Let us not forget the people in Xinjiang who pay a harsh price for cheap Chinese EV cars. Unfortunately, forced labour and supply chain transparency wasn’t an issue here.

I’m from Europe and I’m kinda getting tired of reminding people from the US that your blind patriotism is just that…a blind spot that is used against the US citizens on every corner.

For starters, I/m from Europe, but my friends from the U.S. might not need to be reminded where they live, they know that themselves. And we are all tired of this whataboutism all over the place. There is a lot of criticism on the U.S., the surveillance there, and Clarence Thomas. The thing is that in these posts, there are no whataboutisms, no one commenting, “but in China …”.

As an addition:

• In 2015, two years after kicking off its massive Belt and Road initiative, China launched its “Digital Silk Road” project to expand access to digital infrastructure such as submarine cables, satellites, 5G connectivity, etc. In a report published this year, the UK-based human rights group ‘Article 19’ argues that the project is about more than just expanding access to Chinese technology, but rather to export its brand of digital authoritarianism across the word. Here is a brief article about it where you can also download the 80-page report (April 2024): China: The rise of digital repression in the Indo-Pacific – (Archived link)

• There is also an interesting first-hand research about how Chinese people cope with constant surveillance in their country by Canadian researcher Professor Ariane Ollier-Malaterre (March 2024): Digital surveillance is omnipresent in China. Here’s how citizens are coping (in French: La surveillance numérique est omniprésente en Chine. Voici comment les citoyens y font face)

As an addition:

• In 2015, two years after kicking off its massive Belt and Road initiative, China launched its “Digital Silk Road” project to expand access to digital infrastructure such as submarine cables, satellites, 5G connectivity, etc. In a report published this year, the UK-based human rights group ‘Article 19’ argues that the project is about more than just expanding access to Chinese technology, but rather to export its brand of digital authoritarianism across the word. Here is a brief article about it where you can also download the 80-page report (April 2024): China: The rise of digital repression in the Indo-Pacific – (Archived link)

• There is also an interesting first-hand research about how Chinese people cope with constant surveillance in their country by Canadian researcher Professor Ariane Ollier-Malaterre (March 2024): Digital surveillance is omnipresent in China. Here’s how citizens are coping (in French: La surveillance numérique est omniprésente en Chine. Voici comment les citoyens y font face)

I guess they can’t say much in this case. Maybe a bit whataboutism (chat control? Google does the same?), but you can’t defend this imo.

Thanks for this.

Maybe you know Total Trust, a documentary.

Total Trust is an eye-opening and deeply disturbing story of surveillance technology, abuse of power and (self-)censorship that confronts us with what can happen when our privacy is ignored. Through the haunting stories of people in China who have been monitored, intimidated and even tortured, the film tells of the dangers of technology in the hands of unbridled power. Taking China as a mirror, Total Trust sounds an alarm about the increasing use of surveillance tools around the world – even by democratic governments like those in Europe. If this is the present, what is our future?

If you speak German, you can watch it on Arte TV, but it is only available 3 more days.

Does China have a tech company which does NOT develop spyware?

@[email protected]

As @[email protected] already said, this is about safety, and it’s not a geopolitical thing.

Space debris expert: Orbits will be lost—and people will die—later this decade – (2022)

I don’t know the reason for the prompt in this particular case, of course, but there is a persistent form of racism in China, namely the prejudice that the Han Chinese are more advanced than other cultures inside and outside of China. Some experts say this view is even promoted by the government’s propaganda.

There is also a good video by a foreigner living in China (19 min): CHINA: RACISM: China’s Ugly, Disturbing yet Open Secret — (archived link).

Last year, Human Rights Watch urged the Chinese government to combat anti-black racism on Chinese social media.

[Edit typo.]

There is a good article by the China Media Project from April 2024 about the Chinese Communist Party’s AI policy:

Tracking Control: Bringing AI to the Party — [Archived link]

China’s release this week of new draft rules governing the generation of AI content, coming just months after the launch of ChatGPT, might give the impression leaders are scrambling to catch up. But for years now, the Chinese Communist Party has planned to power up AI innovations — even as it contains them.

I corrected it, sorry.

Corrected. Sorry, and thanks @[email protected]

In a video posted on Xitter, a Russian soldier who defected to Ukraine says his unit were using Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet via an IP address in Latvia. They were paying for the subscription over Telegram.

https://x.com/igorsushko/status/1826370717241540922

The article relates to the share of advertising revenue these Maga guys get. Musk and his dozens of shareholders earn Xitter’s bottom line, of course, but this is a different story.

[Edit typo.]

Elon Musk Urges To Free Telegram Chief Pavel Durov After His Arrest In Paris — (Archived link)

The Telegram chief executive, Pavel Durov, was arrested by the French Police in Paris this morning, and the X owner, Elon Musk, has reacted to his arrest. Musk shared a snippet from one of Durov’s interviews where he was talking about X. While sharing this snippet, Musk wrote, “#FreePavel.” […]

According to Russia’s TASS state news agency, the Russian embassy in France is taking “immediate steps” to clarify this situation […]

By operating from the United Arab Emirates, Telegram has managed to avoid the content moderation laws that Western countries are imposing on major platforms to combat illegal content.

As a legal layman I would say that domestic companies aren’t shielded anyway from human rights accountability.

@technocrit@[email protected]

Ok… But what about the zios doing the same thing in support of genocide?

‘Whataboutism, the rhetorical practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counteraccusation, by asking a different but related question, or by raising a different issue altogether. Whataboutism often serves to reduce the perceived plausibility or seriousness of the original accusation or question by suggesting that the person advancing it is hypocritical or that the responder’s misbehavior is not unique or unprecedented. Acts of whataboutism typically begin with rhetorical questions of the form “What about…?”’

Source

Simply banning the high quality low cost option doesn’t seem to accomplish much.

This is not about quality and costs, but about Chinese forced labour (which is a major reason why it’s so cheap), human rights, security as the Chinese government pursue a dictatorial policy.

Between Chinese Surveillance and Israeli Settler Colonialism

There are extensive economic ties between China and Israel. China is Israel’s second-largest trading partner globally and takes the lead in Asia. The Belt and Road initiative has significantly catalyzed China-Israel cooperation. Major Chinese companies like China Railway Engineering Corporation, China Ocean Shipping Company, Huawei, China National Chemical Corporation, and ZTE Corporation are actively investing in Israel, while others such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Geely, and SAIC Motor have set up research and development centers in Israel.

Specifically for Huawei, it acquired two Israeli technology innovation companies, HexaTier and Toganetworks, in 2016 for $42 million and $150 million, respectively. In the electric vehicle industry, in 2022 and 2023, the share of Chinese brands in the Israeli electric car market exceeded 50 percent and 60 percent respectively.

Chinese car sales outlets abound in Israel, represented by companies like BYD, Geely, Hongqi, SAIC Motor, Chery, and Hozon Auto. In the field of infrastructure, in 2021, the Chinese company Pan-Mediterranean Engineering Company (PMEC) constructed the Ashdod Port in southern Israel. China State Construction Engineering Corporation constructed Haifa New Port Terminal, a vital node port of the Belt and Road, and the first time that Chinese enterprises exported “smart port” technology and management to a developed country.

China Railway Engineering Corporation led the construction of the Red Line in Tel Aviv, the first light rail project constructed by a Chinese enterprise in the high-end market of a developed country. The current cooperation between China and Israel involves ports, subways, highways, tunnels and other fields, and the amount of cooperation reaches billions of dollars.

From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

Whataboutism, the rhetorical practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counteraccusation, by asking a different but related question, or by raising a different issue altogether. Whataboutism often serves to reduce the perceived plausibility or seriousness of the original accusation or question by suggesting that the person advancing it is hypocritical or that the responder’s misbehavior is not unique or unprecedented.