I've always told my parents who grew up in communist Czechoslovakia that the Chinese communism is a very different beast from the eastern-bloc communism they've know (which Vaclav Havel described masterfully in his texts). But this article would feel very familiar to them.
Hm, I find it weird that it is forbidden to publish things that "publicize luxury life". I would dare to say that most Chinese popular TV series and movies do just that. (Be it in the ancient china period or in the present time)
I don't understand.<p>== Stereotyping alert ==<p>At least in Malaysia and Singapore, even though there are a lot of Chinese (but not China national), "China girls" (from China) carries negative connotation. The reason is, many of them work in brothels, dodgy massage parlors, etc (you get the idea), and they're also known to "steal people's husbands" and being "gold diggers".<p>In China itself, it's "common" for rich people to have mistresses, and prostitution seems to be "common" (I have few friends who regularly visit China for this purpose).<p>Is it _because_ of that the China govt puts censorship, or _despite_ of that, or totally unrelated?
The actual list as published by the China Netcasting Services Association on 2017-06-30:<p>Original: <a href="http://www.cnsa.cn/2017/06/30/ARTI0Qg4cp7jtd1Z5o0RnfzM170630.shtml" rel="nofollow">http://www.cnsa.cn/2017/06/30/ARTI0Qg4cp7jtd1Z5o0RnfzM170630...</a><p>English (via Google Translate): <a href="https://goo.gl/j7ii74" rel="nofollow">https://goo.gl/j7ii74</a>
This is a quintessential example of not basing policy on evidence of harm. Any decision that affects others (such as policy) should be empirically-based, or risks being simply wrong/bad (as I would surmise it is, in this case).
One rule is to never click on "list" articles. Most of them are not worth your time.<p>And after reading the comments here, it is the case for this one too :-/
The thing with obedience (which is disgustingly praised by quite some HN commenters, maybe even not just astroturfers) is that it leaves zero territory to live your actual life.<p>Which then will create people living completely double lives, the obedient shell one and the <i>other one</i>.
Every time an article that is politically critical of one of US's rivals is posted on HN, there is a lot of incoming comments about how US is just as bad. Which is perfectly reasonable and commendable - most HN readers live in US, and a good citizen is more concerned with problems in his own country than elsewhere. But it makes me wonder, what kind of justifications will this article get.
Why is western media so concerned about China when their own government ramped up their control over their own people ? And hackernews mostly westerners going ga ga over this. You should be concerned about what’s happening at your home than what’s happening in some other country. Stop policing the world.<p>There is a proverb, fix the dust in your eye before trying to fix the dirt in someone else’s.
Why is Nytimes so concerned about China while failing completely to put the spotlight on the burgeoning surveillance culture at home?<p>Who is going to talk about draconian surveillance, secret courts, secret orders, gag orders and government officials empowered to violate your dignity and privacy by searching your phone and personal effects. Why is Snowden still in Russia? Are we to pretend all this is not happening?<p>All this is left to the EFF. This is a kind of denial and posturing - oh look how bad they are while looking the other way at the growing authoritarianism at home.<p>Not even talking about the current censorship of alternative voices by Google, Facebook and others in support of mainstream media like the nyt with completely opaque and non transparent standards and lending credence to shadowy groups like propornot.