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Comment by ronnier | Hacker News Reader

Do Chinese do this in China? Walk away from companies that will be used for war? I doesn’t seem to be prevalent and instead they try to take every advantage they can to push their country, China, to become the most dominate in the world. They must be elated to watch the world’s premier tech companies protest the American government and refusal to work with them. If I wanted China to be weaker I’d hope that Chinese companies protested and refused to work with the Chinese government.

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It's explicitly illegal in China.

A 2017 national intelligence law compels Chinese companies and individuals to cooperate with state intelligence when asked and without and public notice.

China has no equivalent of the whistleblower protection that enables resignations with public letters explaining why, protests, open letters with many signatures, etc. Whenever you see "Chinese whistleblower" in the news, you're looking at someone who quietly fled the country first and then blew the whistle. Example: https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/27/us/china-nyc-whistleblower-uf...

Isn't that basically the same as a National Security Letter and its attached gag order in the USA?

It's along the same lines, but an NSL can be challenged in court (the FISC is a secret and lopsided court, alas). Companies like Apple and Google have fought specific orders publicly (and possibly some secretly), and some have won.

NSLs are also narrow in scope: they compel data disclosure, not active technical assistance in building surveillance systems like the Chinese law.

The Chinese laws can compel any citizen anywhere in the world to perform work on supporting state military and intelligence capabilities with no recourse. There have been no cases of companies or individuals fighting those orders.

Not at all. If you're an employee at a company that receives a National Security Letter then you can just quit if you want to. Unlike in China, the US government can't force you to keep working there to suit their purposes.

Yes, of course there are people in China who, when their job puts them in conflict with their ethics, will decide to do something ethical. I can't think of any war-related examples, since it's been a while since China was involved in any big wars, but I like the story of Liu Lipeng, who used to work as an internet censor: https://madeinchinajournal.com/2025/04/03/me-and-my-censor/

You have used chatgpt presumably. Based on your interactions with it, do you seriously think it should be allowed to shoot a gun without any human oversight?

That simplistic question is not how things will work. I guess we’ll just get shot by Chinese AI, they will not stop.

You'd rather get shot by domestic bots first?

We have nukes, missiles, bombs, all capable of mass widespread death. Should we give those up too and just let adversaries be the only ones in possession of these types of weapons?

Autonomous robots are one of the adversaries. They're their own side.

One of the things about slave coups in ancient times was that they really believed there are things more important than life.

Yes we should dispense with ethics so we can win at all costs. Like your point isn’t invalid but what’s the point of restating something akin to the trolley problem but this time, as if the answer is obvious.

We can debate philosophy while our adversaries use any means at their disposal. Or we can invest in different ideas, see what works, and choose the best option.

What are we if we throw away the Constitution and allow the Government to punish people/companies that exercise their rights?

China's constitution includes freedom of speech and elections.

Funny thing when you put rights on hold today for 'reasons' they tend to just go away. Look at the US today versus pre 9/11. It's a completely different country with completely different attitudes about freedom and privacy and government over reach and power.

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