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Honest question: Just curious on how China explain this to its citizens? Or do they not even explain it and just do it. Is it similar to USA where we say its t

Honest question: Just curious on how China explain this to its citizens? Or do they not even explain it and just do it. Is it similar to USA where we say its to catch the "bad guys". I guess they could argue they are "protecting" their citizens by perhaps lowering the security attack surface.

kevin_b_er 9y ago
Lián. Truths about things like corruption must be suppressed, because they don't look good. Thus allowing people to talk about such things is bad.
- agentgt 9y ago
  That is what they say (the government) or is that what is implied (by the government) or is that what you inferred?
goldenkey 9y ago
Another HNer said that it has been missing from China for a while now, redirected to something called "Tom's Skype." I'm not wholly surprised considering that even the official Google Play Store is banned.
- PakG1 9y ago
  That's just their local official distributor. It's been that way for a long time. http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1353906/microsofts-skype-run-under-new-joint-venture-china http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1353906/micro...
PakG1 9y ago
Who says there are explanations? It's basically an accepted and unavoidable fact of life that you can't access certain foreign Internet services at times. It is what it is.
- agentgt 9y ago
  Well I don't know for sure hence the question. I mean I'm used to the United States where almost anything the government does the government has an answer for it (albeit probably not good answers). I guess in large part the free press sort of forces this. So are you saying the government doesn't issue an official stance and that they just do it?
  - PakG1 9y ago
    Yes. There are various sensitive times when foreign Internet services become particularly unusable. No explanation is provided for these times, and everyone basically knows what's going on. Most recent example: https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/25/whatsapp-blocked-in-china/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/25/whatsapp-blocked-in-china/
ma2rten 9y ago
In part this can be explained by different cultural values. Chinese value social harmony over individual freedom.
- agentgt 9y ago
  I totally understand that but does the government say something or have an official stance? Or is it just inherently implied not to question them. I have to imagine they say something like "we are doing this to protect" etc. etc. but maybe not.
- opportune 9y ago
  If it's implied not to question the government "for the sake of social harmony" I'm just going to interpret that as "for the sake of not getting your ass thrown in prison". Clearly Chinese culture doesn't always amount to rolling over for the sake of social harmony, just see: Boxer Rebellion, Tiananmen Square, Communist Revolution, Xinhai Revolution, etc. We have no way of knowing how supportive the Chinese truly are of their government if that support is given under the threat of imprisonment or loss of economic opportunities (up to and including those of family members. Under an oppressive dictatorship that persecutes freedom of speech by force, "social harmony" is really just trying to survive. In that sense, I'm sure North Korean citizens value social harmony too
rqs 9y ago
China government will not usually explain why a specific software/service should not be accessible by Chinese people. But when they do, they usually use some reason like: They must operate according to China's law. If you dig into the law though, you will find it's very hard for an international online company to follow some of them. So often you end up with a special version for China only and/or corporate with Chinese company. Skype did it before, it was called TOM-Skype[0], operated by TOM.com[1]. Then, TOM.com gone out of business, and TOM-Skype was discontinued. [0] https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOM-Skype https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOM-Skype (In Chinese) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOM_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOM_Group
l5870uoo9y 9y ago
They don't have to explain much. Chinese protectionism paved the way for its tech sector while avoiding the security risks and loss of control of being dominated by foreign companies.
leggomylibro 9y ago
China's CCP has a fairly explicit bargain with its population. "We give you previously-unseen economic growth and prosperity. You do not ask questions." So this falls under 'not asking questions' and 'giving growth/prosperity' when a local copy springs up in its wake. Eventually the CCP will run into the wall of reality when it comes to 'previously-unseen growth', but the market can stay irrational longer than we can stay solvent. And also, they have no qualms about just shooting people, which usually seems to give an autocratic party a few extra years if nothing else.
jdtang13 9y ago
No one here has given you a good answer because they simply don't know what day-to-day life in China is actually like. If you're a young and reasonably-educated Chinese person, you probably wouldn't notice that the app was taken off the store. If you did notice, you would probably see a message from the government about the app not complying with its standards. Then, you might grumble about it on the internet forums, poking a few jokes at the government, with the knowledge that this is just how tech in China currently works at the moment. Then you'd just migrate to WeChat to handle your voice calls.

kevin_b_er 9y ago

Lián. Truths about things like corruption must be suppressed, because they don't look good. Thus allowing people to talk about such things is bad.

agentgt 9y ago
That is what they say (the government) or is that what is implied (by the government) or is that what you inferred?

goldenkey 9y ago

Another HNer said that it has been missing from China for a while now, redirected to something called "Tom's Skype." I'm not wholly surprised considering that even the official Google Play Store is banned.

PakG1 9y ago
That's just their local official distributor. It's been that way for a long time. http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1353906/microsofts-skype-run-under-new-joint-venture-china http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1353906/micro...

PakG1 9y ago

Who says there are explanations? It's basically an accepted and unavoidable fact of life that you can't access certain foreign Internet services at times. It is what it is.

agentgt 9y ago
Well I don't know for sure hence the question. I mean I'm used to the United States where almost anything the government does the government has an answer for it (albeit probably not good answers). I guess in large part the free press sort of forces this. So are you saying the government doesn't issue an official stance and that they just do it?
- PakG1 9y ago
  Yes. There are various sensitive times when foreign Internet services become particularly unusable. No explanation is provided for these times, and everyone basically knows what's going on. Most recent example: https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/25/whatsapp-blocked-in-china/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/25/whatsapp-blocked-in-china/

ma2rten 9y ago

In part this can be explained by different cultural values. Chinese value social harmony over individual freedom.

agentgt 9y ago
I totally understand that but does the government say something or have an official stance? Or is it just inherently implied not to question them. I have to imagine they say something like "we are doing this to protect" etc. etc. but maybe not.
opportune 9y ago
If it's implied not to question the government "for the sake of social harmony" I'm just going to interpret that as "for the sake of not getting your ass thrown in prison". Clearly Chinese culture doesn't always amount to rolling over for the sake of social harmony, just see: Boxer Rebellion, Tiananmen Square, Communist Revolution, Xinhai Revolution, etc. We have no way of knowing how supportive the Chinese truly are of their government if that support is given under the threat of imprisonment or loss of economic opportunities (up to and including those of family members. Under an oppressive dictatorship that persecutes freedom of speech by force, "social harmony" is really just trying to survive. In that sense, I'm sure North Korean citizens value social harmony too

rqs 9y ago

China government will not usually explain why a specific software/service should not be accessible by Chinese people. But when they do, they usually use some reason like: They must operate according to China's law. If you dig into the law though, you will find it's very hard for an international online company to follow some of them. So often you end up with a special version for China only and/or corporate with Chinese company. Skype did it before, it was called TOM-Skype[0], operated by TOM.com[1]. Then, TOM.com gone out of business, and TOM-Skype was discontinued. [0] https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOM-Skype https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOM-Skype (In Chinese) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOM_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOM_Group

l5870uoo9y 9y ago

They don't have to explain much. Chinese protectionism paved the way for its tech sector while avoiding the security risks and loss of control of being dominated by foreign companies.

leggomylibro 9y ago

China's CCP has a fairly explicit bargain with its population. "We give you previously-unseen economic growth and prosperity. You do not ask questions." So this falls under 'not asking questions' and 'giving growth/prosperity' when a local copy springs up in its wake. Eventually the CCP will run into the wall of reality when it comes to 'previously-unseen growth', but the market can stay irrational longer than we can stay solvent. And also, they have no qualms about just shooting people, which usually seems to give an autocratic party a few extra years if nothing else.

jdtang13 9y ago

No one here has given you a good answer because they simply don't know what day-to-day life in China is actually like. If you're a young and reasonably-educated Chinese person, you probably wouldn't notice that the app was taken off the store. If you did notice, you would probably see a message from the government about the app not complying with its standards. Then, you might grumble about it on the internet forums, poking a few jokes at the government, with the knowledge that this is just how tech in China currently works at the moment. Then you'd just migrate to WeChat to handle your voice calls.