
Detained blogger revealed true picture of Chinese information warfare - nabla9
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/detained-blogger-revealed-true-picture-of-chinese-information-warfare-20190125-p50tmq.html
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octosphere
I don't know what to say after reading that. It's so depressing. Imagine being
scared of being arrested for accessing The Internet? People can never be given
_too free_ access to information. The fact people in China have to resort to
bypassing the Great Firewall using various hacks is so sad and depressing, and
I can feel nothing but anger because of it.

~~~
clanrebornwow
I believe you can access any information as long as you don't use that info to
make other people angry.

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AJ007
“Yang’s arrest serves the purpose of granting additional leverage to the
Chinese government in international negotiations for the protection and
promotion of Huawei around the world.”

That isn’t how Americans react. Chinese companies, malicious or otherwise, are
going to face very significant hurdles expanding in the West. Of course, that
could actually be the Chinese central government’s goal.

~~~
gaius
_That isn’t how Americans react. Chinese companies, malicious or otherwise,
are going to face very significant hurdles expanding in the West._

I would like to think so but the reality is, Western companies and consumers
just buy whatever's cheapest on the day.

~~~
cryptonector
Western companies, yes. Western governments... we'll see. The Trump
administration is not going easy on the Chinese government, for one. We'll
have to wait and see about the rest, or about how serious the Trump
administration is about tending to Chinese issues (it appears to be mainly
interested in trade imbalance).

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okket
Why did he fly to China when he must have known that he will get arrested (as
mentioned in the article, he was arrested previously and only got out via
international pressure, under non disclosed arrangements)?

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fouric
I agree that this is extremely odd. Dr. Hengjun is probably one of the more
educated people in the world about China's authoritarian nature. I suspect
that there's something else going on - perhaps they have some hidden leverage
on him?

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pmarreck
I hope the Internet and its corresponding freedom of information destroys
these evil regimes. Forcing ideas and practices on people from the outside
cannot be sustainable.

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StavrosK
What freedom of information? China chose "restrict access to information" as
the method of control, the US chose "deluge people with so much misinformation
they can just choose whatever truth suits them". Don't make the mistake of
thinking one is better, or more free.

~~~
Scipio_Afri
The US government _doesn 't restrict_ freedom of speech to such a degree that
it allows for _non-government actors_ (including political parties, partisans
and those monetarily interested in obfuscation) to decrease the signal to
noise ratio of truth (signal) to misinformation and the like (noise).

That is _a lot different_ than the government itself getting into the
misinformation business itself.

That can be summed up that don't have regulations on limiting speech when it
isn't truthful, except when it incites violence and other limited times like
libel, and even then the legal bar is very high to have the legal basis to
successfully bring a case.

There is no restriction on reporting the truth. Classified information gets
leaked in the press on a fairly frequent basis without any ramifications to
the journalists publishing it. It seems fairly often those who leak it aren't
charged. Those cases where they are charged are when they don't just verbally
say to a reporter off the record, but when they leak documents.

~~~
boomboomsubban
>That is a lot different than the government itself getting into the
misinformation business itself.

At most, it means someone quits working for a government agency and joins a
private party to do their misinformation campaign, see "White House Plumbers,"
though often it is just the government involved.

