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Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

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Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#31

Post by javert »

ipnon wrote: post #23
javert wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For anyone else wondering if the above commenter is a Chinese propaganda account, you can see from his or her comment history that that is not the case.

Lest ye incur the wrath of dang, HN newbies, accusing others of astroturfing or hidden agendas is against the guidelines.

> Lest ye incur the wrath of dang, HN newbies, accusing others of astroturfing or hidden agendas is against the guidelines.

For people who are having trouble parsing that:

I am not an HN noob and I did not accuse anyone of astroturfing.

The opposite, on both counts.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#32

Post by kepler1 »

Yes, some shame on the advisor, department/program for folding under such threats, but let me ask this:

What was the guy seeking in posting accusatory political opinions about the Chinese government on Twitter? Attention, that's what. The thing that everyone on Twitter wants. He got it, and now is unhappy with the result. He's not totally without some responsibility here.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#33

Post by NotSammyHagar »

vagrantJin wrote: post #24
hermitsings wrote: post #4

Imagine CCP becoming world leader.

What makes you think they are not? Is it different or worse from the US foreign policy of "lets kill brown people half way across the world"? The anti-China rhetoric has to stop somewhere.

The US has a lot of problems and bad behavior. Yet we can talk about it without worrying if the us govt is pressuring our employer to fire us, without worrying about the safety of family members & friends living in the us will be rounded up.

China is not that place. It's not anti-Chinese rhetoric to point our reality. China is the place where people wonder when the authorities are coming to take you to the re-education camp, hopefully not to be sterilized.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/magazine/uyghur-muslims-c...

https://www.theatlantic.com/the-uyghur-chronicles/

https://dailycaller.com/2020/10/09/uighur-muslim-detention-c...

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#34

Post by divbzero »

roenxi wrote: post #29

I don't want to dismiss Chinese influence as a threat to Western values; but we have to keep this in perspective. China is thrice the population of the US and has a comparatively sized (arguably a bit larger, arguably a bit smaller) economy. We expect their influence to catch up with their size and be comparable with the US government. The US government has long reach and a strong grip (eg, Assange, Snowden, the gene…

How many other countries would threaten visa denial against the supervisor of a student with 10 Twitter followers? I happen to think the student’s tweets expressed extreme and unfounded views, but they hardly warrant such retaliation from one of the world’s most powerful countries.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#35

Post by casualracism »

ipnon wrote: post #28
ramraj07 wrote: post #15

The professor should be fired and the university punished (doubtful), but the student was also an idiot to do what he did. It’s not like he was some random guy who just tweeted at China, he lived in wuhan for years and has actual family there now, being critical of a totalitarian government in that scenario is the height of monumental stupidity. It’s ironic that the article paints him as methodological and thoughtful…

But nominally, you can be a political fool in Switzerland without professional consequence.[a] It seems he is being forced to play by the social rules of China in Switzerland. It's fair to say his tweets could jeopardize his ability to return to China and secure a professorship or research position, but to suffer professional consequences in Switzerland, in the heart of Europe, for Chinese political incorrectness is…

As I said in another comment, in the U.S., if you’re an African American studies PhD student and you post a racist cartoon depicting black stereotypes, it’s not hard to imagine losing your doctorate candidacy.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#36

Post by pacman2 »

stainforth wrote: post #7

The supervisor is a coward and should be known as one.

Is she? I love China and if somebody pulls a stunt like that that may blow up in my face I would take action too.

Think about if you were in CS and a student of your would post some ISIS shit on the internet and you were threatened with a travel ban to the US. I think most people would think twice.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#38

Post by memonkey »

hunglee2 wrote: post #25
casualracism wrote: post #17

Not sure what the timeline is here. TFA strongly implies it’s a tweet on March 21 inciting a response on March 28, but buries the lede about the racist cartoon posted at an unknown time that the professor claims to have received an email about. I’m sure political factors play the leading role here, but it’s long past the point where you can casually post racist cartoons and act surprised when you’re hit by undesirabl…

original tweets need to contained within articles like this. Timelines should be standard, before the body of the argument. Way too easy to spin a narrative for an audience hungry to believe.

anti-asian propaganda is thriving right now

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#39

Post by perihelions »

divbzero wrote: post #34
roenxi wrote: post #29

I don't want to dismiss Chinese influence as a threat to Western values; but we have to keep this in perspective. China is thrice the population of the US and has a comparatively sized (arguably a bit larger, arguably a bit smaller) economy. We expect their influence to catch up with their size and be comparable with the US government. The US government has long reach and a strong grip (eg, Assange, Snowden, the gene…

How many other countries would threaten visa denial against the supervisor of a student with 10 Twitter followers? I happen to think the student’s tweets expressed extreme and unfounded views, but they hardly warrant such retaliation from one of the world’s most powerful countries.

The US itself denies visas over the political views of associated people. This is just one example, but a high-profile one:

https://www.techspot.com/news/81644-harvard-student-denied-e... ("Harvard student was denied entry in the US over friends' social media activity")

discussed here at

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20816774

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20848359

One can only speculate how much worse the PRC's system is. The professor's fears are quite rational (I needn't say I wholeheartedly condemn her actions, and hope she's fired).

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#40

Post by Aunche »

exo-pla-net wrote: post #14

This is an article spun to make controversy out of nothing. The narrative is that a student tweeted something critical about China, and the CCP pressured his advisor into dropping him. The reality is that the student published a tweet that "depicted a comic character that had been altered and had stereotyped Chinese features, with yellow skin tone and slit eyes". This understandably was perceived as racist by a Chine…

It's convenient to believe that your enemy is so fragile that they're threatened by a twitterer with a dozen followers. I don't see how that does one any good outside a feeling of smug superiority. China is building a frightening amount soft power through trade deals and building goodwill. That's what people should be talking about, not China supposedly censoring angry opinions that can be found anywhere else on the internet.
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