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Chinese authorities install app on phones of people entering Xinjiang

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Re: Chinese authorities install app on phones of people entering Xinjiang

#41

Post by Japhy_Ryder »

Iv wrote: post #36
murbard2 wrote: post #6

The US is forcing its tourists to give away a list of all their social media accounts and all their email accounts. If you're a foreign journalist writing pseudonymously for your safety, you must now share that information with the US government to enter the country. This isn't quite on the level of forcing people to install malware on their phone yet, but give it a couple years.

That's worse IMO. I can (and would) opt out of taking my phone to China. I can't easily dodge US' requirements. These two bully super-powers really give me a bad feeling about the future...

I can (and would) opt out of going to China.

I'm all set with authoritarian dictatorships with torture camps and organ harvesting.

Re: Chinese authorities install app on phones of people entering Xinjiang

#42

Post by saagarjha »

Circuits wrote: post #38

I find myself torn when it comes to how the Chinese are handling Muslims and the Islamic religion in general. One one hand, I realize the religion is dangerous and pervasive. On the other hand I want people to be able to believe what they want to believe and practice those beliefs; however, at what expense? If the practice of those beliefs leads to cultures where sharia law is the rule of law? Yes, very torn here. ED…

Islam is not "dangerous and pervasive".

Re: Chinese authorities install app on phones of people entering Xinjiang

#43

Post by Circuits »

saagarjha wrote: post #42
Circuits wrote: post #38

I find myself torn when it comes to how the Chinese are handling Muslims and the Islamic religion in general. One one hand, I realize the religion is dangerous and pervasive. On the other hand I want people to be able to believe what they want to believe and practice those beliefs; however, at what expense? If the practice of those beliefs leads to cultures where sharia law is the rule of law? Yes, very torn here. ED…

Islam is not "dangerous and pervasive".

It certainly seems to be dangerous and pervasive... based on it's history in our world.

Re: Chinese authorities install app on phones of people entering Xinjiang

#45

Post by tehjoker »

Circuits wrote: post #38

I find myself torn when it comes to how the Chinese are handling Muslims and the Islamic religion in general. One one hand, I realize the religion is dangerous and pervasive. On the other hand I want people to be able to believe what they want to believe and practice those beliefs; however, at what expense? If the practice of those beliefs leads to cultures where sharia law is the rule of law? Yes, very torn here. ED…

I would recommend meeting an actual Muslim or reading less hysterical material about Islam. Even better perhaps, try reading about the history of Western imperialism in the middle East and a lot of the issues will suddenly become clearer.

Re: Chinese authorities install app on phones of people entering Xinjiang

#46

Post by rwmj »

mc32 wrote: post #40
rwmj wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ESTA will be a bit different, but the exact question from the US visa application is: 7. Public-facing social media platforms and identifiers/handles used during the last five years. This includes any websites or applications the applicant has used to create or share content (photos, videos, status updates, etc.) as part of a public profile. I was advised by my lawyer that this covers Reddit and HN, and Facebook/…

Haven’t read up on this, but looks like if they’re looking for graphs they would include linked in profiles too...

Yeah I guess they have a watchlist of social media accounts and look for anyone who applies with one of those accounts or is N steps away (where hopefully N <= 1, because anything else leads to madness).

Re: Chinese authorities install app on phones of people entering Xinjiang

#47

Post by pjc50 »

bovermyer wrote: post #4

The title is a little misleading, as it's a region of China and not the entirety. However, the implications are still ominous. I'm curious, how did China develop into such a police state? Anyone able to point me to some reading on the subject?

China was never really not a police state of some sort. The ancient Imperial system broke down at the dawning of the modern era, and the Kuomintang "Republic of China" arose to replace it. It never managed to achieve either internal security or nationwide fair elections, and got into an extremely brutal fight with Communist insurgents. The communists were forced into retreat (Long March) during which most of them died - but the survivors, Mao among them, were inured to brutality. Eventually the Communists won on the mainland, leaving the Kuomintang in control of the island we now call Taiwan. The shooting stopped but the war is still officially in progress, hence all the weirdness around recognising Taiwan.

The key to Communism in the Maoist approach was absolute central control and the sweeping away of all obstacles; if you stood in the way of, objected to, or even were insufficiently enthusiastic about its plans you would be murdered.

Economic control was gradually loosened in the latter half of the 20th century, but political control remains tight.

Re: Chinese authorities install app on phones of people entering Xinjiang

#48

Post by Circuits »

tehjoker wrote: post #45
Circuits wrote: post #38

I find myself torn when it comes to how the Chinese are handling Muslims and the Islamic religion in general. One one hand, I realize the religion is dangerous and pervasive. On the other hand I want people to be able to believe what they want to believe and practice those beliefs; however, at what expense? If the practice of those beliefs leads to cultures where sharia law is the rule of law? Yes, very torn here. ED…

I would recommend meeting an actual Muslim or reading less hysterical material about Islam. Even better perhaps, try reading about the history of Western imperialism in the middle East and a lot of the issues will suddenly become clearer.

Most of my information comes from history books and actually reading the Koran. I have also studied a bit on what life is like in countries where Sharia law is practiced such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan and tbh it's not looking to hot for Islam.

Re: Chinese authorities install app on phones of people entering Xinjiang

#49

Post by pmiller2 »

mc32 wrote: post #40
rwmj wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ESTA will be a bit different, but the exact question from the US visa application is: 7. Public-facing social media platforms and identifiers/handles used during the last five years. This includes any websites or applications the applicant has used to create or share content (photos, videos, status updates, etc.) as part of a public profile. I was advised by my lawyer that this covers Reddit and HN, and Facebook/…

Haven’t read up on this, but looks like if they’re looking for graphs they would include linked in profiles too...

Even if you don’t post anything on LinkedIn besides your work experience, arguably, that would count as “status updates.” This would seem to include any number of dating sites and other things people don’t typically think of as “social media,” as well.

Re: Chinese authorities install app on phones of people entering Xinjiang

#50

Post by pjc50 »

Circuits wrote: post #43
saagarjha wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Islam is not "dangerous and pervasive".

It certainly seems to be dangerous and pervasive... based on it's history in our world.

On the historical record, it's not especially more dangerous than Christianity.
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