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Comment by ta_04012016 | Hacker News Reader

ta_04012016

I think I am seeing a very patronizing smug here on HN.

> If you actually study a bit about China

I grow up in China, and I know that the root problem is that it's a one-party state. There is no election whatsoever and the country is owned and abused by princelings and government officials. Rural areas are underfunded and manipulated so that resources are concentrated in the major cities. The justice system is not broken, but has never been built. Thought crimes don't only exist but are also prosecuted. With all these serious problems, you are telling me rumors are a huge problem?

Rumors are just a proxy. People are concerned about regional instability and human rights abuse, aren't they??

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I'm not convinced that the system in the US is all that different. A whole extra party to vote for! A whole ~10% of quiet media not directly in the hands of the elite!

Plenty of FBI suppression of "thought criminals" too. They just have different names, like Black Panthers or anarchist.

I agree that the US has its own problems. But they are on a totally different level from China's. If we lived in China, we couldn't even have this debate about problems, let alone advocate for them to be fixed...

Quantity has a quality all its own.

The FBI struggles against a legal system and public that reaist its overreach. China has no check or balance.

Firstly I am very sorry for your experience growing up in China, but do note that many others grew up normally in China and continued on with their lives.

I agree with all the problems that you listed, but I believe the spreading of rumors is a problem that has to be tackled. It is true that there are many more problems to attend to, but why not fix them one by one, starting from the most obvious ones like rumors.

Wouldn't a culture of rumors arising from a distrust of government press be better tackled by establishing freedom of the press rather than adding more restrictions?

I do believe freedom of press is the way moving forward. However at the same time, restricting rumours (actual rumours that have no grounds or basis) for the time being would help for people who have less discretion to be better informed.

So only the government should be allowed to spread false information?

Can you substantiate your claim?

The use of propaganda is well established within the PRC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_in_the_People's_Rep...).

I'm more interested in the idea that "rumors" are a problem that needs to be tackled and the best way to do so is to ban them and only trust what is coming from the government. Isn't this type of system ripe for abuse? Let's say a rumor was that a certain government official embezzled $100M Yuan, but it was true. Perhaps that would be very embarrassing for the central party and thus they issue a statement saying that is not the case. Isn't it the public that is hurt in this situation?

Hi. Your example, by definition, does not involve rumours. Hence if the government tries to hide it, it is the government's fault and we should blame the government.

However, you might not realize that there are many other rumours in China that are not true, and has nothing to do with the government per se, such as a disease outbreak or a certain foreign firm exploiting fellow Chinese people. These are the rumours that we need to fight.

I do not expect you to believe me though. After all you would not know any of those without living in China for a few years.

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