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"Ban soft drinks, ban fast food, ban junk food" is trivial for China? I knew HN is auti-China but this is just ridiculous. I have no idea what country China is

"Ban soft drinks, ban fast food, ban junk food" is trivial for China? I knew HN is auti-China but this is just ridiculous. I have no idea what country China is in your imagination.

abc-xyz 8y ago
The world is anti-China, you know, with putting millions of innocent muslims in concentration camps, harvesting organs, building a surveillance state and whatnot. Once the social credit score is fully rolled out then it should be trivial to get rid off (argubly before that as well), put increased tax on unhealthy food and "encourage" companies and supermarkets to sell less unhealthy/more healthy, deduct points for eating unhealthy, ban companies from selling certain products (e.g. give Coca Cola a year to replace their drinks with healthy alternatives). It's difficult to imagine any resistance from the citizens considering what they've gotten away with already, and considering they have full control over media and social networks.
- taurath 8y ago
  It would seem your idea of the day to day life in China is one entirely written by US news networks - it’s much the same idea that the average American has to dodge bullets from active shooters once a month, which is quite a common idea outside the US.
  - labster 8y ago
    That's ridiculous, it's much closer dodging to active shooters once a year, at least locally. There were a lot of people at the Borderline Grill who were in Vegas for that one music festival a year ago.
  - Vinnl 8y ago
    I'll agree that non-Americans will probably not have the most accurate picture of the US, but saying that it's a common idea that they have to dodge bullets from shooters once a month sounds like you also have a bad idea about the life of non-Americans.
  - r3bl 8y ago
    > It would seem your idea of the day to day life in China is one entirely written by US news networks How else am I supposed to learn about life in China without speaking Chinese? There's not a go-to source in English for this sort of thing. Of course I'll click on top search results and receive their biased version. The Great Firewall works both ways. On one side Chinese citizens can't learn about the western culture without putting in some effort. On the other, western people can't learn shit about the daily life in China.
    - solarkraft 8y ago
      I would expect chinese media to be heavily biased towards the CN government anyway, since they basically have a monopoly on media inside the country. A better bet would probably be media from Hong Kong or Taiwan, but those should also be available in english. An approach might be taking in multiple sources of diferent biases. If you want a Youtube channel that is heavily biases against the CN government (spinning all news negatively, but digging up a lot of relevant dirt), have a look at China Uncensored.
    - orbital-decay 8y ago
      Are you really suggesting that an internet firewall is a main contributing factor for the lack of understanding of a different country?
    - hrydgard 8y ago
      How? Travel there and have a look around. A trip to Shanghai will change your world-view.
      - solarkraft 8y ago
        When you travel to North Korea you see a nice country with happy people. Is this really true?
  - abc-xyz 8y ago
    I lived in China for many years when I was younger and more naive, most of my friends were/are from Tsinghua/Peking/etc, and I actually do understand Chinese. Just because you don't see it happen with your own eyes then it doesn't mean that it isn't happening. For instance, while living in Chicago I didn't encounter a single shooting incident, but it would be foolish to believe USA doesn't have a gun problem. What I can say that a foreigner living in China will experience is 9/10 hotels and apartments refusing to let you stay there, even had landlord call my friend to kick me out of the apartment (happened twice, separate occassions). I also had a female foreign friend who got into trouble because she refused to sleep with a visa officer. It's possible to live in China for several years without problems, but it's only a matter of time before something happens, and then your whole world falls apart, because according to their laws a minor offense (e.g. something equivalent to jaywalking) that might result in a 50-100 dollar fine for Chinese people, can result in a foreigner getting deported and banned for 1-5 years, and it's something that happens a lot even if the foreigner lived in China for several years with no issues. And there's no process of appeal. It's also important to remember that pretty much every foreigner is breaking some silly laws, even if they don't realize it (e.g. by not going to the police when you move to a new place). I also had multiple Chinese friends who weren't allowed to get visa to travel abroad to western countries, it was funnily enough always the 20-something girls, so I presume it's because the government fear they'll try to escape. Also, in China you have no freedom of speech, no freedom of movement, no freedom of association, no religious freedom, no political freedom.. punishments include being sent to prison, concentration camps, murdered and having organs harvested. Overall, it's quite the shithole, and as we can see with Tibet, Hong Kong, South China Sea, Taiwan, etc. Xi appear to have similar ambitions as Hitler did, so it's not like the rest of the world can just ignore the shithole. So naturally, China have a terrible view among pretty much everyone outside of China, especially those who care about human rights.
    - ArrayList 8y ago
      Quite a chilling post. I'm definitely never going to China.

"Ban soft drinks, ban fast food, ban junk food" is trivial for China? I knew HN is auti-China but this is just ridiculous. I have no idea what country China is in your imagination.

abc-xyz 8y ago

The world is anti-China, you know, with putting millions of innocent muslims in concentration camps, harvesting organs, building a surveillance state and whatnot. Once the social credit score is fully rolled out then it should be trivial to get rid off (argubly before that as well), put increased tax on unhealthy food and "encourage" companies and supermarkets to sell less unhealthy/more healthy, deduct points for eating unhealthy, ban companies from selling certain products (e.g. give Coca Cola a year to replace their drinks with healthy alternatives). It's difficult to imagine any resistance from the citizens considering what they've gotten away with already, and considering they have full control over media and social networks.

taurath 8y ago
It would seem your idea of the day to day life in China is one entirely written by US news networks - it’s much the same idea that the average American has to dodge bullets from active shooters once a month, which is quite a common idea outside the US.
- labster 8y ago
  That's ridiculous, it's much closer dodging to active shooters once a year, at least locally. There were a lot of people at the Borderline Grill who were in Vegas for that one music festival a year ago.
- Vinnl 8y ago
  I'll agree that non-Americans will probably not have the most accurate picture of the US, but saying that it's a common idea that they have to dodge bullets from shooters once a month sounds like you also have a bad idea about the life of non-Americans.
- r3bl 8y ago
  > It would seem your idea of the day to day life in China is one entirely written by US news networks How else am I supposed to learn about life in China without speaking Chinese? There's not a go-to source in English for this sort of thing. Of course I'll click on top search results and receive their biased version. The Great Firewall works both ways. On one side Chinese citizens can't learn about the western culture without putting in some effort. On the other, western people can't learn shit about the daily life in China.
  - solarkraft 8y ago
    I would expect chinese media to be heavily biased towards the CN government anyway, since they basically have a monopoly on media inside the country. A better bet would probably be media from Hong Kong or Taiwan, but those should also be available in english. An approach might be taking in multiple sources of diferent biases. If you want a Youtube channel that is heavily biases against the CN government (spinning all news negatively, but digging up a lot of relevant dirt), have a look at China Uncensored.
  - orbital-decay 8y ago
    Are you really suggesting that an internet firewall is a main contributing factor for the lack of understanding of a different country?
  - hrydgard 8y ago
    How? Travel there and have a look around. A trip to Shanghai will change your world-view.
    - solarkraft 8y ago
      When you travel to North Korea you see a nice country with happy people. Is this really true?
- abc-xyz 8y ago
  I lived in China for many years when I was younger and more naive, most of my friends were/are from Tsinghua/Peking/etc, and I actually do understand Chinese. Just because you don't see it happen with your own eyes then it doesn't mean that it isn't happening. For instance, while living in Chicago I didn't encounter a single shooting incident, but it would be foolish to believe USA doesn't have a gun problem. What I can say that a foreigner living in China will experience is 9/10 hotels and apartments refusing to let you stay there, even had landlord call my friend to kick me out of the apartment (happened twice, separate occassions). I also had a female foreign friend who got into trouble because she refused to sleep with a visa officer. It's possible to live in China for several years without problems, but it's only a matter of time before something happens, and then your whole world falls apart, because according to their laws a minor offense (e.g. something equivalent to jaywalking) that might result in a 50-100 dollar fine for Chinese people, can result in a foreigner getting deported and banned for 1-5 years, and it's something that happens a lot even if the foreigner lived in China for several years with no issues. And there's no process of appeal. It's also important to remember that pretty much every foreigner is breaking some silly laws, even if they don't realize it (e.g. by not going to the police when you move to a new place). I also had multiple Chinese friends who weren't allowed to get visa to travel abroad to western countries, it was funnily enough always the 20-something girls, so I presume it's because the government fear they'll try to escape. Also, in China you have no freedom of speech, no freedom of movement, no freedom of association, no religious freedom, no political freedom.. punishments include being sent to prison, concentration camps, murdered and having organs harvested. Overall, it's quite the shithole, and as we can see with Tibet, Hong Kong, South China Sea, Taiwan, etc. Xi appear to have similar ambitions as Hitler did, so it's not like the rest of the world can just ignore the shithole. So naturally, China have a terrible view among pretty much everyone outside of China, especially those who care about human rights.
  - ArrayList 8y ago
    Quite a chilling post. I'm definitely never going to China.