China : Current Events

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Brother Coa

"From 2000 to 2012, Brazil was one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world, with an average annual GDP growth rate of over 5%, with its economy in 2012 surpassing that of the United Kingdom, temporarily making Brazil the world's sixth largest economy. However, Brazil's economy growth decelerated in 2013 and the country entered an ongoing recession in 2014"

All of this in just 3 years? 0_0

I won;t even imagine what will happen if USA ever enter recession...

lets see

Brazil is facing its biggest corruption scandal in a century
Its oil company is facing bankruptcy
its president is being impeach
Rio is bankrupt
2 weeks to Olympic and its facility is not close to finish
there is also a recession

[Ithekro]

Basically the Olympics is their present hope for recovery I suppose.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Basically the Olympics is their present hope for recovery I suppose.

Abandon all hope then.

Last Olympic to make money for the host city was Salt Lake.

[AnimeFan188]

China's Socially Networked Repression:

"China's social credit score in action (it's how China is ushering in a long night of
socially networked repression).

Essentially, this is a score that follows you for life. It's public and accessible.

It goes down: If you break any rules, say bad things online, pay a creditor late, or any
of a rapidly expanding list of immoral things...

A negative score impacts your ability to access government services. The companies
you can buy products from (they don't want to sell to people with low scores). Your
friends and the people you can marry (they get a lower score if you have a low score).

China's dictatorship needed a way to control an advanced, socially networked society.

This is it."

See:

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/...epression.html

&

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/...dit-score.html

&

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/chin...ivacy-invasion

[AnimeFan188]

It may be 2018, but the Chinese are increasingly living in 1984:

"Workers in China are being hooked up with brain-reading devices that feed information
about their moods to their employers, raising concerns about the privacy of people’s
most basic emotions.

Electronic sensors that fit into hats and helmets are being used in China on an
“unprecedented” scale to read employees’ emotions, the South China Morning Post
reports, in what firms say is part of a drive to increase efficiency and productivity,

But the efforts to tap into the data is sparking concerns that powerful companies are
reading the minds of their employees, with one Chinese psychology professor warning
that the systems could represent a "whole new level" of privacy abuse.

Although details about how the technology works are not clear, reports suggest
devices use lightweight sensors and artificial intelligence algorithms to monitor
brainwaves and detect spikes in emotions such as rage, anxiety and depression. They
can be concealed in safety helmets or uniform hats, and stream data to computers
accessed by employers.

The Post reports that the technology is government-backed and is known to be used
in the electronic equipment, electric power supply and telecommunications industries,
plus in the military in China."

See:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...kers-emotions/

[Ithekro]

Are we sure they aren't just using this data to design AI to replace their workforce, or for other applications.

[Anh_Minh]

On the bright side, those Psycho-Pass guns were pretty cool.

[MrTerrorist]

[AnimeFan188]

Waking up in a virtual jail with no recollection of how you got there:

"China's growing surveillance state has made the news again. The NYT described a
"God's-eye" -- perhaps better described as a State's-eye -- view of Chinese society as
seen from the millions of networked devices that are blanketing the country."


"The combination of ubiquitous sensors and database fusion has allowed the
Communist party to create "virtual cages" for millions of people. It's easy with Internet
Of Things technology to turn off an individual's credit card, phone, car, refrigerator etc
should he stray into a proscribed zone.

The Times notes the nightmare "it is also a vision that some of President Trump’s aides
have begun citing in a push for tougher action against Chinese companies in the
intensifying trade war. Beyond concerns about market barriers, theft and national
security, they argue that China is using technology to strengthen authoritarianism at
home and abroad — and that the United States must stop it."

Suddenly a war over the future of the Internet has broken out. It is perhaps the first
major conflict over a nonphysical system in the history of the world and it has come to
the front rank virtually by surprise after decades of the public being told tomorrow
would be a world without borders."


"The virtual high ground of this new war is the architecture of 5G: "digital cellular
networks, in which the service area covered by providers is divided into a mosaic of
small geographical areas called cells," with up to a million devices per square kilometer.
This creates an ecosystem teeming with electronic life, the Internet of Things where
"everything from toasters to dog collars to dialysis pumps to running shoes will be
connected. Remote robotic surgery will be routine, the military will develop hypersonic
weapons, and autonomous vehicles will cruise safely along smart highways."

It would also be the scaffolding of China's virtual cage. Whoever controls 5G will be able
to surveil and control the planet. Those in charge of the network could be omniscient
and potentially omnipotent over unprotected man made systems. To guard against
China ruling this kingdom the Trump administration has banned US companies, most
notably Google, from selling technology to Chinese giant Huawei.

The urgency of the challenge was underscored by The Hill's comparison of the situation
to Apollo. "We are in another innovation race right now. The race to 5G [is] a contest
that could have more far-reaching effects than the race to the moon. The Trump
administration deserves credit for articulating a policy that aims to see America win the
race to 5G." Steve Bannon had an even more extreme formulation. “It is a massive
national security issue to the West. The executive order is 10 times more important
than walking away from the trade deal. It [Huawei] is a major national security threat,
not just to the US but to the rest of the world. We are going to shut it down.”

While stopping China might prevent the worst it will not end the threat. 5G is like
Sauron's ring. As long as it exists someone -- the EU, Washington, Big Silicon or
Western industry -- will wear it. The result may not be Beijing's "virtual cage" but it will
potentially be an electronic jail nonetheless. Who can resist wielding such power?"

See:

https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez...you-got-there/

[Cosmic Eagle]

I dunno man.....speaking purely about the security and privacy risks of IOT can't you as an individual consumer just....not own them or at least reduce your dependency on them if you're really concerned? Smart medical devices and the like have many benefits and drawbacks but that's for the institutions to manage. The individual consumer in his daily life though....do they really need a smart fridge, smart car, smart washing machine, smart shower, smart home, smart whatever etc? What next? Smart underwear? If you're going to wire yourself into a grid, at least make sure the grid is designed with security in mind (which it currently isn't)

[AnimeFan188]

Will Modern Hyperconnectivity Allow China to Determine the
Destiny of Civilization?:

"Robert Spalding, formerly "the chief China strategist for the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs," described what he thought was at stake in the U.S.-China "trade war" in which
the role of Beijing's telecom giant Huawei figures prominently. In an interview with
American thought leaders, Spalding argued that it was bigger than a trade war. "It's
really about what kind of world we want to live in." China, like the U.S., realized that
globalization was not content-free and was trying to shape it to its own purposes. The
following are paraphrases from his interview found here.

We were so hubristic as Americans we failed to recognize that over
long history China's been invaded and conquered so many times that
they have a unique ability to absorb those invaders and slowly change
them into Chinese. We thought we'd turn them into Americans but in
reality we're becoming more and more -- not Chinese -- but certainly
like the Chinese Communist Party, a Marxist-Leninist organization
hybrid of what the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany was

Beijing is deliberately using the hyperconnectivity of the modern world to determine not
only the character of globalization but even the destiny of civilization. While the
Chinese understood that this the question in Spalding's mind was whether anyone in the
American establishment did. Beijing is calculating that if they push back hard,
Washington will fold because many politicians don't understand what is at stake."

See:

https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez...ough-the-wire/

[Ithekro]

The "war" will be won by "Deculture!"

[Toukairin]

This text is extremely disturbing to say the least.

China’s Youth Are Trapped in the Cult of Nationalism

I know that some of us have already made apt comparisons between China and Imperial Japan in the way they build up their power and use whatever propaganda to say that xyz group is the enemy and so forth. However, this one is both deeper and much uglier when I read this.

Let me spell it out: This is the Chinese version of the alt-right, except it isn’t fringe. Instead of “Make America Great Again,” the Chinese students were chanting “Long Live China.” Instead of blasting racist speeches against the ethnic minorities clearly visible in the West, this time the discrimination was political and regional—targeting Hong Kongers and their supporters. But the rage, the aggression, and the pride on the streets are all too similar. And they have largely flown under the radar as abusive speeches get lost in translation and go unchecked.

Think for a second here. It shares similarities with the way the Nazis rose by first getting to power, then bending the rules to maintain their power, then passing laws/bills that pushes minorities into concentration camps like it happened for Jews, Gypsies, and other political opponents. Also we see the use of social media like the US alt-right except that it it the mainstream discourse rather than fringes. Last but not least, the crap about China being the nation where the Han ethnic group is the dominant one is fed to schoolchildren from an early age.

To be a modern-day Chinese nationalist is to unknowingly agree to all of that and to become a de facto Han supremacist. On these issues, which all boil down to territorial disputes, it is extremely difficult for a Chinese person living in the mainland to hear arguments against the government’s claims. An argument against any is an argument against the whole. The domestic media and internet are flush with material that accuses the West of meddling in Hong Kong and Uighurs of being extremists yearning for their own reeducation—and alternative voices are ruthlessly crushed.

Han supremacy is a term that really struck because it summed up a lot, and I think this is something that must be talked more in the future. When they say that any criticism of China is an attack on the master (Han) race, I feel vibes about Netanhyahu's Israel shouting that criticism of their country and policies is antisemitism against "all Jewish people". But that is how similar the spinning is in the talk on the world stage.

In short, the social context with Chinese people is one major clusterfuck that blends some of the worst things we have seen in history since the 20th century, and it could get far worse until things get any better.

[bakato]

Originally Posted by Toukairin

This text is extremely disturbing to say the least.

China’s Youth Are Trapped in the Cult of Nationalism

I know that some of us have already made apt comparisons between China and Imperial Japan in the way they build up their power and use whatever propaganda to say that xyz group is the enemy and so forth. However, this one is both deeper and much uglier when I read this.



Think for a second here. It shares similarities with the way the Nazis rose by first getting to power, then bending the rules to maintain their power, then passing laws/bills that pushes minorities into concentration camps like it happened for Jews, Gypsies, and other political opponents. Also we see the use of social media like the US alt-right except that it it the mainstream discourse rather than fringes. Last but not least, the crap about China being the nation where the Han ethnic group is the dominant one is fed to schoolchildren from an early age.



Han supremacy is a term that really struck because it summed up a lot, and I think this is something that must be talked more in the future. When they say that any criticism of China is an attack on the master (Han) race, I feel vibes about Netanhyahu's Israel shouting that criticism of their country and policies is antisemitism against "all Jewish people". But that is how similar the spinning is in the talk on the world stage.

In short, the social context with Chinese people is one major clusterfuck that blends some of the worst things we have seen in history since the 20th century, and it could get far worse until things get any better.

But will they lose as badly as Germany and Japan in WWIII?

[Ithekro]

Unlike Germany and Japan, China has the manpower and somewhat the resources already to maintain a conflict.

[Toukairin]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Unlike Germany and Japan, China has the manpower and somewhat the resources already to maintain a conflict.

The manpower perhaps. But as for the quality of their troops and the motivation, I think not. Remember that the PLA has not seen massive action in any war zone since the war against Vietnam in the late 70s.

The last time I heard about PLA troops being involved anywhere abroad, there was a disgraceful and massive dereliction of duty as UN peacekeepers while aid workers were being raped in South Sudan.

[Ithekro]

Last time I heard about the PLA doing weil in battle was Korea around 1950, and that was due to mass of numbers more than anything else. Throw enough men at the problem and you overwhelm it...and its not like they are going to care too much about losses....they considering themselves overpopulated as it is. Less mouths to feed and cloth.


One assumes the nuclear option isn't used of course, which they also have. But the likely hot spot where the PLA might get some action is on the Indian-Pakistani border...and they too have the nuclear option....and manpower to throw at the problem.

[dragon1412]

Not really manpower though, consider the size of their country, i'd say the majority of their troops is spend on Border and some special regions on Tibet. should a war break out, I sincerely doubt they would ever mobilize more than 60% since that would effectively make them defenseless and vulnerable to uprising

[Toukairin]

Beyond the title, please read the full text. It speaks volumes about Xi's tenure since he took power in 2012, including stuff in Xinjiang, in China, the troubles in Hong Kong, and threatening Taiwan.

Hong Kong is Xi Jinping’s failure (The Financial Times)

One thing that is not mentioned in the text is how China was also aggressive during the most recent Senkaku Islands dispute, which coincided more or less with the time when Xi Jinping was rising towards the top rank of the CCP. Like Donald Trump, Winnie the Pooh clearly doesn't like to be told a big "no" in the face and is clearly obsessed with wanting to win at all costs against those who are not like him.

[AnimeFan188]

Manga Retelling Torture of Muslim Woman in China Goes Viral:

"Artist Tomomi Shimizu's manga retelling the account of an incarcerated and tortured
Uighur woman in China has spread around the world with translations in multiple
languages. What Has Happened to Me (available here in English) is told from the
perspective of 29-year-old wife and mother Mihrigul Tursun who was detained at the
Ürümqi airport in China while attempting to visit her parents with her young triplets.
Her children were separated from her, she was tortured, and one of her infants died in
custody.

She was released back to her home in Qiemo County, an area of China that neighbors
Tibet but authorities would summon her again.The woman stated that she was
interrogated and beaten for three days. When she muttered "Allah," she claimed her
attackers mocked her and she was moved into a cell under 24-hour surveillance with
50 other prisoners. That's when the brainwashing program started.

The woman and her fellow prisoners were led to pray to the leader of the communist
party, Xi Jinping, and sing songs praising communism. She said she was forced to
ingest pills and receive injections. She'd later discover that the drugs left her infertile.
After her release and yet another detainment, Tursun was able to get the Egyptian
government involved on behalf of her children, who hold dual citizenship. She took
her children to Egypt to discover that 26 of her relatives were arrested and would not
be released unless she returned to China within two months. She asked the
authorities why she had to suffer.

"Because you are Uygher.""

See:

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/int...-viral/.153745