Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

nzz.ch

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 374 posts

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#51

Post by unabirra »

ipnon wrote: post #28
ramraj07 wrote: post #15

The professor should be fired and the university punished (doubtful), but the student was also an idiot to do what he did. It’s not like he was some random guy who just tweeted at China, he lived in wuhan for years and has actual family there now, being critical of a totalitarian government in that scenario is the height of monumental stupidity. It’s ironic that the article paints him as methodological and thoughtful…

But nominally, you can be a political fool in Switzerland without professional consequence.[a] It seems he is being forced to play by the social rules of China in Switzerland. It's fair to say his tweets could jeopardize his ability to return to China and secure a professorship or research position, but to suffer professional consequences in Switzerland, in the heart of Europe, for Chinese political incorrectness is…

Only if the post praises BLM and criticizes MAGA... Lots of people have lost their jobs (and even dropped from public funded colleges) because of this. Not sure if you are really not aware of this, or if your comment is not in good faith.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#53

Post by [deleted] »

ramraj07 wrote: post #15

The professor should be fired and the university punished (doubtful), but the student was also an idiot to do what he did. It’s not like he was some random guy who just tweeted at China, he lived in wuhan for years and has actual family there now, being critical of a totalitarian government in that scenario is the height of monumental stupidity. It’s ironic that the article paints him as methodological and thoughtful…

[deleted]

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#54

Post by rgoulter »

_Microft wrote: post #10
thaumasiotes wrote: post #5

> In the United States too, a quarter of the country’s Confucius Institutes have been shut down in recent years. Universities no longer wanted to give legitimacy to an institution that defended fundamentally different values. Well, that makes a statement about the purpose of a university.

Are you familiar with the „paradox of tolerance“ already? You can read about it here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance First paragraph copied for your convenience: „The paradox of tolerance states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant. Karl Popper described it as the seemingly paradoxical idea that in order to ma…

I think that summary misses out how much Popper argues should be tolerated. e.g. in the quote in the article, Popper writes:

> In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#55

Post by guerrilla »

nickik wrote: post #37
hermitsings wrote: post #4

Imagine CCP becoming world leader.

Hopeful they at least dont want make endless war in the middle east.

That would be very unnatural. States make war for their interests.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offensive_realism

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#56

Post by [deleted] »

guerrilla wrote: post #49
divbzero wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. I find this only slightly less disturbing than China’s behavior. Stopping a visitor at the border for social posts of acquaintances is almost as bad as writing nasty emails threatening to do so. (Edit: Ismail was ultimately granted entry [1] but still shameful incident and disturbing that it could happen at all.) [1]: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/9/3/harvard-student-...

> Stopping a visitor at the border for social posts of acquaintances is almost as bad as writing nasty emails threatening to do so. Why is it not the same or worse? Now I suffer consequences for the totally legal actions of somone I know?

[deleted]

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#57

Post by cblconfederate »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #5

> In the United States too, a quarter of the country’s Confucius Institutes have been shut down in recent years. Universities no longer wanted to give legitimacy to an institution that defended fundamentally different values. Well, that makes a statement about the purpose of a university.

The university system developed inside the cultural western tradition, it didn't fall from the sky. It most definitely has to self-preserve. But i m curious what you think the purpose of a university is

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#58

Post by guerrilla »

thew2434234 wrote: post #42

Yes, China should instead be a soft banana-republic like India and surrender its whole historiography and narrative, and thereby its own self-understanding, to the West. Then, if someone speaks up for India or the Indian society, they can all be called "Hindutva" and then the West can ban them from the Indology conferences and the academics can all rejoice for having banned the Swastika-worshipping "original" Nazis.…

Nationalism isn't simply speaking up for onesself. In any case, what instances are you refering to? You assure us that this happened but didn't bother linking to anything. That's not an efficient way to convince people of something.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#59

Post by cblconfederate »

traveler01 wrote: post #52

The content of this article clearly shows how hurt the concept of free speach is nowadays. You tweet some stuff and you're life is destroyed. Simple. No warning or whatsoever, you just destroy your life because you angered China.

Or you angered america, or the US political parties Or women or trans people or nonbinary people. It's like , if you don't draw a hard line, the virus keeps expanding

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#60

Post by rini17 »

spacebeer wrote: post #47
ramraj07 wrote: post #15

The professor should be fired and the university punished (doubtful), but the student was also an idiot to do what he did. It’s not like he was some random guy who just tweeted at China, he lived in wuhan for years and has actual family there now, being critical of a totalitarian government in that scenario is the height of monumental stupidity. It’s ironic that the article paints him as methodological and thoughtful…

So the best way to fight totalitarian regimes is to remain silent? That will work for sure, as it always did

No, that conclusion does not follow from parent.
Post reply on HN