
I don’t need The Onion, I have China Daily - guyhance
https://www.guyhance.com/2019/06/i-dont-need-the-onion-i-have-china-daily/
======
VanPossum
Since we're on the topic of underhanded media manipulation, I'll just leave
this here:

I saw this entry skyrocket its way to position #2 on the front page, and
within minutes, despite have 130+ upvotes and 30+ comments within 1 hour it is
now suddenly 11 pages down, at position 340 (as of this post). As you can see
this submission does not have any remark from mods and is not marked
"[Flagged]" or anything...

~~~
radcon
HN is no different from every other internet forum: Heavily moderated with
very little transparency -- the perfect recipe for filter bubbles and
groupthink.

The moderators can even apply permanent penalties to individual users (your
comments will sink to the bottom where few will see them) without notice or
justification. It's sort of like a shadow-ban but your comments are still
visible.

------
Shivetya
So a modern day Baghdad Bob?

For those laughing, just remember this when a politician comes forward and
wants to protect you from fake news. It can happen anywhere, it just does not
need to happen all at once for it to come into being.

------
thinkingkong
This is wild. Does anyone have a sense of what people in areas of mainland
China think about the protests?

~~~
peteretep
Do they know there are protests?

~~~
confusedhnguy
We do know. The number of mainlanders that know about the protests is probably
larger than HK's entire population.

If you can read Chinese, go to weibo or tieba or tianya or hupu, you can see
posts about the protests. Surely they may get removed after a while but I can
assure you that one doesn't gets arrested just for posting the news and
discuss about it a bit. The number of off-line discussions cannot be
estimated.

Proof (a screenshot from NGA):
[https://imgur.com/a/FbofCOK](https://imgur.com/a/FbofCOK)

Please remember that HK is physically connected to mainland China and 83.2
million people crossed the border in 2015[0]. Hell, even in 1984 some people
still know the government's dirty secrets, it would be extremely arrogant to
assume we know nothing.

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

------
wyuenho
More importantly, YouTube now labels all media channels like BBC or RT by
their funding sources, where's that disclaimer on any PRC media outlets?

------
rhokstar
The Onion would probably post something similar :)

------
jrvxo
[http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201906/17/WS5d06d79ca3103d...](http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201906/17/WS5d06d79ca3103dbf143287c7.html)

~~~
whatshisface
> _Among these social groups was an alliance of more than 30 local political,
> business and legal dignitaries who support the proposed amendments to the
> SAR 's extradition law._

Why does anyone in HK support the amendments (or is this fake news)?

~~~
ghostbrainalpha
That is the point. The people of Hong Kong are marching to protest China's new
extradition policy.

[https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/06/16/hong-kong-
protes...](https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/06/16/hong-kong-protests-
carrie-lam-orig.cnn)

China Daily is trying to almost completely misrepresent the reason for the
protests. The only way they could make it more "opposite day" is by calling
the protest a celebration festival for the love of Chinese authority in Hong
Kong.

The funny thing about the misrepresentation is that the U.S. isn't really even
meddling. We care our trade deficit with China and tariffs than human rights
abuses in China.

~~~
FabHK
Well, there's a bipartisan bill that threatens to abolish HK's treatment as
separate from mainland China for trade purposes, if HK's autonomy becomes
insufficient.

(And, I despise Ted Cruz, but kudos for supporting that bill.)

[https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/06/14/us-senators-table-
bill...](https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/06/14/us-senators-table-bill-amend-
hong-kong-trade-policy-requiring-new-report-chinas-exploitation-city/)

------
NotPaidToPost
When people are used to this they can't easily tell what is satire anymore.

I remember a few years back China Daily (or was it the People's Daily) quoted
The Onion because the 'journalist' hadn't realised it was a satirical
website...

Edit:

Here it is. It was the People's Daily:
[https://www.cnn.com/2012/11/27/world/asia/north-korea-
china-...](https://www.cnn.com/2012/11/27/world/asia/north-korea-china-
onion/index.html)

~~~
guyhance
Oh the irony...

------
seomis
What is so absurd about the US trying to influence the legislation or
elections of another region?

------
mmmad123
I know the government did many shit things. But, for this Hong Kong protest,
can anyone tell me why they want to protest? Is the government doing the right
on "controversial" extradition?

------
rjzzleep
Maybe you ought to read CNN for a more nuanced view on this.

People claiming everyone is against this, ought to remember that it fits with
long term policies of the current government in Hong Kong. Someone must have
elected them.

> Seen in light of this pattern of conduct by Hong Kong's government, the
> extradition bill is nothing new.

[https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/11/opinions/hong-kong-
protes...](https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/11/opinions/hong-kong-protests-
government-abuse-judiciary-cheung/index.html)

~~~
ltbarcly3
No, I'm afraid you are incorrect. Also the quality of reporting from CNN is
extremely suspect these days, and you must be especially careful when reading
opinion pieces written by Chinese nationals, as there is a large, well funded
program by the Chinese government to coordinate opinions and opinion leaders
among Chinese expat communities.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/world/asia/hong-kong-
chie...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/world/asia/hong-kong-chief-
executive-ce-election-carrie-lam-john-tsang.html)

~~~
rjzzleep
Only partly. First of all the British are the ones that made sure there would
be no general elections. They basically gambled that they would keep their
power by appeasing the PRC.

And the British were at the forefront of deciding who would be part of the
1200 man election council to appoint the CEO of Hong Kong.

Pretending like we can just scrap the history of a place and our own hand in
it just because we don't like the outcome is disingenous at best.

~~~
ltbarcly3
> "Pretending like we can just scrap the history of a place and our own hand
> in it"

If two people commit a crime by one person first knocking the victim down and
the second person tying them up, good luck trying to defend the second person
by saying "we can't scrap the history of the crime and the first criminals
hand it". Ethically it does not matter whether or not someone made it easier
for you to commit a crime. In fact, according to most legal traditions it
would be considered _worse_.

No, I think the people you get to put the full blame on is whoever is
currently doing the oppressing.

(Finally, I reject the idea that 'we' somehow inherit blame from hundreds of
years ago when that guilt is used in an attempt to rationalize current
oppression.)

