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The id cards are shown to help prevent China from disappearing these people. So YT taking the videos down is the opposite of what YT claims to want.

kspacewalk2 5y ago
In what way does that help prevent China from disappearing these people?
- hibbelig 5y ago
  It helps to increase awareness, and that helps with pressure on China's regime.
- tablespoon 5y ago
  > In what way does that help prevent China from disappearing these people? Because the disappearance would be more visible to foreigners, and therefore more embarrassing to China. It's bad PR. IIRC, some Soviet dissidents were merely harassed for an extended period time and/or offered the option of exile, because they were so well known in the West.
  - kspacewalk2 5y ago
    Not to sound too stark, but... have the CCP not made it abundantly clear that they don't give a fuck about "embarrassment" and "visibility to foreigners" in the last several years? They will do what they want to whomever they want if there's a serious enough need to do it in their eyes. Uygur, Hongkonger, foreigner, doesn't matter. The current party leadership are way beyond the point where visibility/embarrassment in Western press means anything.
    - jandrese 5y ago
      The CCP isn't a big monolith. It's thousands of people with different levels of callousness. Even if some people are willing to damn the torpedoes and flat out execute potential political rivals, there are still people who care about appearances.
    - tablespoon 5y ago
      > Not to sound too stark, but... have the CCP not made it abundantly clear that they don't give a fuck about "embarrassment" and "visibility to foreigners" in the last several years? At least with Xinjiang, they deny all the negative stories and have invested quite a bit of effort to push unbelievable "positive" propaganda about it. Disappearing someone who's known outside of China undermines that propaganda effort. That doesn't mean they won't do it, but clearly identifying yourself like these people did makes such actions more costly, which can tip the scales (e.g. it might save you from a bullet and land you in prison instead). If you stay anonymous, no one may know unless the pile of bodies gets too big to deny.

kspacewalk2 5y ago

In what way does that help prevent China from disappearing these people?

hibbelig 5y ago
It helps to increase awareness, and that helps with pressure on China's regime.
tablespoon 5y ago
> In what way does that help prevent China from disappearing these people? Because the disappearance would be more visible to foreigners, and therefore more embarrassing to China. It's bad PR. IIRC, some Soviet dissidents were merely harassed for an extended period time and/or offered the option of exile, because they were so well known in the West.
- kspacewalk2 5y ago
  Not to sound too stark, but... have the CCP not made it abundantly clear that they don't give a fuck about "embarrassment" and "visibility to foreigners" in the last several years? They will do what they want to whomever they want if there's a serious enough need to do it in their eyes. Uygur, Hongkonger, foreigner, doesn't matter. The current party leadership are way beyond the point where visibility/embarrassment in Western press means anything.
  - jandrese 5y ago
    The CCP isn't a big monolith. It's thousands of people with different levels of callousness. Even if some people are willing to damn the torpedoes and flat out execute potential political rivals, there are still people who care about appearances.
  - tablespoon 5y ago
    > Not to sound too stark, but... have the CCP not made it abundantly clear that they don't give a fuck about "embarrassment" and "visibility to foreigners" in the last several years? At least with Xinjiang, they deny all the negative stories and have invested quite a bit of effort to push unbelievable "positive" propaganda about it. Disappearing someone who's known outside of China undermines that propaganda effort. That doesn't mean they won't do it, but clearly identifying yourself like these people did makes such actions more costly, which can tip the scales (e.g. it might save you from a bullet and land you in prison instead). If you stay anonymous, no one may know unless the pile of bodies gets too big to deny.