Hacker News Reader

Comment by khc | Hacker News Reader

This is more representing the power of social media mob justice than what "China" wants. It's really not that different from how the left or the right boycott a business after any other tweet

View on HN

This is only superficially true.

In China the CPC exercises strict control over what topics are allowed to trend on social media, so what appears to be "mob justice" is actually a carefully curated event. The state media chose to report on this rather than ignore it. The Cyberspace Administration chose to allow this outrage to gain momentum while topics that do not toe the party line are squashed.

You cannot really compare the kind of social media "mob justice" people speak of in the west to how things are managed on the Chinese internet.

likewise any criticism of Chinese policy that occurs on the internet is no doubt being monitored and influenced by an army of Chinese intelligence operatives

It seems they're downvoting my criticisms :-D

This is not completely true, depending on what you mean by "trending on social media". I have witness multiple anti-government trending topics on social media in China as well.

I disagree. This is exactly what the Chinese government wants. They're able to have this outsized influence on American companies because they've heavily invested in them. Going against the Chinese government means risking a significant piece of your business for many companies - it isn't about the "social media mob" at all.

For reference: Force U.S. airlines remove Taiwan: https://time.com/5348666/airlines-websites-taiwan-china/

Hide Taiwan emoji flag in Hong Kong: https://blog.emojipedia.org/apple-hides-taiwan-flag-in-hong-...

Sure it is. One represents free speech in response to market participants making decisions.

The other is an authoritarian government shutting down business ties based on one employee opinion.

How do people not see the difference in this? On twitter, people are to speak whatever they want and can choose to buy whatever they want.

In China. Not so much.

If the NBA were big in Spain, and the guy had said "Fight for Freedom, Stand with Catalonia", I expect he would have had to apologize too. The government is more involved in China, because the government is more involved with everything in China, but there are few countries in the world where people don't get mad at foreigners wading into touchy political issues.

> government is more involved with everything in China

There lies in the difference. In Spain, it would be the people demanding it. In China, its the authoritative government that is not only demanding but also threatening.

Its not quite apples to apples.

How do you know that? How many Chinese people have you talked with?

Because it is not democratically elected.

That's not logical. Democratic or not is an unrelated issue. The people can still be patriot on this matter.

Democratic means the government is voted by the people and represents the people. Authoritative means its not.

People can be patriotic on this matter, but it still doesn't represent all the people.

It also allows for the people to “change their mind”

Authoritarian governments do not

I don't need to talk to Chinese people to know that China is an authoritative government and that Tencent was ordered to stop streaming Rocket games by the government.

> How do you know that? How many Chinese people have you talked with?

Do the Hong Hong people count?

How about Tibetan people? Or the sadly famous Uyghur?

And does Taiwan has a say as well?

You obviously do not know China and this issue.

Hongkong's takeover by the British has been a humiliation for China and the Chinese people, which has been provoking strong feelings on their part since well before the Communist Party was even founded.

That China must get Hongkong back is a highly consensual opinion among the Chinese. This was a policy of the Communist Party because that really is something that every Chinese strongly wanted.

There are elements of wanting independence for Hongkong in the current protests and of foreign interference (whether it is true or not, this is how it looks). This is an absolute red flag for Chinese. In fact if TVs were showing everything we are shown in the West the government would have to act more strongly against the protesters by popular demand.

The Chinese government may not be democratic but that does not mean that it can ignore public opinion or that its policies never align with what the people want.

Campaigning for democracy was always going to be a uphill struggle in Hongkong, but these violent protests (which can be qualified of 'riots') have been highly counterproductive.

The 2047 Hong Kong fiasco, the Irish backstop, the US left-right divide, blame it all on the British Empire

The crisis in Hong Kong is not a separatist movement, unlike Catalonia.

Or if he had tweeted

"Fight for Freedom, Stand with Palestine"

I wonder what the reaction would have been?

Not to mention the people in China are pretty nationalistic and are on the side of the government when it comes to the situation in HK, so the response from the people in China and the CBA is not surprising.

Or how people talk about boycotting stuff from China due to their political issues. Even before the trade war tariffs, there were American consumers that made it a habit to not buy Chinese because of their political stances.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com