China To Cleanse Online Content That 'Bad-Mouths' Its Economy (bloomberg.com) 79
China kicked off a two-month campaign to crack down on commercial platforms and social media accounts that post finance-related information that's deemed harmful to its economy. From a report: The initiative will focus on rectifying violations including those that "maliciously" bad-mouth China's financial markets and falsely interpret domestic policies and economic data, the Cyberspace Administration of China said in a statement late Friday. Those who republish foreign media reports or commentaries that falsely interpret domestic financial topics "without taking a stance or making a judgment" will also be targeted, it added. The move is aimed at cultivating a "benign" online environment for public opinion that can facilitate "sustainable and healthy development" of China's economy and its society, according to the statement. It followed a draft proposal issued earlier Friday by the cyberspace regulator to regulate algorithms that technology firms use to recommend videos and other content. Commercial websites and platforms will be ordered to clean up financial information posts and shut accounts deemed in violation, under the supervision of authorities including the cyberspace administrator, the finance ministry, central bank as well as securities, banking and insurance regulators.
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Interesting FP, but I don't get your Subject. If you think the Chinese should be worried about economic bubbles, then I doubt you've been paying attention to how "modern capitalism" works. But I do have a joke to share on the topic: https://www.smbc-comics.com/co... [smbc-comics.com] (about how the stock market works these years).
I was thinking more along the lines of "How amateurish. Hasn't anyone translated Manufacturing Consent into Chinese?" Maybe it's written by the wrong kind of authors? But the Chinese are so big on
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Hasn't anyone translated Manufacturing Consent into Chinese?
Actually, yes. [worldcat.org]
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Well, thanks, though now I have to note that it was a kind of rhetorical question. I was actually thinking about more coercive connotations of "manufacturing", but that was the phrase that came to mind. I don't think anyone can teach the Chinese much that is completely new to them about modern propaganda techniques.
My own feeling is that the Chinese would prefer, or even be glad, to close the borders and ignore the rest of the world as much as possible--but they learned their lesson from that approach and t
Re: Do you want bubbles? Because this is how... (Score:2)
And yeah, countries definitely use propaganda for their own purposes but at this point it's a meme how bad China is at international propaganda.
They seem to have taken their tit for tat attitudes to the next level by copying "the former guy's" brazen and upfront tough guy foreign policy.
They're more focused on keeping their people complacent rather than playing the global politics game right now. I guess thei
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However, China has a strong system of informal communications. These are effectively information brokers. The decision to limit public information only goes to strengthen informal information brokers.
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"We're #1" is cheerleading. Not censoring.
It's hilarious you can't tell the difference. What country are you from, Ivan?
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Does it matter what country he's from? I have yet to see a single partisan with enough balls to be completely honest about their country -- and I remember Nixon resigning like yesterday.
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What country are you from, Ivan?
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No, American elite have zero experience with actual censorship of that kind. All American elite can really do is attempt to buy out media outlets and dictate editorial content.
And it generally only works for a short period of time. You need not look beyond current problems with getting people to even believe that there's a massive economic upswing and that there isn't a problem with inflation in US in the middle of delta's resurgence. The narrative just doesn't hold that long.
As opposed to China, where peop
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What lunacy indeed to pretend that this is what I said.
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What lunacy indeed to pretend that this is what I said.
People like that tend to gravitate toward each other.
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That's an interesting statement on TDS.
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Propaganda state (Score:2)
This just keeps getting better.
But no, they're just speaking out against the evil oppressor that is the entire West, right?
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I'm surprised that in such a populous country, with so many citizens that have PhDs from foreign schools, that they don't educated persons in the loop on these sorts of policy decisions.
If their own people perceive or simply believe that their government has outlawed or persecutes speech that is critical of their economy... those same people will no longer believe any positive statements about the economy! It sucks the business value out of economic discussion.
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You didn't catch my point. At all.
Assuming that somebody loves the dictator, if they're educated in business they should recognize that nobody trusts positive statements if they think positive statements are required. You can no longer create trust through words.
There is no "hammer" in this particular story, it is about passive censorship.
Nobody to say squat to their jawboning, now. (Score:2)
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What makes you think that? Care to point us at any statements to back that up?
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What makes you think we don't already have it?
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Squeeze your fist tigher, Chinese government: (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Squeeze your fist tigher, Chinese government: (Score:4, Insightful)
I am starting to wonder if that might be a very 20th century view point. In the panopticon of the 21st century here its looking increasing like you can in fact just keep squeezing.
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I think its a very 21st century viewpoint to get your philosophy from a space western movie.
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If a healthy economy only requires warm bodies, sure. No country has ever succeeded at the economic side of that, even when succeeding at the political side.
It is clear that as long as they can keep the trains running they can prevent political dissent. But that was true in the Soviet Union, too, using a human panopticon. But the economics rotted in the hiding of blame. People were left without anybody else to blame, and knew they would personally take any blame, regardless of whose fault they thought it re
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Indeed. It's calling reverse "wolf". If you tell everybody everything is wonderful when they see it's not, they'll stop believing you after a while, magnifying the power of rumors and conspiracies, eventually leading to mass riots.
I'm sure Xi and co think they are good stewards of news, but without scrutiny and political competition, their bad habits and bias will self magnify over time. Egos left unchecked grow like weeds.
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eventually leading to mass riots.
Or even just, leading to cynical economic behavior, and a willingness to passive-aggressively watch things fail and then throw up your hands, "There was nothing I could do to stop it!"
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Chinese workers are already passive aggressive. They've been beat down by authoritarianism. However, they will burst and riot if pushed far enough, as history shows.
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Maybe, maybe not. I don't think their government expects themselves to have to care about the workers. But they should at least be able to see that they need the business owners to cooperate, their whole economy is built to require it.
They have socialism bolted onto Confucian Merit-based trade, where possession of money proves the Merit of a business-person. If these people become passive-aggressive, the government loses their ability to control the economy. It's not that different from what happened to the
Is the populace sand? (Score:1)
The tighter you squeeze, the more slips through your fingers.
That depends...
Is the populace like sand? Many individuals who all think different things, in which case yes, more would slip through the fingers.
Or is the populace a body which is fed the air of information through social media, in which case choking the throat that feeds you that air is very effective indeed and the tighter they squeeze, the less air the people get...
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Really, but your sig is about keeping California blue, insinuating the GOP is racist while the biggest GOP contender currently in California is the only black guy on the ballot.
Doing your job trying to keep your party ran by the rich white guy I guess.
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It's because (Score:3)
the Chinese government is so good at regulating the economy no one needs to say anything bad about it.
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There is no sortage of 'workers' there is a shortage of people who are not entitled little shits that want to live off everyone else's work. 60% of 'tax filers' paid not net income tax last year! Keep in mind below 10k or so income you don't have to file anyway so when it comes to the adult population the number is probably greater!
Yet every last one them thinks they should get vote! We need to fix that! You want to this country follow a policy based on reason, hard facts, etc - make it strictly pay to pla
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So as you watch China succeed with a mixed economy your answer is to double down on the extremism?
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So as you watch China succeed with a mixed economy your answer is to double down on the extremism?
You do realize that the Chinese GDP per capita is currently 1/6 of that of the USA? It does seem somewhat premature to conclude that their economic model is superior to that of more developed countries.
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China's GDP per capita is around 10,000. [macrotrends.net]
In the 60's is was less than $100.
Even in 2000 it was less than $1,000.
And if you look at the growth rate you will realize that it seems to have peaked and that it is slowly falling (the GDP per capita growth rate, not the GDP per capita itself). It is much harder to generate economic growth when you have to be the one pushing the envelope than when you can copy (legally or illegally) what more advanced companies do. Especially if you have a government which constantly interferes with business decisions.
My guess is that China due to a rapidly aging population and less economic
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Last month, I was living in a sleeping bag
Last week, I was living in a cardboard box against a building
Today, I'm living in a car
Yes, your situation is improving, but you still don't live in actual housing
Re: The Roles continue to shift.... (Score:1)
Found the neofascist.
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Yet every last one them thinks they should get vote! We need to fix that! You want to this country follow a policy based on reason, hard facts, etc - make it strictly pay to play and you'll get it. The rabble having discovered they can vote themselves gifts (healthcare included) from the public treasury is the root of all our problems right now.
Since the 80s the US economy has been focused on short-term executive and shareholder profits over employment wages and benefits, and now that we've squeezed much more of the middle class into the lower class, you want to take away the voting rights for the lower class? Only the wealthy should be allowed to make decisions for people in this country, because the poor are demonstrating that they don't have the means to educate themselves appropriately, and instead they are just stealing from you? How very...
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There is no shortage of 'workers' there is a shortage of people who are not entitled little shits that want to live off everyone else's work.
boy have you got that right. We have too many entitled little shits running hedge funds, mutual funds, managing retirement accounts and all the other magical thinking parts of the financial industry living off of other people's hard earned money.
We need to get all those bankers and finance types out in the real world and show them what hard work it really is. Let's see them work at McDonald's for 70 hours a week and try to pay for an apartment and food to live on. I don't think those weak ass bankers would
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I agree - there are groups at both ends of the wealth spectrum that don't contribute.
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Don't forget the high net worth individuals who pay less than a fraction of a percent of their income for taxes.
That 'article' is one of the most ignorant pieces of propaganda I've ever seen. That 'fraction of a percent' was based on the value increase in their holdings, not income, which is complete rubbish. That's like saying if my house went up $90k in value one year, and I paid $1k in taxes on my $10k in earnings (a 10% tax rate), that my 'true tax rate' (their words) is only 1%. We don't have a wealth tax in this country.
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Holy fuck. You're way off the deep end, man. Pay to play voting? Really? Because the rich don't already control the country well enough? Totally disenfranchise anybody below, say, a million a year in income? Seems a great idea. If you want to see the riots over the past couple years look like child's play.
Where do people cook this shit up? It's seriously so the opposite of what needs to happen I can't even wrap my head around it.
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Don't be so sexist and racist. It's about as fair as it can be, anyone can own this country as long as he already owns it. Basically it's just calling a spade a spade and not pretend like your vote matters, peon.
Seriously, do you really think it matters whether you vote this or that crook into you? If you live in a gang neighborhood, does it matter to you whether the ones wearing the red or the ones wearing the blue bandanas fleece you?
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Damn straight, let's buy vote shares. I always wanted to own a country. Then pass laws that essentially make it illegal not to be my slave.
Hey, my country, my rules. You know the golden rule, he with the gold makes the rules. Then at least it's literally that and not just veiled in some sort of sham democracy.
So that's why (Score:2)
they hack US servers: they're cleansing the badmouthers. That figures.
The danger is lying to yourself (Score:5, Insightful)
The danger to China is that by stifling such speech, they may lose touch with what is actually happening.
What will happen in the future when China's economy is developing structural cracks, but because everyone fears publicizing it, it's not on leaders' radar?
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Unlikely, China with all its terrible problems and bad government yet will overtake USA, and continue to grow its middle class. USA middle class slightly better off than in 1980s... but we could have done so much better without wasting trillions on wars of choice against those that didn't attack us.
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USA middle class could have done so much better if their jobs hadn't been automated away or offshored wholesale.
Agreed about wars of choice, though. Remember the people can only vote based on what they've been told, and often what they have been told is false.
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That's a false meme. Automation creates jobs, far more than it removes. The manufacture, transport, sales and marketing of computers and labor saving machines, their maintenance, accessories and power is monstrous employment boon.
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No, it isn't an employment boom. For every position they created, *dozens* of jobs were eliminated or offshored. And in most cases those people didn't go on to anything better. A boom for high-tech isn't a boom for anyone else.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/j... [forbes.com]
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That's utter bullshit. Tens of millions more will be created by tech than removed. Most jobs are made by tech now. Losers who are looking for an excuse not to work want to think otherwise.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/2... [cnbc.com]
https://fee.org/articles/techn... [fee.org]
https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
https://www.zdnet.com/article/... [zdnet.com]
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If you define the truth you don't need to worry about losing touch. To quote a famous strategist:
"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality."
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As an American who has spent a lifetime in manufacturing, I would love to see manufacturing come back
It isn't going to happen, because American bosses want manufacturing in China, so they can pocket more $$$.
The rest of us get to shop at Walmart and thrift stores.
Hey China! Cleanse this! (Score:2)
Your economy sucks, and is based solely upon slave labor and theft of IP from other nations.
China Sucks (Score:1)
The Chinese economy is rubbish. Chinese companies only provide low-quality products and services. Chinese government officials are mentally handicapped with weapons. I wake up every day and point my naked ass in the air and wave it in China's general direction while singing "Please, Xi Jinping, lick my asshole, so I can shit all over your faaaace - you dumb mother fucker."
I encourage all to practice this.
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Only behind their firewall (Score:2)
The headline makes it seem like they're going after everyone who talks shit about them. But it's really an internal thing, which shouldn't surprise anyone.
Ohh Ohh Ohh .. What to expect 1930s, recession? (Score:2)
China does not "cleanse" anything for fun, there must be a smoking gun.
But it is a good indicator to start stocking gold, shotgun ammunition and canned food.
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Just looks like another paranoid dictator to me, Xi is scared of his people and tries to take more and more extreme measures to mind control them. Ironically he's probably pushing Chinese people closer and closer to some kind of breaking point where more and more of them will hate the Chinese system enough to want to change it.
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It reminds me of the old saying, " Democrats despise their base, Republicans fear theirs."
China is doing a purge (Score:2)
US Debt (Score:2)
Fourtenth Amendment, Section 4:
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payments of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.
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It's obviously a guarantee to lenders and not a limit on anyone's free speech protected by the first amendment. It means that the debt incurred by the federal government is will always be paid, and that the government (for example a future Congress dominated by a different party) cannot try to get out of paying past debts by questioning their validity.
It was written hundreds of years ago, so it should be read with some tolerance for things not being worded the way they would be today.