Earlier quoted context omitted.
A bit hard to find open, unbiased, and independent information about a country that forcibly suppresses anything negative about itself, isn't it? Jack Ma criticized the government and suddenly disappeared for years losing his position at the company in the process. If they can do that to one of the most powerful people in the country, they can do it to anyone else. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ma#Disappearance_…
Jack Ma never disappeared though, same case with the Chinese Tenis player. Thats the exact same thing the other poster was criticizing. Its the western media making up stories to fit the anti-china narrative.
Israel was removed from Baidu Maps earlier today
121–130 of 130 posts
Re: Israel was removed from Baidu Maps earlier today
#122I see we're going from "UI changes, the cause or reason of which we don't know" to "geopolitics" without considering any of the obvious alternative explanations. If China decides (and no-one is saying that it has) that it no longer recognizes Israel, then it will simply announce that, and not get a private company to make subtle UI changes to reflect a secret policy instead.
Reminds me of the problems with contested borders, which e.g. Yandex runs into because they operate in Western and non-Western jurisdictions. They ended up just removing all national borders from the maps for this reason, which has made the UX worse, especially for international trip planning. Google (used to?) opts for a different approach where some borders are drawn based on where they geolocated you to.
I'm pretty sure Yandex removed all borders was because the Russian government annexed territory but they hadn't clarified the territory borders that were annexed, so Yandex decided to be on the safe side and remove all borders to avoid this issue.
Re: Israel was removed from Baidu Maps earlier today
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a very deliberate misrepresentation and oversimplification. China is very much anti-Muslim because Islamists pose a threat to its absolute power and its projected illusion of unity. China is also anti-Israel because Israel is a close ally of the US and majority Muslim countries normalising relationships with Israel aligns them closer with the US. Also, the non-Chinese version of Weibo (Twitter, or X) is also b…
> China is very much anti-Muslim because Islamists pose a threat to its absolute power and its projected illusion of unity. A muslim is not an islamist [1], your simplification is concerning, China officially recognize Islam [2], and Uyghurs weren't subject to the 1 child policy Stick to the facts please [1] - https://humanists.international/blog/the-difference-between-... [2] - https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-rep…
I didn't say all Muslims are Islamists. I said Islamists (i.e. political Islam) pose a threat to Chinese unity and the unquestioned authority of the state, which the CCP tries to project at all costs. Consider the political influence of Evangelical Christians in the US if you feel more comfortable talking about it that way. The difference is that (local) Evangelicals are a much weaker influence internationally than Islamists. The closest Christian equivalent I can think of are the Moonies in Japan but that's a regional cult generally considered separate from mainstream Christian sects.
I'm not saying anything negative about Islam here. If there were a similar international network of political Christians, China would likely be very concerned about Christian minorities as well, but as it is, Islamists pose the most direct risk of promoting separatist sentiments and this makes Muslims suspect, whether their religion is officially tolerated or not.
Heck, Tibet is another obvious example with separatist sentiments being directly tied to the religious/spiritual structure of the region and its opposition to the absolute claims to power of the central government. It's just a consequence of trying to project a monolithic structure for a territory this vast with this many ethnic groups and cultures within. Probably the weirdest and most impractical manifestation of this is in the single Chinese timezone.
Re: Israel was removed from Baidu Maps earlier today
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
The most antisemitism lately in my twitter feed comes from the academia and leftist intellectuals. The right leaning seems to be a pro make gaza the biggest parking in the middle east breed.
Did you read the article? >"It's really the fault of Little Mustache," wrote a netizen. "If he had burned all of them (Jews), we wouldn't have this much trouble." Nobody on the left or right in the west is that anti-Semitic, at least not publicly.
I don't know how to say this but have you ever visited a site called 4chan? And that's not even the worst offender. Ever since Twitter fired most of its content moderation team, it's also pretty easy to find that kind of talk there, as well as the inverse (i.e. literal calls for genocide against non-Jewish Palestinians).
Re: Israel was removed from Baidu Maps earlier today
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
The obvious alternative explanations?? Like they just randomly and accidentally decided to erase an entire state? Particularly an extremely contested state? Give me a break - you’re really not making a good argument.
This literally happens constantly in contested regions, even on google maps.
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Re: Israel was removed from Baidu Maps earlier today
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
The obvious alternative explanations?? Like they just randomly and accidentally decided to erase an entire state? Particularly an extremely contested state? Give me a break - you’re really not making a good argument.
What's the... I guess, non-alternative explanation?
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Re: Israel was removed from Baidu Maps earlier today
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
The obvious alternative explanations?? Like they just randomly and accidentally decided to erase an entire state? Particularly an extremely contested state? Give me a break - you’re really not making a good argument.
This literally happens constantly in contested regions, even on google maps.
Can you show me an example of a UN country being erased from a map during a major event in which others are calling for them to be wiped off the globe?
Re: Israel was removed from Baidu Maps earlier today
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it could easily be just opting to not display any disputed borders Aren't the majority of China's maritime borders disputed?
I think it's mostly the ones on the South China Sea. And you don't display disputed borders when you want to be neutral. Baidu can just show the official border according to the PRC.
Interestingly, it turns out there's a wikipedia article about China's border disputes already:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_of_the_Pe...
They seem to have disputes with about half of the countries on their borders (land and maritime). That's a fair few. :/
Re: Israel was removed from Baidu Maps earlier today
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have to ask you - do you have substantial firsthand experience on how businesses operate in China or are you just 'well read' on the subject?
A bit hard to find open, unbiased, and independent information about a country that forcibly suppresses anything negative about itself, isn't it? Jack Ma criticized the government and suddenly disappeared for years losing his position at the company in the process. If they can do that to one of the most powerful people in the country, they can do it to anyone else. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ma#Disappearance_…
It's not at all difficult to find open, unbiased, independent information about China. You could apply for a visa right now, travel there, and talk to people yourself. It's not difficult. This isn't the Mao era any more.
Re: Israel was removed from Baidu Maps earlier today
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Jack Ma never disappeared though, same case with the Chinese Tenis player. Thats the exact same thing the other poster was criticizing. Its the western media making up stories to fit the anti-china narrative.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Peng_Shuai
The very first sentence of that Wikipedia article is incorrect (it takes an extremely obtuse reading of Peng Shuai's social media post to construe it as an accusation of sexual assault), so I don't have high hopes for the accuracy of the rest of the article.
Wikipedia is good for many things, but not for hot-button political topics. Those sorts of pages are usually written by politically motivated editors, so you're seeing whatever spin the dominant group of editors at that page wants you to see.