
China's growing threat to academic freedom - ilamont
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2019/11/25/commentary/japan-commentary/chinas-growing-threat-academic-freedom/#.Xd6JRlNMEwB
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derefr
Anyone know what parts specifically of the KMT’s story are “left out” in the
version of history promulgated by the PRC, such that a full accounting would
be risky?

My first guess: the strong affiliation between Sun Yat-sen and the party,
since the CCP still seems to respect Sun and his Three Principles and use
(their interpretations of) them to justify CCP tentpoles.

~~~
bgee
As someone who was educated in China for 11 years, I would argue the part of
KMT that CCP left out in my history book was mostly covering up the corruption
and incompetence of KMT.

For example, little did I know that KMT deliberately destroyed a dam to "stop"
Japanese army that killed almost 1 million instantly and later caused a famine
in Henan that caused between 288,006 and 1,484,983 deaths right at my
hometown[0][1].

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938_Yellow_River_flood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938_Yellow_River_flood)

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_famine_of_1942%E2%80%9...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_famine_of_1942%E2%80%9343)

Edit: changed to English wikipedia pages from Chinese

~~~
yorwba
English articles:

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938_Yellow_River_flood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938_Yellow_River_flood)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_famine_of_1942%E2%80%9...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_famine_of_1942%E2%80%9343)

I was going to link your [0] and my [0] as translations on Wikipedia, but then
I noticed my [0] already has a different Chinese article assigned as its
translation.

~~~
bgee
thanks for the links, updated.

------
pjc50
Hardly a "growing threat" to academic freedom in a country that has never
properly had it in the first place.

~~~
rdlecler1
It is a _growing_ threat when that reach starts _extending_ outside their
boarders.

~~~
magduf
Sure, but that isn't happening here. According to the title, the guy was _in_
China, and got arrested there. It shouldn't be any surprise that if you enter
an oppressive nation with material they've banned, you'll be subject to
arrest.

~~~
prewett
If you progress farther than the title, you may discover that the official
banned book was legally purchased by the professor at a Chinese book store. I
think most of use from non-totalitarian states would be a rather surprised if
that happened to us. The article goes on the suggest that the police thought
he fit the profile of someone doing bad stuff, and made up a charge that fit
the criminal persona they’d pegged on him.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=anarchist+cookbook](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=anarchist+cookbook)

You can buy anarchist cookbook and have it delivered in UK, apparently.

2017 a young man was arrested, and tried, for having a copy.

Is the UK a totalitarian state in your opinion?

------
woodandsteel
Lot of discussion here, but no one is really defending the Chinese
government's actions and its general policies on academic freedom. That's
because they are basically indefensible.

You know, the Chinese government tells us that its people are strongly united
behind it, except for a few dissidents. But its actions are those of a
government that is scared to death much of its population opposes it, or at
least supports it very weakly.

------
gen_greyface
> book of documents relating to 20th century Kuomintang Party history.

Wondering what book it may be.

~~~
throwaway1997
KMT is related to Taiwan even though they want closer ties to CCP

~~~
mc32
They , KMT, lost to the CCP in the civil war and fled to Taiwan.

------
zn0rkel
nazi germany in 21st century, can’t wait for new wolfenstein

~~~
multibit
That is actually a great idea, hope someone from id Software sees this.

~~~
dmix
The first AAA game completely banned in China?

------
Koshkin
Stulta lex sed lex.

~~~
retrac
Given that there's no list of forbidden books, nor any realistic way of
determining beforehand whether a specific book would be considered detrimental
to China's security or otherwise would be illegal, is it actually a law?

I am inclined to contrast it to what it's like in my own country. Canada, of
course like every country, has a variety of laws that prohibit certain kinds
of expression.

The difference is that, while you may need to brush up on your legal
scholarship and perhaps consult a lawyer, you can be quite confident, before
you commit an act, whether it is or isn't actually illegal. For matters on the
fringes of jurisprudence, the debate whether it is or isn't banned will occur
publicly at trial, with reasons given and debated based on the text of the
laws in question, and stand as precedent for what counts as illegal under that
law.

The content of a law may be arbitrary, but they aren't arbitrarily made up as
you go. That's not law then, it's the fiat of a dictator.

~~~
tempguy9999
Maybe. I recall shortly after sept 11th 2001 when there was general panic in
the US, some guy there was arrested for possessing a book. He'd just taken it
out of the library.

Here in the UK there are deliberate 'chilling effect' laws which are meant to
discourage trying something by making them sufficiently unspecified as to
catch anything the government wants to (heard about these on the radio 4
programme 'file on 4', it was about export restrictions).

Western governments are vastly better but they can do the same filthy tricks
when it suits them.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Someone was tried for downloading a copy of the Anarchist's Cookbook last year
in the UK, IIRC.

Sorry, it was 2017.

Amazon didn't get shut down for selling it though, strange that. It's almost
like totalitarians like to keep laws on the book they can whip out when they
want to use them.

Reportedly you can be charged for "possessing information that could be used
by a terrorist", a cached copy of a Lockpicking Lawyer vid from YouTube,
maybe. Lock me away!

------
bigpumpkin
He was freed:

[https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/11/15/national/crime-...](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/11/15/national/crime-
legal/hokkaido-university-professor-held-spying-released-china/#.XdJmmldKhRY)

------
ptenk
What’s missing from this article is that Nobu Iwatani previously worked for
defense and foreign ministries in Japan. He is no “civilian”.

~~~
yorwba
This is the same argument used by some to claim that Huawei is the extended
arm of Chinese surveillance agencies (e.g.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20366883](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20366883)
) and I don't think it's very convincing. Work for the government once, lose
civilian status forever?

~~~
Jamwinner
The revolving door between the two, at the very least, warrant closer
scrutiny, even if they don't imply breathless accusation of corruption.

