
How China’s Rulers Control Society: Opportunity, Nationalism, Fear - PeOe
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/25/world/asia/china-freedoms-control.html
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mtgx
> “and the leaders don’t care about me.”

That line can be read in two ways, especially under an AI-controlled society.
She'll be discarded quickly if either the AI system or anyone in power sees
her as a threat.

As for NYT's conclusion that "the opposite" has happened, I think it's a
little early to call that conclusion. Yes, China is becoming more
authoritarian because of AI, but I think people have a tendency to want
freedom, even if they live subjugated for decades. The more the leash gets
tighter around their necks, the more they'll want it. And if China suffers a
great economic crisis, that might be the excuse people need to organize and
overthrow their government.

The wild card here is how good the surveillance and AI will be in the future
by the time that happens. If the Chinese government has _flawless_ execution
against protesters, then it may be able to stop the protesters before they
organize, but this is also a matter of how many potential protesters there
will be. If it's a million, the government may have a good chance of stopping
that protest. If it's 200 million, it may not be able to do that, despite its
best preparations.

And one more thing. Subjugation also works best when you do it in a "boil the
frog" style. If you do it too quickly, most people would have already lived in
a freer society, so they may not stand for much stricter rules than what they
were accustomed to. I feel that China may be moving a little too quickly with
its implementation of the "Perfect Citizen" social credit system and with its
punishments. It's not even implemented at full scale yet and millions have
already suffered negative consequences due to it. Dictator Xi is not giving
people time to accustom to the new system and accept it, and this may lead to
his downfall.

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blacksmith_tb
It could be read that way, though don't you think the intention behind it was
"I am beneath their notice" not "I am disposable"?

I thought Kim Stanley Robinson's vision of the PRC's surveillance state in Red
Moon[1] was interesting, in his future version political infighting reduces
its effectiveness enough that people can still slip through some cracks.

1: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38496710-red-
moon](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38496710-red-moon)

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baybal2
A strange trend I noticed: critical China news tend to pop up close to 9:00
EST, and at 9:00 _PST_ positive China news tend to pop up, and negative ones
get buried.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
It's all about when large masses of HN users show up at work, check their
email, get their coffee and post on HN and the demographics/opinions/ideology
of those users. If you make a comment that is critical of SV (and SV's
definition of "critical" is highly inclusive) or doesn't take the official
California compliant line on some political issue when you're on lunch break
on the East coast you're gonna get down-voted hard. HN users on the west coast
might be slightly more pro-China than the east coast and you're noticing the
effects of that.

