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What's the concern that's being identified in all these stories? It would be good to have an enumeration of clear concerns. Is it that: 1) the companies are
by supernova87a 6y ago
What's the concern that's being identified in all these stories? It would be good to have an enumeration of clear concerns.
Is it that:
1) the companies are letting Americans' hardware be controlled / data escape and be monitored in China, or
2) that people in China subject to their laws (un-American as those laws may be) are being monitored (and worse)?
Because if it's the first topic, how do we not manage to buy/require/put in technical safeguards against our own people being monitored, or our equipment being taken over remotely? If we can't even do that, then how is any equipment we buy safe? But if we do, then is the argument that we're helping China get stronger by contributing to their economy or technological dominance? And that's undesirable to have a power shift that decreases our standing?
Who's responsible for deciding what standing we want to have in the world? Who's guiding that steering wheel and what's the destination? I daresay it's odd for the administration to be speaking up about this one thing, when it's mute on so many other factors that set our technological dominance.
Or if the 2nd argument, how far do our laws extend? Is that a principle to be applied to all countries by us, that they should not do things to their own citizens that would be illegal here? If we want universally respected laws to apply to other countries, I would think we could do ourselves a favor by respecting other laws and organizations that we currently choose to say are not in our convenience to follow.
Or is it something else? If you want me to be patriotic, tell me what I'm signing up for.
- xbar 6y agoThe specific concern here is cultural manipulation by the CCP with far-future-looking roadmaps to undermine and dominate their economic rivals. For example, Disney as a Yuan-focused propaganda engine for CCP values cannot produce a remake of Robin Hood, which is a strongly indvidualistic narrative. Driving a generation of strongly "powerful, central government is the best way to solve problems" values to children and young people paves they way for teens and twentysomethings to adopt CCP-sympathetic narratives in media and social media. FYI, if you stand up two false straw men, you look like a collaborator with the CCP. <joke> You communist. </joke>
- supernova87a 6y agoSo, if I were being sarcastic/cynical -- I would say, "so we object to China trying to become a global superpower by investing in the arts, media, technology, and a slew of other things that cause economic gains for their people?" How dare they stoop to such tactics. I would actually feel more in earnest about the above joke if it didn't come with (or was trying to mask) the torture, economic espionage, etc.
- dang 6y ago> FYI, if you stand up two false straw men, you look like a collaborator with the CCP. <joke> You communist. </joke> This breaks the site guidelines—quite badly actually. Insinuating that someone is a "collaborator" is...well, it's hard to believe that we've returned to an age where people do this kind of thing, however trivially on the internet. Adding joke tags doesn't help much, and it's notable that you didn't wrap your entire insinuation in them anyhow. Would you mind reading https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and using HN in the intended spirit? Note that they include: Assume good faith. "Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data." Edit: so far, every comment your account has posted has been using HN for political/ideological/national battle. That's not what this site is for, and we ban accounts that do this, so please don't misuse HN this way. No, that's not because we're communist collaborators—it's because we're trying to protect HN from flamewar, regardless of which angle the flamebait flies in from.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]