1945 voted the communists into power - so I'm not sure they generally had the same views on the USSR as modern people do.

That is true. That said, the French Communist Party and Stalin aren't exactly the same thing.

Re: China's growing threat to academic freedom

#52

Post by Craighead »

magduf wrote: post #21
rdlecler1 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a growing threat when that reach starts extending outside their boarders.

Sure, but that isn't happening here. According to the title, the guy was in China, and got arrested there. It shouldn't be any surprise that if you enter an oppressive nation with material they've banned, you'll be subject to arrest.

Weird victim shaming but ok

Re: China's growing threat to academic freedom

#53

Post by woodandsteel »

Lot of discussion here, but no one is really defending the Chinese government's actions and its general policies on academic freedom. That's because they are basically indefensible.

You know, the Chinese government tells us that its people are strongly united behind it, except for a few dissidents. But its actions are those of a government that is scared to death much of its population opposes it, or at least supports it very weakly.

Re: China's growing threat to academic freedom

#54

Post by _ptgt »

bgee wrote: post #41
kevinwang wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would they want to leave that out

Perhaps because my history book was a textbook first, the CCP touches were extra. Not the other way around.

I would fairly shocked if the CCP didn’t issue guidelines for history textbooks in addition to a post-publication review for approval.

Re: China's growing threat to academic freedom

#56

Post by drty6j54s »

prewett wrote: post #23
magduf wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but that isn't happening here. According to the title, the guy was in China, and got arrested there. It shouldn't be any surprise that if you enter an oppressive nation with material they've banned, you'll be subject to arrest.

If you progress farther than the title, you may discover that the official banned book was legally purchased by the professor at a Chinese book store. I think most of use from non-totalitarian states would be a rather surprised if that happened to us. The article goes on the suggest that the police thought he fit the profile of someone doing bad stuff, and made up a charge that fit the criminal persona they’d pegged…

...And? The person you're responding to is right, none of this is surprising to hear about happening in China. When you throw people into concentration camps pursuing cultural genocide you lose a lot of credibility as far as what people expect from your police.

Re: China's growing threat to academic freedom

#57

Post by gddvhy »

zn0rkel wrote: post #2

nazi germany in 21st century, can’t wait for new wolfenstein

CCP is more like USSR v2: patched and improved. Still based on the same ideas and IIRC, Mao was inspired by Lenin. The gov control is also based on fear and cruelty. If this analogy is correct, it may be interesting to recall what crushed USSR: it was McDonalds. That's right. People were upset that on the west life is so obviously better, so they collectively and subconsciously sabotaged the gov. Offer the key people in CCP a better life and safety and they will happily dump Xi.

Re: China's growing threat to academic freedom

#58

Post by pbhjpbhj »

prewett wrote: post #23
magduf wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but that isn't happening here. According to the title, the guy was in China, and got arrested there. It shouldn't be any surprise that if you enter an oppressive nation with material they've banned, you'll be subject to arrest.

If you progress farther than the title, you may discover that the official banned book was legally purchased by the professor at a Chinese book store. I think most of use from non-totalitarian states would be a rather surprised if that happened to us. The article goes on the suggest that the police thought he fit the profile of someone doing bad stuff, and made up a charge that fit the criminal persona they’d pegged…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=anarchist+cookbook

You can buy anarchist cookbook and have it delivered in UK, apparently.

2017 a young man was arrested, and tried, for having a copy.

Is the UK a totalitarian state in your opinion?

Re: China's growing threat to academic freedom

#59

Post by PavlovsCat »

woodandsteel wrote: post #53

Lot of discussion here, but no one is really defending the Chinese government's actions and its general policies on academic freedom. That's because they are basically indefensible. You know, the Chinese government tells us that its people are strongly united behind it, except for a few dissidents. But its actions are those of a government that is scared to death much of its population opposes it, or at least support…

> What does censorship reveal? It reveals fear.

-- Julian Assange

Here, there, anywhere...they're afraid of mere words. This they show us.

Re: China's growing threat to academic freedom

#60

Post by PavlovsCat »

dang wrote: post #50
kd3 wrote: post #16

This is disgusting. I felt sick just reading the headline. What an absolutely disgusting country.

Obviously you can't post like this to HN, regardless of how strongly you feel about any country. We've banned this account for repeatedly breaking the site guidelines and ignoring our requests to stop. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html if you wa…

    and Orwell's hell
    a terror era coming through
    but this little brother
    is watching you too
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