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This article is published in the SCMP. The SCMP was purchased some time ago by Jack Ma. There were fears from various corners that Jack Ma, being friendly wit

by PakG1 7y ago

This article is published in the SCMP. The SCMP was purchased some time ago by Jack Ma. There were fears from various corners that Jack Ma, being friendly with the mainland Chinese government, would influence the SCMP to have coverage that was less independent than before. So it's interesting to see this published by SCMP.

heraclius 7y ago
The SCMP seems to have been fairly vocal. There doesn’t seem to be anything that would stop the removal of all the critical journalists though, so I am somewhat confused.
- loyukfai 7y ago
  Even among the pro-Beijing businesses and the establishment, there are serious concerns about this. Business people want to make money, foreign companies have started to divest from China, perhaps Hong Kong would be next? Passing this law may akin to killing the goose for the golden eggs.
avocado4 7y ago
SCMP has been pushing CCP propaganda since Jack Ma took over, it's just more subtle than GlobalTimes/XinhuaNet or other official sources. Not covering this protest would have been immediately obvious. You have to be a very subtle troll to make propaganda work abroad. It's similar to YC getting to open a China program in exchange for getting a few Mainland mods on HN. Any anti-China posts do come up to front page but then disappear much faster than everything else (same will happen to this one).
- sonnyblarney 7y ago
  "It's similar to YC getting to open a China program in exchange for getting a few Mainland mods on HN. Any anti-China posts do come up to front page but then disappear much faster than everything else (same will happen to this one)." So this is one big statement. Is it true, or are you just guessing at that? Is it common knowledge, or suspicion? Where are we with the validity of that statement?
  - verall 7y ago
    I think it's straight bullshit. There's clearly a 'Chinese Patriot Squad' that comes through and flags/downvotes sometimes, but generally a fairly balanced opinion comes out eventually.
  - yorwba 7y ago
    I don't think there are any moderators besides dang and sctb; dang has denied accusations like this in the past (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19496933 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19496933 ) Complaints like "disappear much faster than everything else (same will happen to this one)" are quite misplaced when they concern posts that spend 10 hours or so on the front page.
    - sonnyblarney 7y ago
      Ok, so it's conspiratorial, not very fair. YC seems to be a generally 'above board' entity, if they say they aren't doing anything specifically, I believe them. That said, this is not an NGO, it's a Venture Capital firm. So they're going to assuage their interests. I've always found YC kind of interesting that way, playing along a very fine line. YC has enough credibility (and frankly a lot to lose) so I'll take their word for it.
- tepidandroid 7y ago
  So according to you, when they cover views unfavourable to China, they are subtly trolling and pushing CCP propaganda. When they cover news favourable to China, they are overtly pushing CCP propaganda. Got it.
- dang 7y ago
  That's not close to an accurate description of HN's front page. Please don't use HN for nationalistic flamewar.
xiii1408 7y ago
The SCMP wants to be seen as an authoritative regional news source, so it avoids blatantly biased coverage on the news side. It's generally pretty neutral. The opinion and longform side of the paper are another matter, though. Almost all the columnists are pro-Beijing hacks at this point. It's kind of like how there's a divide at Fox between the "news" side, which is relatively reasonable (e.g. with Chris Wallace), and the "opinion" side (e.g. Bill O'Reilly an his ilk). While the news folk at these kinds of places might be principled journalists, their ultimate purpose is to legitimize the propagandists on the opinion side.

by PakG1 7y ago

heraclius 7y ago

The SCMP seems to have been fairly vocal. There doesn’t seem to be anything that would stop the removal of all the critical journalists though, so I am somewhat confused.

loyukfai 7y ago
Even among the pro-Beijing businesses and the establishment, there are serious concerns about this. Business people want to make money, foreign companies have started to divest from China, perhaps Hong Kong would be next? Passing this law may akin to killing the goose for the golden eggs.

avocado4 7y ago

SCMP has been pushing CCP propaganda since Jack Ma took over, it's just more subtle than GlobalTimes/XinhuaNet or other official sources. Not covering this protest would have been immediately obvious. You have to be a very subtle troll to make propaganda work abroad. It's similar to YC getting to open a China program in exchange for getting a few Mainland mods on HN. Any anti-China posts do come up to front page but then disappear much faster than everything else (same will happen to this one).

sonnyblarney 7y ago
"It's similar to YC getting to open a China program in exchange for getting a few Mainland mods on HN. Any anti-China posts do come up to front page but then disappear much faster than everything else (same will happen to this one)." So this is one big statement. Is it true, or are you just guessing at that? Is it common knowledge, or suspicion? Where are we with the validity of that statement?
- verall 7y ago
  I think it's straight bullshit. There's clearly a 'Chinese Patriot Squad' that comes through and flags/downvotes sometimes, but generally a fairly balanced opinion comes out eventually.
- yorwba 7y ago
  I don't think there are any moderators besides dang and sctb; dang has denied accusations like this in the past (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19496933 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19496933 ) Complaints like "disappear much faster than everything else (same will happen to this one)" are quite misplaced when they concern posts that spend 10 hours or so on the front page.
  - sonnyblarney 7y ago
    Ok, so it's conspiratorial, not very fair. YC seems to be a generally 'above board' entity, if they say they aren't doing anything specifically, I believe them. That said, this is not an NGO, it's a Venture Capital firm. So they're going to assuage their interests. I've always found YC kind of interesting that way, playing along a very fine line. YC has enough credibility (and frankly a lot to lose) so I'll take their word for it.
tepidandroid 7y ago
So according to you, when they cover views unfavourable to China, they are subtly trolling and pushing CCP propaganda. When they cover news favourable to China, they are overtly pushing CCP propaganda. Got it.
dang 7y ago
That's not close to an accurate description of HN's front page. Please don't use HN for nationalistic flamewar.

xiii1408 7y ago

The SCMP wants to be seen as an authoritative regional news source, so it avoids blatantly biased coverage on the news side. It's generally pretty neutral. The opinion and longform side of the paper are another matter, though. Almost all the columnists are pro-Beijing hacks at this point. It's kind of like how there's a divide at Fox between the "news" side, which is relatively reasonable (e.g. with Chris Wallace), and the "opinion" side (e.g. Bill O'Reilly an his ilk). While the news folk at these kinds of places might be principled journalists, their ultimate purpose is to legitimize the propagandists on the opinion side.