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Files Vanished, Young Chinese Lose the Future
- carterschonwald 17y agoI find the whole idea of the scenario this article describes horrifying, is this portrayal of highly centralized sans backup documentation true? Is there a technological solution to this that can become culturally accepted or is deeper reform needed before even this problem can be fixed?
- adharmad 17y agoThe problem itself is not technological but political. The system that has evolved is pretty bad and the only reason it has evolved is because of the government. Unless there is some third party (free press, independent justice system) that oversees the government, there is no easy solution.
- Herring 17y agoI wonder - has there ever been a case of an organization that big voluntarily giving up power? I can't think of any, & in fact the opposite situation (eg regulatory capture) is quite common.
- philwelch 17y agoDepends on what you mean by "voluntary", but maybe half of the British Empire was ceded without bloodshed.
- adharmad 17y agoCan you clarify which half was ceded without bloodshed?
- bayareaguy 17y agohas there ever been a case of an organization that big voluntarily giving up power It depends on what you mean by voluntarily, but here's one example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Day_(South_Africa) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Day_(South_Africa)
- adharmad 17y agoCant think of any. Power corrupts and the only way to change it is via political action or (sometimes) via armed revolution.
- rottencupcakes 17y agoFirst that article on North Korea and now this. It's so sad that people live like this in the 21st century. And there's no way for us to do anything about it since their governments so actively block any real information. "People's Republic" my ass. China's government is no government by the people for the people. It's just an evil empire. And we're supporting them with every Chinese product we buy and every attempt Obama makes to improve our relations. After reading stuff like this, I'm not so sure we should be. I'm not advocating sanctions or anything of that sort, I just feel like we should take a harder line against such human rights violations.
- emmett 17y agoChina may not be democratic, but it's no evil empire. Boycotting Chinese products or freezing them out diplomatically won't fix corruption problems; in fact, it's likely to have the opposite effect. China has improved a great deal since Nixon went to China, and there's no reason to believe that continued engagement won't further the same process.
- rottencupcakes 17y agoSorry, I guess what I said came across wrong. I'm certainly not in favor of any boycotts, sanctions, or diplomatic freezings. Economic aid in the form of buying their products can't do anything but help. But that being said, I really don't have any elegent solutions for how to fix the current problems. Things like this and the iPhone incident (and the pressure put on the poor man because of an innocent mistake), simply make me worried, that's all. Sure, the conditions have improved, but for the huge percentage of the world's population that is, just by chance, born into these conditions, I feel like we should be doing something more to advocate for their rights. My grandparents were lucky enough to get out of China back in the 20s and 30s to give me the fortunate life I have now. I just wish more people had that chance.
- eugenejen 17y agoThe world is complex. Even if Chinese manufactures are not exploiting cheap labor, the computers that we are using also includes materials from Africa, where warlords sell minerals for making our phones and computers. We live in North America, Western Europe and Japan are all similar to ancient aristocrats in the world economy. We are spoiled to death compared to people in country side China, Africa. While we sometime sympathizes their hardships, but we are unable to break free from the way we are living now. It is a big problem and I suspect we are unable to find out solutions. This doesn't mean we can't try to solve it. But I guess after thousands years of inequality in different economic/social class separations in the world, I suspect we can reach a peaceful solution that may against something that are deep inside our genes.
- joez 17y agoThe education system is an attempt at creating equality for over a billion people. It's implemented by people for people so there will always be corruption. It's sad that there are no checks for when these things do happen. The media would be a good check but alas, not in China where the state controls it.
- nalbyuites 17y agoHis files had vanished. But with his story in the NYT, how long do you think it will take for him to vanish? :(
- jacquesm 17y agoEvery system like that should have checks and balances built in to the system. The fact that there is no backup of this crucial documentation is quite amazing, that there is no way to reconstruct it even more (because after all, you did live that life and there are countless people that could testify to that).
- online 17y agoI was one of the victims of this system. Lucky me i got the hell out of the system a few years ago. I am a software engineer in Vancouver ,Canada browsing this news now. My files has been sitting in a cabinet of a government official build over 8 years and no one just care. The interesting part was I had to pay the government for keeping my files. I just left 8 years ago and i thought i would not need my files anymore (not looking for a job anymore in china , at least a government job ) so i just stopped paying them.
- ams6110 17y agoA good lesson for those who think governments should be trusted with managing dossiers of any kind about their citizens (e.g. health care records).
- gorbachev 17y agoYes, because thoroughly corrupt officials in remote parts of China are exactly like Government officials in the US. My God! Your post is a good lesson for those who think Internet commenters have anything valuable to say.
- nazgulnarsil 17y agoeconomically support chinese companies that treat their workers well and thus put pressure on the rest of the country to improve. reform won't come from protests, it will come from the economy.
- xcombinator 17y agoI remember what my father told me when he was in england. He was a friend of a Girl from east europe. She never talked about her live there. One day she said: I can't talk to you about it, because if I talk, there are going to go against my family, who is still living there. Ten years later when he was working with URSS scientists, they behave very strange, very serious, never smiled, never talked about life. One of them told him: If we talk bad about the country we can't work because the state is the only employer. So I don't want communism(too much power in too few hands), and I don't want the macro-capitalism we are living today in witch a few companies control everything(and when they fail they are too big to fail).