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China Blocks WhatsApp

nytimes.com

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Re: China Blocks WhatsApp

#231

Post by kawera »

technologyvault wrote: post #134

Over the past several months, I have had increasing difficulty communicating with suppliers and business partners in China, who have become very frustrated that they can only communicate via Skype. All of their VPNs seem to have been shut down. They can't access Facebook, YouTube, and now WhatsApp. Does anyone know of a simple workaround that would allow someone inside of mainland China to regain access to what's bee…

Not sure if this would work for you but still... After having a lot of problems communicating with my business partners in China, I bought a second (cheap, chinese!) phone and installed WeChat, Weibo and a host of other apps on it. It became my chinese "channel", completely isolated from my main phone. Working pretty well so far.

Re: China Blocks WhatsApp

#232

Post by RobertoG »

KGIII wrote: post #213
flexie wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think censorship is only part of the reason. Protectionism and national security probably plays a role aswell. Look at the list of websites they block: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websites_blocked_in_mainland... Google, facebook, instagram, twitter etc. Those are one-way streets that provide next to no jobs, little tech transfer and no tax revenue to the countries they do business in, but tend to outcompete the…

I don't know that the United States has any legal mechanism to prevent an online Chinese company from holding the top position and doing what American-native companies do with the data. At least I can't think of any such mechanism? Perhaps someone here is a legal scholar?

If the last years have show us anything it is that the USA government (and others) can create the legality that they think more convenient.

For instance, you can invent a new category in order to avoid detaining people like criminals or war enemies if none of the laws applying to those are convenient.

Re: China Blocks WhatsApp

#233

Post by hhw »

chaostheory wrote: post #40

What the long-term effects will be: China's ruling class further cement their power at the cost of China's innovation and future growth. Interesting and useful things are made when people able share and consume information. e.g. Jack Ma's US visit exposed him to Yahoo. Ma Huateng was clearly inspired by his exposure to ICQ. The list goes on. The same thing happens in the West but it happens a lot more often since the…

China has a long and proud tradition as being at the forefront of civilization, and they see the last 100+ years or so just as a temporary setback. The current ruling class may not see the need to share with the outside world. This may sadly result in the decline of China's competitiveness on the world stage, but those in the ruling class may be more concerned with consolidating their power within the country. This is not a new problem for the Chinese; it's just repeating the cycle of every dynasty that came before.

On a separate note, Whatsapp has been copying WeChat's features rather than the other way around for years. So perhaps China thinks they can innovate enough on their own to match or outpace the outside world. While I don't think that's impossible, I don't think they've taken into account how much the cultural revolution wiped out a lot of culture and collective wisdom built up over the centuries, and that will put them at much more of a disadvantage than they realize.

Re: China Blocks WhatsApp

#234

Post by KGIII »

bitcuration wrote: post #110
chaostheory wrote: post #40

What the long-term effects will be: China's ruling class further cement their power at the cost of China's innovation and future growth. Interesting and useful things are made when people able share and consume information. e.g. Jack Ma's US visit exposed him to Yahoo. Ma Huateng was clearly inspired by his exposure to ICQ. The list goes on. The same thing happens in the West but it happens a lot more often since the…

China does have one hope, the need of censor will drive its technology innovation and even takes the bulk of its economy GDP. As you hinted China's leading censorship will inspire the world how much human can revert the process of internet, un-internet is what China will make its name for.

Tithe GFW has been around since 1998. I'm not sure it's going to eat the bulk of their GDP and it doesn't appear to have stopped them from innovating.

It's a horrible idea, don't get me wrong, it is just that it doesn't look like it is going to be the end of them.

Re: China Blocks WhatsApp

#235

Post by nylonstrung »

Certhas wrote: post #117
chaostheory wrote: post #40

What the long-term effects will be: China's ruling class further cement their power at the cost of China's innovation and future growth. Interesting and useful things are made when people able share and consume information. e.g. Jack Ma's US visit exposed him to Yahoo. Ma Huateng was clearly inspired by his exposure to ICQ. The list goes on. The same thing happens in the West but it happens a lot more often since the…

Alternative: Innovation happens within the context of Chinas censorship and political regime. Blocking of entrenched western competitors allows home grown solutions to spring up, and local technological know how to develop faster. Capitalism and innovation turn out to work within the context of an illiberal society just fine. Especially as China avoids the mistake of closing itself off to the rest of the world, but s…

Another factor is that Chinese data privacy is much more lax and platforms like WeChat that span so much of consumers' lives have unparalleled access to data which will prove to be major differentiation in the long term.

Re: China Blocks WhatsApp

#236

Post by JBiserkov »

Sargos wrote: post #222
a1371 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this alternative is more reasonable. Those who think China is just a copying machine, underestimate the influence the Chinese engineers had in the landscape of many industries. The hoverboards (the type with wheels) became a household product thanks to them. Conceptualization is not making something actually happen, unlike what the patent-trolls want us to believe. IoT was first proposed in the 90s, but did i…

Chinese engineers didn't make the hoverboard. If anything the hoverboard example disproves your example as they just copied the hoverboard from foreign companies. I know what you're point seems to be even though you aren't communicating it very well. I do think you're missing the fact that producing goods cheaply does not make you a leader in tech. Besides quick fads like hoverboards or fidget spinners China does not…

Have you heard about a certain drone manufacturer, DJI?

Re: China Blocks WhatsApp

#237

Post by nylonstrung »

princetontiger wrote: post #137
chaostheory wrote: post #40

What the long-term effects will be: China's ruling class further cement their power at the cost of China's innovation and future growth. Interesting and useful things are made when people able share and consume information. e.g. Jack Ma's US visit exposed him to Yahoo. Ma Huateng was clearly inspired by his exposure to ICQ. The list goes on. The same thing happens in the West but it happens a lot more often since the…

China hasn't invented anything. Why would this change today? I'm not sure why you're surprised. For a billion people, I think the WSJ says there is maybe 1 or 2 patents assigned to the country.

What about paper, bitch?

Re: China Blocks WhatsApp

#239

Post by fspeech »

chaostheory wrote: post #40

What the long-term effects will be: China's ruling class further cement their power at the cost of China's innovation and future growth. Interesting and useful things are made when people able share and consume information. e.g. Jack Ma's US visit exposed him to Yahoo. Ma Huateng was clearly inspired by his exposure to ICQ. The list goes on. The same thing happens in the West but it happens a lot more often since the…

Just for context, Chinese made 122 millon overseas trips last year https://www.travelchinaguide.com/tourism/2016statistics/outb...

The censorship of social media is mainly to prevent collective action:

"The study showed that, contrary to western conventional wisdom, Chinese social media is as raucous and chaotic as it is everywhere else, so the Daily Mail’s idea of a country full of timid, faceless people with only banal opinions is baloney.

The study also revealed, though, that these outlets are ruthlessly but astutely censored: what gets taken down, apart from the usual suspects such as Falun Gong, pornography, democracy etc, are any posts that could conceivably stimulate collective action, even when the posts are favourable towards the government. You can say more or less what you like in China, in other words, as long as nothing you say might have the effect of getting people out on to the streets."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/22/chines...

Re: China Blocks WhatsApp

#240

Post by balls187 »

jimmies wrote: post #157
ben_jones wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 5 points according to the video: 1) Married Priscilla Chan 2) Learned Mandarin 3) Joined Tsinghua University 4) Befriended Xijinping 5) Offered to let Xijinping name firstborn Personally I have trouble believing 1 and 5 were to get Facebook products into China unabridged. 5 sounds like a joke at a dinner party.

#5 is really low. I cannot believe someone who did that is a great person. This guy's baby is just another tool huh?

The story goes Zuckerberg asked President Xi to give his unborn baby an Honorary Chinese name.

Which still seems gross, but perhaps less so, given the baby would likely have a more common American name.

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