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In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist

nytimes.com

411–420 of 484 posts

Re: In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist

#411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference between classified information and scientific research. Yes, some scientific research could be classified, but unless the government can show "national security implications" (a pretty low bar, IMHO), they should not be restricting the flow of speech or ideas. A general officer in the military is not only covered by the Constitution, but by the UCMJ[0]. As such, your comparison is flawed. We're (…

You act as if I haven't read the constitution. I've pored over the constitution so many times, I'm well versed in obscurities down to the twenty dollar clause and the post roads clause. Can you explain to me how classifying content is not an abridgement of free speech in an absolute reading of the constitution? "Congress shall make no law.." It does not say "Congress shall make no law, unless it's classified" The UCM…

>You act as if I haven't read the constitution.

That's a result of your statements.

Re: In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist

#412
post #323
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've personally witnessed Chinese national students attempting to acquire access to sensitive lab equipment and documentation their research wouldn't require (this is physics, here, not CS). I've been on the defensive end of attacks by employees (all Chinese citizens, living in China) in our Chinese organization attempting to breach data and infrastructure firewalls. Once upon a time my work touched some sensitive, c…

"I've personally witnessed Chinese national students attempting to acquire access to sensitive lab equipment and documentation their research wouldn't require (this is physics, here, not CS)." Well, I've personally witnessed american students attempting to acquire access to sensitive lab equipment and documentation their research wouldn't require, too. That included me! Thank goodness the attitude of my leaders was "…

My goodness you read far too much into my comment: acting as though I thought every piece of sensitive information should be closely guarded to the death is...less than charitable.

Re: In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist

#413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are 100% backwards in your thinking here. If the US taxpayer funds research then public funders actually have a very high bar in their ability to restrict the publication of that research. For the simple reason that the taxpayer funds it and government restrictions on speech face a very high Constitutional bar. By contrast if I take funding from Amazon or Apple it’s much easier for them to demand NDAs and…

you are right in practice, but my argument is not about what is de facto the case, but what should be the case. > government restrictions on speech Well this obviously should not generally be the case. If you are, say a high ranking general at the pentagon -- which is a position directly paid by the government, so arguably way more "protected" by the constitution than a subcontractor awardee of a grant, which could b…

There is a huge amount of constitutional jurisprudence around the notion of national security clearance and all of it rests on the idea that it is a strictly limited exception to the First Amendment, generally one that is used sparingly and only when needed. This is why private citizens must volunteer to obtain security clearances. The General you speak of is presumably a volunteer who also agreed to be bound by stricter rules around classified data.

The NSF does not (generally) fund classified research. They fund unclassified research at open academic Universities. If the researcher in TFA had joined a military lab and submitted to a clearance, this would be an open and shut case. He did not do anything of the sort, and so the prosecutors were forced to hunt down some workaround to achieve their desired result, then ultimately drop a groundless case.

Re: In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist

#414
post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two aspects to this: 1. There is a massive amount of propaganda around the situation in Xinjiang. While the Chinese government is extremely harsh in going after separatism and what it views as religious extremism, there is also a huge amount of lying, exaggeration and misrepresentation from Western governments and media on the issue. The Trump administration tried to spin Xinjiang as some sort of modern-day…

Warning: Uyghurs are not Islamic fundamentalists or religious extremists. It’s hard to imagine a more liberal interpretation of Islam as practiced by Uyghurs; they have their own vodka, which is delicious. The CCP, since 9/11, has seized on U.S. Islamic hysteria as a convenient excuse, and cover, to crack down on Uyghur nationalism.

Yes, traditional Uyghur Islamic practices are relatively liberal, as I understand it. What the Chinese government fears is the recent spread of extremist religious beliefs (e.g., Salafism) in Xinjiang.

The Chinese government is of course also worried about Uyghur separatism.

However, I don't think these are entirely separate phenomena.

Re: In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist

#415
post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Trail of Tears, the US Civil War and the appalling form of slavery that led up to it, the Chinese Exclusion Act, racially-biased "eugenic" involuntary sterilization, Jim Crow, the Japanese internment camps, the Indian Schools, Wounded Knee, cowboys & Indians movies, the Tulsa race massacre, per-country immigration quotas, mass deportation, child internment camps, etc., are not mid-millennium colonization. There's…

>one so deeply embedded in US culture that I couldn't see most of it until I had been gone for several years. Wherever you went, odds are it has an equally shitty history, and present.

Yup, but different enough to give me an outside perspective on the culture I'd grown up in. Argentina's present is actually shittier, but not in the same way.

Re: In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist

#416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like McCarthyism it’s a noble cause I'm unsure if this is sarcasm or not.

The thing people today may not know about McCarthyism is that there WERE a lot of Soviet spies in the State Department. It desperately needed to be addressed. The reason people forget this is because McCarthyism itself was not actually a very good remedy. It was great for the self-aggrandizement of Senator McCarthy (until he went too far, and his target Mr. Welch called him out while being interrogated before the Sen…

I'm sure there were spies - but this is not what McCarthyism was about. Primarily it was about communism.

Spying for a foreign govt is bad, and we don't want them in our govt, regardless of their ideology. Communist beliefs, tendencies and association are protected by our (US) constitution.

Targeting spies is good, but McCarty was targeting communists (or alleged communists).

Re: In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist

#417
post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, nothing equivalent to the Cultural Revolution has happened anywhere else ever. Hopefully it never will.

What is your definition of equivalent? Because I see the French Revolution and it’s Central European offshoots, the Russian revolution, the various Latin American and Asian communist revolutions all very equivalent; they all totally upended and and destroyed an existing culture and whole civilizations. If communistic elements and characteristics are involved, such a situation is equivalent to the Chinese communist “c…

"Interchangeable", or, at greater length:

      Equivalent \E*quiv"a*lent\ ([-e]*kw[i^]v"[.a]*lent), a. [L.
         aequivalens, -entis, p. pr. of aequivalere to have equal
         power; aequus equal + valere to be strong, be worth: cf. F.
         ['e]quivalent. See {Equal}, and {Valiant}.]
         1. Equal in worth or value, force, power, effect, import, and
            the like; alike in significance and value; of the same
            import or meaning.
            [1913 Webster]

                  For now to serve and to minister, servile and
                  ministerial, are terms equivalent.    --South.
            [1913 Webster]
The Cultural Revolution did not upend and destroy an existing culture and whole civilizations, but neither did the other events you're describing.

A big difference between the Cultural Revolution and things like the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution is that the Cultural Revolution entrenched the existing leader of PRC, while the French and Russian Revolutions overthrew the existing leaders, which is generally considered to be one of the most important things about them. The Cultural Revolution was more akin to Stalin's purges of his opposition within the Party, the Night of the Long Knives, the Salem witch trials, the Cambodian Killing Fields (as CamperBob2 pointed out), the Terror, or the Roman Dominate, but it has important differences from each of them. For example, the Night of the Long Knives lasted three days, the Cultural Revolution lasted 10 years, and the Dominate lasted about 300 years.

Re: In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist

#418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. So you think morality is quantifiable? Like it's fine to violate X amount of human rights but not X + 1. I'd like to hear your criteria.

If you think genocide, ethnic cleansing, natural resource exploitation on a global scale, modern day slavery & deadly global pathogen release are equivalent to US misconduct I wouldn't know where to begin in engaging with you.

I can spin this too if you allow me:

"genocide" of Muslims via constant war-waging; "ethnic cleansing" of native Americans; natural resource exploitation on a global scale; "modern day slavery" (i.e. extreme capitalism) both domestically by trapping workers into lifetime debts, and overseas by outsourcing to sweat shops; "deadly global pathogen release" by politicising pandemic responses while failing at it.

Rivalry states smear each others all the time. Also no contender for hegemony is morally superior than another.

Re: In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist

#419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With all due respect, this is completely irrelevant. This same technology and better is being sold out to countries like Saudi Arabia[1] and Israel[2], which are not exactly shining beacons of human rights. What seems to be the argument here ? "If China wants to use US tech to oppress and kill people with no regard for human rights and the rule of law... they have to PAY for it first, like all respectable totalitaria…

Your point being: since the US provides aid to countries whose human rights records are controversial China should be free to steal and misuse US intellectual property. Great argument. Have fun in a world where China's views on human rights prevail. I'm sure you & your family and their families will be very happy.

The point is that if it were a MORAL issue as you suggested, then the US would not have sold their technologies to other countries whose human rights records are controversial. The fact that they had not problem doing that entails that it was not a moral issue, at least for the US companies.

Re: In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist

#420

As bad as this is, it could have been so much worse for him. The government does not usually correct itself like this, preferring instead to continue with prosecution, notch up another corrupt win, and call it a day. And in fact, for this reason, the (current) government needs to get major kudos! And Dr. Chen should get more hugs, and more support - as many as he needs to help him forget this nightmare and get back t…

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