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Comment by beck5 | Hacker News Reader

I was in China just last month and was surprised how openly everyone circumvents the blocks. I stayed in a very large 25+ floor 4* hotel where the entire free wifi went through a VPN. My Chinese friend said the government turn a blind eye because they know business needs it and they want the business.

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Sounds like the paper bag system reference on The Wire.

EDIT: Brown paper bags cover open containers so people can drink on the street without police intervention so that police can focus on real work, but people still show police some respect.

you mean, as long as one is not saying something the government dislike anything goes... just like in any dictatorship.

If that is your qualification for a dictatorship, then the U.S falls in that category as well. See WikiLeaks, and Assange.

Downvoted, because "X happens in every dictatorship" does not mean "every place where X happens is a dictatorship", and also because I think there is a noticeable difference between Gmail and Wikileaks (even though I supported the latter).

Government doesn't want X to be said about it, and thus pressures/censors company Y to stop it.

(X = "Anti-Communist sentiment" or "War crimes") (Y = "Google" or "Visa, Mastercard, Amazon, Wikileaks... etc")

Not a huge noticeable difference.

The point I was trying to make, is everyone is quick to taint a discussion on china with words like "Dictatorship", when in fact, china isn't (You know they can vote!?), and all the 'evidence' of them being one are scenarios played out in all countries.

Let's take it even further then,

Government doesn't want X to happen against its interests, and thus implements measure Y to counter-act it.

Now all governments and governmental actions are the same.

Also, people in Eastern Germany could vote, that didn't help a lot. I am not sure if dictatorship is the proper term when it's actually a one-party state / oligarchy, though.

There is a conservative wing and a progressive wing to the CCP... much like there is a Republican party and a democratic party. one party state is techniquely true, but in reality it plays out much like a 2 party system.

Government is oligarchical by nature. i would not rank the US much better than china in that regard.

"If that is your qualification for a dictatorship"

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