You’d think for a police state, China would be just little bit better at cracking down on obvious crime that happens within their borders. But I guess not.
Or in Egypt, you have to bribe to get a job as a police officer, your superior expects a tribute each month because his superiors expect one, all the way to the top, so you bully the public for bribes/protection money, that's why the police were so passionate about suppressing anti-government protests during the Arab Spring, their livelihood depended on it. Meanwhile the Egyptian military had its own economy to supply themselves (eg a factory making soap, or bread) and were viewed by the public as trustworthy.
All in a fascinating book:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25622863-thieves-of-stat...
Black hats (criminals), Government, and commercial devs are pretty distinct, and dont often over lap on a day to day basis. That having been said the government jobs are available to either group (sometimes not by "choice") and there is a revolving door there.
It's not so far removed from the university, drug company/reseearch, FDA revolving doors that we have for Drug development in the US.
That's why cartels appear out of control in Mexico, but when USA wants an offer, Mexico will promptly deport a high-level criminal. It's a show of strength, that the state is still in control of the cartels, but won't extinguish them because they generate lots of money for their respective political coalitions.
Happens everywhere, the biggest bank accounts of organized crime could be seized internationally if there was a will, but that would hurt politics too... unless they're Russians, there were token seizures of money and yachts last year, but it stopped quickly.
That makes me think of some US-libertarian-adjacent thought, which goes something like "the government are just a big-enough gang", or conversely "organized-crime rings are just smaller competing governments."
While I admit there is some pattern-making appeal to that idea, I don't think it quite matches what we see in practice, where gangs often seem quite happy to abandon unprofitable responsibilities and choose profit over political independence.
If nothing else, it quietly conflates entirely different kinds of governments together: A small dictatorship is not just a shrunken version of large democracy.
They often come to exist due to niches government can’t (officially) operate in, but when they grow enough, they’re susceptible to capture the same as any other entity.
2. They do not care about foreigners or crimes unless they involve Chinese citizens.
Don't know if they really care that much about Chinese citizens. Probably just the ones in the politburo.
Millions also died due to their rulers through the 20th century.
According to a commenter on HN from a few months ago [1], the reason is a political division - the scam callcenters are in West Bengal, where the ruling political party turns a blind eye due to corruption and to provide annoyance towards the federal government ruled by the BJP.
[1] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/fake-call...
[2] https://www.thestatesman.com/cities/delhi/two-illegal-bpos-b...
[3] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/call-cent...
Whatever country allows it should lose legitimate commerce as a consequence. My own included, if we are found to be guilty.
Truth: police protect their employers.
Reality: Police absolutely hate doing the "boring" parts of their jobs. Property crime clearance rate is an abysmal ~10% and everyone knows a handful of people who reported a theft, large or otherwise, and got nothing but a police report.
Meanwhile they had plenty of time to come to our local supermarket and harass a 6 year old that tried to pocket a candybar. They took him into the security camera room and hassled this kid for several hours, zero parents involved.
The American police do not feel required to do their damn jobs, unless it involves physical activity or a gun. The boring stuff, like submitting hundreds of stored rape kits to labs to literally catch rapists, doesn't get done, ever.
~ I'm a black ex-cop, and this is the real truth about race and policing, http://www.vox.com/2015/5/28/8661977/race-police-officer
This is why I find it bizarre that the behavior of bad cops is minimized by calling them "a few bad apples", when the entire aphorism is "one bad apple spoils the bunch".
It does not bother them.
More to the point, it is authoritarian, but you also have things like prostitution going on in broad day light. The central and local governments have a very focused attention span, and if what bad thing you are doing is outside of that, they probably won't notice.
Just don't sell/buy drugs, or get into fights when drunk.
The US hosts many Chinese criminal financiers and embezzlers that we have no intention of extraditing to China.
As inconvenient as it is for the author and those in their similar situation this sort of petty crime is about on the same level as bustinng a massage parlor.
And honestly it woul hold the same low priority everywhere not just in China
China is top-down, except when it isn't, then its very bottom up. Is is sort of dichotomy of a central government with absolute authority but a limited attention span.
When it notices you, you’re in deep shit. But for the most part, it doesn’t notice 95% of what is actually happening.