Hong Kong

[Dirty_habiT]

^^That's crazy.... I have to hand it to them for being crafty as fuck.  Were the police firing live rounds into the crowd?

 

I really don't know much about what's going on over there other than the people are protesting against the government.  I did have the chance to talk with a coworker that is a little older than me that moved here from China.  He's a super cool guy.  We didn't explore this subject specifically but we did talk about a lot of cultural differences between the two places.  I taught him a few sayings that we use here in the USA and he was really impressed when I explained what they meant.  I wish I could remember what they were, but they were things you hear commonly here.

[Hua Guofang]

In a nutshell, they're protesting against the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party.

 

They're used to being free but are now being slowly strangled.

[Dirty_habiT]

I, in my muppet brain, never considered China to be "free".  What is it that the authoritarian government is doing to squeeze the people of China?  I'm sorry to be asking this out of ignorance on 12oz, but I like to hear things from the horse's mouth.  @Hua Guofang- you've obviously got some investment in what happens over there so I'd enjoy hearing your perspective.

[Decyferon]

Hong Kong used to be under British governance until 2000 I think when it was handed back to the chinese.

People from Hong Kong were used to being free but over time china is putting its foot down more and more.

Hua would definitely explain it better.

[Hua Guofang]

Decy is right, the Brits had a 99 year lease on HK that was part of the treaty they signed with the Qing Dynasty at the end of the Opium wars. That lease expired in 1997 and the Mainland took control again, but it was under a "One country, Two Systems" set up. Agreements were signed with the Brits that Hong Kong would keep their democratic system, rule of law, human rights, etc.

 

Since then, the Mainland has basically told the UK to go fuck itself. People who publish stuff the Communist Party don't like are getting kidnapped and turning up in the mainland giving taped "confessions" after clearly being tortured, etc. Beijing lets HK vote for their leader, but tells them which candidates are allowed to run in the leadership election (of course, all of them are pro-CCP). The straw that broke the camel's back was an extradition law that allowed the mainland to legally take HKers to the mainland and try them under the fucked up legal system they hav there (no need to kidnap them anymore).

 

The Commie Party has always been nervous about freedom infecting the mainland via HK so they've been gradually strangling it by not allowing the native language to be taught in school, moving heaps of mainlanders into HK to shift the balance of community sentiment, etc. etc. People have had enough so they're fighting back and it's not just students, they're just leading the charge.

[Dirty_habiT]

Just fucking wow.... I had no idea.  😞

[Kults]

 

[Hua Guofang]

 

John Stone @jnzst

2h

 

DC Comics posted this. Chinese netizens saw the black-clad Batman, molotov cocktail and "the future is young" slogan as supporting Hong Kong protesters. DC deleted it. Maybe the future is censorship.

 

 

 

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[Hua Guofang]

Woman in Netherlands says she leaked secret Chinese documents on Uighur 're-education' camps

The documents were the foundation of stories last month by NBC News and journalists around the world on the inner workings of the Uighur camps in China.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/woman-netherlands-says-she-leaked-secret-chinese-documents-uighur-re-n1097616

 

 

By Andrew W. Lehren

A middle-aged Uighur woman living in the Netherlands told a Dutch paper in a story published Saturday that she was a source who leaked secret Chinese documents detailing the operations of China's Uighur "re-education" camps, and she now fears for her safety.

The documents were the foundation of stories last month by NBC News and more than 75 journalists in 14 countries around the world probing the inner workings of the centers.

 

Click here for the original NBC News report on Uighur detention camps in China.

While China has claimed Uighurs enter the camps voluntarily, the documents detail the rounding up of Muslims and the prison-like conditions in which they are held in the Western China province of Xinjiang.

Asiye Abdulaheb, 46, told the daily newspaper de Volksrant, based in Amsterdam, that she received the secret Chinese government documents this summer from unnamed sources, stored them on her laptop, and then worked to share them with the outside world.

NBC News joined the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which obtained the internal memos and bulletins, together with 17 news organizations around the world, to report on the cache.

For at least the last three years, Chinese authorities have been rounding up Uighurs, and outside experts estimate at least 1 million have been subjected to detention. After repeated denials, Chinese authorities began acknowledging the existence of the camps last year, but portrayed them as vocational training centers that help thwart terrorism.

The leaked cache memo — dated 2017 when internments gained momentum — detailed how the camps are designed to be run, from the banality of monitoring bathroom breaks to documenting how China's high-tech surveillance system is used to identify Uighurs for "re-education."

Experts described the leak as an extraordinary breach in a country known for crushing dissent.

Death threats

For her efforts, Abdulaheb said she now faces death threats.

She told the Dutch newspaper that one threat said, "You will end up in pieces in the black Kliko in your front yard." A Kliko refers to the Dutch name for outdoor trash bins on wheels.

"I need protection," she told the newspaper.

Abdulaheb said she shared the secret Chinese documents with noted Uighur expert Adrian Zenz, a German academic now living in the U.S.

Zenz said he reached out to her after she tweeted one page of the documents, and that she then provided him with the rest.

According to Zenz, he and a second expert authenticated the documents.

Zenz told NBC News he did not give ICIJ the documents, and ICIJ declined to name its source for the cache.

Abdulaheb and her ex-husband approached Dutch reporters in a bid to seek safety from these threats through publicity. She did not name who passed along the documents to her.

 

Since publication of the stories, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill calling on the Trump administration to sanction Chinese officials responsible for mass detentions and other human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

The investigation revealed details of what Western governments have called one of the greatest human-rights catastrophes of modern times, but previously known largely through former detainees' personal accounts, satellite photographs and orchestrated tours of select camps.

The Chinese Embassy in the UK, in a written response to reporters about the leak, said the "so-called documents are pure fabrication and fake news." The statement said: "First, there are no so-called 'detention camps' in Xinjiang. Vocational education and training centers have been established for the prevention of terrorism."

[Hua Guofang]

[Hua Guofang]

 

Not going to be long before some of these cops that have been identified are tracked down and either seriously injured in an attack or killed.

 

Now that the protests have started to die down the cops are going to spin up and track down some of the key people and publicly crush them. Problem is, the militant factions have already risen and are organised. At this point, they are only becoming more and more radicalised by police actions. They will see the police blatantly using brutality for vengeance and and pleasure and they will believe that they have been left no choice but to respond in kind.

 

That, and you'll start to see some of the key folk fleeing to places like the US, Australia, Canada, UK, etc. and claiming asylum. These countries will likely grant them asylum, which in turn will strain ties with Beijing.

[Mercer]

That ain't shit compared to what's popping off in the mainland.

 

 

If given a chance, I'd stomp every one of these adults present until they were room temp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fuck China

[Mercer]

Socialist/Communists are always pieces of shit once handed the absolute power they claim they'll use to improve a country. It's never once worked any other way than this. 

 

If not, try to explain this bullshit:

 

 

[misteraven]

Might want to mirror some of this content. Doubt it'll stay up for long.

 

These embedded tweets / posts are the new photo bucket. 10 years from now, we'll be complaining about all the broken threads.

 

 

[Hua Guofang]

@MercerOh yeah, the Xinjiang shit is up there with the worst shit happening on the planet right now and I aint gonna watch those vids because I struggle with horrific shit happening to kids.

 

Xinjiang does have a problem with terrorism but it's less jihadism than an independence and anti-Han movement. Xinjiang translates from MAndarin to English as New Territory/Frontier, which goes to show that it's not an integral part of China, it's essentially a contiguous colony of the Han empire. I wrote an essay on Xingjiang during my undergrad back in 2004 and there was definitely a very small movement back then. Since then it has expanded and there have been some hugely brutal uprisings from the general population as well. There have been attacks outside of Xinjiang in places like Kunming and Beijing (I was in Tianamen the day of a vehicle attack and missed it by hours).

 

There is also a very minor connection to jihadi fighters in AfPAk. But when I say minor, we're talking likely in the tens, not even hundreds and there is little to no evidence of that threat seeping back into China proper. Much of the violence has been against colonisation by the Han and CCP rule. They're losing their religion, language, culture, customs and now their freedom due to Party control.

 

One of the biggest and most telling issues is the silence from much of the Muslim world, namely the govts of Islamic countries. They're refusing to condemn China for what they're doing because they want the BRI investment and don't want to be locked out of the Chinese market, which is what will likely happen if they do speak out. It's telling because, as with during the Cold War (Commie China and capitalist USA cooperating against the Soviet Union) and with in the Middle East (ISlamic Egypt and Jordan having peace treaties with Israel and KSA cooperating with Israel in regards to Iran), Ideology and theology are often less important than national leaders make out when they want to leverage these cultural drivers to bolster their political positions. National interest and political interest will win out most times.

[Mercer]

2 hours ago, Hua Guofang said:

up there with the worst shit happening on the planet right now

My thoughts exactly. Objectively speaking, I could almost respect Jihadists/anti western segments of the middle east, that is if they actually gave a fuck about muslims suffering. Clearly they don't, and it's just a play for power. Sounds harsh but considering their deafening silence on Uyghur (and Yemen) sometimes I have to stop myself from considering the perpetrators, and the silent as less than human. With that said, I really don't see westerners giving a fuck about this either, and it kills me.  Massive government sanctioned rape of Uyghur women by Mandarin speaking men, the concentration/death camps, organ harvesting, it's pretty disturbing.

[Dirty_habiT]

I really can't believe this is happening and that there is nothing that anyone seems to be able to do to stop it.  It seems like a "not my monkey not my circus" thing..... and I, too, hate that people feel that way about it.  I don't want people in China to suffer like that, it's really terrible.  I, kinda have no words.  😕

[Hua Guofang]

3 hours ago, Mercer said:

My thoughts exactly. Objectively speaking, I could almost respect Jihadists/anti western segments of the middle east, that is if they actually gave a fuck about muslims suffering. Clearly they don't, and it's just a play for power. Sounds harsh but considering their deafening silence on Uyghur (and Yemen) sometimes I have to stop myself from considering the perpetrators, and the silent as less than human. With that said, I really don't see westerners giving a fuck about this either, and it kills me.  Massive government sanctioned rape of Uyghur women by Mandarin speaking men, the concentration/death camps, organ harvesting, it's pretty disturbing.

There are actually a lot of Westerners raising hell about this, I work with some of them. State Dept. is also doing a lot behind the scenes to raise awareness about it.

[Hua Guofang]

Something very interesting has happened in the last few days regards the Xinjiang situation. There has been a huge social media campaign that has been really effective in Indonesia and Malaysia and protests outside embassies and consulates have already started. The interesting part is that it seems to mirror the way bot-driven campaigns work but it was largely actual people. It seems that the greatest amplifier may have been that the message got into a bunch of Southeast Asian KPOP/BTS fan networks and really caught on.

 

This is an example of social media activism having an impact in real life. The Islamic groups of Muhamudiya and Nadhlatul Ulama in Indonesia have tens of millions of members that mobilise on issues important to them. Interesting to see if they coalesce around this issue as they compete politically.

 

Sometimes hitting retweet or posting something on social media does make a difference.

 

 

 

Researcher that I follow:

 

This whole hashtag was strange and there were a ton of honest people jumping onto it. I'm interested in how it started and how it became trending so quickly and why.

 

china_is_terrorist tweet data, nearly a million tweets in the 3 days, alot of the accounts referenced as top posters have been banned by twitter.

 

Here is a breakdown of all tweet ISO language tags from Sun Dec 22 14:19:27 UTC to Fri Dec 20 04:21:59 UTC

 

 

language by hour

 

 

Of particular note is Arabic which has the earliest tweets of any other language, starting at 4AM UTC or 6AM in Cairo

 

 

 

Turkish by contrast doesn't rise above 10 tweets an hour until 20:00 UTC or 11PM in Istanbul

 

 

 

If we exclude retweets and only look at unique, new, tweets the spike we see in English tweets on the 21st practically disappears

 

 

 

 

[Hua Guofang]

Police dressed as protestors in HK (not that this is new, it's been documented for months now):

 

 

 

I am genuinely shocked that there hasn't been some kind of ambush set up by the more militant of the protestors to inflict serious bodily harm on the police in HK. It will be sad to see it occur, just because it will be a further spiral into hatred and violence [insert some wise Yoda type shit here], but I think the blame will sit largely with the police if/when it does happen because it's a reaction to their own brutality.

 

.

[Hua Guofang]

Small example of State being active on the matter of Xinjiang:

 

Secretary Pompeo

 

@SecPompeo

 

From #Tibet to #Xinjiang, the Chinese Communist Party's repressive campaigns are not about combating terrorism. The #CCP is attempting to erase its own citizens’ faiths and cultures. All societies must respect and protect religious freedom.

[Hua Guofang]

 

Think I might bite that character!

[abrasivesaint]

So how about them laws, amirite?