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I can't help but to add a counterpoint here for the United States. The incarceration rate in the United States is over five times that of China (although these

I can't help but to add a counterpoint here for the United States. The incarceration rate in the United States is over five times that of China (although these numbers exclude prisoners in US Territories, military facilities, immigration and customs, facilities controlled by the Marshall's Service, and juvenile facilities, which would further increase the ratio). In fact, of first world nations, the United States leads every other nation for incarceration rate including Cuba, Russia, Rwanda, Belarus, and Iran. Besides controversies related to race, America has also seen a large number of prison scandals in the past few years including: 1: kickbacks to the judicial system to pipeline truly innocent children into juvenile detention (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal) 2: the forced, uninformed and/or coerced sterilization of prisoners (https://www.google.com/?q=california+forced+sterilization+of+inmates#safe=off&q=california+forced+sterilization+of+inmates https://www.google.com/?q=california+forced+sterilization+of...) 3: documented overuse of solitary confinement (http://americamagazine.org/issue/solitary-scandal http://americamagazine.org/issue/solitary-scandal) in some cases for 40 straight years (http://www.democracynow.org/2014/11/24/longest_serving_us_prisoner_in_solitary http://www.democracynow.org/2014/11/24/longest_serving_us_pr...) 4: a lack of legal opportunity in high density prisons for a speedy trial, even in the case of child offenders (http://www.democracynow.org/2014/10/1/accused_of_stealing_a_backpack_high http://www.democracynow.org/2014/10/1/accused_of_stealing_a_...) and for those with mental issues (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_DeFriest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_DeFriest) 5: the premeditated use of penal labor as a cheap replacement for unskilled labor (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/prison-labor_n_2272036.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/prison-labor_n_2272...) 6: the use of untested, classified and ineffective lethal injections on death row inmates (for example that of Joseph Wood http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_of_Joseph_Wood http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_of_Joseph_Wood) However, the United States is not nearly as bad to journalists. If you are a foreign journalist in the US that is not liked you will be deported (Ibrahim Jassam, Jason Rezaian and Yeganeh Salehi) and/or harassed during travel (Laura Poitras) and if you are a domestic journalistic enterprise you may be surveilled (like the Associated Press surveillance scandal this administration, or the countless others from recent times). You may be aggressively prosecuted to reveal sources (ruining your ability to keep secrecy of sources and therefore trustworthiness to confidential informants) a la Risen. You may be pressured into not running certain stories (like The Washinton Post's 2004 story about the NSA mass surveillance that was pushed under the radar). You may lose access to officials or be blocked from attending or asking questions at press releases or in the converse be given access to these things for running certain stories or positive slants on them (Judith Miller, Ken Dilanian). You may be threatened with the Espionage Act for handing national documents (Glenn Greenwald). But you will probably not be directly imprisoned.

enupten 12y ago
The fact that an amateur on the Internet can dig dirt up speaks scores for the US (as flawed as it is) than it does for China. Oh sweet irony.
- phaemon 12y ago
  Are you suggesting it's difficult to find articles that criticise China on the Internet?
  - dak1 12y ago
    It's difficult to find articles written in Chinese, hosted on servers or social media and news sites in China that criticize China, yes. Conversely, it's beyond easy to find articles written in English, hosted on US servers and social media and news sites in the US that criticize the US. So the parent's point seems to stand.
    - xnull2guest 12y ago
      This isn't really true. Take for example the Harvard Study on Chinese Censorship "Reverse-engineering censorship in China: Randomized experimentation and participant observation" by King, Gary, Pan, and Roberts (http://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/experiment_0.pdf http://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/experiment_0.pdf). Scathing criticism is regularly posted about the Chinese government and is not subject to any censorship. There are a few key areas that are censored: notably relations with Tibet and historical political uprisings.
      - coldtea 12y ago
        Don't let research and reality mess with what the mainstream mass media tell him is happening.
      - mahranch 12y ago
        > Scathing criticism is regularly posted about the Chinese government Did you actually read the study? That's not what they studied. They studied whether postings were held for review more on social media sites over standard media. And they weren't held more. What they found was that the CCP on social media takes a "post first, censor later" approach. That doesn't mean they don't censor social media. On social media, posts are "Reviewed". If you scroll down to the bottom of the study, they even give a listing of words that usually trigger a "review" flag. From your linked study: "In total, 66 of the 100 sites in our sample (automatically) review at least some social media submissions, and 40% of all of our individual social media submissions from our 100 sites (and 52% of submissions from sites that review at least sometimes) are put into review. Of those submissions that go into review, 63% never appear on the web."

enupten 12y ago

The fact that an amateur on the Internet can dig dirt up speaks scores for the US (as flawed as it is) than it does for China. Oh sweet irony.

phaemon 12y ago
Are you suggesting it's difficult to find articles that criticise China on the Internet?
- dak1 12y ago
  It's difficult to find articles written in Chinese, hosted on servers or social media and news sites in China that criticize China, yes. Conversely, it's beyond easy to find articles written in English, hosted on US servers and social media and news sites in the US that criticize the US. So the parent's point seems to stand.
  - xnull2guest 12y ago
    This isn't really true. Take for example the Harvard Study on Chinese Censorship "Reverse-engineering censorship in China: Randomized experimentation and participant observation" by King, Gary, Pan, and Roberts (http://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/experiment_0.pdf http://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/experiment_0.pdf). Scathing criticism is regularly posted about the Chinese government and is not subject to any censorship. There are a few key areas that are censored: notably relations with Tibet and historical political uprisings.
    - coldtea 12y ago
      Don't let research and reality mess with what the mainstream mass media tell him is happening.
    - mahranch 12y ago
      > Scathing criticism is regularly posted about the Chinese government Did you actually read the study? That's not what they studied. They studied whether postings were held for review more on social media sites over standard media. And they weren't held more. What they found was that the CCP on social media takes a "post first, censor later" approach. That doesn't mean they don't censor social media. On social media, posts are "Reviewed". If you scroll down to the bottom of the study, they even give a listing of words that usually trigger a "review" flag. From your linked study: "In total, 66 of the 100 sites in our sample (automatically) review at least some social media submissions, and 40% of all of our individual social media submissions from our 100 sites (and 52% of submissions from sites that review at least sometimes) are put into review. Of those submissions that go into review, 63% never appear on the web."