Free speech concerns is kind of funny. Wechat is used by China to punish dissenters when they aren’t even in the country.
Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns
71–80 of 401 posts
Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Their usage of wechat is more likely a liability than a benefit. It gives a foreign adversary visibility into their activities in US. How can they become activist or work for change if their government is monitoring everything they say? Do the Hong Kong protest crackdown not scare anyone else? Now they have an excuse. It won’t look suspicious if they communicate to each other on channels that can’t be monitored by th…
Your arguments is the NSA should monitor them, just as it does us?
How did you gather that from their comment?
Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns
#73All sovereign nations reserve the right to regulate foreign goods, vessels, diplomats, currency, and peoples distinctly from their native counterparts. Apps are truly no different.
What a sovereign nation, as an abstract entity, can do, is distinct from what its executive leader can do. The only time they happen to coincide is, by definition, in the case of autocracy.
But in this case, the executive has the authority to ban things based on national security.
And if that power isn't properly applied, the courts will intervene.
What "autocracy" are you referring to?
Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns
#74I have been studying Chinese for 7 years. Many of my Chinese friends live in Los Angeles and WeChat is central in their life... Getting a job, taking orders, doing all kinds of business, paying for things. They don't know the phone numbers of their friends. Many don't speak English or their English is not very good. If it is completely cut off they will still find ways to communicate but arguably it will be more like…
They can do what all expats in China already need to do to access facebook, google, gmail, instagram, twitter, whatsapp, etc: use a vpn.
Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don't think the CCP is as concerned with chinese citizens knowing what they are doing If you ask a random Chinese citizen "are you okay with the government listening in to your phone calls?", most people would say Yes. Having the government listen in and having government presence on the streets makes us feel safe, because most of us trust our government. Sure, it has it's issues, but in general, the government a…
That random Chinese citizen is afraid to say no, and assuming you will report them.
If they are against it, then yes they may likely say no out of fear. But make no mistake, many are for it. Not everyone shares the same values we do in America.
Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns
#76When trying to understand China's commercial policies which America is supposedly retaliating against, consider that China has experienced a different mercantile history to America. America has never been invaded by foreign gunships and forced to allow foreign merchants to import opium to addict its citizens in order to fix their own countries balance of payments problems. Opium Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opi…
I had an interesting conversation with a Lyft driver, they were clearly from China from the knowledge/insights they shared. It was their belief that China's populations are much more densely populated, the family unit remaining - parents living with their children and their parents - because the previous generations didn't have pensions to rely on; another pressure I imagine is that I don't believe health care and ot…
China healthcare funding seems pretty similar to US
Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns
#77When trying to understand China's commercial policies which America is supposedly retaliating against, consider that China has experienced a different mercantile history to America. America has never been invaded by foreign gunships and forced to allow foreign merchants to import opium to addict its citizens in order to fix their own countries balance of payments problems. Opium Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opi…
Americans don't need to try to understand the effects of mercantilism. They were subject to the same draconian economic policies by the British Empire. This is largely what prompted the American Revolution. [0] [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteen_Colonies#Economic_pol...
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Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns
#78All sovereign nations reserve the right to regulate foreign goods, vessels, diplomats, currency, and peoples distinctly from their native counterparts. Apps are truly no different.
What a sovereign nation, as an abstract entity, can do, is distinct from what its executive leader can do. The only time they happen to coincide is, by definition, in the case of autocracy.
I think there is a strong case to be made that WeChat is, as a practical matter, a public minister as defined in Article 2. Therefore, the executive has the right to refuse their presence in the US.
All Chinese companies operate under the direction and control of the CCP; we can arrive at the conclusion that a company is a public minister if companies are people, and they act at the behest of their home government.
https://law.justia.com/constitution/us/article-2/32-the-cond...
Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a sovereign nation, as an abstract entity, can do, is distinct from what its executive leader can do. The only time they happen to coincide is, by definition, in the case of autocracy.
But in this case, the executive has the authority to ban things based on national security. And if that power isn't properly applied, the courts will intervene. What "autocracy" are you referring to?
An executive in conflict with the courts is an unstable government and an autocratic tending executive.
Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns
#80When trying to understand China's commercial policies which America is supposedly retaliating against, consider that China has experienced a different mercantile history to America. America has never been invaded by foreign gunships and forced to allow foreign merchants to import opium to addict its citizens in order to fix their own countries balance of payments problems. Opium Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opi…
I don't think this is a useful argument simply because China and America are so massively different in culture, history, geography, language and demographics that there's no way you can say with any certainty that the opium wars caused any particular change.
China has a long history with isolationism or distrust of foreign powers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haijin