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https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20211129/18150148026/chinese-government-is-building-surveillance-system-that-will-target-track-foreign-journalists-students.shtml>
"The Chinese government is truly, undeniably, utterly evil. Anyone saying
otherwise has something to sell (most likely to the Chinese people or their
government). Private companies and public entities alike have kowtowed and
capitulated rather than face the ferocity of the easily angered government
and/or risk losing access to a marketplace containing a few billion people.
China has embraced its own version of capitalism to create the leverage it now
wields against those who offend it, no matter where else in the world they
might be located. It sees even more opportunity in ultra-lucrative Hong Kong
and has taken direct control of the region. It refuses to acknowledge Taiwan's
existence as a separate country and demands apologies from world leaders and
professional athletes when they make the "mistake" of acknowledging yet another
lucrative region China wishes to directly control.
It has rolled out multiple layers of oppression to keep its citizens in line,
starting with pervasive widespread surveillance that ties into "citizen scores"
that limit opportunities for those the government believes aren't patriotic
enough. It is engaged in the erasure of its Uighur Muslim population, utilizing
concentration camps, disappearances, brutality, and a war of attrition designed
to eliminate these "unwanteds" completely in the coming years.
Is China irredeemable? I guess it all depends on what you think of redemption.
The underlying basis of Christianity is that no one is completely irredeemable
(even if far too many Christians seem to believe certain people are). Our penal
system, in a much more half-hearted way, conflates punishment with
rehabilitation, as if the best way to turn your life around is to see it
destroyed. China isn't a Christian nation, so that ends that part of the
speculation. And China most likely believes people can be punished into
contrition, which will "redeem" them while allowing the state to remain intact.
Can China ever be anything than increasingly worse versions of itself?
Sanctions and public condemnation haven't had any effect. The Chinese
government isn't too big to fail. Nothing ever is. Just ask the former USSR
(which, unfortunately, is resembling its old self more and more every day.) But
it is too big to care what anyone else thinks. The first step towards
redemption is realizing you need to be redeemed. Will China ever reach that
starting point?
It seems unlikely. The government likes things the way they are. And its vision
for the future is the elimination of any roadblocks to complete power. But it
still struggles to control the narrative, despite constantly finding new ways
to limit the spread of information it doesn't approve of and its rewriting of
even very recent history to excise anything that might suggest the state is
immoral, fallible, or dangerous to the citizens it oversees."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
