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Comment by Mikeb85 | Hacker News Reader

Because the west has been stepping up propaganda.

I remember 5 years ago, most outlets had very pro-China things to say. Now it's undoubtedly taken a very negative turn. Daily stories about China's impending economic collapse, their various 'crackdowns', and so on. Even this article. To be honest, half of the stuff they want to ban isn't even allowable in Canadian media (literally, 3 out of 6 bullet points are strait up illegal in Canada), and we're hardly a totalitarian state.

But when western media and NGOs are stepping up the propaganda and support for violent secessionist groups (Occupy HK took a violent turn recently, some Uighur groups are strait up terrorists with US support), China has to do something. A collapse would be catastrophic, yet that's exactly what the US government is trying to achieve (as evidenced by Syria).

Edit - Anyone want to address these points? Or is the propaganda working too well?

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Coverage has taken a negative turn because events have taken a negative turn. Growth is weakening. Shares have fallen sharply. Exports are down. And they're doing things like this.

It's funny, I see this all the time in the media. Yet observers whose opinions I trust far more, have differing thoughts. http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/macroeconomic-insig...

And of course, China's stock exchange is holding steady now, around their long term growth average. It was overvalued before, now it's corrected, and definitely hasn't crashed.

roflmao

Goldman Sachs lies to people who pay them millions, and you think that anything they publish for free is reliable? http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/pictures/how-goldman-ex...

Any report from Goldman Sachs is designed to advance Goldman Sachs' interests. Any resemblance to reality it might hold is sheer coincidence.

A 2011 article from Rolling Stone proves what? Furthermore, it's not particularly well written or objective.

The point is, they're pretty spot on when it comes to forecasting. More so than pretty much any media outlet. If they say China isn't going to descend into Mad Max style anarchy in the next decade, I believe them.

I see one point that would be illegal in Canada. All the others have language that makes them far more broad than any restrictions placed on our media here. But I'm probably brainwashed just like you my friend.

2, 3 and 5 are illegal in Canada (disclosing state secrets, inciting ethnic hatred/violence, and slander).

That's a generous reading of those points. You're not including everything.

#2 - endangering national security, or harming national honor and interests [national honor? not illegal in Canada]

#3 - undermining national unity, or going against ethnic customs and habits [going against ethnic habits? not illegal in Canada]

#5 - insulting or slandering others, infringing upon the legitimate rights of others [I'll give you that slander and infringing rights is illegal in Canada, insulting is not]

Note that all of these are vague, intentionally vague at that. Whether or not you violated these rules is entirely up to the interpretation of the CCP.

> You're not including everything.

And you're not including the first words of each bullet point, which clearly ARE illegal here.

- disclosing state secrets, endangering national security, or harming national honor and interests

Illegal, possibly illegal, and while we don't have a concept of national 'honor', going against national interests can be illegal, depending on context.

- inciting ethnic hatred or ethnic discrimination, undermining national unity, or going against ethnic customs and habits

Even the second point (inciting ethnic discrimination) is contrary to our hate speech laws, and the first point definitely is.

- spreading rumors, disturbing social order, or undermining social stability

I didn't include this because it's a maybe, but unfounded rumours are often considered slander, and disturbing social order is often considered hate speech (though not always).

- insulting or slandering others, infringing upon the legitimate rights of others

Illegal.

> Note that all of these are vague, intentionally vague at that. Whether or not you violated these rules is entirely up to the interpretation of the CCP.

You're not familiar with 'common law', are you? Canada's law system (I assume the same holds true for other countries who adopted Britain's system of laws) isn't set in stone, are quite a bit is left to interpretation. It's not particularly unusual.

For instance, our last government used an anti-terrorism law to try strip the citizenship of and deport someone who was born in Canada, on the basis that he 'could' be eligible for citizenship in a country he's never stepped foot in. Granted he was convicted of a crime, but goes to show that, even in Canada laws can be interpreted rather broadly.

I think you missed my point. I was highlighting the parts you left out. You said "Point #3 is illegal in Canada" when in fact, it isn't. Only part of it is.

I'm familiar with common law and I wouldn't compare common law in Canada will the law in China.

I left it out? I put a brief rundown of the bullet points in 1 line between parentheses.

Fact remains, we're shitting on China for banning things that are already banned in many non-totalitarian countries.

“Insulting others” is illegal in Canada?

Edit: “Insult” and “slander” are two entirely different things. To insult is to speak disrespectfully or abusively about someone. An insult would be something like “Donald Trump is an asshole.” To slander is to make false defamatory statements about someone, e.g. “I saw Donald Trump kick a puppy.”

Slander is, yes. If you can prove its truthful it's OK, if it's provably false it's illegal, and you can take the offending party to court.

Edit - publicly insulting someone often falls into slander, depending on what was said. In Canada all charges are pressed by the crown, so to a certain degree they decide what's what. In general, if there's the possibility of damages arising from the insults, it can be prosecuted.

Edit2 - here's an interesting one for you: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/insulting-police-onli...

> #3 - undermining national unity, or going against ethnic customs and habits [going against ethnic habits? not illegal in Canada]

Undermining national unity is not illegal in Canada - even to the point where a political party was advocating the separation of Quebec (BQ) and a Bloc Quebecois MP tried to incite members of the Canadian Forces to desert and join a possible Quebec military if Quebec separated from Canada.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marc_Jacob

"Jacob faced accusations that he advised Quebec members of the Canadian Forces to join a Quebec army if there was a winning vote for Quebec sovereignty in the 1995 Quebec referendum. The prevailing Liberal government decided to investigate these remarks, while the Reform Party demanded Jacob be charged with sedition.[2]"

In the end he wasn't charged with anything

Additionally, above the bullet points it states that only companies 100% owned (and operated) in china can publish .

This self-centered North American still reads al-jazeera, Guardian , and Der Spiegel .

Is there any idea how long al-jazeera america will continue to publish online? I'm sad to see them go.

The definitions are far more vague in this case. They could basically make the case that anything is "undermining social stability"; whereas making the same judgement in Canada would be tougher.

"endangering social morality or national cultural tradition" could probably even include publishing anything upsetting or otherwise true about the party.

> making the same judgement in Canada would be tougher.

Kind of like stripping the citizenship of and deporting a Canadian who was born in Canada and never stepped foot in the country they're being deported to?

that would be a waste. Indefinite prison term and slavework in forest enterprises of Saskatchewan would suit better to anyone undermining social order of Canada.

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