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Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns

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321–330 of 401 posts

Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns

#321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CCP conquered the Chinese people.

Yes, the previously free Chinese people under.... The Qing Dynasty and the Kuomintang?

You know, it is possible to conquer a people who are already not free under a different regime.

Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns

#322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CCP conquered the Chinese people.

Yes, the previously free Chinese people under.... The Qing Dynasty and the Kuomintang?

Taiwan seemed to sort things out eventually.

Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long is China going to put on the mantle of victimhood over events 160 years in the past?! By that standard surely Korea can complain endlessly about China and Yuan Shikai lording it over their kingdom in the 1880s, and the Czechs can cry over their subjugation for centuries by Austria-Hungary, etc. etc. In 1949 Mao Zedong famously declared "China has stood up." Apparently though he meant, "We're such a weak peop…

> How long is China going to put on the mantle of victimhood over events 160 years in the past?! 160 years in the past? The Chinese reparations, totalling $US 61 billion is today's dollar equivalents, were only completed in 1940. Then China sided with the Allies in WWII. 15 million Chinese lost their lives in that war. But I wouldn't characterise Chinese trade policy as victimhood. Chinese entrepreneurs don't rely on…

> Then China sided with the Allies in WWII

This doesn't really make sense. The Second Sino-Japanese war predates the European theater by 2 years. It'd be more accurate to say the US sided with China to help them fight a mutual enemy.

Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns

#324
There is absolutely only censorship in Wechat(by China) and no free speech for that app. The lawsuit is based on that banning it violates someone's free speech. Ironic.

The key is that it's in a CA court, which historically will ban all Trump's orders, it does not really matter what those orders are about at all these days.

Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns

#325
post #219

Honest question for Chinese users of WeChat: have you ever thought twice about WeChat posts and communications, whether they'll be deemed "acceptable" to censors? Everyone I know self-censors nearly constantly, if unconsciously. A good example: in a discussion of this case I was reading today in Chinese the author ironically noted that he couldn't summarize the US government's position because in a large WeChat group…

I don't use WeChat myself but it seems WeChat is the modern equivalent of sending mail into or inside the Soviet Union. You know it will be read by censors, but what is the alternative? Not sending mail?

> Not sending mail?

Is sending physical mail / calling someone on the phone impossible in China?

Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns

#326
post #10

I 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.

Must feel good to say China's getting what they deserve but it's the ordinary people who are suffering the most. The ban is a victory to no one, and just shows the US is the copycat this time around.

Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns

#327
post #269

I think it's easy to say the ban doesn't make sense when it is perhaps a preventative measure. We have seen social networks take over others many times in terms of popularity. If TikTok and WeChat's usage becomes more widespread in the voting population of the US, they would have a lot of influence by controlling what kind of content its users sees; e.g., FB has been criticized many times for this, namely performing…

> The difference between TikTok and WeChat and FB/Google/Twitter is obvious: the former are to some degree controlled by China and the latter are private entities. The irony is that we were just about to witness US govt forcing said "private entities" to ban specific applications.

Only in US though.

Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns

#328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. I need it to conduct business, and that's more important to me than posting or discussing controversial topics. People in China literally do not use email, so this is the only effective method to get things done (which I'm totally ok with!). This ban would be an absolute disaster for me, given that my entire rolodex are WeChat contacts, not email addresses. I also feel for my friends who have family in China, and…

Maybe they will decouple the app from the backend. Publish the interface, set up an auth system and let the community build their own apps to interface with it. That's the reason email still exists today and will continue to exist long after today's fad app goes out of style.

Why would the Chinese government allow that, assuming their goal is to continue monitoring and censoring the chats.

Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns

#329
post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use WeChat myself but it seems WeChat is the modern equivalent of sending mail into or inside the Soviet Union. You know it will be read by censors, but what is the alternative? Not sending mail?

> Not sending mail? Is sending physical mail / calling someone on the phone impossible in China?

That is even easier to monitor, right?

Re: Trump’s WeChat curbs halted by judge on free speech concerns

#330
post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China's still not regained sovereignty that was lost during that time. Eg: Hong kong

In what sense is China not "sovereign" over Hong Kong? While it's true that the Sino-British Joint Declaration placed some temporary restrictions on China's policies regarding that region, this is an agreement between sovereign nations, thus reaffirming China's sovereignty. I suppose that, in a sense, all international treaties are a loss of some degree of sovereignty, but in that sense nearly every country in the wo…

Remember even during the WW2, the US view was that concessions like HK taken by European countries from China through "Unequal Treaties" needs to be returned to China eventually.
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