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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

#291

Post by wolverine876 »

datameta wrote: post #242
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…

Also the following account of his experience in China, which certainly served as a greater pretext than the tweets of an account with 10 followers: > A Chinese professor there told him that his Ph.D. topic was «boring» – a euphemism for being too critical of the government. As a part of his fellowship, he also had to attend classes, and says today he couldn’t believe how much censorship took place in the course of ev…

While I find your perspective and suggestions are valuable, I think we need to retire this idiom (which I've used myself without much thought):

> Now I am not saying he should not have done what he did

We need to stand up and say, he should speak out, he should have spoken out, seeing injustice and oppression.

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

#292

Post by wolverine876 »

lmz wrote: post #187
dash2 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there is any evidence that any PhD student has ever found it hard to get a US visa because of criticizing the US or US policy?

Wouldn't asking for all your social media identities as part of the visa application create somewhat of a chilling effect?

That's the idea, I would guess.

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

#293

Post by ipnon »

kqvamxurcagg wrote: post #140

I think the moderators should carefully examine those accounts posting in this thread. There seems to be elements of counter intelligence or information warfare.

>Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#294

Post by dbuder »

krageon wrote: post #272
ChemSpider wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. This take is supported by the fact that the Prof refuses to reveal the email address of the Canadian student. My guess is similar to yours. She received emails e. g. from a Chinese consulate but is not allowed to reveal that fact - so she made up this "Canadian student" story.

The likelihood that any consulate bothers itself to tell some uni student to shut up is extremely low.

You are wrong. Every broken window is seen to.

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

#295

Post by ablearcher83 »

slapfrog wrote: post #265
jjoonathan wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. Patronizing: you know what's patronizing? The notion that this kid simply doesn't understand the realpolitik. Of course he does: it just punched him in the face. He's fighting it. I respect him for that. Infuriating: you know what's infuriating? The person who claims to share the values this guy is standing up for but can't stop trash-talking him. Naïveté: you know what's naive? Thinking that rolling over and ac…

The GP reads like concern-trolling more than anything else. It doesn't seem sincere to me at all.

Agreed, it's classic concern-trolling.

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

#296

Post by ablearcher83 »

queuebert wrote: post #190
amrcnimgrnt wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I got my PhD, so let me read between your lines ([1]). Faculty have little fiefdoms and they expect students to live on salaries bellow minimum wage. If the advisor is sub-par (i.e. the university made a mistake hiring them) it's incredibly difficult to change advisors without poisoning the relationship with other faculty members. Dealing with sub-par professors sucks. Some are not too bright. Others sexually ha…

You're entirely correct. Academia is broken is so many ways. A lot of my colleagues are wastes of space and some are indeed harmful. I don't think I'm a great advisor either. No one teaches us how to advise students. My take is based entirely on facts of the article interpreted through an advisor's lens rather than that of a journalist trying to get clicks.

The fact that the advisor in the OP changed their stories multiple times indicates duplicity. Your inability to see that, coupled with an abrupt allegation against the journalist suggests self-deception

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

#297

Post by rob_c »

jeswin wrote: post #249
nova22033 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big Tech squashing our rights How exactly has big tech squashed your rights?

What I find frustrating is discussing something relatively trivial when talking about a totalitarian state. I am not from the West, and I do wonder if people bring up these just to be polite or to sound impartial.

It's usually to point out commonalities to get people to emote when having a conversation I find.

Yes comparing the scales of the Chinese sensorship to googles deplatforming of uncomfortable topics is not nice.

But explaining how one can lead to the other also explains to people in the west why something is bad. Especially when people would readily sleep walk into enabling technologies that would enable state sensorship at a level that would concern everyone.

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

#298

Post by [deleted] »

jeswin wrote: post #254
quickthrowman wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Patronizing: you know what's patronizing? The notion that this kid just doesn't understand the realpolitik. Of course he does: it just punched him in the face. He's fighting it. I respect him for that. I disagree. His Chinese girlfriend was begging him to stop, but he carried on. It’s either hubris or not realizing what China is willing to do to stop people from criticizing it. He was also enrolled in a Chinese uni…

So should he just shut up, then? It's scary if most people feel that way. There was also no risk to his GF. At worst, the relationship ends - it's not like the CCP is going to go after her (she did ask him to stop).

[deleted]

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

#299

Post by kepler1 »

wickedsickeune wrote: post #233
kepler1 wrote: post #32

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.

"She was dressed provocatively"

Why are you equating a guy posting opinions specifically designed to publicly criticize a country's government with a woman being taken advantage of against her will?

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

#300

Post by [deleted] »

arendtio wrote: post #110
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…

I think the message is a different one. More along the lines, 'Even in Switzerland the political pressure of China affects the freedom of speech'. The part that you leave out is that the university actually recommended to the student that he should terminate/suspend his enrollment in the first place. To me it looks like the university is using the fact that he wasn't enrolled anymore as some kind of damage control to…

[deleted]
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