5 ms·

Is this surprising at all?

by reustle 8y ago

shoulderfake 8y ago
NOPE
- dang 8y ago
  Please don't do this here.
  - Markoff 8y ago
    maybe add some flair to your name that you are mod, some people may be unaware of that
    - dang 8y ago
      We've thought about that off and on but somehow it doesn't feel like a fit for HN. Readers here figure things out.
busterarm 8y ago
Seriously. What did she think was going to happen? She's lucky they were nice enough to wait out the rest of her visa instead of revoking it and deporting her on the spot. Shrewd move on their part for that, btw. If she was a citizen they would have just disappeared or killed her.
- Sag0Sag0 8y ago
  That's a bit much. It's unlikely that even if she was a citizen they would have disappeared or killed her. More like give her a firm warning and lecture and a vague threat or two of what may be to come if she keeps it up.
  - busterarm 8y ago
    https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/23/asia/china-lawyers-disappeared/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/23/asia/china-lawyers-disappeare... https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/29/the-disappeared-china-renditions-kidnapping/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/29/the-disappeared-china-r... https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/09/22/why-are-people-disappearing-china https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/09/22/why-are-people-disappear... https://www.businessinsider.com/how-china-deals-with-dissent-threats-family-arrests-2018-8 https://www.businessinsider.com/how-china-deals-with-dissent... http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2014/11/28/chinese-dissidents-organs http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2014/11/28/chinese-dissidents... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_harvesting_from_Falun_Gong_practitioners_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_harvesting_from_Falun_Go... https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/china-still-gathering-organs-executed-prisoners https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/china-still-gathering-orga...
- Markoff 8y ago
  they don't kill for stuff like this anymore, more likely regular prison, but she is lucky to be foreigner, so they could just restrict her traveling rights to Xinjiang and wait until her visa run out
danso 8y ago
She's been there for 6 years. It doesn't sound like she or Buzzfeed is shocked, per se, but her recent story is far from her first investigative story critical of the Chinese government. (full disclosure: I used to work with the reporter, but that was many years ago)
shalmanese 8y ago
Actually, it's pretty surprising. Western journalists/academics have always been given a fair degree of latitude for reporting inside of China as long as they only wrote in English for foreign press. There's been an active contingent of China Twitter loudly saying for the past few months that academics and journalists should be speaking out more about Xinjiang because the likelihood of visa revoking has been vastly overstated. Recent reporting seems to have touched a special nerve and the reactions are far more extreme than other negative China stories that journalists have weathered in the past.
- kevin_b_er 8y ago
  China has changed their thinking, literally. Their constitution no longer has term limits for their leader and the constitution was altered with their leader's personal philosophy. Xi Jinping, and thus China, no longer tolerates dissent. Go ahead, refer to Taiwan the wrong way even outside of China. You'll find a small army calling you out, much like any public criticism of Trump on twitter brings out a strange and chaotic assortment of random accounts that spout a variety of common talking points. If you're a company with a good bit of money in China, dissent is dangerous because China is getting quite skilled at using finance as a means for exerting global control. Not that this is shocking, the US did so for decades and still does so to a mighty degree, but it doesn't try to financially destroy you for criticizing the US.

Is this surprising at all?

shoulderfake 8y ago

NOPE

dang 8y ago
Please don't do this here.
- Markoff 8y ago
  maybe add some flair to your name that you are mod, some people may be unaware of that
  - dang 8y ago
    We've thought about that off and on but somehow it doesn't feel like a fit for HN. Readers here figure things out.

busterarm 8y ago

Seriously. What did she think was going to happen? She's lucky they were nice enough to wait out the rest of her visa instead of revoking it and deporting her on the spot. Shrewd move on their part for that, btw. If she was a citizen they would have just disappeared or killed her.

Sag0Sag0 8y ago
That's a bit much. It's unlikely that even if she was a citizen they would have disappeared or killed her. More like give her a firm warning and lecture and a vague threat or two of what may be to come if she keeps it up.
- busterarm 8y ago
  https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/23/asia/china-lawyers-disappeared/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/23/asia/china-lawyers-disappeare... https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/29/the-disappeared-china-renditions-kidnapping/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/29/the-disappeared-china-r... https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/09/22/why-are-people-disappearing-china https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/09/22/why-are-people-disappear... https://www.businessinsider.com/how-china-deals-with-dissent-threats-family-arrests-2018-8 https://www.businessinsider.com/how-china-deals-with-dissent... http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2014/11/28/chinese-dissidents-organs http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2014/11/28/chinese-dissidents... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_harvesting_from_Falun_Gong_practitioners_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_harvesting_from_Falun_Go... https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/china-still-gathering-organs-executed-prisoners https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/china-still-gathering-orga...
Markoff 8y ago
they don't kill for stuff like this anymore, more likely regular prison, but she is lucky to be foreigner, so they could just restrict her traveling rights to Xinjiang and wait until her visa run out

danso 8y ago

She's been there for 6 years. It doesn't sound like she or Buzzfeed is shocked, per se, but her recent story is far from her first investigative story critical of the Chinese government. (full disclosure: I used to work with the reporter, but that was many years ago)

shalmanese 8y ago

Actually, it's pretty surprising. Western journalists/academics have always been given a fair degree of latitude for reporting inside of China as long as they only wrote in English for foreign press. There's been an active contingent of China Twitter loudly saying for the past few months that academics and journalists should be speaking out more about Xinjiang because the likelihood of visa revoking has been vastly overstated. Recent reporting seems to have touched a special nerve and the reactions are far more extreme than other negative China stories that journalists have weathered in the past.

kevin_b_er 8y ago
China has changed their thinking, literally. Their constitution no longer has term limits for their leader and the constitution was altered with their leader's personal philosophy. Xi Jinping, and thus China, no longer tolerates dissent. Go ahead, refer to Taiwan the wrong way even outside of China. You'll find a small army calling you out, much like any public criticism of Trump on twitter brings out a strange and chaotic assortment of random accounts that spout a variety of common talking points. If you're a company with a good bit of money in China, dissent is dangerous because China is getting quite skilled at using finance as a means for exerting global control. Not that this is shocking, the US did so for decades and still does so to a mighty degree, but it doesn't try to financially destroy you for criticizing the US.