6 ms·

A lot of bad press for China lately: * This article on renditions * IP theft (e.g.: https://www.ip-watch.org/2018/04/04/us-imprisons-chinese-scientist-theft-e

A lot of bad press for China lately: * This article on renditions * IP theft (e.g.: https://www.ip-watch.org/2018/04/04/us-imprisons-chinese-scientist-theft-engineered-rice-seeds/ https://www.ip-watch.org/2018/04/04/us-imprisons-chinese-sci...) * Drug peddling and money laundering (http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article207911324.html http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article207911324.html) * Unfair trade practices and trade war (no link needed for this on HN) And this only covers what happens outside of China.

volgo 9y ago
Relevant: http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html
- common_ 9y ago
  Actually, irrelevant. There would be more articles that are critical of China if newspaper publishers weren't paranoid about losing a shot at a payday buyout from a Chinese media firm.
  - thanksgiving 9y ago
    Are you sure? My uninformed guess would be to assume that if you're critical and they can't just shut you down, they'll more likely pay you a reasonable amount to shut up.
    - bostik 9y ago
      Sounds unlikely as that would only incentivise being openly (and vocally) critical. If you have the resources and the time to invest in a long game, scorched earth strategy is likely going to be more effective.
  - volgo 9y ago
    Wrong. There's negative China articles coming out every day. If you just browse HN you'll find a fair selection of them
- adventured 9y ago
  The things mentioned are occuring and should be covered in the press globally. It's called being the new superpower on the block. Welcome to the party of relentless, global, 24/7 criticism, China. It's going to get dramatically worse with each passing year and every action taken (no matter what that is). If they're already violently annexing territory 4x the size of Texas from half a dozen neighboring nations, imagine what they'll be doing with a $20 trillion economy and $500+ billion in military spending in about a decade. Who's going to restrain their behavior then? My guess is: nobody.
  - mschuster91 9y ago
    > Who's going to restrain their behavior then? My guess is: nobody. It is very well possible that the downfall of the Chinese regime will come from the interior. The regime depends on economic growth like an addict on heroin - they need to feed 1.3B people, of which many are transitioning from poverty to middle-class level. And much of the Western world is nearing saturation with Chinese products (and in addition, the Western economies aren't growing that much as before themselves!) - that explains the Chinese investments across Africa. They're on quite a gamble at the moment... either a modernized Africa will be the new target market so that the Chinese economy can grow or they're screwed. The question is: will Africa get up to speed before the Chinese economy collapses from a lack of growth?
  - glangdale 9y ago
    My guess as to who (or what) will restrain their behavior: demographics. China is a dynamic country with a powerful economy, but they also have a enormous demographic time bomb ticking (an aging population and a low birth rate - one that isn't responding that well to relaxing population control laws). Also, as for violently annexing territory, they are mild-mannered compared to pretty much every other 'young superpower'. It's worth putting this in perspective with the historical behavior of European superpowers as well as the USA and USSR.
_bxg1 9y ago
Almost as bad as Facebook's recent press
YetAnotherNick 9y ago
I don't think China considers it as bad press. In fact, anything that shows that China as a strong country is what China want and doing the thing that foreigners approve is a second priority.
- wccrawford 9y ago
  For that matter, there are plenty of people in the US that feel news like this about the US is fine because we're "obviously superior", etc. I'm guessing most countries have a large population of their residents that simply accept whatever their country does as their right, somehow.
imglorp 9y ago
Not even lately, as it's a long recurring pattern. Very relevant story: I was in Cleveland in 1989 at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre, where 10,000 student protesters were killed [1]. At the time, we know there were many deaths through word of mouth (our Chinese students stayed in touch with friends and family back home) but nobody knew the actual numbers. So we held a local protest to support them, lots of white and Chinese students, in downtown Cleveland. There were Chinese men in sunglasses and trench coats with long-lens cameras taking pictures of everyone present. The Chinese students told us they were government political officers, keeping tabs on them, and they were accustomed to seeing them. They feared retribution on their families back home, and on themselves if they went back home. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989#Death_toll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1... PS. When asked, at the time, why a billion people don't stand up, a common reply was "such a people deserve such a government." At the time they were largely agrarian and pre-internet; only people with good information or who had travelled abroad knew how bad they really had it.
- powerapple 9y ago
  not true at all. Old Chinese may hate Chinese government, young Chinese abroad very much support their government. And it is all economics, bad living standard had cause people to have more hatred.

volgo 9y ago

Relevant: http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

common_ 9y ago
Actually, irrelevant. There would be more articles that are critical of China if newspaper publishers weren't paranoid about losing a shot at a payday buyout from a Chinese media firm.
- thanksgiving 9y ago
  Are you sure? My uninformed guess would be to assume that if you're critical and they can't just shut you down, they'll more likely pay you a reasonable amount to shut up.
  - bostik 9y ago
    Sounds unlikely as that would only incentivise being openly (and vocally) critical. If you have the resources and the time to invest in a long game, scorched earth strategy is likely going to be more effective.
- volgo 9y ago
  Wrong. There's negative China articles coming out every day. If you just browse HN you'll find a fair selection of them
adventured 9y ago
The things mentioned are occuring and should be covered in the press globally. It's called being the new superpower on the block. Welcome to the party of relentless, global, 24/7 criticism, China. It's going to get dramatically worse with each passing year and every action taken (no matter what that is). If they're already violently annexing territory 4x the size of Texas from half a dozen neighboring nations, imagine what they'll be doing with a $20 trillion economy and $500+ billion in military spending in about a decade. Who's going to restrain their behavior then? My guess is: nobody.
- mschuster91 9y ago
  > Who's going to restrain their behavior then? My guess is: nobody. It is very well possible that the downfall of the Chinese regime will come from the interior. The regime depends on economic growth like an addict on heroin - they need to feed 1.3B people, of which many are transitioning from poverty to middle-class level. And much of the Western world is nearing saturation with Chinese products (and in addition, the Western economies aren't growing that much as before themselves!) - that explains the Chinese investments across Africa. They're on quite a gamble at the moment... either a modernized Africa will be the new target market so that the Chinese economy can grow or they're screwed. The question is: will Africa get up to speed before the Chinese economy collapses from a lack of growth?
- glangdale 9y ago
  My guess as to who (or what) will restrain their behavior: demographics. China is a dynamic country with a powerful economy, but they also have a enormous demographic time bomb ticking (an aging population and a low birth rate - one that isn't responding that well to relaxing population control laws). Also, as for violently annexing territory, they are mild-mannered compared to pretty much every other 'young superpower'. It's worth putting this in perspective with the historical behavior of European superpowers as well as the USA and USSR.

_bxg1 9y ago

Almost as bad as Facebook's recent press

YetAnotherNick 9y ago

I don't think China considers it as bad press. In fact, anything that shows that China as a strong country is what China want and doing the thing that foreigners approve is a second priority.

wccrawford 9y ago
For that matter, there are plenty of people in the US that feel news like this about the US is fine because we're "obviously superior", etc. I'm guessing most countries have a large population of their residents that simply accept whatever their country does as their right, somehow.

imglorp 9y ago

Not even lately, as it's a long recurring pattern. Very relevant story: I was in Cleveland in 1989 at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre, where 10,000 student protesters were killed [1]. At the time, we know there were many deaths through word of mouth (our Chinese students stayed in touch with friends and family back home) but nobody knew the actual numbers. So we held a local protest to support them, lots of white and Chinese students, in downtown Cleveland. There were Chinese men in sunglasses and trench coats with long-lens cameras taking pictures of everyone present. The Chinese students told us they were government political officers, keeping tabs on them, and they were accustomed to seeing them. They feared retribution on their families back home, and on themselves if they went back home. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989#Death_toll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1... PS. When asked, at the time, why a billion people don't stand up, a common reply was "such a people deserve such a government." At the time they were largely agrarian and pre-internet; only people with good information or who had travelled abroad knew how bad they really had it.

powerapple 9y ago
not true at all. Old Chinese may hate Chinese government, young Chinese abroad very much support their government. And it is all economics, bad living standard had cause people to have more hatred.