Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by jvll » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 7:32 AM UTC

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…

It's not about whether it was stupid what he's done. It's about the fact that China has this much influence on Swiss education.

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

#82

Post by abbassi » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 7:33 AM UTC

I'm happy she is dismissed. No student should be a propaganda tool, especially in a continent that Julian Assange is in jail in worse conditions (like those of Stalin) for doing journalism and revealing the war crimes of so-called democratic countries.

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

#83

Post by emn13 » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 7:34 AM UTC

josephtill wrote: post #63

unabirra wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if the post praises BLM and criticizes MAGA... Lots of people have lost their jobs (and even dropped from public funded colleges) because of this. Not sure if you are really not aware of this, or if your comment is not in good faith.

> Only if the post praises BLM and criticizes MAGA... Lots of people have lost their jobs (and even dropped from public funded colleges) because of this. I've never heard of such a thing. Could you give a specific example of these "lots of people"?

Additionally, this framing - of MAGA vs. BLM - is also unreasonable. Hiring processes are by design discriminatory; people don't just hire at random. There's no reason to assume public statements by a candidate that appear to fall in a pro-BLM bucket would be as attractive to the hiring process as statements that fall in a MAGA bucket would be unattractive; those two things likely have nothing to do with each other when it comes to hiring.

In other words, regardless of actually instances of discrimination, this framing looks chosen to try and create or sustain the so-called culture war.

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

#84

Post by imwillofficial » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 7:38 AM UTC

option wrote: post #61

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…

sometimes being critical of totalitarian government is a sign of bravery. Especially for those with the skin in the game.

“totalitarian” sounds like propaganda

This is from the country responsible for the patriot act

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

#85

Post by imwillofficial » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 7:39 AM UTC

sleiben wrote: post #70

“The next day, he found he couldn’t access his messages. An IT technician told him on the phone that his account didn’t exist." Uff… reads like a paragraph from 1984 to me.

Uff, sounds like he played stupid games and won stupid prizes

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

#86

Post by curiousgal » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 7:40 AM UTC

jacksonkmarley wrote: post #79

Well, buried in the middle of this article is an important point: > In fact, as of the fall 2019 semester, Gerber had been officially enrolled only at the university in China, not at St. Gallen. So he was a Swiss person doing a PhD at a Chinese university. His relationship with the professor at the Swiss university was an unofficial one, so the word 'dismissal' here is pretty misleading. No information about what hap…

Thank you! I am glad to see people are actually reading the articles. Last time this was published no one even bothered to note that there was no intervention from China whatsoever. Following the same logic a hotel worker losing their job because an American tourist complained can say that the United States got them fired..

The comments critical of the CCP in this thread prove that confirmation bias is alive and well. There are many things to critique about China obviously but this particular instance is not one of them.

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

#87

Post by mdp2021 » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 7:40 AM UTC

jvll wrote: post #81

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…

It's not about whether it was stupid what he's done. It's about the fact that China has this much influence on Swiss education.

Let us check it again: I understand it is more like "There exist operators in Swiss education who are in a weak position, e.g. for the need to obtain visa which could be critical to perform their job".

It is not that there is not an influence (it could be China as much as many other entities), but given the above it is transversal to the job.

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

#88

Post by anfelor » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 7:41 AM UTC

jacksonkmarley wrote: post #79

Well, buried in the middle of this article is an important point: > In fact, as of the fall 2019 semester, Gerber had been officially enrolled only at the university in China, not at St. Gallen. So he was a Swiss person doing a PhD at a Chinese university. His relationship with the professor at the Swiss university was an unofficial one, so the word 'dismissal' here is pretty misleading. No information about what hap…

But unofficial relationships matter in science. For example, I am currently doing an unpaid internship in the hopes of getting a paper out of it. If the professor cancelled it, I might be left with nothing to show for months of hard work, similar to the guy in the story. That kind of thing is not uncommon at all at the PhD level.

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

#89

Post by mdp2021 » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 7:43 AM UTC

kome wrote: post #77

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…

monumental stupidity or monumental courage?

Or monumental inadaptability, which could be either naive or deliberate.

Including a "They would not support the other side, would they?"

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

#90

Post by curiousgal » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 7:44 AM UTC

jvll wrote: post #81

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…

It's not about whether it was stupid what he's done. It's about the fact that China has this much influence on Swiss education.

> China has this much influence on Swiss education.

What are you on about?