#are ok with china violating human rights

[beardedmrbean]

Hundreds of Tibetans protesting against a Chinese dam were rounded up in a harsh crackdown earlier this year, with some beaten and seriously injured, the BBC has learnt from sources and verified footage.

Such protests are extremely rare in Tibet, which China has tightly controlled since it annexed the region in the 1950s. That they still happened highlights China's controversial push to build dams in what has long been a sensitive area.

Claims of the arrests and beatings began trickling out shortly after the events in February. In the following days authorities further tightened restrictions, making it difficult for anyone to verify the story, especially journalists who cannot freely travel to Tibet.

But the BBC has spent months tracking down Tibetan sources whose family and friends were detained and beaten. BBC Verify has also examined satellite imagery and verified leaked videos which show mass protests and monks begging the authorities for mercy.

The sources live outside of China and are not associated with activist groups. But they did not wish to be named for safety reasons.

In response to our queries, the Chinese embassy in the UK did not confirm nor deny the protests or the ensuing crackdown.

But it said: "China is a country governed by the rule of law, and strictly safeguards citizens' rights to lawfully express their concerns and provide opinions or suggestions."

The protests, followed by the crackdown, took place in a territory home to Tibetans in Sichuan province. For years, Chinese authorities have been planning to build the massive Gangtuo dam and hydropower plant, also known as Kamtok in Tibetan, in the valley straddling the Dege (Derge) and Jiangda (Jomda) counties.

Once built, the dam's reservoir would submerge an area that is culturally and religiously significant to Tibetans, and home to several villages and ancient monasteries containing sacred relics.

One of them, the 700-year-old Wangdui (Wontoe) Monastery, has particular historical value as its walls feature rare Buddhist murals.

The Gangtuo dam would also displace thousands of Tibetans. The BBC has seen what appears to be a public tender document for the relocation of 4,287 residents to make way for the dam.

The BBC contacted an official listed on the tender document as well as Huadian, the state-owned enterprise reportedly building the dam. Neither have responded.

Plans to build the dam were first approved in 2012, according to a United Nations special rapporteurs letter to the Chinese government. The letter, which is from July 2024, raised concerns about the dam's "irreversible impact" on thousands of people and the environment.

From the start, residents were not "consulted in a meaningful way" about the dam, according to the letter. For instance, they were given information that was inadequate and not in the Tibetan language.

They were also promised by the government that the project would only go ahead if 80% of them agreed to it, but "there is no evidence this consent was ever given," the letter goes on to say, adding that residents tried to raise concerns about the dam several times.

Chinese authorities, however, denied this in their response to the UN. "The relocation of the villages in question was carried out only after full consultation of the opinions of the local residents," the Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations office said in a letter from September 2024.

It added: "Local government and project developers funded the construction of new homes and provided subsidies for grazing, herding and farming. As for any cultural relics, they were relocated in their entirety."

But the BBC understands from two Tibetan sources that, in February, officials had told them they would be evicted imminently, while giving them little information about resettlement options and compensation.

This triggered such deep anxiety that villagers and Buddhist monks decided to stage protests, despite knowing the risks of a crackdown.

'They didn't know what was going to happen to them'

The largest one saw hundreds gathering outside a government building in Dege. In a video clip obtained and verified by the BBC, protesters can be heard calling on authorities to stop the evictions and let them stay.

Separately, a group of residents approached visiting officials and pleaded with them to cancel plans to build the dam. The BBC has obtained footage which appears to show this incident, and verified it took place in the village of Xiba.

The clip shows red-robed monks and villagers kneeling on a dusty road and showing a thumbs-up, a traditional Tibetan way of begging for mercy.

In the past the Chinese government has been quick to stamp out resistance to authority, especially in Tibetan territory where it is sensitive to anything that could potentially feed separatist sentiment.

It was no different this time. Authorities swiftly launched their crackdown, arresting hundreds of people at protests while also raiding homes across the valley, according to one of our sources.

One unverified but widely shared clip appears to show Chinese policemen shoving a group of monks on a road, in what is thought to be an arrest operation.

Many were detained for weeks and some were beaten badly, according to our Tibetan sources whose family and friends were targeted in the crackdown.

One source shared fresh details of the interrogations. He told the BBC that a childhood friend was detained and interrogated over several days.

"He was asked questions and treated nicely at first. They asked him 'who asked you to participate, who is behind this'.

"Then, when he couldn't give them [the] answers they wanted, he was beaten by six or seven different security personnel over several days."

His friend sustained only minor injuries, and was freed within a few days. But others were not so lucky.

Another source told the BBC that more than 20 of his relatives and friends were detained for participating in the protests, including an elderly person who was more than 70 years old.

"Some of them sustained injuries all over their body, including in their ribs and kidneys, from being kicked and beaten… some of them were sick because of their injuries," he said.

Similar claims of physical abuse and beatings during the arrests have surfaced in overseas Tibetan media reports.

The UN letter also notes reports of detentions and use of force on hundreds of protesters, stating they were "severely beaten by the Chinese police, resulting in injuries that required hospitalisation".

After the crackdown, Tibetans in the area encountered even tighter restrictions, the BBC understands. Communication with the outside world was further limited and there was increased surveillance. Those who are still contactable have been unwilling to talk as they fear another crackdown, according to sources.

The first source said while some released protesters were eventually allowed to travel elsewhere in Tibetan territory, others have been slapped with orders restricting their movement.

This has caused problems for those who need to go to hospital for medical treatment and nomadic tribespeople who need to roam across pastures with their herds, he said.

The second source said he last heard from his relatives and friends at the end of February: "When I got through, they said not to call any more as they would get arrested. They were very scared, they would hang up on me.

"We used to talk over WeChat, but now that is not possible. I'm totally blocked from contacting all of them," he said.

"The last person I spoke to was a younger female cousin. She said, 'It's very dangerous, a lot of us have been arrested, there's a lot of trouble, they have hit a lot of us'… They didn't know what was going to happen to them next."

The BBC has been unable to find any mention of the protests and crackdown in Chinese state media. But shortly after the protests, a Chinese Communist Party official visited the area to "explain the necessity" of building the dam and called for "stability maintenance measures", according to one report.

A few months later, a tender was awarded for the construction of a Dege "public security post", according to documents posted online.

The letter from Chinese authorities to the UN suggests villagers have already been relocated and relics moved, but it is unclear how far the project has progressed.

The BBC has been monitoring the valley via satellite imagery for months. For now, there is no sign of the dam's construction nor demolition of the villages and monasteries.

The Chinese embassy told us authorities were still conducting geological surveys and specialised studies to build the dam. They added the local government is "actively and thoroughly understanding the demands and aspirations" of residents.

Development or exploitation?

China is no stranger to controversy when it comes to dams.

When the government constructed the world's biggest dam in the 90s - the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River - it saw protests and criticism over its handling of relocation and compensation for thousands of villagers.

In more recent years, as China has accelerated its pivot from coal to clean energy sources, such moves have become especially sensitive in Tibetan territories.

Beijing has been eyeing the steep valleys and mighty rivers here, in the rural west, to build mega-dams and hydropower stations that can sustain China's electricity-hungry eastern metropolises. President Xi Jinping has personally pushed for this, a policy called "xidiandongsong", or "sending western electricity eastwards".

Like Gangtuo, many of these dams are on the Jinsha (Dri Chu) river, which runs through Tibetan territories. It forms the upper reaches of the Yangtze river and is part of what China calls the world's largest clean energy corridor.

Gangtuo is in fact the latest in a series of 13 dams planned for this valley, five of which are already in operation or under construction.

The Chinese government and state media have presented these dams as a win-win solution that cuts pollution and generates clean energy, while uplifting rural Tibetans.

In its statement to the BBC, the Chinese embassy said clean energy projects focus on "promoting high-quality economic development" and "enhancing the sense of gain and happiness among people of all ethnic groups".

But the Chinese government has long been accused of violating Tibetans' rights. Activists say the dams are the latest example of Beijing's exploitation of Tibetans and their land.

"What we are seeing is the accelerated destruction of Tibetan religious, cultural and linguistic heritage," said Tenzin Choekyi, a researcher with rights group Tibet Watch. "This is the 'high-quality development' and 'ecological civilisation' that the Chinese government is implementing in Tibet."

One key issue is China's relocation policy that evicts Tibetans from their homes to make way for development - it is what drove the protests by villagers and monks living near the Gangtuo dam. More than 930,000 rural Tibetans are estimated to have been relocated since 2000, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Beijing has always maintained that these relocations happen only with the consent of Tibetans, and that they are given housing, compensation and new job opportunities. State media often portrays it as an improvement in their living conditions.

But rights groups paint a different picture, with reports detailing evidence of coercion, complaints of inadequate compensation, cramped living conditions, and lack of jobs. They also point out that relocation severs the deep, centuries-old connection that rural Tibetans share with their land.

"These people will essentially lose everything they own, their livelihoods and community heritage," said Maya Wang, interim China director at HRW.

There are also environmental concerns over the flooding of Tibetan valleys renowned for their biodiversity, and the possible dangers of building dams in a region rife with earthquake fault lines.

Some Chinese academics have found the pressure from accumulated water in dam reservoirs could potentially increase the risk of quakes, including in the Jinsha river. This could cause catastrophic flooding and destruction, as seen in 2018, when rain-induced landslides occurred at a village situated between two dam construction sites on Jinsha.

The Chinese embassy told us that the implementation of any clean energy project "will go through scientific planning and rigorous demonstration, and will be subject to relevant supervision".

In recent years, China has passed laws safeguarding the environment surrounding the Yangtze River and the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. President Xi has personally stressed the need to protect the Yangtze's upper reaches.

About 424 million yuan (£45.5m, $60m) has been spent on environmental conservation along Jinsha, according to state media. Reports have also highlighted efforts to quake-proof dam projects.

Multiple Tibetan rights groups, however, argue that any large-scale development in Tibetan territory, including dams such as Gangtuo, should be halted.

They have staged protests overseas and called for an international moratorium, arguing that companies participating in such projects would be "allowing the Chinese government to profit from the occupation and oppression of Tibetans".

"I really hope that this [dam-building] stops," one of our sources said. "Our ancestors were here, our temples are here. We have been here for generations. It is very painful to move. What kind of life would we have if we leave?"

[ace-hell]

"if you are NOT advocating for palestine you support genocide"

Dude wtf if yall had the same sprit with congo, sudan, syria, yemen, nigeria, russia, china, north korea, iran, south africa, pakistan, Afghanistan, turkey -> all are genocidal imperialistic countries that ruled by dictatorship and tyranny that actively oppress their own people, have no human (and women) rights, homophobic and in some CHILD MARRIAGE IS LEGAL(in iran the legal age now is NINE) then yall could've saved HUNDREDS of MILLION of people.

And yet yall PRAISE them just bc they are against israel this is so WILD. I saw and see ppl say shit like "rare china W", "putin is a real hero" and "you do something wrong if north korea disagree with you" 💀 did i miss something? Are we living on the same palnet? Is there some kind of glitch in the matrix? I thought we hate any form of oppression, any form of genocode, that we boycott anything that connects or supports an oppressive country?

Ok and lets say you freed palestine, besides the fact that 9 million people will be wiped out from the word (but its ok bc its genocide only when the leftist decide it is) you need to take into consideration that not everyone has dual citizenship for some it got revoked bc the countey literally kicked the people out(russia, persia, ethiopia) or bc they did aliya and most people were BORN IN ISRAEL AND DON'T HAVE DUAL CITIZENSHIP AND THAT ITS AN ANTISEMITE RUMOR??. So you freed palestine it becomes an arab muslim country under the sharia laws(they want it to be) yall really think it will be the epitome of freedom? A full on democratic country? There will be no rape, no abuse, no family disputes, no poverty? No imperialism, no corrupt goverment, no terrorism, no capitalism, no racism? They will have one hell of pride parades? You have 50 muslim countries to see and learn how it looks like, you can see hamas chart and the chants the palestinians have on the streets, them literally having swastikas and praising hitler, their school books got published with full on violence in their education

So yall gonna fight for a free palestine just to protest against it for violation of human rights? Nice hypocrisy guys.

[nanjokei]

on what is considered "official art" and conduct between fandom across the globe

i think there is a fascinating cultural difference between what is considered free to use by fans in the """west""" in general and specifically japan. in recent years, the playing field has become somewhat leveled: most people who are in the know know that fanart should not be reposted or used without permission whether it be for copyright reasons or just out of respect for the human being who made it, but it's ok to use what is agreed upon to be "official art"—

er, what IS official art? if you ask the answer is different between regions. tying back to strict copyright, a lot of japanese fans will consider even anime screenshots a big no-no, because they are not yours, unless they were posted to be used (for example when an official twitter account gives out heavily embellished promotional graphics to use as icons and sometimes headers). so really, there isn't any such thing as "official art is ok" unless the express worded intention of the rights owner is "you can use this". of course, not everyone observes it, but it IS upheld and kinda faux pas to violate. and i said japan specifically because other nearby countries like s korea and china, their fandoms aren't so strict (i assume bc the rights holder can't do shit outside of japan), but they still uphold rules if a creator says it out loud. i'll come back to this later

for us, official art is anything coming from the horse's mouth really, be it magazine scans, promotional art, standing images, art from the original artist/mangaka, game files— these are free reign to this side of the globe culturally. it's not a social faux pas and in fact considered more ethical to do this (but not to be trumped by just making your own rendition, still). now for stuff like magazine scans, that stuff is definitely very NG because it's sold, you have to buy the magazine to see it. but due to inaccessibility in early animanga fandom days (and honestly, for a lot of magazines, you still need savvy to get your hands on them), a culture of sharing with others was born. the topic of how and why cds and magazines are still alive in japan is a conversation on its own so i won't go into it. it's a whole can of worms we can open another day.

for anime and commercial games, it's honestly whatever right? like who cares. what i wanna circle back to is individual creators tackling the culture gap here. your indie game, web manga/novel, music etc creators of the world/internet. though i'll mostly use indie game devs as an example as those cases i am most familiar with. in japan AND other eastern countries, there's a level of respect leveraged to the individual creator's wishes— they're usually simple requests like DON'T USE OR EDIT MY ART. my beef here is, why do people on this side have so much trouble respecting guidelines? some creators will allow people to use even in-game files, so long as it isn't edited. but they ask, for example, their personal art not be used.

a segway but, this is also a difference that exists in japan (i'm not sure about other places), but an artist that works on an official work... not all their art is "official art"! for example, an artist who makes art for an otome game. they may doodle a character they like. i think by our definition, this is considered official art, but in reality it is FANART. a lot of them will cover their asses just to be safe and explicitly state it's fanart so it's not misconstrued as official art— often either so as not to influence the work with their own personal expressions OR not to get in trouble with the rights holder. this is really important to know in this topic

and yes, even if the characters belong to an individual creator, sometimes their art can be personal art that they don't want people to use. it's really not hard to grasp and yet there are cases of artists being peeved by the actions of overseas fans (i try to avoid using "western" as much as possible bc its such a weird term that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, eastern too but lol). one case where a creator halted a translation project due to them being sick of overseas fans using and editing their art after trying to get them to stop several times but to no avail. i'm surprised this isn't happening more often because honestly i'll be frank for a second and say that while they tend to skew young, fans of free games have no excuse. i understand it's either immaturity or "it's online so i can take it" culture OR most likely, i think it is the cultural misunderstanding of "it's official art". but also in that specific case, a certain western indie game dev commented that that creator "should be grateful that people are playing their games at all". are you for fucking real?

you literally only see """western""" fandom commit such faux pas though. is it individualism? is it because i am raised in a collectivist culture that i don't fully get it? the subject fascinates me until it gets to thinking about the disrespect of indie creators. then i just get kinda smad

[blogquantumreality]

On Morality and Legality

@strkid

I said I would take up the issue of morality and legality separately, as this was posed to me: "Why do you adopt the legal system of the most evil place on earth as some sort of guideline for your own moral beliefs?"

I want to preface this by saying I saw the reply I'm pasting below and it's honestly a good 'in a nutshell' response, but I'll get a bit more general in a moment.

Ok, so as promised, more general commentary here:

Short answer to the question - I don't.

Long answer to the question - I've spent some time when I was younger reading about exactly this kind of thing and a good book that kind of helped solidify my stance on the matter is this one: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/614699.Ain_t_Nobody_s_Business_if_You_Do

To summarize, a crime cannot be rationally a crime if it is an action you do to yourself. The author calls this a "consensual crime", and obviously what you do to yourself you do with your own consent. (I don't want to get into the weeds too much with this, so for the sake of convenience I'm restricting this category of 'crimes' to those committed by fully competent adults to themselves.)

Okay.

Where the law conflicts with the morality is this: A legal system should, ideally, detect, deter, and/or punish a harm done by a person against another person.

By that foundational logic, murder is obviously a crime, as is rape, assault, and any other thing you do to someone else without their consent. This extends quite obviously to theft, and can, with some effort, extended to purely financial offences such as fraud.

This also means that it is an obvious absurdity to make drug use a crime since it is a thing you do to yourself and not someone else.

But take note of an omission: It is entirely legal to fail to do something and yet allow harm to come to someone.

The law as generally written conceives of active harms but not passive ones as a general rule.

This means, for example, that you can stand on a street corner, watch someone rob someone else, and do nothing to stop it and you will have committed no crime - no harm - in the eyes of the law.

However any thinking, decent person in the world would argue that alone is not sufficient; morally and ethically, you are obliged to try and stop the crime if you can.

And that is why it is incorrect to make the claim that I use a legal system as a guideline for my morality: because I don't think adhering to the strict letter of the law is sufficient to guide my actions with respect to other human beings.

"Okay, but a bank - a corporation - was involved! Legally it's not a natural person, so there!"

True, but it can be worked out that theft of money from a bank ultimately has to be paid for in some way - ideally in less profit for the shareholders, but that's not really what happens. Instead, worker wages get reduced, or the taxpayer has to subsidize the loss through deposit insurance.

And this can still be considered a harm - very indirect, but it's there. The morality of the way a bank treats people aside, the legality of the bad check ATM deposits is pretty open and shut.

A tangential discussion follows under the cut:

I'm going to address the term "evil place" with respect to the USA separately and argue that, prima facie, that is a gross exaggeration. By certain metrics, the United States' politico-economic structure hurts the poor more than other countries' systems do, but that only truly holds water when comparing across most other high and middle income countries. It utterly fails in comparison to Russia or China, to cite two examples of countries whose regimes are embroiled in ongoing severe human rights violations and a gross abuse of population surveillance.

[medicinemane]

Ok, one thing I just gotta say is that anyone who thinks that China is more or a threat than russia to the US... they are literally so interconnected

Both as in, Xi (last I heard) is planning a trip to meet with putin, so they are literally diplomatically connected even if China keeps trying to avoid getting hit with sanctions, but also that whatever happens with Ukraine will really be watched by China in any decisions they make about Taiwan

A weak or faltering response from the west makes it clear we likely won't support Taiwan if they're invaded. A russian loss makes it a lot less appealing to even try, and what with Taiwan being a massive producer of semiconductors it would be very very bad for the US if they were invaded

Is China a threat? Yes, all authoritarians are a threat. For instance the US (and the world as a whole, but this is addressing things I see said in America) would be a lot better off if the Iranian people win their fight for freedom and overthrow their brutal and oppressive government. As much of a pain in the ass as other countries can be (US included), democracies are generally so much easier to work with

So is China in particular a major threat? Once again yes, they hold massive amounts of influence over manufacture among other things. Sanctioning them would have huge ramifications, a military conflict would be horrendous. We can't just ignore their imperialism, or their human rights violations, but at the same time they've been allowed to get such a strangle hold it makes it hard to do that without really hurting the world economy

That said, russia and China are literally so connected that they do joint military exercises. I don't feel like finding a link for some dumb post that possibly no one reads, but if you don't believe me I can go and track down a citation on that

These are likeminded authoritarians with imperialist ambitions, they're both a threat to the US. You remove all compassion, and helping Ukraine still ends up being cheaper and better at dealing with China than ignoring the situation and making China think the west is toothless

[ryukisgod]

“You’re a communist but you have an iPhone?

Checkmate”

Me:

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Soooo, just a question. To the people who say they'll unfollow, disavow, and whatever people who buy the HP dolls... are you gonna do the same to people who buy from Asian companies? Especially Chinese. Most of the countries where BJD's are produced are incredibly cishetero normative, LGBT-phobia is still widely normalised and encouraged, even within the laws, despite many LGBT people's effort in those countries. Especially transphobia!

And before you're like "Well the companies might not share the viewset of the Government" Ok ... did you ask? Or are you just hoping you're supporting an ally by buying from them? Or is it ok as long as you don't know if they're raging homo/bi/transphobes? Schrödinger's transphobia I guess. "I can keep buying, as long as I don't know, that way I'm always right!"

I mean, it's been known since 2019 the shit Ringd0ll wrote about the Hong Kong protests, and people are still buying from them, despite the company literally supporting police brutality and the CCP's overreach of power, when no other company from China did that. (For anyone wanting to excuse RD via ThEy hAd tO!" That was all on RingD0ll, which they published all over their business pages. I mean, I was specifically talking about LGBT rights, and acceptance, but what about human rights? Are you going to call out anyone buying from Chinese companies, and tell them they're supporting the Government performing human rights violations? For a fully optional hobby. It just kinda feels like this is done now to get those extra brownie points, but you don't wanna put your money where your mouth is.

Like, let me say it like this, it feels like people only care so long, as it's related to pop culture, and from the West. Because that way you can cry the loudest, and sit on your throne if self-righteousness, but you don't actually have to change anything about your buying habits or interactions with the hobby at large. And you don't have to even put basic effort into figuring out who you're buying from, or what their beliefs are. It's like you gotta be spoonfeed the shit people, and companies do, and even then you'll ignore the issues easiest to you, while crying out loudly about the things you have to put little effort into, to be outraged about. This isn't even a situation where you can say that "it's unavoidable to buy BJD's from Asia, esp China." like happens with essential services or food products, when you try not supporting mega companies who got their fingers in every hole. This a wholly avoidable part of life, and the hobby.

~Anonymous

[rainbowsky]

what did you think of yibo saying his dad used to hit him?

[ CW/TW - talk of abuse, violence, racism and homophobia ]

Anon is talking about this DDU clip, where DD talks about having been hit with a bamboo stick as a child.

This is a complicated question for me to answer, because I had a couple different simultaneous reactions to it.

1] My reaction to it based on cultural relativism.

The fact is, corporal punishment is still very acceptable in many cultures. The discussion around this issue therefore needs to be handled with sensitivity and thoughtfulness. I often see a lot of racism, classism and cultural superiority laced through conversations about this issue.

A lot of people grew up being hit, and that’s just how things were handled. It was that way in the white-ass redneck culture I grew up in. Being hit was just part of growing up. Some stories of being hit are horror stories, sure, but some of them are funny and can even be retold as lighthearted memories.

I remember when I first found out that other kids had a different understanding of what a ‘spanking’ was than I did. It was a massive shock to me to hear that some kids just got a flat-handed whack on the bum, that barely even hurt. In my family a spanking was genuinely brutal.

Up until that point, whenever my friends said they’d been spanked I was horrified. Learning what they’d really been talking about (and that they’d never, in fact, had the same experiences I had) was a big eye-opener for me, and one of my earliest experiences of ‘paradigm shift’; one of the first times in my life that I fully grasped the idea that people can think they’re talking about the same thing but be saying completely different things. 

Point being, what seems horrible and unthinkable to one person can be completely normal to another. To me, being brutalized was normal. I had no frame of reference for anything else. To my friends, being lightly smacked was normal. They couldn’t conceive of something ‘worse’.

Can we judge cultures based on how they discipline children? Should we? I don’t personally believe so. I think it’s always safest to deal with things on a case-by-case basis rather than paint with a broad brush across a huge range of people. Not all families from a particular culture hit their kids, and even when they do, how hard and how often they do varies wildly.

2] My reaction to it based on my own values.

It's sometimes difficult to speak critically of practices that others find acceptable (or even advocate for), but in the end I need to stand behind my own values. Not all practices are cultural, and not all cultural elements are worth preserving.

It is never OK to hit a child. It is never OK to hit a child. It is never OK to hit a child.

Corporal punishment is a human rights issue.

Here are some of the ways it is a violation of a child’s human rights:

It is cruel and degrading, and violates their physical integrity.

It violates their rights to equal protection under the law (in most countries hitting an adult is treated as illegal, but hitting children is allowed).

It violates their rights of personhood and equality and treats them as property of their parents.

Almost every country - including China - has signed onto the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The only UN member country that has not ratified the convention is the USA. Yes, you heard me right. The USA is the only UN member nation that has not yet ratified the UNCRC.

Here are some applicable articles in the UNCRC:

Article 2 (1): States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.

Article 2 (2): States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians, or family members.

Article 3 (1): In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.

Article 3 (2): States Parties undertake to ensure the child such protection and care as is necessary for his or her well-being, taking into account the rights and duties of his or her parents, legal guardians, or other individuals legally responsible for him or her, and, to this end, shall take all appropriate legislative and administrative measures.

Article 3 (3): States Parties shall ensure that the institutions, services and facilities responsible for the care or protection of children shall conform with the standards established by competent authorities, particularly in the areas of safety, health, in the number and suitability of their staff, as well as competent supervision.

Article 4: States Parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the present Convention. With regard to economic, social and cultural rights, States Parties shall undertake such measures to the maximum extent of their available resources and, where needed, within the framework of international co-operation.

Article 6 (1): States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life.

Article 6 (2): States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child.

Article 19 (1): States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.

Article 28 (2): States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child's human dignity and in conformity with the present Convention.

Article 37: States Parties shall ensure that: (a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age.

In addition, in 2006 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted specific measures against corporal punishment in “The right of the child to protection from corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment.”

It defines corporal punishment as:

“any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light. Most involves hitting (“smacking”, “slapping”, “spanking”) children, with the hand or with an implement – whip, stick, belt, shoe, wooden spoon, etc. But it can also involve, for example, kicking, shaking or throwing children, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or boxing ears, forcing children to stay in uncomfortable positions, burning, scalding or forced ingestion (for example, washing children’s mouths out with soap or forcing them to swallow hot spices).

“In the view of the Committee, corporal punishment is invariably degrading. In addition, there are other nonphysical forms of punishment which are also cruel and degrading and thus incompatible with the Convention. These include, for example, punishment which belittles, humiliates, denigrates, scapegoats, threatens, scares or ridicules the child.”

If you have a specific interest in this topic I recommend reading the document, it’s interesting and informative. If it’s TL;DR for you, the document simply summarizes the ways in which corporal punishment is incompatible with (and a violation of) the UNCRC. It further states that:

The distinct nature of children, their initial dependent and developmental state, their unique human potential as well as their vulnerability, all demand the need for more, rather than less, legal and other protection from all forms of violence.

It also states explicitly that even ‘moderate’ forms of corporal punishment are a violation of the child’s human rights, and that “'appropriate' direction and guidance must be consistent with the whole Convention and leaves no room for justification of violent or other cruel or degrading forms of discipline.”

Justifications and Rationalizations

People often insist that spanking is the very best way to teach the concept of right and wrong to children who are not fully able to understand the nuances of such topics. I find that a very weak argument that doesn’t even pass the most casual reflection.

Just imagine any other scenario where you might want to instill standards of behavior into someone with limited capacities - such as elders with dementia or people with cognitive disabilities - and then ask yourself if hitting these people could ever be deemed acceptable.

Most people would be justifiably outraged at the idea of hitting an elder with dementia or someone with cognitive disabilities. These are vulnerable people for whom we have a heightened responsibility of care.

The internal revulsion we feel at the idea of hitting other vulnerable people really lays bare the ugly reality: people are OK with hitting children simply because they are children.

The human rights of women and children are always the last to be recognized and respected in any society or culture. Children usually come last on that list, and unfortunately it will take time for their human rights to be fully realized across the globe. However, make no mistake about it - every nation that has ratified the UNCRC is obligated under international law to uphold the rights of children not to be punished in this way.

Corporal punishment is ineffective and actually counter-productive

Everyone who is OK with hitting children has plenty of anecdata about how supposedly effective it is, but this is a heavily studied topic, and the facts are in. A 2016 review of more than 250 studies on the effects of corporal punishment could not find even one positive outcome of corporal punishment.

However, it found many negative outcomes. Here are just a few:

Direct physical harm

Poor moral internalization and increased antisocial behavior

Increased aggression in children

Mental harm

Damage to the parent-child relationship

Then why do people believe so strongly that it’s effective? Because that’s what they’ve been taught to believe.

We are all taught harmful and incorrect things growing up. Many people go on to uphold those views vehemently even in the face of mounting evidence proving them wrong. Just look at racism, look at homophobia, look at anti-vaxxers - look at any misguided belief.

How strongly you believe in something is no evidence of its correctness. All the rationalizations that you were taught, that help you believe in the rightness of your misguided ideas, are just the rationalizations keeping you within that blind spot.

"But I turned out OK"

Yeah, I get it, a lot of people who are hit as children turn out fine. That doesn't make it OK to hit children. I actually find the idea that one person’s resilience should be used as justification to visit the same harms on another person extremely obscene.

There are a lot of psychological reasons why the brain minimizes and downplays our experiences of having been hit or abused. It’s the brain’s way of protecting us from feeling traumatized, and of keeping our important relationships intact. It’s a self-protective instinct that ironically can sometimes lead to our being harmed more, or to unwittingly harming others. We don’t fully grasp how harmed we felt. Our brains prevent us from seeing it.

Even someone who was as severely abused as I was, when I was working through my healing process I had to actively work hard against my brain in order to fully grasp the abuse I endured. The brain doesn’t want you to know how bad it was, because it’s trying to protect you. It’s a huge part of why abused people keep going back to their abusers.

There’s also just the simple fact that different people have different levels of tolerance. They experience things differently, and there’s no way to predict who will experience something as trauma and be utterly destroyed by it, and who will take it in stride.

It’s simply safest - and most humane - to treat everyone with dignity and respect.

Punishment doesn't define parenthood

Having said all of that, I don't think the sum of one's parenthood can be determined based on whether someone ever raised their hand to their child. The more important question is, did they stand up for their child? Did they give that child a strong foundation in life? Did they teach their child to love themselves? Did they give their child unconditional love?

We don’t know how bad it was for DD. We likely never will. It would be irresponsible to judge his family or speak/think ill of them without more information about how his discipline was handled, and without more information on how the rest of his upbringing went. Without that information we need to err on the side of caution and give his family the benefit of the doubt.

At the same time, it’s totally understandable for fans to be upset that he was disciplined so harshly. I just urge everyone to be very careful about how we speak about it.

Words carelessly chosen can be hurtful. What we say can create an environment that’s hostile for people who feel targeted by our comments. It can create perceptions about DD’s family or upbringing that he might not approve of, or which could even be harmful to him and his family.

When in doubt, it’s safer to talk about our own experiences than to try to express hot takes about other people’s experiences.

As someone who was severely abused as a child, I often find the way people talk about my childhood and my family to be utterly tone-deaf, and even offensive at times. No matter how well-meaning you might be, it’s important to remember that someone’s family is still their family - their loved ones - regardless of how they might have been treated.

However you feel about DD being hit as a child - whether you found the story humorous or horrifying - I sincerely hope that you will research safe disciplinary practices and never, ever raise your hand to a child.

If you or someone you know is being abused or has been abused, please seek out resources in your area. I can say from firsthand experience - with therapy and support, an abused person can go on to live a happy, productive life.

Edit: Valuable insight from a reader on this topic.

More on managing our personal responses here.

[watch-grok-brainrot]

Jin Guangyao's Violation of 忠孝仁义

So I had written about WWX and his strong sense of 忠孝仁义 last week. While I was writing it, I kept on thinking about JGY and how he managed to violate all of these virtues. I wanted to go into this characterization of him because I find it so interesting how opposite he is to WWX in the decisions he made. (Warning: i’m not nice to JGY here so if you don’t want him dragged, don’t read?)

忠- loyalty, devotion, fidelity (usually for country or monarch)

(Can I take a moment to talk about how much I LOVE THIS SHOT?! The blood of WRH on the camera lens, WRH falling over, the sudden shift to brightness that mirrors the scene in ep 50 where JGY obscures the sun in his bow (picture above the read more cut)! I can’t get over how much I LOVE the lighting and the way WRH collapses, making way for JGY to become the new sun. Foreshadowing much CQL Crew?!)

This one might be a stretch depending on how you read JGY. I fully believe he went to work for Wen Ruohan as Wen Zhuliu did -- seeking someone who will value his skills. However, WZL died for WRH and JGY just bided his time. (Note: While we know very little about Wen Zhuliu, we know he was at least 忠 and 义. He died for WRH and Wen Chao and refused to let WC desecrate Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan’s bodies. For that, I have to give him respect. He, despite everything, still had that jianghu sense of 义. Also, the man can count. And knows what a golden core feels like.)

So we know JGY gave Lan Xichen the maps, but he also lured them to Nightless City where the puppets were waiting. Had WWX not brought out the Stygian Tiger Amulet, would JGY have murdered WRH? Or would he have stayed in the shadows forever? As a viewer I have no idea what JGY is thinking, what he’s doing, or what he’s hoping for. He hides so well his intentions that there is debate about if he really was helping with the Sunshot Campaign or not! That isn’t something you can say about someone with loyalty. 

What upsets me further is that Nie Mingjie, having been JGY’s superior officer, sees JGY more clearly than LXC can. NMJ has seen JGY murder and has seen the level of self-serving vindictiveness JGY is capable of. In the case of the Sunshot Campaign, this self-serving attitude made JGY become a double agent uncommitted to either side. Too bad NMJ could not convince LXC of JGY’s duplicity. I’m gonna blame those dimples. 

The fact that we do not know JGY’s intent really shows his lack of 忠. If You Stand For Nothing, JGY, What Will You Fall For? (Answer: Himself and that is not 忠)

孝 - filial piety (deference to your lineage)

So for 孝, you’re supposed to respect your parents, honor your parents, and defer to your parents. What are you not supposed to do? Kill you father. That’s what.

So this should’ve been a really short section because that’s pretty cut and dry. But I want to look at what JGY says to JGS when JGY brings in Sisi and the other women. 

(He’s so creepy in this picture! *shudders*)

“父亲,我给你找来了你最爱的女人. 有很多个. 你高兴吗?”

“Father, I have brought you your favorite -- women. There are many. Are you happy?”

(Translation note: you can translate the line as your favorite women or your favorite -- women. I chose to translate it as the latter due to the context.)

First of all, the tone. JGY’s voice is breathy. I can almost hear a smile. He has zero moral qualms about this. He addresses his father as father, not dad or anything close. But he does acknowledge that relationship. And then he says he’s brought JGS’s favorite. There’s a slight emphasis on the favorite there. And it’s creepy. JGY adds the next line and goose bumps start to form on my skin. He knows his father’s sins and he’s punishing his father with it. Why are you doing this JGY?! And at the end, when it asks “Are you happy?” his voice is so sinister I want to scream. JGY clearly knows what he’s doing. He knows exactly what it means to be 孝 and chooses to make a mockery of 孝, to make a mockery of his father, and to kill his father. 

And then, after he watches JGS die, he tells Sisi and the other women to continue -- to desecrate JGS’s body. This is about as un-孝 as one can get! Remember, WWX and JC were willing to die to get JFM and YZY’s bodies back so they could be cremated and honored. The difference here is night and day! Yes, JGY was very good to his mother, including building a Guanyin Statue in her likeness and sparing Sisi who was a friend of his mother’s, but I cannot get over how much of an abomination he was toward JGS (even if JGS deserved an awful death).

仁 - benevolence, humanity, love of man

JGY has no 仁. Does JGY love anyone other than himself? Maybe his mom. (He might have some 仁 towards Su Sh*t She but that’s only suggested by the last couple of episodes.) That’s really it. He might have loved Jin Ling as his nephew. He might have loved LXC for LXC’s kindness and brotherhood. He might have loved Qin Su as whatever relationship he thinks they had. But when push comes to shove, JGY has zero benevolence towards anyone. He’s willing to kill Qin Su, take Jin Ling hostage, and take LXC hostage. (He also has no 义 but that’s the next section!)

And there’s ep 23. When LXC, JGS, and NMJ were discussing what to do with the Wens,  JGY suggested the Wens be imprisoned at QiongQi Path. Since WRH had ordered the slaughter of multiple clans, including the Jiangs at Lotus Pier, doing the same to him would not be considered unreasonable. Ruthless, yes, but a good show of might and order. This acceptance of murder is due to the concept of 诛九族. 诛九族 (zhū jiǔ zú) is one of the most severe punishments in ancient China. The character breakdown makes it fairly self explanatory:

诛 - to execute, kill, put to death

九 - nine

族 - family, clan,ethnic group, or tribe

诛九族 condemns you and your entire family to death (Depending on the source, some say it’s you + 8 types of relatives. Some say it’s everyone related to you from 4 generations above to 4 generations below).

By suggesting the Wen remnants be imprisoned and not slaughtered, JGY presented himself as 仁. However, by turning around and slaughtering the people per JGS’s wishes, JGY knowingly chose the immoral path where blood flowed like rivers. 

(Also! The way this shot pans down makes me think about how JGY is descending into a hell of his own making...)

义-  righteousness and code of brotherhood

Good god, 义. I have so many feelings about 义. Let’s start with some history because CONTEXT is so important. So when you ask a chinese person on the street to give you an example of 义, I’m willing to bet one of the most common answers you will get is 桃园结义 (tao yuan jie yi, or peach garden/grove establishment of brotherhood). This is THE story of fraternal love between non-blood related men. 

So quick and dirty synopsis of 桃园结义 and the three kingdoms story (I actually haven’t read it and it’s been a while since I actually tried to figure out the plot… so hopefully this is all correct!). Three men (刘备、关羽、张飞/ Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei) met on the streets, fought each other, became besties, and decided to start a rebellion. They took over one third of the country with the oldest (刘备) being the monarch and the other two working at his side (a little Yunmeng bros feel there, right? You’ll be the leader, I’ll be your right hand man). And they died for each other. 关羽 was the first to go. To seek revenge, 张飞 worked his men to the rebellion. Two of 张飞’s subordinates ultimately decapitated him while he was sleeping and brought it to their enemy. 张飞’s head and body are buried in two different cities in China (doesn’t this make you think of NMJ’s fate? Because it did when I was thinking about this and I wanted to cry. Also, 张飞 started out as a butcher. SERIOUSLY CQL/MDZS, can we pretend to be SUBTLE!?). 刘备 continued seeking revenge. Prior to 关羽’s death, the three kingdoms were in semi-equilibrium where the two smaller ones were allied against the larger. However, 关羽 being killed by their kinda-ally destroyed the delicate balance between the three kingdoms. 刘备 could’ve tried to make peace but he wasn’t going to let his sworn brother’s murder go unavenged. They all died in the end but with honor and brotherhood intact. 刘备 and 张飞’s determination to avenge 关羽’s death epitomizes the virtue of 义. They are willing to die for eachother. 

In CQL the parallelism to the 桃园结义 imagery is obvious to anyone who has a cultural background that screams Romance of Three Kingdoms at you. Let’s take a look, ok?  

A quick Google image search yields these images (I couldn’t choose): 

You know what they look like? This (from ep 40): 

You know what 桃园结义 looks like when mainland China made a live action? This: 

And you know what that reminds me of in CQL (ep 23)? 

Are you freaking out now about the visual parallels? Ok. Good. Because we’re moving onto a tiny bit of text comparison because i’m excited and i can. 

Per Romance of Three Kingdoms (note: historically inspired novel, not history), 刘备、关羽、张飞 swore the following oath: 

“念刘备、关羽、张飞，

Hope that Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei

虽然异姓，既结为兄弟，

Even though we have different last names,since we have sworn to be brothers

则同心协力，救困扶危；

Then let us unite our hearts and efforts towards helping the needy

上报国家，下安黎庶。

Repaying our country, bringing peace to the people.

不求同年同月同日生，

We do not ask to be born on the same day of the same month of the same year

只愿同年同月同日死。

But hope to die on the same day of the same month of the same year

皇天后土，实鉴此心，

Heaven and earth, verify our hearts

背义忘恩，天人共戮！”

If we turn our backs to righteousness and forget charity, may we be slaughtered by all. 

Now, let’s look at the oath said by the 3zun:

“神明在上。

Brilliant gods above, 

今日我兄弟三人在此立下重誓，

Today, we three brothers swear a solemn oath here 

上报仙门，下安黎庶 ， 

To repay our cultivation sects, To bring peace to the people.

天地同证，如有异心，

Heaven and earth be our witnesses. If we become disloyal, 

千夫所指，天人共怒”

May a thousand men point their fingers at us and may we be incite the anger of all

Even some of the wording is verbatim. The parts I bolded are what I was excited by since they’re either parallel or verbatim. 

The first set of lines: 上报国家，下安黎庶 and 上报仙门，下安黎庶 . (Remember when I guessed in my WWX post that since there are no countries, the cultivation sects are the target of 忠? This is my proof that I was right!) My hubris aside, this is the part of their oath where they swear to be both 忠 and 仁 together. The wording is verbatim except for the part that doesn’t apply to the CQL universe! 

The second set of lines: 天人共戮 vs 天人共怒. The sentence/phrase format and message is identical-- betray this oath and incur wrath.  (I can’t help but headcanon NMJ wanted to say 天人共戮 because it’s so much more metal but JGY was like, that’s really severe and convinced LXC to side with him to get it changed.)

Even the structure of the oaths are similar. Both oaths start with an introduction (we are three who want to be brothers), both oaths ask the heaven and earth to see them (Heaven and earth, verify our hearts & heaven and earth be our witnesses), and both oaths call upon the wrath of the people for vindication in case of betrayal. The CQL version is an abridged version of the three kingdoms oath and the writers set that up along with all the imagery because they want us to be constantly thinking about the three kingdoms bros and their amazing “even after death we’re still brothers” sense of 义.  They want us to compare JGY’s 义 with that 义 and find JGY lacking. 

The obvious betrayal of 义 is NMJ’s death.  Not only is JGY the cause of NMJ’s death, he butchers (i’m cringing at my own pun... but it’s so accurate) NMJ’s body so that NMJ’s spirit cannot rest. 

But, to me, what JGY does to LXC is betrayal on par with what he does to NMJ (and not dissimilar to what Xue Yang does to Xiao Xingchen). As we went over in the section about 仁, JGY says one thing so that LXC suggest JGY handles the matter. When everyone leaves, JGY does the un-仁 thing, essentially with LXC’s blessing. JGY kills NMJ but he does it by asking LXC to teach him how to play guqin. LXC becomes an unknowing accomplice (like XXC who becomes the killer of tongueless victims of corpse poison). 

So remember in my WWX post how I said WWX took on what he perceived as JC’s debts so JC doesn’t end up 不仁不义? JGY says one thing and does another in front of LXC. He knows LXC cares deeply about being righteous and kind. He knows LXC wants to do good. And he leads LXC down a path of self doubt and regret. LXC ends up teaching JGY the techniques that kill NMJ. LXC lets JGY handle the Wen remnants. Thus, unlike WWX who tries to absolve JC, JGY intentionally puts LXC into the position of 不仁不义. 

Can WWX and JGY be more diametrically opposed (foes)?

[argumate]

ok whether or not something is "genocide" DOES have consequences beyond "non-binding UN resolutions". If a state (or the international criminal court) finds genocide, that state is then legally obligated to cooperate with all the other states to do everything it can to stop that genocide. The parameters of that aren't 100% clear but it's certainly a more serious obligation than what is entailed by calling what's happening in China "injustices" or "grave human rights violations" or whatever.

But it has to be the organ of the state which has the authority to speak for the state at international law, which in constitutional democracies isn't usually Parliament - so e.g. the Canadian Parliament declaring it a genocide (iirc) doesn't really mean anything.

the US doesn't recognise the ICC, right?

so it's kind of circular: if the US wants to do something it can declare genocide as a justification, and if it doesn't want to do something it can argue that it's not quite over the line to count as genocide, but clearly whether it's genocide or not is not the deciding factor here, it's whether the US wishes to do the thing that the declaration of genocide would facilitate.

[holdmyhopeinyourhands]

Thank you for not being ignorant about people in Middle East, most of the time people choose not to speak about it, they don't care or don't know. But people are people there too. 🙏🏼🙏🏼

They are. They really are. Real life people, living their lives under a terrible kingdom yes, but people non the less. And the fact that nobody seems to care unless they're talking about how terrible and backward the country itself is, pisses me off. Especially since all these so called holier than though western countries we live in are perfectly fine carrying out those same human right violations (even much worse) in said Middle Eastern and African countries. But I guess those crimes are only bad when their own government hurt then. But when western nations drone strike the fuck out of them. It's liberty.

The hypocracy burns my skin.

I'm pissed at those fucked up governments and regimes in those Middle Eastern/African countries but I ain't about to turn a blind eye on all these western nations who're doing so much worse to said countries for their own profit.

Fuck them all.

Also, newsflash! Saudi Arabian people enjoy motorsports just as much. Like wtf has their population ever done to be punished for their governments actions? If you all are willing to be ok with GPS being held in China and the like, you might as well bite your tongue about this one as well. Or fucking cancel every other human rights violating countries GPS.

I'm personally for that. But watch most people not even care.

Sigh

[evilelitest2]

How did China become the way it is now? They went from dynasties to a communist dictatorship that targets Uighurs?

Well i will say, the Qing Dynasty (last dynasty of China) also did a lot of genocides against Nomadic non Han peoples on the frontier provinces (Despite being a non Han steppe dynasty themselves) , like China has a long history of that sort of thing.  But to answer your main question, this is really complicated but i’ll try to reduce it down to a few steps

Step one: The Qing Dynasty, last Imperial Dynasty of China, is chilling out being the Imperial power when the British Empire, in their endless addiction TEA basically gets a ton of the nation addicted to opium to force China to Trade with them, cementing their role as history more aggressive drug dealer.  When china is like “hey we don’t want to do discount heroin” Britain launches a series of “Opium wars” where they destroy the Qing army and force them to basically a accept these unequal treaties where Britain and the other European powers could basically run sections of most of the Chinese coastal cities, were immune to Chinese law, take Hong Kong for themselves (different story) and force China to enter unequal trade treaties. 

Step 2: In part to response to this, an unorthodox Christian sect starts a massive Revolution/Civil war called the Taiping Rebellion, which has the “FUN” distinction of being one of the most bloody war in human history...ever.  up to 30 million people die.  Remember this is happening at the same time as the American Civil War, whose highest death count only gets up to 1 million.   This does massive damage to Qing China, even though they win the war, and makes them super hostile to Christianity and western adaptations.  

Step 3:Japan, who is going through their own period of Modernization, decides the best way to reject Western Imperialism is to Imperalize Korea.  This leads to the First Sino Japanese War in 1895, who defeat China and start to take over chinese territory.  They take even more when they win the Russo Japanese War in 1905.  

Step 4:  The Qing rejection most attempts to reform the state (such as the Hundred Days reform) and instead attempt to fight all the Colonial powers...at once in the utterly disastrous 1908 Boxer Rebellion.  The Qing are semi colonized as a result and financially ruined and have lost the respect of the people. 

Step 5: Sun Yat Sen, the most prominent Republican (as in democracy) founds his resistance group to China based on the notions of China accepting westernization, modernization, a secular anti traditionalist goverment, nationalism, anti imperialism, and democracy.  The idea that for China to have a good future is to embrace a western style of nation state building.

STep 6: In 1911, a carelessly discarded cigerrete leads to an explosion which leads to a popular rebellion against the Qing.  Before anybody, including the rebel leaders themselves are ready, suddenly the Qing dynasty is gone leaving behind a massive Power Vacumm.  

Step 7: Sun, taking control of the state, founds the Chinese Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang or KMT.  They attempt to create a modern Republican Chinese Nation State but erm...

Step 8: A previous Qing General named Yuan Shikai attempts to overthrow the Republic and create a new Imperial Dynasty.  He fails and dies, but the civil war between him and the KMT leaves the KMT in control of only a few Chinese cities, and the rest of China breaks into a bunch of local petty fiefdoms with local military leaders just declaring themselves warlord and running China.  

Step 9: Sun is like “ok the democracy thing isn’t working out” and enlists the general Chiang Kai-Shek to help the KMT unify china.  Chiang starts to fight the other warlords, and when Sun dies in 1925,  Chiang turns the KMT into a military positivist dictatorship with the long term goal of unifying/modernizing China and then maybe becoming a democracy.  

Everybody Pauses for World War I

Step 10: Some Chinese intellectuals think that the new party should be founded on more left wing principles, and they found the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).  They ally with the KMT because they also want to modernize/unify China, and accept from the Soviet Union as well as other anti colonal forces

Step 11: Chiang (with the help of the CCP) does a pretty good job at defeating the Warlords and unifying China.  BUt Chiang then betrays the CCP and massacres most of them as well as left wing KMT members, and starts to adopt an anti Communist profile.  

Step 12: The CCP, now much more radical, sets up their commune and fights against both the KMT and the warlords.  But they lose and are forced to flee across the rural China as part of the “Long March”.  Most of the communists die but those who survive to arrive to the last communist hold out in safety, is the new communist leader and totally not a psychopathic murderer, Mao Zedong.  

Step 13: Chiang has mostly unified China, defeating or subduing most of the Warlords, and is slowly but surely destroying the last remnants of the Communist party, who have retreated to a few hold outs in the rural north.  The new KMT state is relatively stable but still a military dictatorship surrounded by enemies. Meanwhile Japan is going through its fascist phase and is gobbling up bits and pieces of Manchuria, but Chiang doesn’t think he has the strength to fight Japan until he has finished fighting the Communists.  

Step 14: Japans military on the Ground goes rogue and just sort of...invades Manchuria on their own.  Meanwhile Chiang is literally kidnapped and forced at gun point to declare war on Japan in 1937.  The KMT and the CCP make an alliance to fight against Japan jointly.  The Second Sino Japanese War has begun 

Step 15: Between 1937-1945, The KMT is almost entirely driven back to rural Western China by the Japanese, who spend their time committing horrific atrocities which the goverment still hasn’t apologized today (which is why the rest of East Asia hates Japan), including the absolute horrific Rape of Nanking (look it up).   meanwhile the CCP fights a few token battles but then hides in the north and slowly trains up their forces and lets the KMT and Japan fight it out 

Step 16: The US gets Japan to surrender and the CCP and KMT immediately go back to fighting each other.  However the economically ruined KMT isn’t able to defeat the far more disciplined CCP and is defeated in 1949.  The CCP declares itself a new country, the People’s Republic of China (PRC).  Meanwhile the KMT under Chiang flees to the Island of Formosa (Taiwan) and says that they still are the Republic of China.  The two Chinas then spend the the next 70 years pretending the other doesn’t exist

Step 17: Mao, now dictator of China, attempts to modernize the economy and centralize the state.  The good news is that the economy does recover.  The bad news is massive human rights violations and the massacre of a few million people.  The PRC while an ally of the Soviet Union, really is an independent communist state that actually can hold its own.  Mao gets involved in the Korea War against the US and while the PRC doesn’t win, they also don’t lose which establishes them as a world power.  

Step 18: However Mao very quickly goes off the Deep End and launches the “Great Leap Forward” possibly the worse economic policy in human history which leads to the death of up to 40 million people....whoops

Step 18: The PRC leadership puts Mao in a corner so he can think about what he did and try to restore order, but then Mao is able to launch a revolution against his own government with the students called “The Cultural Revolution” which is...the weirdest revolution ever?  Its like if a dictator lead a revolution against his own goverment...long story for another time.  The Cultural Revolution destroys mountains of traditional chinese art and culture, kills, arrests and harrassings thousands to millions of people, and just breaks the state, finally ending with Mao’s death in 1976. 

Step 19: With Mao’s death, the more moderate faction of the PRC takes over, purges the more radical members of the Party, ends the Cultural revolution and starts to semi liberalize the economy, leading to the weird communist/capitalist/mercantilism/Imperial hybrid China operates under today, including of course massive corruption.  The dictatorship because less intense and relaly less communist and they start to drift away from the Soviet Union.  Then in 1989 as the Soviet Union is collapsing, and their is a massive student protest against corruption and in favor of China becoming a more liberal democratic and socialist state.  The goverment after a few months of dithering, opens fire on the protesters and you still aren’t allowed to talk about it in China today.  Death toll varies but most non Government accounts put it at around 10,000.  

Step 20: China becomes a global super power, only behind the US and EU in power and turns their government into a major economic hub, though they keep pissing off their western allies with unfair business practices.  Recently however, the country has gone from an oligarchic autocracy to an...autocracy autocracy with the rise of their new leader, Xi Jinping, who has centralized authority and made the country a lot more oppressive and autocratic, while pushing aback against corrupt and dissident.

Step 21: Which finally brings us to the Uyghurs. Imperial China did this too, but the PRC really has a problem with the various non Han minority groups, doubly so for those who are Muslim and have separatist leanings. So the extermination of the Uyghurs really could be read as a continuation of how the PRC has treated the Tibetans, the Mongolians, and even Hong Kong over the last few decades.  This is part of their vision of China as being a centralized, modernize, secular, unified Nation State, which doesn’t really leave room for regional ethnic religions minorities, doubly so against those with a non Chinese language.  

That is the super simple version, Chinese history is super complicated.

[didanawisgi]

This research article caused a lot of controversy on Twitter, I am posting it here mainly because I want to read it and consider it for myself later when I have time. Just a warning though it was triggering people on twitter. lol So ah, don’t look if you are easily triggered? But then, if you are, you are likely not following me so idk. Do what you will. lol If you want a real conspiracy (do not link this to me i will deny it and you lol) what if China, being the authoritarians as they are, were looking at phenotype expressions of people they would consider exterminating or “limiting” i.e. Eugenics in populations they do not want in their country. What better way to exterminate human beings by harnessing the power of nature for Evil? Instead of rounding up Uyghur ethnic peoples and putting them in concentration camps (as they are doing right now!) and doing forced sterilizations (currently doing as I type this), or not allowing blacks in super-markets (real racism) etc.etc., what if they simply used phenotype expression of surface proteins to enhance the virogenicity of potentially lethal viruses, as a form of population control, which we know they have experimented with in the past? It would be much much easier to do and handle the ramifications in a PR sense... No one would see the concentration camps, women could not show directly they were sterilized against their will etc. No, it would simply be the coronavirus... and the media would be too dumb to pick up on it. The left would too up in arms about “critical race theory” applied to science and miss a biomolecular genocide right under their noses. Imagine, killing with a virus and making it so no one really knows it is happening... Anyway, research like this can be important for the bigger picture and especially if you want to solve problems, or see patterns in complex information, you need these outlier studies, because often they can provide a critical piece of a puzzle that can lead you down a track that no one sees yet. OK, so I was just thinking out loud here, MERE SPECULATIONS folks, lol. I just think, if someone has the capacity, and desire for controlling populations, China has no ethical qualms over violating human rights. They locked their own people inside to die with covid-19, and let it escape their country on purpose by not restricting international travel, but restricting travel within their own country after the outbreak. Imagine then what they might do to you, “non-citizen”. And so, I am imagining lol. Again, just speculation on my part. My main point is do not be distracted by all this critical race theory garbage because you will miss the big picture and real threats to your existence. Disclaimer, I am not a conspiracy theorist, just a concerned man saying some ideas out loud lol. Love you all, and wish you many blessings! - REGIII, 32, RAM, ‘Modern Alchemist’        

[hey-hamlet]

BNHA AU Ideas : Quirk Ranking (Parts 1 and 2)

Also on AO3!

TL;DR: Quirks ranked are ranked by risk level, these ranks are stored in chips placed right next to the brain stem. People on both ends of the spectrum are suffering, but its all for the sake of safety.

Right?

Part 1: Background

Ok so, the Quirk ranking AU

When you are born, you are given a chip. This chip can be read by scanners in places like shopping centres, government buildings, hospitals etc.

It will have a rank on it, as well as an ID number. ID numbers can only be read by government official scanners in government buildings, prisons, and the rank updaters

America, Japan, China and Dubai are the only countries to mandate chipping, most other countries have outright banned it and a violation of human rights. People from these other counties are given a traveller’s chip in a bracelet they need to keep on them at all times.

These chips open doors, literally. You can’t ride the train without one, can’t enter schools or hospitals or public areas. Removing your chip is seen as something only the worst villains do; like you’re trying to erase yourself from society.

Blanks and Metallics have the highest rate of villainy out of the other rankings, but metallics and blanks are very rare overall. Still, it doesn’t help their perception and these numbers are touted frequently by chipping supporters.

Quirk ranking isn’t objective! Quirk ranking is often influenced by the bias of the doctor, like All might’s quirk being ranked low because he was so nice and heroic, and Shinso’s being ranked too high because the doctor was scared of it.

About the ranks

Blanks (5% of Population)

Just called blanks or quirkless. Its what everyone’s chip reads unless/until their quirk comes in some “high risk” areas will deny entry to blank chips because of “risk”. Because everyone thinks of blanks as kids, not the quirkless, these laws are rarely disputed. Allowing entry of blanks into private businesses is a higher insurance cost so some areas can't afford to let the quirkless in, or use it as an excuse to turn them away.

It was originally the opposite, people with quirks were kept away from the quirkless because they were apparently an inherent risk. Propaganda from the times was along the lines of “You’d watch a tiger. Just because it hasn’t bitten anyone doesn’t mean it doesn’t want to” and “Chip them like the dogs they are.” This has been heavily covered up in recent years as an ugly part of Japan’s past.

Little kids celebrate getting their quirks in as they can now enter 90% of areas rather than 30%. Some places like arcades, gyms, dojos will ban blanks from entering full stop, no exceptions.

Colour Spectrum (90% total)

Blue/Purple (22% Population)

Non-threatening. Cant be used to harm people directly, includes a lot of animal mutant quirks and those without obvious offensive abilities.

Can be teased as kids but don’t tend to face any real discrimination (blues can be exceptions as some schools/jobs will find reasons not to hire them). If they become heroes they are typically children’s heroes.

The quirk doesn’t need to be weak to be ranked low, simply needs to have a low-risk factor, but many people view them as weak because they lack offensive capability. UA has been trying to change the entrance exam for years to allow these ranks to have a fighting chance but the heroic’s commission won't have it.

Green/Yellow/Orange (60% Population)

These quirks are very useful and the most well-liked, and least mistreated. Strong and simple to understand, medium risk. Easy to contain.

Most heroes are in this area of the rankings, but people with these quirks tend to do well whatever carrier they take.

Orange quirks are a little bit “scarier”. Either they are more difficult to contain or have uncomfortable aspects like mental quirks, blood control, etc. Still, they don’t tend to be treated badly.

Red (8%)

The start of the “Scary” quirks. These quirks are very strong, even from a young age and have inherently violent capabilities, but are still ranked low enough that they aren’t too feared, and there are no restrictions placed on their chips.

Kids with red quirks are the top dogs of the school. They get away with a lot too, with quirks strong enough to be hard to deal with but not so strong that 2 adults can’t control them.

Basically, the limit for this is “could 2 heroes take you out if you were a villain?” and if yes, it's red.

Reds sometimes have damaging backlash, often what keeps them out of bronze (i.e., navel laser)

Metallics (5% total)

Bronze (4%)

Now these quirks can do some damage, these are the start of the movement restrictions, but most in bronze view them as badges of pride. Bronze chips cant enter places like hospitals, daycares and nursing homes without taking quirk control classes. It's pretty common for bronze kids to take a week off in kindergarten to get them all out of the way so they can get their permissions updated.

There is a mix of fear and respect from bronze quirks, they are either seen as top dogs or villains in the making. Being a hero is a top job choice for people with this ranking.

All might’s quirk was ranked bronze when he entered the playing field, but many people theorise it should have been ranked gold. Still, All might helped the popular perception of metallics in the country, making them far more popular.

Silver (.8%)

These quirks aren’t popular. Heroics is seen as the only respectable career for them, even with quirk usage classes some hospitals won't let them enter. It’s rare they will be attacked due to their strength but people are often afraid of them, many bosses won't hire them because they “pose a risk” 

Gold (.2%)

Same as silver really, very very rare.

Monochrome (So low it can’t be estimated, around 0.0000000001% of all quirks)

Black (???% - presumably more common than white)

There are no recorded black quirks in Japan so there are no current restrictions.

White (???% - presumably less common than black)

All for One is the first recorded white quirk in the world, and currently, the only person to hold such a rank.

Restrictions are extreme. No quirk scanners will let them enter, mostly just because the only person with a white quirk is a 200-year-old bogey man of a villain.

Most of the character's quirk's official rankings:

White: All for one, One for All (Izuku's time, with the addition of black whip + the other 6) Black: N/A Gold: (One for All at All Might's prime, but he never updated his quirk ranking) Silver: Half Hot Half Cold, Creation, Voice, Portal Bronze: Explosion, Dark Shadow (ranked for his poor control as a child), Mind Control (was only ranked this high because the doctor was prejudice), Overhaul, Fierce wings, One for All (All Might's Offical ranking) Red: Navel Lazer, Acid, Electricity, Twice, Mustard Gas, Blade Tooth, Compress Decay, Cremation, Muscular, Hell Fire Orange: Cement, Engine, Zero-G, Sugar Rush, Earphone Jack, Chronosatsis, Elasticity Yellow: Somnambulist, Blood Control, Harden, Transform, Magnesis, Blood Curdle Green: Frog, Clone, Dupli-Arms, Pop off, Mimicry, Air Jet Blue: Erasure, Tail, Tape, Foresight Purple: High Specs, AniVoice, Love Blank: (Izuku's original official ranking, Yagi's original official ranking)

Part 2: Plot

So Izuku has been ranked as blank his whole life, then he suddenly gets a quirk. All Might asks him when he's going to get his chip updated and Izuku looks at him with steel in his eyes. 

“I’m not going to. I’m going to be the number one with a blank chip and show them how stupid their system is.”

Yagi is so proud of his boy and they have a cute little moment

On the day of the entrance exam, Izuku isn’t sure the doors will let him in, but they do thankfully.

When Izuku blasts the zero pointer into itty bitty pieces the teachers look at his file and share a “wtf” look with each other because this kid is meant to be quirkless.

After the quirk assessment, Aizawa asks Izuku about it and he sheepishly explains his quirk came in super late and that he wants to prove people with blank chips aren’t worthless.

Aizawa tries not to smile and tells him to hurry up and get better at controlling his messed-up quirk.

And Izuku does. He gets fully cowl before the sports festival because Aizawa throws a few tips around and it clicks a little earlier

Present Mic hears about Izuku sticking it to the ranking system and quickly decides this kid is amazing.

With his silver ranking, no other school would let him teach. He couldn’t visit Aizawa in the hospital after the USJ until he was moved from the ICU, and people always said he’d become a villain.

He knows silver restrictions are mild compared to blank but he empathises and is quietly cheering him on.

The only students in 1A that know he has a blank chip are Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki and Bakugo

Iida and Uraraka saw him get barred entry at a store and he had to sheepishly explain. He confessed to Todoroki at the sports festival. Bakugo has known him his whole life.

Well, that is until the licensing exams.

See, the doors lock on him. They won't let someone with a blank chip enter the exam. Izuku is crying a little because it's embarrassing and he doesn’t want the class to know.

In a show of solidarity that he’ll never admit to, Bakugo refuses to enter until Izuku is cleared to go in. When the rest of 1A find out about it, they refuse to enter as well. They stand shoulder to shoulder around Izuku daring the proctors to say anything rude to him.

After seeing this Inasa doesn’t go after Todoroki as hard in the exam, they manage to talk it out just prior to the last part, they still fail because they are both kind of out of it but they end the exam on good terms.

The heroics commission is on UA’s ass, pressing them into getting Izuku’s quirk graded because he's a “danger” and “a wildcard”

This pressure increased after black whip manifested during the camp attack, and after the villains kidnapped him and Bakugo

UA tries to shield Izuku from this as much as possible, only the first quirk assessment is mandatory and doesn’t need to be updated after the age of 6, it's optional after that. Izuku keeps seeing his mother throwing away important looking documents but he doesn’t ask why.

He overhears Ectoplasm telling Nezu and Aizawa it would just be easier to make him get his chip updated so the heroics commission stops threatening to pull their funding

Aizawa and Nezu are mad, and Izuku feels a little better but he still feels super guilty about the whole thing

The villains tried to play into the “you’ve both been mistreated because of your ranking” it doesn’t work at all.

By the time we get to the Overhaul arc, Izuku has manifested 4 of the previous holders’ quirks and the heroics commission is crying out for his chip to be updated, calling parallels to AFO but Nezu politely tells them to go fuck themselves.

Nighteye never once mentions Izuku’s blank chip and he's very grateful for that.

The 8 precepts are very interested in him, his multiple quirks and late manifestation may be able to help with the eradication of quirks.

The first time Izuku sees Eri, a chip reader in a store goes off because she doesn’t have one. He refuses to give her back to Overhaul, they take her back to Nighteye

Nighteye is furious until Izuku explains the girl doesn’t have a chip. That either means she has never been entered into the schooling/medical/government systems or its been illegally removed. He tells him he still shouldn’t have done that but it wasn’t a bad call.

That night, on his way back to UA, Izuku is taken by the 8 precepts.

They are furious and they know exactly how to ruin his life.

Using one of their contacts in the heroics commission, they get his chip updated to what the heroics commission thinks it should be.

Izuku wakes up, hurt and feeling violated and sore. He's covered in weird markings from Overhauls quirk but has no memory of it being used on him

Confused, upset and afraid he uses his quirk to run back to UA. Upon reaching the gate, it slams shut and alarms start blaring.

He breaks down sobbing.

1 minute later the staff of UA rush to the gate, expecting AFO to have broken out of prison for revenge. Instead, they see Izuku, covered in scares, battered with parts of his hero costume missing, sobbing on the ground.

Nezu checks his emails.

“Thank you for allowing us to update Midoriya Izuku’s ranking chip. His new ranking is: White. Have a nice day.

- The Heroics Commission of Japan”

[alexsmitposts]

Battlefield Social Media: The West’s Growing Censorship Censorship in the West flourishes as tech giants turn social media back into traditional programmed media. The United States, United Kingdom and the European Union are fond of passing judgement on nations around the globe regarding “free speech.” While it is increasingly clear to a growing number of people that this “concern” is disingenuous and aimed at merely defending agitators funded and directed by Western special interests in these targeted nations, the West still likes to fashion itself as a sort of champion of free speech. Yet back home the Internet has been taken over by social media and tech giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Their platforms clearly serve as online public squares where everything is discussed and even election campaigns play out. Yet these companies have, over the years, begun to eliminate voices of dissent against a notion known as “consensus.” If you are speaking out against “consensus” you are in real danger of disappearing from these platforms. Some of these platforms, like Google-owned YouTube, serve as the livelihood to people who have for years built up their audiences, produced hundreds of videos and when their accounts are deleted for speaking out against the “consensus,” they have their livelihoods destroyed. In the wake of these incremental “purges” is a chilling effect with content creators self-censoring or even withdrawing entirely from Western social media. It is the sort of very real censorship the West has crusaded against in fiction around the globe for decades. Concensus or Else A more recent example is Google’s decision to ban ad revenue for those going against the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) “consensus.” CNBC in their story “Google will ban ads from running on stories spreading debunked coronavirus conspiracy theories,” would claim: Google next month will ban publishers from using its ad platform to show advertisements next to content that promotes conspiracy theories about COVID-19. It will also ban ads that promote those theories. In cases where a particular site publishes a certain threshold of material that violates these policies, it will ban the entire site from using its ad platforms. Those “conspiracy theories” might include questioning the official death rates of COVID-19. Yet even the British government itself has been recently forced to investigate its statistics regarding death rates, vindicating the very sort of people who would have been either forced into silence or forced to give up ad revenue. The London Guardian in its article, “Matt Hancock orders urgent review of PHE Covid-19 death figures,” would admit: The UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, is ordering an urgent review of the daily COVID-19 death statistics produced by Public Health England, after it emerged that they may include recovered former sufferers who could have died of other causes. False reporting over deaths to hype COVID-19, induce greater public panic and pave the way for billions in government handouts to pharmaceutical giants is at the very core of many of these so-called “conspiracy theories” Google seeks to silence through its campaign of financial coercion. Imagine if this chilling effect was achieved sooner. Would the British government have even bothered investigating its faulty statistics if there weren’t people suspicious of them? The chilling effect this has over openly discussing something as serious as COVID-19 considering its socioeconomic impact is truly alarming and much more so because it is happening in the so-called “free world” overseen by its self-appointed arbitrators in the US, UK and EU. A similar campaign was carried out to purge Google, Twitter and Facebook of anyone allegedly connected with “Russia” who also so happened to be anti-war and anti-NATO for waging those wars. Entire lists are compiled by Western government-funded organizations which are then submitted to these tech giants for purging. The Western media writes accompanying articles announcing, justifying and spinning the purges… but also sending a warning to those left about what is and isn’t going to be tolerated on these platforms. Social Media Transforming Back into Programmed Media Content creators are faced with two decisions; to either self-censor themselves to protect their work, their audiences and their livelihood, or to accept the possibility they will eventually be “purged” (censored) and need to rebuild their audiences from scratch on platforms with far fewer potential readers, viewers and patrons. Social media, of course, is no longer social media in this sort of environment, but more akin to the sort of programmed media giant Western special interests built their power on over the course of the 20th and early 21st century. Private Public Squares? Of course the defense is that Google, Facebook and Twitter are “private companies”and can do as they please with their platforms. In reality, these companies work in tandem with Western governments whether it is fomenting political destabilization abroad or creating “concensus” at home. The notion that censorship is “ok” because the US, UK and EU governments launder it through private companies ignores the close relationship these companies have with the government and how their platforms have been transformed into defacto public squares and critical channels of public communication and participation. The West’s growing overt censorship leaves it with a choice; to either accept that it is in reality as guilty of censorship and manipulating the public as it has claimed its opponents are, or continue pretending it isn’t but at the continued cost of its legitimacy upon the global stage. There is a very good reason the West is in decline around the globe and why its attempts to leverage notions like “human rights” and “free speech” against nations like China or Russia are increasingly impotent. That reason can be found, at least in part, among the growing number of purge lists, censorship campaigns and calls for “consensus” across Western social media. Finally, the increasingly overt nature of censorship and controlled narratives promoted by tech giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter should have them facing restrictions and bans around the globe. Why should any nation host a “public square” where discourse is entirely controlled by interests oceans away? Why shouldn’t a local alternative be created instead where the revenue is kept locally and if narratives are to be controlled, controlled in a way that best suits people locally? It is ironic that, China for example, is condemned for not allowing Google, Facebook and Twitter to operate freely within their information space because it is a violation of “free speech,” even as Google, Facebook and Twitter cudgel free speech on their own respective platforms. How much longer will the world tolerate these double standards? How long until individuals, organizations and even entire nations begin creating alternatives to Google, Facebook and Twitter to at the very least balance out the lopsided power and influence they have collectively accrued and abused?

[the50-person]

HONG KONG UPDATE 7 OCT 2019: NBA

This is a patch-up update.

Technically happened slightly earlier but the uproar fully happened on 7 Oct 2019.

NBA "controversy":

Houston Rockets manager Daryle Morey tweeted in support of HK protests.

Huge uproar in China, China banned NBA and Houston Rockets games.

Chinese Basketball Association suspended cooperation with Rockets.

China pressured NBA to fire Morey.

Morey deleted tweet, wrote a new thread regarding situation. However, note that he has not really apologised.

NBA star James Harden kowtowed to China and apologises for manager's tweet: "We love China."

Joe Tsai, new owner of Nets, issued open letter promoting the CCP party rhetoric and condemming support for HK protests.

Joe Tsai erroneously called HK protests a "separatist movement" and a "threat to the Chinese psyche". Also mistakenly calls Morey's new twitter thread an apology.

Untrue as HK protests are demanding universal suffrage and true democracy promised to them BY CHINA.

Apparently fighting for freedom, rights and democracy is a threat to the Chinese psyche.

Joe Tsai: Cofounder & major shareholder of Alibaba (deep ties to CCP), board member of NBA China, owns NBA Nets, owns Barclays Center. His stand is not surprising.

Note: Alibaba owns South China Morning Post (SCMP), the only major English news in HK (all others were driven by gov to an independent online existence) which has sounded increasingly pro-CCP and has published many problematic, biased and untrue reports and opinions. Some of its reporters are ok, but the editors are problematic.

Anonymous Chinese scholar ran data analysis and found that there was a high possibility that most of the Twitter accs attacking Morey over the controversy did not seem to be real people.

Most accs (~5,800) created very recently, few followers, few engagements.

I think it is a high possibility, since experience tells me that as incensed the Chinese are, many won't + don't know how to climb the Great Firewall. Climbing it is illegal, though CCP has double standards and closes on eye if it's to propel their agenda.

NBA issued two versions of statement in Eng and Mandarin. Kowtowed in both but a lot more in Mandarin.

English ver: Recognise that Morey's views have deeply offended many in China, which is regrettable.

Mandarin ver: Extremely disappointed in Morey's statement. No doubt he's severely hurt the feelings of Chinese fans.

NBA said it backs free speech after backlash, downplayed Chinese statement.

NBA's Adam Silver supported freedom of speech.

Chinese now supporting 9/11 terror attacks after Silver's statement.

Many Chinese companies have cancelled deals/agreements with NBA and Rockets.

Online opinions:

"See how this is not only HK's fight? Now they're making Americans, NBA's team manager, apologise for a tweet supporting HK."

"Societies whose freedoms are defined by totalitarian states do not remain free."

"China expansion is real when people in a free country have to apologise for speaking the truth and standing for what is right."

"More reliance, less integrity. If any corporations wish to do business in China, they'll be requested to support China's political agenda and lose freedom and autonomy."

"Opening the Chinese market was sold to us as democratising them. Turns out it was the other way round."

"Daryl Morey is right! His willingness to speak the truth is a great embodiment of the NBA's global social responsibility. CCP denies freedom of speech, even though we are telling the truth. Let us hold the CCP accountable for its violation of human rights."

(Pic 10) Tiffany And Co have also pulled an ad that looks very similar to the Eye4HK campaign pose run by HKers in support of a woman blinded by bullet shot by HK police.

#freedom of speech #censorship