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Strange that the CCP didn't realize that this stunt would only Streisand Effect his book. And of course utterly evil they'd try to manipulate him by using his

Strange that the CCP didn't realize that this stunt would only Streisand Effect his book. And of course utterly evil they'd try to manipulate him by using his ex-wife they'd disappeared. If the CCP wanted to give themselves the worst look possible, they succeeded.

sio8ohPi 5y ago
It's the difference between iterated and one-time games. Shum has a decision to Publish or Not Publish (P or NP). CCP has the decision to Retaliate or Not Retaliate (R or NR). In a one-time game, Shun chooses P and CCP chooses NR, because P/NR > P/R for CCP. A one-time game may be a good model if there's only one thing you wish to keep out of the public eye (e.g. photos of Barbara Streisand's house). But CCP will play this game many times: establishing that they're able and willing to harm their critics, even at cost to themselves, has value. It encourages future critics to never publish in the first place.
- silexia 5y ago
  Which is exactly why everyone must oppose dictatorships with maximum possible force.
  - drekipus 5y ago
    Communism is in with the kids nowadays, and society is largely not unified in anything, so I think this is going to be here to stay.
    - loonster 5y ago
      Allowing our kids to be taught by communist was not such a bright idea.
    - Haga 5y ago
      Such unruly youth not to respect the king from God's grace and the shareholder nobility,god bless them. Moonism it is, I tell you. Feudalism is the natural order. Capitalism only ever played nice at socialist gunpoint, how dare this youth wanting that part of the past back.
  - alasdair_ 5y ago
    On you go then. Or did you just mean other people?
  - iammisc 5y ago
    The united states pulls these tricks all the time and claims to not be a dictatorship
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - Ekaros 5y ago
      I don't understand why we should let some countries get away with horrible things just because they call themselves democracy...
    - arcturus17 5y ago
      > claims to not be a dictatorship Is it?
      - iammisc 5y ago
        Some days it's difficult to tell which organization is truly in charge of the united states. Nominally for example, the state governments are in charge of things like medical care regulation, but increasingly unelected national business men threaten retaliation whenever the legislature passes law they don't like.
  - vkou 5y ago
    Allright. I'll bite. How many millions of people are you ready to kill in this mission of opposing dictatorships? How many of them your own countrymen, and how many of them foreigners? Just looking for an order of magnitude estimate, here. I'd like to see the ethical calculus on this, before joining in on this maximum use of force. Or, did you mean that everyone should talk a big game about opposing dictatorships? We're already doing that. Talk is cheap, as is foreign oil and other goods.
    - silexia 5y ago
      Most dictatorships are paper thin. A few people with guns, tanks, and fighter jets can hold down millions of others without those. Those few people are easily defeated when facing a superior external force though, even if they have millions of supposed troops (these are willing to surrender immediately). Examples include Iraq, Afghanistan, etc in frontal battle with foreign troops. Even if the fight IS hard and kills many people, it is worth it right? Or do you want your wife to disappear for four years and be kept in a black prison? Or do you want to watch millions of ethnic minorities being murdered in concentration camps? It's better to fight, risk death, and be free than to cower in fear while your loved ones are tortured and murdered.
- toss1 5y ago
  Which is exactly why anyone who treats the CCP or any member or advocate as anything other than an illegitimate, brutally dishonest, murderous, expansionist authoritarian state is a fool, or willing to tolerate such for their own temporary gain.
  - swiley 5y ago
    And of course they’re called racist by the CCP propaganda machine.
  - trainsplanes 5y ago
    What’s with people calling governments they don’t like illegitimate? People do the same with North Korea all the time. Those governments may be distasteful and do things you don’t like, but they’re very real and have been for nearly a century now.
    - noduerme 5y ago
      The legitimate government of China is in Taipei. If Vichy France had existed for 40 years, rather than 4, it still wouldn't have been the legitimate government of France. Other examples abound.
      - trainsplanes 5y ago
        They’re entirely separate governments ruling over different countries. There’s no reason for people outside of politics to pretend otherwise. It always comes off as childish, really.
      - noduerme 5y ago
        >> There’s no reason for people outside of politics to pretend otherwise Then I guess John Cena can retract his apology...
      - eloisius 5y ago
        The government seated in Taipei would gladly disagree with you if it didn't imply missiles would be incoming.
- koolba 5y ago
  Well said. This is the classic, “You can’t negotiate with terrorists” situation. It might seem like a local maxima in one instance to give in to fear and consequence, but it only feeds repeated instances. China is betting on the reverse and honestly I think they’ll win. The sheer force of will needed to cut them off from the global economy is just not there.
  - tehjoker 5y ago
    Isn't this what the US and UK did to Julian Assuage?
    - dbsmith83 5y ago
      Perhaps, but that's off-topic what aboutism. What does that have to do with the story?
      - chc 5y ago
        I think it is relevant here because it provides evidence on whether other countries are likely to put their foot down against China over things like this.
        dbsmith83 5y ago
        The Assange situation is very different than this one on many levels. I can't see much similarity. It came across as a poor attempt to defend the CCP with the old "America is no better" trope
      - Chris2048 5y ago
        whataboutism usually refers to irrelevant things. Given Assange is recent (and ongoing) why is it not relevant?
        dbsmith83 5y ago
        And relevant usually refers to something that relates to the topic. Again, I ask, what does it have to do with the story?
- sandworm101 5y ago
  >> It encourages future critics to never publish in the first place. No. It is meant to encourage others to never write such things in any context. This then leads to the masses not thinking such things, after which the censorship will be unnecessary as such thought patterns will not exist. This is Orwell manifest.
Arn_Thor 5y ago
As long as the details, possibly names or government roles, in the book doesn't get out the government can just call it speculation. If the book remains unpublished, that's probably mission accomplished for them. Remember the reason the NYT got banned from China: an expose on the corporate empire essentially owned by Xi Jinping's family and other top cadres in the CCP. That's the kind of info they are really afraid of, because it could threaten the party's domestic "legitimacy", or mandate to rule. The CCP does not care one bit what the international community thinks (look at Xinjiang & Hong Kong). So far it has not resulted in any meaningful economic consequences for the CCP...so why worry?
- labster 5y ago
  I don’t get it. The House of Windsor operates a lot of land and businesses through the extended family. Why should we treat the Son of Heaven any different?
  - Arn_Thor 5y ago
    Because the CCP bills itself as the opposite of a royal empire. Even Xi Jinping thought claims (at least...) it's following socialism with Chinese characteristics, with "people as the masters of the country" and that the CCP governs using rule of law. If that, heaven forbid, were not in fact the case then it raises questions about the legitimacy of the regime.
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago
  > the reason the NYT got banned from China: an expose on the corporate empire essentially owned by Xi Jinping's family and other top cadres in the CCP For reference, the New York Times [1] and Bloomberg [2] articles. They hit a nerve because they drive a wedge between the CCP's elite and China's people, something the CCP is sensitive to in a way it's not to international criticism of its actions as a state. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/global/family-of-wen-jiabao-holds-a-hidden-fortune-in-china.html https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/global/family-of... [2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-06-29/xi-jinping-millionaire-relations-reveal-fortunes-of-elite https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-06-29/xi-jinpin...
nightsd01 5y ago
Trying to coerce and manipulate expats by threatening family is a time honored tradition of the Chinese communist party unfortunately.
vnchr 5y ago
I just pre-ordered it because of this interview.
- camillomiller 5y ago
  Well, either you're sticking it to Beijing, or you just fell for a well orchestrated marketing ploy by Shum.
  - mensetmanusman 5y ago
    Yes, and once you take agreed upon bayesian priors into consideration, you have immediate clarity on which is more likely to be true.
    - camillomiller 5y ago
      Not sure what you imply here. We're talking about someone who's helped his billionaire wife amass a fortune with the complicity of some high ranking Chinese Officials in the past, such as the forme Prime Minister of China. The priors here also point towards someone who absolutely knows how to drum up a book release.
  - vnchr 5y ago
    Worth it. Free Hong Kong.
sva_ 5y ago
After some of these kinds of stunts, I wonder if it is possible that they're more interested in letting people know about their influence in making people submit to their demands, rather than suppressing the actual information. From personal conversations with some Chinese students, it seems like most of them know what they aren't allowed to talk about, and it's more about submitting to those demands.
bitwize 5y ago
Once you become powerful enough you no longer need to look like the good guy.
this_user 5y ago
Or maybe this is a marketing ploy by the author. Terribly convenient timing that his ex-wife allegedly called him the day before his book was released and the day before he would talk to NPR about it. So now he could talk to them a day before about how he would talk to them the next day and generate some buzz and outrage amongst the audience that will translate into sales. Really convenient.
- exo-pla-net 5y ago
  I had the same suspicion. However, he says that his son and his ex's father both talked to her in separate phone calls. When multiple people have to keep their story straight, lies don't hold up. Thus, I believe it. Additionally, the CCP would have heard about the impending book from the surrounding press flurry, so the timing isn't strange.
- roca 5y ago
  If it's a marketing ploy, then the CCP can counter it easily --- let his wife leave China and --- when free --- tell the world that that conversation never happened.
  - civilized 5y ago
    The Xi crime family won't allow that anymore than the Kim crime family to their north would.
    - logicchains 5y ago
      FYI, the Korean peninsula is east, not north of China.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
  - camillomiller 5y ago
    You give for granted Chinese govt has his wife. Based on what, exactly? Why are we, an extremely logical crowd, so prone to embrace fundamental logical fallacies when it comes to China?
chunghuaming 5y ago
Chinese citizen in US. throwaway account for obvious reason. At this point CCP simply does not care about their image, they're in full process of reverting back to Mao-ism and cultural revolution. Cases in point: - 赵薇 (Zhao wei), a very famous and popular actress in China, was recently scrubbed from the internet. Her work, including movies or tv series she produced, were scrubbed from streaming platform like Tencent. Her follow feature on Weibo was disabled. Pages that used to mention her now have blank space where her name used to be. This is part of a broader crackdown alongside tech, education, effeminate men, celebrities, etc. Some of these efforts have to do with reducing the foreign culture effects that could lead to discussions about western ideals like freedom or democracy. - English is deemphasized in classrooms, even in Shanghai. What follows is now 'Grandpa xi Jing ping thoughts', for students as young as 6. The thoughts comprises of 14 principles that promote communist ideals. - An unknown blogger named Li Guangman (李光满) posted claim that revolution is in the air in China, with profound transformation to be felt by all. https://chinamediaproject.org/2021/09/01/profound-transformations/ https://chinamediaproject.org/2021/09/01/profound-transforma.... This post was spread by official party media websites, no doubt in support of the current CCP agendas. - All this is in the backdrop of xi jing ping attempting to get his 3rd term next year. That will cement his legacy as the most powerful man since Mao, and his dictatorship for life.
- gscott 5y ago
  Straight from Xi... much more coming: “The United States is more aggressively waging a color revolution through the fifth column within China. If this time, we still have to rely on those big capitalists as the main force of anti-imperialism and anti-hegemony,” China will not need enemies to fight. “It will fall first by itself,” just like the Soviet Union back then. That’s why China is reforming the “capital circle” and the “entertainment circle.” http://chinascope.org/archives/27497 http://chinascope.org/archives/27497
- powerapple 5y ago
  In my own opinion, teaching the Xi Thoughts and communist ideals in school is a good thing, people in a country should learn about their ideology and their government. I don't see it as something negative at all.
est 5y ago
It's no longer Streisand Effect if these kind of news pop up every damn week.
jollybean 5y ago
The CCP controls information back home. By putting the woman in the public eye, they can use that fact to discredit the author's implication that she was captured or ill treated. After all, if the woman is on TV saying 'It's fine, I'm fine, I love the CCP, I live China, don't publish this book or read it, it's full of lies' ... ... well that's all the CCP needs for their home audience at least. They also may have calculated that having the woman in public and 'appearing ok' would do enough to at least discredit claims that she was killed or something macabre.
99_00 5y ago
They get away with far worse and equally obvious and utterly evil acts.
Haga 5y ago
Why all this outrage? This is the ccp standard approach to not mainland Chinese since years and years. Very mobster like admittedly.
camillomiller 5y ago
Or, you know, this story was somehow made up to drum up the book release. I may sound cynical, but I think it’s fair to remain skeptical. The comment I’m replying to, for example, gives for granted that what this person is saying is true, just because it paints China in the bad light we would expect. Even if it make China's secret services look way stupider and inane than they actually are. That's a risky understatement. Yet NPR fails to tell us how they verified the source’s claims. Have they listened to recordings of the call? Have they had some sort of proof? There is no line that says they’ve independently checked the claims. Or did I miss that somehow? When the topic is China we definitely end up accepting very low journalistic standards of verification that we would never accept for other topics. This is due to the mostly justified bias we might have in the West against China, but there's no why this bias is useful in understanding the geopolitics of the USA vs China scenario properly. As a journalist is clear to me how the process behind such a piece goes: we haven't verified anything, but we're making the person speak directly, so if they're just making shit up, well, you know, it's just them that said false things on air, not us.
e12e 5y ago
> Strange that the CCP didn't realize that this stunt would only Streisand Effect his book. > If the CCP wanted to give themselves the worst look possible, they succeeded. I think they realize just fine...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
throw0away 5y ago
Throwaway for obvious reasons. > If the CCP wanted to give themselves the worst look possible, they succeeded. Unless it's just wishful thinking. And unless they know this perfectly. There is always a Chinese idiom for everything. For this one it's "欲盖弥彰": the more people trying to cover something, the more obvious it becomes. CCP pursuits pragmatism. If they succeeded they succeeded, if it turns ugly they'll make it up by other propaganda. After all they want is most people in China support them, and a portion of foreigner support them. They won't be bothered by one or two scandals. I believe what they realized is if they are doing it they need to do it non-stop: "一不做二不休". To be terribly honest, their doctrine is very effective so far. If not the Communist China was already collapsed in early 90s just like every other Eastern European countries, or like many Arab countries in Arab Spring. Ironically, the existence of the powerful China people can see today is largely because the way they handle these things.
teekert 5y ago
It's a bit suspect, right? I mean, he sacrifices his wife (ok, he didn't know she was alive, and not publishing the book now guarantees nothing) and possible his son... And the CCP comes out looking super bad. Not that I think they are not capabale of this, but everything, combined with the book coming out and this being the perfect PR for it... It sets of some bells. Then again, CCP may be so blunt intentionally, just to set of some bells or warn other citizens. Maybe they even have some (fabricated) counter evidence ready to go or something. If it's legit, my comment is really bad and I apologize. What a hero in that case, although, the wife is even more the hero. Or isn't she. What a situation. No one should have to live through this. 4 years, what a nation.
mangecoeur 5y ago
My impression is that the CCP is at a point where it's become an echo chamber that believes its own propaganda. This kind of aggressive move is likely seen as projecting strength internally.
mschuster91 5y ago
> If the CCP wanted to give themselves the worst look possible, they succeeded. CCP doesn't care about looks any more. Not since they realized they could take Hongkong over and no one in the West would bat an eye, sans granting visas to well-known exilants. For what it's worth, since the US pulling out of Kurdistan and then the clusterfuck that was the Afghanistan retreat, it doesn't even seem like the US will defend Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion. That's why it is vital to rein in bullies as long as you can... as soon as they realize no one will stop them, they will only escalate.
macevilc 5y ago
Yeonmi park had also some interesting points about CCP and north korea. She is a refugee from north korea.

sio8ohPi 5y ago

It's the difference between iterated and one-time games. Shum has a decision to Publish or Not Publish (P or NP). CCP has the decision to Retaliate or Not Retaliate (R or NR). In a one-time game, Shun chooses P and CCP chooses NR, because P/NR > P/R for CCP. A one-time game may be a good model if there's only one thing you wish to keep out of the public eye (e.g. photos of Barbara Streisand's house). But CCP will play this game many times: establishing that they're able and willing to harm their critics, even at cost to themselves, has value. It encourages future critics to never publish in the first place.

silexia 5y ago
Which is exactly why everyone must oppose dictatorships with maximum possible force.
- drekipus 5y ago
  Communism is in with the kids nowadays, and society is largely not unified in anything, so I think this is going to be here to stay.
  - loonster 5y ago
    Allowing our kids to be taught by communist was not such a bright idea.
  - Haga 5y ago
    Such unruly youth not to respect the king from God's grace and the shareholder nobility,god bless them. Moonism it is, I tell you. Feudalism is the natural order. Capitalism only ever played nice at socialist gunpoint, how dare this youth wanting that part of the past back.
- alasdair_ 5y ago
  On you go then. Or did you just mean other people?
- iammisc 5y ago
  The united states pulls these tricks all the time and claims to not be a dictatorship
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - Ekaros 5y ago
    I don't understand why we should let some countries get away with horrible things just because they call themselves democracy...
  - arcturus17 5y ago
    > claims to not be a dictatorship Is it?
    - iammisc 5y ago
      Some days it's difficult to tell which organization is truly in charge of the united states. Nominally for example, the state governments are in charge of things like medical care regulation, but increasingly unelected national business men threaten retaliation whenever the legislature passes law they don't like.
- vkou 5y ago
  Allright. I'll bite. How many millions of people are you ready to kill in this mission of opposing dictatorships? How many of them your own countrymen, and how many of them foreigners? Just looking for an order of magnitude estimate, here. I'd like to see the ethical calculus on this, before joining in on this maximum use of force. Or, did you mean that everyone should talk a big game about opposing dictatorships? We're already doing that. Talk is cheap, as is foreign oil and other goods.
  - silexia 5y ago
    Most dictatorships are paper thin. A few people with guns, tanks, and fighter jets can hold down millions of others without those. Those few people are easily defeated when facing a superior external force though, even if they have millions of supposed troops (these are willing to surrender immediately). Examples include Iraq, Afghanistan, etc in frontal battle with foreign troops. Even if the fight IS hard and kills many people, it is worth it right? Or do you want your wife to disappear for four years and be kept in a black prison? Or do you want to watch millions of ethnic minorities being murdered in concentration camps? It's better to fight, risk death, and be free than to cower in fear while your loved ones are tortured and murdered.
toss1 5y ago
Which is exactly why anyone who treats the CCP or any member or advocate as anything other than an illegitimate, brutally dishonest, murderous, expansionist authoritarian state is a fool, or willing to tolerate such for their own temporary gain.
- swiley 5y ago
  And of course they’re called racist by the CCP propaganda machine.
- trainsplanes 5y ago
  What’s with people calling governments they don’t like illegitimate? People do the same with North Korea all the time. Those governments may be distasteful and do things you don’t like, but they’re very real and have been for nearly a century now.
  - noduerme 5y ago
    The legitimate government of China is in Taipei. If Vichy France had existed for 40 years, rather than 4, it still wouldn't have been the legitimate government of France. Other examples abound.
    - trainsplanes 5y ago
      They’re entirely separate governments ruling over different countries. There’s no reason for people outside of politics to pretend otherwise. It always comes off as childish, really.
    - noduerme 5y ago
      >> There’s no reason for people outside of politics to pretend otherwise Then I guess John Cena can retract his apology...
    - eloisius 5y ago
      The government seated in Taipei would gladly disagree with you if it didn't imply missiles would be incoming.
koolba 5y ago
Well said. This is the classic, “You can’t negotiate with terrorists” situation. It might seem like a local maxima in one instance to give in to fear and consequence, but it only feeds repeated instances. China is betting on the reverse and honestly I think they’ll win. The sheer force of will needed to cut them off from the global economy is just not there.
- tehjoker 5y ago
  Isn't this what the US and UK did to Julian Assuage?
  - dbsmith83 5y ago
    Perhaps, but that's off-topic what aboutism. What does that have to do with the story?
    - chc 5y ago
      I think it is relevant here because it provides evidence on whether other countries are likely to put their foot down against China over things like this.
      - dbsmith83 5y ago
        The Assange situation is very different than this one on many levels. I can't see much similarity. It came across as a poor attempt to defend the CCP with the old "America is no better" trope
    - Chris2048 5y ago
      whataboutism usually refers to irrelevant things. Given Assange is recent (and ongoing) why is it not relevant?
      - dbsmith83 5y ago
        And relevant usually refers to something that relates to the topic. Again, I ask, what does it have to do with the story?
sandworm101 5y ago
>> It encourages future critics to never publish in the first place. No. It is meant to encourage others to never write such things in any context. This then leads to the masses not thinking such things, after which the censorship will be unnecessary as such thought patterns will not exist. This is Orwell manifest.

Arn_Thor 5y ago

As long as the details, possibly names or government roles, in the book doesn't get out the government can just call it speculation. If the book remains unpublished, that's probably mission accomplished for them. Remember the reason the NYT got banned from China: an expose on the corporate empire essentially owned by Xi Jinping's family and other top cadres in the CCP. That's the kind of info they are really afraid of, because it could threaten the party's domestic "legitimacy", or mandate to rule. The CCP does not care one bit what the international community thinks (look at Xinjiang & Hong Kong). So far it has not resulted in any meaningful economic consequences for the CCP...so why worry?

labster 5y ago
I don’t get it. The House of Windsor operates a lot of land and businesses through the extended family. Why should we treat the Son of Heaven any different?
- Arn_Thor 5y ago
  Because the CCP bills itself as the opposite of a royal empire. Even Xi Jinping thought claims (at least...) it's following socialism with Chinese characteristics, with "people as the masters of the country" and that the CCP governs using rule of law. If that, heaven forbid, were not in fact the case then it raises questions about the legitimacy of the regime.
JumpCrisscross 5y ago
> the reason the NYT got banned from China: an expose on the corporate empire essentially owned by Xi Jinping's family and other top cadres in the CCP For reference, the New York Times [1] and Bloomberg [2] articles. They hit a nerve because they drive a wedge between the CCP's elite and China's people, something the CCP is sensitive to in a way it's not to international criticism of its actions as a state. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/global/family-of-wen-jiabao-holds-a-hidden-fortune-in-china.html https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/global/family-of... [2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-06-29/xi-jinping-millionaire-relations-reveal-fortunes-of-elite https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-06-29/xi-jinpin...

nightsd01 5y ago

Trying to coerce and manipulate expats by threatening family is a time honored tradition of the Chinese communist party unfortunately.

vnchr 5y ago

I just pre-ordered it because of this interview.

camillomiller 5y ago
Well, either you're sticking it to Beijing, or you just fell for a well orchestrated marketing ploy by Shum.
- mensetmanusman 5y ago
  Yes, and once you take agreed upon bayesian priors into consideration, you have immediate clarity on which is more likely to be true.
  - camillomiller 5y ago
    Not sure what you imply here. We're talking about someone who's helped his billionaire wife amass a fortune with the complicity of some high ranking Chinese Officials in the past, such as the forme Prime Minister of China. The priors here also point towards someone who absolutely knows how to drum up a book release.
- vnchr 5y ago
  Worth it. Free Hong Kong.

sva_ 5y ago

After some of these kinds of stunts, I wonder if it is possible that they're more interested in letting people know about their influence in making people submit to their demands, rather than suppressing the actual information. From personal conversations with some Chinese students, it seems like most of them know what they aren't allowed to talk about, and it's more about submitting to those demands.

bitwize 5y ago

Once you become powerful enough you no longer need to look like the good guy.

this_user 5y ago

Or maybe this is a marketing ploy by the author. Terribly convenient timing that his ex-wife allegedly called him the day before his book was released and the day before he would talk to NPR about it. So now he could talk to them a day before about how he would talk to them the next day and generate some buzz and outrage amongst the audience that will translate into sales. Really convenient.

exo-pla-net 5y ago
I had the same suspicion. However, he says that his son and his ex's father both talked to her in separate phone calls. When multiple people have to keep their story straight, lies don't hold up. Thus, I believe it. Additionally, the CCP would have heard about the impending book from the surrounding press flurry, so the timing isn't strange.
roca 5y ago
If it's a marketing ploy, then the CCP can counter it easily --- let his wife leave China and --- when free --- tell the world that that conversation never happened.
- civilized 5y ago
  The Xi crime family won't allow that anymore than the Kim crime family to their north would.
  - logicchains 5y ago
    FYI, the Korean peninsula is east, not north of China.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- camillomiller 5y ago
  You give for granted Chinese govt has his wife. Based on what, exactly? Why are we, an extremely logical crowd, so prone to embrace fundamental logical fallacies when it comes to China?

chunghuaming 5y ago

Chinese citizen in US. throwaway account for obvious reason. At this point CCP simply does not care about their image, they're in full process of reverting back to Mao-ism and cultural revolution. Cases in point: - 赵薇 (Zhao wei), a very famous and popular actress in China, was recently scrubbed from the internet. Her work, including movies or tv series she produced, were scrubbed from streaming platform like Tencent. Her follow feature on Weibo was disabled. Pages that used to mention her now have blank space where her name used to be. This is part of a broader crackdown alongside tech, education, effeminate men, celebrities, etc. Some of these efforts have to do with reducing the foreign culture effects that could lead to discussions about western ideals like freedom or democracy. - English is deemphasized in classrooms, even in Shanghai. What follows is now 'Grandpa xi Jing ping thoughts', for students as young as 6. The thoughts comprises of 14 principles that promote communist ideals. - An unknown blogger named Li Guangman (李光满) posted claim that revolution is in the air in China, with profound transformation to be felt by all. https://chinamediaproject.org/2021/09/01/profound-transformations/ https://chinamediaproject.org/2021/09/01/profound-transforma.... This post was spread by official party media websites, no doubt in support of the current CCP agendas. - All this is in the backdrop of xi jing ping attempting to get his 3rd term next year. That will cement his legacy as the most powerful man since Mao, and his dictatorship for life.

gscott 5y ago
Straight from Xi... much more coming: “The United States is more aggressively waging a color revolution through the fifth column within China. If this time, we still have to rely on those big capitalists as the main force of anti-imperialism and anti-hegemony,” China will not need enemies to fight. “It will fall first by itself,” just like the Soviet Union back then. That’s why China is reforming the “capital circle” and the “entertainment circle.” http://chinascope.org/archives/27497 http://chinascope.org/archives/27497
powerapple 5y ago
In my own opinion, teaching the Xi Thoughts and communist ideals in school is a good thing, people in a country should learn about their ideology and their government. I don't see it as something negative at all.

est 5y ago

It's no longer Streisand Effect if these kind of news pop up every damn week.

jollybean 5y ago

The CCP controls information back home. By putting the woman in the public eye, they can use that fact to discredit the author's implication that she was captured or ill treated. After all, if the woman is on TV saying 'It's fine, I'm fine, I love the CCP, I live China, don't publish this book or read it, it's full of lies' ... ... well that's all the CCP needs for their home audience at least. They also may have calculated that having the woman in public and 'appearing ok' would do enough to at least discredit claims that she was killed or something macabre.

99_00 5y ago

They get away with far worse and equally obvious and utterly evil acts.

Haga 5y ago

Why all this outrage? This is the ccp standard approach to not mainland Chinese since years and years. Very mobster like admittedly.

camillomiller 5y ago

Or, you know, this story was somehow made up to drum up the book release. I may sound cynical, but I think it’s fair to remain skeptical. The comment I’m replying to, for example, gives for granted that what this person is saying is true, just because it paints China in the bad light we would expect. Even if it make China's secret services look way stupider and inane than they actually are. That's a risky understatement. Yet NPR fails to tell us how they verified the source’s claims. Have they listened to recordings of the call? Have they had some sort of proof? There is no line that says they’ve independently checked the claims. Or did I miss that somehow? When the topic is China we definitely end up accepting very low journalistic standards of verification that we would never accept for other topics. This is due to the mostly justified bias we might have in the West against China, but there's no why this bias is useful in understanding the geopolitics of the USA vs China scenario properly. As a journalist is clear to me how the process behind such a piece goes: we haven't verified anything, but we're making the person speak directly, so if they're just making shit up, well, you know, it's just them that said false things on air, not us.

e12e 5y ago

> Strange that the CCP didn't realize that this stunt would only Streisand Effect his book. > If the CCP wanted to give themselves the worst look possible, they succeeded. I think they realize just fine...

deleted 5y ago

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throw0away 5y ago

Throwaway for obvious reasons. > If the CCP wanted to give themselves the worst look possible, they succeeded. Unless it's just wishful thinking. And unless they know this perfectly. There is always a Chinese idiom for everything. For this one it's "欲盖弥彰": the more people trying to cover something, the more obvious it becomes. CCP pursuits pragmatism. If they succeeded they succeeded, if it turns ugly they'll make it up by other propaganda. After all they want is most people in China support them, and a portion of foreigner support them. They won't be bothered by one or two scandals. I believe what they realized is if they are doing it they need to do it non-stop: "一不做二不休". To be terribly honest, their doctrine is very effective so far. If not the Communist China was already collapsed in early 90s just like every other Eastern European countries, or like many Arab countries in Arab Spring. Ironically, the existence of the powerful China people can see today is largely because the way they handle these things.

teekert 5y ago

It's a bit suspect, right? I mean, he sacrifices his wife (ok, he didn't know she was alive, and not publishing the book now guarantees nothing) and possible his son... And the CCP comes out looking super bad. Not that I think they are not capabale of this, but everything, combined with the book coming out and this being the perfect PR for it... It sets of some bells. Then again, CCP may be so blunt intentionally, just to set of some bells or warn other citizens. Maybe they even have some (fabricated) counter evidence ready to go or something. If it's legit, my comment is really bad and I apologize. What a hero in that case, although, the wife is even more the hero. Or isn't she. What a situation. No one should have to live through this. 4 years, what a nation.

mangecoeur 5y ago

My impression is that the CCP is at a point where it's become an echo chamber that believes its own propaganda. This kind of aggressive move is likely seen as projecting strength internally.

mschuster91 5y ago

> If the CCP wanted to give themselves the worst look possible, they succeeded. CCP doesn't care about looks any more. Not since they realized they could take Hongkong over and no one in the West would bat an eye, sans granting visas to well-known exilants. For what it's worth, since the US pulling out of Kurdistan and then the clusterfuck that was the Afghanistan retreat, it doesn't even seem like the US will defend Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion. That's why it is vital to rein in bullies as long as you can... as soon as they realize no one will stop them, they will only escalate.

macevilc 5y ago

Yeonmi park had also some interesting points about CCP and north korea. She is a refugee from north korea.