So what's going on here then? https://github.com/wangxiaofeng7/wangxiaofeng7.github.io Someone making a homepage in the last few days, but to what purpose?
Do you have any reason to believe this brand new github account is the same person?
FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado
241–250 of 517 posts
Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The Chinese govt also has a pretty nasty track record of pressuring erstwhile Chinese citizens to engage in espionage by making life hard for family back in china China also has a history of establishing "police" stations in foreign countries with the mandate to harass and control expats. They did this in Canada at least, surely they did in the US too.
I can only urge you to provide one or more good primary sources if you are making such a claim. It should be a given...
Here you go, you can pick one of the several hundred articles written about the topic over the past 3-4 years from the world's oldest, more reputable and foremost news gathering/journalism organizations.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-e&channel=ent...
Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado
#243Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado
#244This hasn't hit mainstream media yet. It should have by now. Disappearing people is not something the US government is allowed to do. Here's Xiaofeng Wang's bio on the Indiana University site.[1] Google Scholar.[2] Archived version of home page at Indiana University.[3] If anybody has a PACER account, please check there. [1] https://alliance.iu.edu/members/member/8580.html [2] https://scholar.google.com/citations?use…
Occam’s Razor suggest he was exfiltrated.
Wouldn't "murder victim" be the Occam's razor explanation? We know his wife is still living in the house. We also know that statistically speaking your spouse is the person most likely to murder you. I'm not going to say anything more than that because the obvious next statement would be one that is based entirely on speculation, but it takes a lot less speculation than all these ridiculous James Bond fanfics I'm seeing.
Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But HN is an increasingly difficult place to discover such stories, what with the systematic flagging brigades. What stories are getting flagged?
A lot of stories with a political angle get flagged. I also don’t want the site to become all politics, but it feels weird to me that stories like this with overt overlap with tech and SV still often get flagged.
I don't think this story is overtly political.
Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
> by the government "disappearing" anyone (which they have objectively been doing lately) Notably, they haven't been "disappearing" people in the manner that would have to be happening here. Even the most egregious cases, which are very bad, have left a paper trail for lawyers and journalists to follow. This case is notable because no one seems to know where this man has gone. But yes, point taken: the extrajudicial…
>Even the most egregious cases, which are very bad, have left a paper trail for lawyers and journalists to follow. How can you be confident in this? Is it possible that you are saying this because the only cases we know about are when they have happened to leave "a paper trail for lawyers and journalists to follow"?
With all the speculation, how do we know the US government 'disappeared' him. He's originally from China. How do we know that the Chinese government didn't do this (which is known to happen) and now the FBI is involved to find out what happened?
Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado
#247Problem is, with things as they are now in USA, when you see stuff like this first question is : is this the ongoing, developing oppression, or is there is a real issue here?
Let's wait for further details to emerge before jumping to conclusions.
Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado
#248The fact pattern doesn't fit well with ICE, because Indiana University cooperated with the investigation (and struck him and his wife from their pages). The track record of espionage investigations against people of Chinese origin is not great, so it's not a defense of this investigation to say that that the details rhyme with that rather than immigration.
This isn’t immigration. He’s a tenured professor and already has permanent residency at the very least. He is most likely a US citizen. FBI is most likely dealing with an espionage angle. His research field of cryptography and using it to protect genomic data probably has something to do with it. The US govt track record on stuff like this is quite abysmal with several researchers having their career and livelihood d…
> The US govt track record on stuff like this is quite abysmal with several researchers having their career and livelihood destroyed.
specific numbers from wikipedia(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Initiative):
250 have been fired, 77 cases opened, 28 prosecutions, 8 got convicted.
Also, I suspect many cases were closed or not pushed because of change in president administration.
Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The Chinese govt also has a pretty nasty track record of pressuring erstwhile Chinese citizens to engage in espionage by making life hard for family back in china China also has a history of establishing "police" stations in foreign countries with the mandate to harass and control expats. They did this in Canada at least, surely they did in the US too.
I can only urge you to provide one or more good primary sources if you are making such a claim. It should be a given...
One was shut down in Glasgow, Scotland and other UK cities:
https://news.stv.tv/west-central/chinese-secret-police-stati...
Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
Occam’s Razor suggest he was exfiltrated.
Seems like the most likely explanation to me. If he were arrested for being a spy, presumably the DOJ would want to showcase it.
Sounds like entrapment or he was heavily induced (by whatever) into whatever they got him for. Maybe he'll get pardoned like Ulbricht.