8 ms·

China Unsolved: Who Poisoned Zhu Ling?

56 points by Thevet 8y ago

tonyduncan 8y ago
Why does these posts about China with so few upvotes and no comment keep popping up in the front page of hacker news?!
- seanmcdirmid 8y ago
  Slow news day, so weak competition.
  - wizardforhire 8y ago
    This is pure speculation but given such a “large” news week that falls outside of hn guidelines I’m guessing that perhaps attentions have been diverted. Cue study.
- musage 8y ago
  > does these posts Why are you calling yourself "Tony Duncan"? Why not "Ford Prefect"?
- adventured 8y ago
  There are currently nine stories on the front page with less than 31 points (the count on this story currently) and few comments. There's absolutely nothing unusual about it in fact. China is the world's second largest economy by a large margin, and it's the #2 tech nation also by a large margin, there are naturally going to be increasing numbers of stories about China in general. Please read the guidelines regarding your comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - notveryrational 8y ago
    From the guidelines: "Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." I would echo the OP's concern that most foreign coverage of China and Russia on hacker news seems to be: 1. Entirely off-topic. 2. Negatively biased in some way. This tends to be true of more internet forums than hackernews. Having been "around for a while", my experience is that the wave of negatively flavored articles about US competitors follows the tide of geopolitical competition. I believe these general trends are a result of our nation's propaganda program, where internet discussions and homeland conversations are considered legal operating ground. I believe much of the source material is posted by ordinary people, who have had their perceptions managed and influenced by these propaganda programs. Regarding your point about China being the second largest economy and also a leader in technology - I would expect a significantly different mix of positively biased stories focused on China's leading edge, new innovations, top scientists and mathematicians, etc.
tonyduncan 8y ago
The source of the website looks like just a compilation of extremely biased views.
- tonylinn80 8y ago
  Well, when it comes to stories about China, you can rarely find English articles that are NOT extremely biased. I also suspect someone from hackernews are manually promoting such content
  - seanmcdirmid 8y ago
    That includes global times and China daily, you can’t read those without coming out very biased against China.
    - tonylinn80 8y ago
      They're indeed also very biased, just in the opposite direction. You just can't get unbiased views.
      - seanmcdirmid 8y ago
        No, not even in the opposite directly. Reading China daily and global times makes China to look like a communist dictatorship living in a reality far from the rest of the world. It literally provides a more negative impression of China than CNN.
        tome 8y ago
        Interesting. What's the explanation for that?
        seanmcdirmid 8y ago
        Bad backwards PR on the part of the Chinese government that does more harm than good. China is its own worst enemy in regards to media.
notveryrational 8y ago
Going to guess the CIA?
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  All the publicly available evidence (mostly circumstantial) points to a much more mundane source: jealous roommate.
  - notveryrational 8y ago
    Yes. My comment was flippant, referring to the CIA global assassination program disclosed in increasingly greater detail over the past couple years.
robinduckett 8y ago
Saved you a click: Her roommate at the time who's grandparent was a member of the political elite.
crb912 8y ago
There are more details about this. click: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fbaike.baidu.com%2Fitem%2F%25E6%259C%25B1%25E4%25BB%25A4&edit-text= https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&js=y&p...
mabbo 8y ago
> “Sun’s family background was not distinguished enough to prevent security organs from investigating the situation,” the newspaper haplessly insisted. At least in the west, there is a pretense and expectation that the laws apply equally to all.
- coldtea 8y ago
  They have the exact same pretenses in the east.
  - eternalban 8y ago
    Local cultural and psychological differences require distinct ideological facades but the ruling classes worldwide are all on the same page.
- notveryrational 8y ago
  Outside of the general scaffolding to society that law enforcement plays (e.g. "keeping the order") I have never been personally assisted in any real way by the law. My experience is that law has been gamed and weaponized, wielded generally by the most powerful and able, and that even in situations of crime the police do not take anything that doesn't track to a big precinct objective seriously. I've literally had a police officer laugh at me after I suggested he might be able to investigate a spree of car break-ins and thefts in my neighborhood. A homicide attempt against my family saw the perpetrator - well connected to a network of lawyers and wealthy - escape the jaws of punishment. On the flip side I've been harassed by police and the justice system for minor infractions or entire misunderstandings - and due to political demonstrations have a good sense that I'm registered in both my municipal and national domestic threat scoring and surveillance systems as a "possible threat". I've spoken to friends and family about this and they share the same experiences. I was raised on TV and media that portrayed police as neighbors and good natured civilians, but the reality for me has tracked much closer to thuggishness and intimidation. Yes personal anecdotes only, but stolen bicycles, multiple car windows smashed and robbed, houses broken into, aggressive drivers, calls regarding domestic abuse, dangerous situations - all with friends and family generally encouraging each other not to call the police because it won't do anything to help the situation.
baybal2 8y ago
>Tsinghua The university second only after central party school

56 points by Thevet 8y ago

tonyduncan 8y ago

Why does these posts about China with so few upvotes and no comment keep popping up in the front page of hacker news?!

seanmcdirmid 8y ago
Slow news day, so weak competition.
- wizardforhire 8y ago
  This is pure speculation but given such a “large” news week that falls outside of hn guidelines I’m guessing that perhaps attentions have been diverted. Cue study.
musage 8y ago
> does these posts Why are you calling yourself "Tony Duncan"? Why not "Ford Prefect"?
adventured 8y ago
There are currently nine stories on the front page with less than 31 points (the count on this story currently) and few comments. There's absolutely nothing unusual about it in fact. China is the world's second largest economy by a large margin, and it's the #2 tech nation also by a large margin, there are naturally going to be increasing numbers of stories about China in general. Please read the guidelines regarding your comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- notveryrational 8y ago
  From the guidelines: "Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." I would echo the OP's concern that most foreign coverage of China and Russia on hacker news seems to be: 1. Entirely off-topic. 2. Negatively biased in some way. This tends to be true of more internet forums than hackernews. Having been "around for a while", my experience is that the wave of negatively flavored articles about US competitors follows the tide of geopolitical competition. I believe these general trends are a result of our nation's propaganda program, where internet discussions and homeland conversations are considered legal operating ground. I believe much of the source material is posted by ordinary people, who have had their perceptions managed and influenced by these propaganda programs. Regarding your point about China being the second largest economy and also a leader in technology - I would expect a significantly different mix of positively biased stories focused on China's leading edge, new innovations, top scientists and mathematicians, etc.

tonyduncan 8y ago

The source of the website looks like just a compilation of extremely biased views.

tonylinn80 8y ago
Well, when it comes to stories about China, you can rarely find English articles that are NOT extremely biased. I also suspect someone from hackernews are manually promoting such content
- seanmcdirmid 8y ago
  That includes global times and China daily, you can’t read those without coming out very biased against China.
  - tonylinn80 8y ago
    They're indeed also very biased, just in the opposite direction. You just can't get unbiased views.
    - seanmcdirmid 8y ago
      No, not even in the opposite directly. Reading China daily and global times makes China to look like a communist dictatorship living in a reality far from the rest of the world. It literally provides a more negative impression of China than CNN.
      - tome 8y ago
        Interesting. What's the explanation for that?
        seanmcdirmid 8y ago
        Bad backwards PR on the part of the Chinese government that does more harm than good. China is its own worst enemy in regards to media.

notveryrational 8y ago

Going to guess the CIA?

dsfyu404ed 8y ago
All the publicly available evidence (mostly circumstantial) points to a much more mundane source: jealous roommate.
- notveryrational 8y ago
  Yes. My comment was flippant, referring to the CIA global assassination program disclosed in increasingly greater detail over the past couple years.

robinduckett 8y ago

Saved you a click: Her roommate at the time who's grandparent was a member of the political elite.

crb912 8y ago

There are more details about this. click: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fbaike.baidu.com%2Fitem%2F%25E6%259C%25B1%25E4%25BB%25A4&edit-text= https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&js=y&p...

mabbo 8y ago

> “Sun’s family background was not distinguished enough to prevent security organs from investigating the situation,” the newspaper haplessly insisted. At least in the west, there is a pretense and expectation that the laws apply equally to all.

coldtea 8y ago
They have the exact same pretenses in the east.
- eternalban 8y ago
  Local cultural and psychological differences require distinct ideological facades but the ruling classes worldwide are all on the same page.
notveryrational 8y ago
Outside of the general scaffolding to society that law enforcement plays (e.g. "keeping the order") I have never been personally assisted in any real way by the law. My experience is that law has been gamed and weaponized, wielded generally by the most powerful and able, and that even in situations of crime the police do not take anything that doesn't track to a big precinct objective seriously. I've literally had a police officer laugh at me after I suggested he might be able to investigate a spree of car break-ins and thefts in my neighborhood. A homicide attempt against my family saw the perpetrator - well connected to a network of lawyers and wealthy - escape the jaws of punishment. On the flip side I've been harassed by police and the justice system for minor infractions or entire misunderstandings - and due to political demonstrations have a good sense that I'm registered in both my municipal and national domestic threat scoring and surveillance systems as a "possible threat". I've spoken to friends and family about this and they share the same experiences. I was raised on TV and media that portrayed police as neighbors and good natured civilians, but the reality for me has tracked much closer to thuggishness and intimidation. Yes personal anecdotes only, but stolen bicycles, multiple car windows smashed and robbed, houses broken into, aggressive drivers, calls regarding domestic abuse, dangerous situations - all with friends and family generally encouraging each other not to call the police because it won't do anything to help the situation.

baybal2 8y ago

>Tsinghua The university second only after central party school