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Comment by RockmanX | Hacker News Reader

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RockmanX·

thats horrible! It makes me don't want to go back to China for having a faculty job.

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What sort of research do you want to do that you're afraid might result in punishment?

Or put another way, what do you think a government agency might see as misconduct that you see as legitimate?

I would be concerned about ideologically incorrect research, innocent mistakes, non-research-related activism, working for a disfavored person, being part of a disfavored ethnic group, etc.

You are saying that as if the government is immune to corruption and abuse of power.

This is my thought Everytime someone defends increasing government power and authority. They always assume the government is going to act in good faith and never use the power in a harmful way. Almost as if they've never read a history book.

This is similar to how privacy-conscious people are told that “if you don’t have anything to hide then why are you so concerned about actually hiding things?”.

> what do you think a government agency might see as misconduct that you see as legitimate?

I'm not the GP, but that one is easy:

- Discovering that some drug is ineffective (or worse) when the manufacturer has made party contributions;

- Discovering that some public policy does not benefit the population while it benefits some politician;

- Any research on a propaganda line with results that are not aligned with the official truths.

you probably never heard of the so called "political flighting" among university professors in China

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