• zephyreks@lemmy.mlOP
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    1 year ago

    Better tell all the people critical of the Chinese government on weibo that they're in jail lol

    • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      That's right. Because not every single person is in jail, no problem exists. /s

      How about this: even putting one person in jail because of political opinion is an oppressive, undemocratic action.

      • zephyreks@lemmy.mlOP
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        1 year ago

        Better tell that to literally every government on the planet, then.

        Jailing dissidents is government oppression, but it's a type of government oppression that happens in every major government, democratic or not. Welcome to the real world.

        • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 year ago

          This post was about China, not other countries. What China is doing is an atrocity and your whataboutism doesn't change that.

    • wahming@monyet.cc
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, like Naomi Wu, famous in the maker community, who tried her best to provide a nuanced view of China before pissing off the wrong group of people and going radio silent for good.

      • zephyreks@lemmy.mlOP
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        1 year ago

        And the fact that she was able to operate for years without issue, despite being critical of the regime for most of that period?

        Oh. Right. We don't talk about that part. Her existence both contradicts and supports your point.

        • anachronist@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          And the fact that she was able to operate for years without issue

          I used to watch ADVChina, which was a youtube series by an American and a South African who married Chinese women and decided to live in China with their families. For years they rode motorbikes around China, filming "day in the life" type content and occasionally saying something mildly critical.

          Eventually the CCP decided they didn't like them and they had to flee the country. The way they told it they had to lie their way through the border to HK to get out because the government put an exit ban on them. Now they live in California post angry anti-CCP rants.

          Point being, the fact that Wu or the ADVChina guys were able to operate in China for a little while isn't proof that the CCP tolerates independent media. It is proof that the CCP can be slow sometimes to shut down people who grow a foreign audience organically using information channels the CCP doesn't yet fully understand.

          • zephyreks@lemmy.mlOP
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            1 year ago

            You do realize that the CCP isn't some top-down monolith… Right? If it takes years to crack down on independent journalists, that sounds more like "freedom until you say overstep some line."

            Which, sure, isn't entirely free, but it's not even close to as bad as what people suggest.