Chinese censorship, surveillance found at Australian universities – rights group

Utterly disgusting.

As far as I'm aware, the Australian government cannot do much about this either (not that they would chose to). There are laws about not interfering to preserve academic freedom (kinds of ironic here).

This is made worse by our ex Prime Minister refusing to admit that this is a serious issue. (He is close personal friends with at least one University head). https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/86-coronavirus-covert-...

Original report from Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/06/30/they-dont-understand-f...

I remember in my Japanese 101 class, learning country names someone loudly yelling at the teacher that Taiwan was not a country >_>

"If you protest against CCP abroad, they will find people you love to make you pay."

I don't understand how this tactic wouldn't backfire. Such a tactic is outright thuggery.

Thugs tend not to have a good brand. Thus defeating the point?!

What’s more interesting is corporate self-censorship to avoid upsetting Beijing and getting banned from Chinese market.

I don't get the focus on the Chinese if we talk about surveillance in the education system. What is currently done in schools and university made me pretty glad I am done with it. It is just irresponsible to violate privacy of pupils and students and if administrators cannot keep up with technological development, they need to employ more competent people or make place for those that can raise to the challenge.

Not saying it would be easy, but the current "solutions" aren't acceptable.

Also in New Zealand: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/445646/chinese-communist...

> "If you protest against CCP abroad, they will find people you love to make you pay. Even if you are in Australia," a student not identified in the report told Human Rights Watch, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.

Fear is a great driver. Not only most people will like to avoid the problem, but it can easily isolate anyone that wants to talk about it. If you are trying to improve your live by attending university, to avoid "problematic" people is also part of that.

Even worse it to retaliate against loved ones. Let's suppose that someone agrees with China that criticizing the CCP is a crime. What crime have the loved ones committed? Retaliation against completely innocent people just because someone else has committed a crime is terribly unjust, it has nothing to do with justice and only is about power. So, even if you agree with the censorship, the actions of the Chinese government are still inhuman and cruel.

Chinese society has advanced a lot past decades, it has been a great accomplishment to become a technologically developed country. But, the new challenges that a modern society presents need public opinion and collaboration to be overcome. Censorship only brings stagnation and the risk of increased corruption. Corruption will kill any future for China if people cannot speak up.

Been happening for years unfortunately :( given the many other anecdotal accounts and other statements from other Western institutes.

My creepy little brother.

For those unaware, the CCP actually has police in foreign countries to find and arrest dissidents.

In some European countries, they have/had permission to operate freely.

In the US, the CCP police has been told to return home. But we'll see how that turns out.

This is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of foreign espionage that the CCP is doing in the US.

You can read about the Thousand Talents program (turning scientists into spies), United Front (connected to BLM Inc.), Confucious Institutes (teaching CCP narrative to foreign children), and donations to US universities and media outlets. (The CCP donates money so that they can threaten to withold future donations later.)

(The Houston embassy was closed because of the above.)

Two Australian Senators recently resigned because they were actually CCP members.

And crickets are louder than these guys:

https://freebeacon.com/media/china-hong-kong-journalists/

We, in the west, need to double down on freedom of speech and expression. Yes, the law is clear but there is a chilling effect of censorship due to political divide in the west, especially USA is troubling. Actually, the law is standing on stilts too. Just the other day Canada is passed laws for anti-hate speech.

I see the west slipping in this matters and it bothers me deeply. If we're going to criticize CCP for censorship, which in their mind is "anti-hate" speech towards Chinese, we need to learn how to tolerate and stop cancelling people in our own backyard. Ask a comedian and see what they want to say about censorship/chilling-effects in the west. This is all very difficult because our social media companies are amplifying speech that would have never left someone's neighborhood, let alone the city before the internet existed. Hateful voices used to be ignored by local communities. Twitter does the exact opposite on a global scale, eroding the fabric of society.

I truly want to live in the world where anyone can say anything. In order for them to amplify their voices, they have to work hard and gather support in person, in flesh and blood, and march on the streets. Not the tweet button.