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China pressured Concordia University to cancel event with Uighur activist (2019)

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Re: China pressured Concordia University to cancel event with Uighur activist (2019)

#71

Post by sigg3 »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #55

The funny thing is the more they do this the more we get to hear about the plight of the Uighurs.

Not really. They just have to keep up this pressure and people who have financial interests in China will make it go away.

The then Norwegian PM and later ones bent over backwards on behalf of Norwegian salmon when the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel prize, for instance.

It is shameful, but the Uighur genocide is largely being ignored. Nobody wants to be punished by the Chinese market forces.

Re: China pressured Concordia University to cancel event with Uighur activist (2019)

#72

Post by loceng »

loceng wrote: post #27
inglor_cz wrote: post #18

[flagged]

There was a very narrow attempt at this where t-shirts with messaging on them were given out to people going to sit and watch NBA games that would be broadcast [in China]. They'd remove people initially if they didn't take off the shirts but in places like Toronto where you'd have many people wearing them and too much backlash, they just stopped having cameras showing the spectators in the stands.

Here's an example video of an NBA game where this occurs, serendipitously trending on Reddit currently: https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/mj6lep/th...

The CCP wants to prevent the truth from getting out. We can't have a wild west where people can irrationally incite violence based on lies/propaganda of bad actors. We also can't allow a single government entity the power to control or manage that fully - as that is easy for tyrants to takeover - or their preferred method of implementation. There's nuance to the solution - however we must educate society fully on this, as part of military-security efforts - to secure freedom and democracy. Part of countering this needs to be full-time people working to counter the propaganda and educating the population that see it and may be impacted by it; some 3 letter agencies may already be monitoring it but it should be a public, fully transparent effort, where there are counter-propagandists who are known and engage actively on social media, etc.

Re: China pressured Concordia University to cancel event with Uighur activist (2019)

#74

Post by brendyn »

illustriousbear wrote: post #64

Australia is riddled with this kind of Chinese pressure, particularly at universities. My university went as far as to install an ugly out of place confucious statue. This was followed by being pressured to cancel a talk from the Dalai Llama. Then more recently PRC supporting students engaged in suppression of pro Hong Kong students with no consequences.

I went to UTAS and they also have a random out of place Confucius statue, are you from a different University? I heard some rumour that it was donated kinda randomly, and they didn't realise how big it was going to be.

Re: China pressured Concordia University to cancel event with Uighur activist (2019)

#75

Post by throwaway3699 »

RugnirViking wrote: post #70
inglor_cz wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There seems to be some space for flooding Twitter, Instagram and Facebook with photos and short clips taken by activist fans. The NBA bosses would then have to attempt to ban people from carrying their mobile phones to a game - a measure very unlikely to succeed.

None of those platforms are available in China, sadly.

There is a point to it though, enough information is likely to leak through. GFW is not perfect.

Re: China pressured Concordia University to cancel event with Uighur activist (2019)

#76

Post by stjohnswarts »

illustriousbear wrote: post #64

Australia is riddled with this kind of Chinese pressure, particularly at universities. My university went as far as to install an ugly out of place confucious statue. This was followed by being pressured to cancel a talk from the Dalai Llama. Then more recently PRC supporting students engaged in suppression of pro Hong Kong students with no consequences.

Just like Confucius centers that spread propaganda like in the USA? I have no problem if they want to set up a private NGO but they shouldn't be on public university grounds or be connected to them or contributing money to public universities.

Re: China pressured Concordia University to cancel event with Uighur activist (2019)

#77

Post by stjohnswarts »

They've also used influence to keep the Dalai Lama and others from speaking, it's kind of the opposite side of the cancel culture phenomena. The wikipedia article has dozens of examples of China trying to influence local/national politics under the guise of the "Confucius Institutes". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Confucius_Institu...

Re: China pressured Concordia University to cancel event with Uighur activist (2019)

#78

Post by throwaway3699 »

Veen wrote: post #66
leereeves wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boycotts, disinvestment, and sanctions is how civil rights movements are fought. Of course the Chinese people won't know why other countries are pulling away, because their government won't allow that information to reach them and will blame foreign enemies instead, but blaming foreign powers only works for a limited time. And what better strategy would you suggest? What we shouldn't do is overlook abuses in other na…

> Boycotts, disinvestment, and sanctions is how civil rights movements are fought. Boycotting a billion-strong nation is not the same as boycotting Amazon because you don't like its labor policies. China is a technically advanced millennia-old civilization with a huge army, vast geography, and a nationalistic population. If anything, boycotts and sanctions will increase nationalist feeling in China and create an unst…

Even if China doesn't turn into a happy democracy, I will sleep better at night knowing I'm not involved.

Re: China pressured Concordia University to cancel event with Uighur activist (2019)

#79

Post by stjohnswarts »

jplr8922 wrote: post #63
kspacewalk2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To do what, cover up an ongoing totalitarian oppression of millions of people on the basis of their ethnicity?

I agree with you. A month ago I found myself in a debate about the moral equivalency of the US empire vs CCP. My opponent seems to think that any form of power is equaly bad and that the goals and intent does not matter. Therefore, US and China are ''both equals''. I fail to understand how can this form on one-sidedness can come from...

Classic false equivalence. Compare US democratic and republican parties. While they both have their issues the modern D party versus the R party is a clear winner. One supports the general welfare and has humane policies while respecting the will of the majority while the R party recently tried to install a fascist leader over the votes of the majority of the country, the same leader which also tried to have Congress removed from power by sending his demented minions to attack the Capitol building.

Re: China pressured Concordia University to cancel event with Uighur activist (2019)

#80

Post by stjohnswarts »

luckylion wrote: post #67
jplr8922 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you. A month ago I found myself in a debate about the moral equivalency of the US empire vs CCP. My opponent seems to think that any form of power is equaly bad and that the goals and intent does not matter. Therefore, US and China are ''both equals''. I fail to understand how can this form on one-sidedness can come from...

I wouldn't argue that they are equals, but consider that the people you talk to might not care for the stated intents ("we will bring peace to the middle east because we're altruists"), but rather the obvious results ("we've removed stabilizing strong-men and now we have open chattel slavery back in Libya"). China is doing lots of shady stuff, and they too claim that it's for the best -- only in this case we (as in m…

Genocide isn't "shady stuff" it's fucking genocide.
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