China on the Brink — of Winning

BDB
BDB
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I posted recently about the important and perhaps even consequential protests in China.  I noted in a comment elsewhere that one of the videos had been age-restricted.  Well, here’s one of the channels I linked to from there also noting in a tweet that their video had been age-restricted.  This is not the same video or even the same channel I noted in my earlier comment.

This was the first time I had seen a China Insights video age-restricted, and now for the first time I can recall, a China Uncensored video has been age-restricted.  Why does this matter?  Age restrictions kill video uptake in the first few days, which is make or break for visibility — never mind demonetization.  It’s not about the kids, although they matter — I do not have a Google account at all, so I cannot “log in” to YouTube to view age-restricted videos.  That’s their system working as designed; gotta give something to get something right?  I’m not willing to live with Google around my neck any more than I have to.

So Apple has turned off a key peer-to-peer file-sharing ability for users in China; one which the Chinese protesters (dare I say, freedom fighters?) have been using to circumvent the otherwise all-seeing, all-controlling CCP.

I have no doubt that Apple feels they have little choice in this — Apple’s phones and laptops are built in China, despite some recent, limited moves away from there.  iPhones are now built in India, but crucially, only for the Indian market.  Apple is already having massive trouble with their Foxconn plants where iPhones are made due to protests and lockdowns in China.  Imagine if the CCP gets angry enough with Apple to just keep those plants shuttered.  Well, this is why some people say that doing business with, in, or for China is a Bad Deal.  Stupid, short-sighted plans do not perform well in the long run.

Google has long been known for its CCP-friendly censorship, even back when its motto was still “Don’t Be Evil.”   Cisco built the Great Firewall of China, and of Iran, for that matter.

Our Big Tech monopolies are not harmless, not even if you think that privacy is over-rated and that you have nothing to hide.  These transnational actors are stateless predators who slurp up information about us while denying us the ability to speak or to be heard.  They get away with it because governments around the world depend upon American tech companies to perform their outsourced Big Brother subroutines.

There is not a single tech company that you can trust, but I rank Google in the worst tier, Microsoft in the middle, and Apple as the least objectionable.  Yet I still object.  Apple is facilitating the CCP’s quashing of the current protests in China.

Oppress Different.

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  1. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens
    6:28 AM EST ⋅ Nov 30, 2022

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Steven Seward (View Comment):
    Granted, that is usually the case, but repressive regimes do not last. They eventually collapse because of their own corruption and dissatisfaction among the populace. It may not happen soon, but I expect China will eventually implode.

    I just don’t see things going the other way without violent civil war. Here, Canada, Europe, China, Iran, . . . everywhere.

    In Europe there may have been a period after the fall of the Commies where they were relatively free. But then those countries hooked themselves to the EU, and now technocrats in Brussels oppress them.

    There is no peaceful exit.

    The power of the ruling class is so strong I worry you are right. The so called people on our side are part of the ruling class and don’t want to rock the boat. 

    • #31
  2. Raxxalan Member
    Raxxalan
    @Raxxalan
    7:05 AM EST ⋅ Nov 30, 2022

    Steven Seward (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Steven Seward (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Steven Seward (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Raxxalan (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is there anyone who thinks that the Commie Government of China is going to collapse because of the protests? How many times have we seen this movie? Citizens under an oppressive government protest, the world gets all misty-eyed and cheers them on. The government, being oppressive, brings out the big guns. Protesters die (or are otherwise overcome by the government). Everything goes back to the unacceptable status quo. Repeat every few years in Iran or China. Seen recently in Canada, The Netherlands, Spain, France, Germany, . . . coming soon to the United States?

    When have the citizens won?

    1989.

    Fair. Name another. ; )

    1989 wasn’t just one case or one country. I don’t know the exact number, but there were more than two dozen communist countries where the people spoke, protested, and upended their own governments. Overall, communism has been instituted in 46 countries so far. Every one of them has failed spectacularly except in – China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos.

    Sure, but in recent memory? For example, what effect did the Trucker protest have on Canada’s drift toward Totalitarianism. None that I can tell. In fact, we had people right here on Ricochet condemning those protests. seems like these days you try to save people from commie dictators and they don’t want to be saved. They’d rather be kept citizens.

    You keep moving the goalposts, . . .

    Not really. My point is not to get too excited when a bunch of fed up citizens take to the streets in China or Iran. Because the usual result is that they get mowed down and everything returns to the status quo.

    Well, you originally said that none of these protests ever work. Granted, that is usually the case, but repressive regimes do not last. They eventually collapse because of their own corruption and dissatisfaction among the populace. It may not happen soon, but I expect China will eventually implode.

    Perhaps.  China has proved remarkable at avoiding conventional wisdom in this regard.   I agree that dictatorships are generally unstable fragile things, but China has proven capable of maintaining it through several transitions and hasn’t devolved into quasi monarchy like, Cuba and North Korea.    Vietnam may not last as a communist country much longer.  Their economy is modernizing, capitalizing, and westernizing that is the normal point where communism falls away at least in the west.  I don’t know enough about Laos to understand the situation there.  

    • #32
  3. BDB Inactive
    BDB
    @BDB
    Post author
    7:10 AM EST ⋅ Nov 30, 2022

    Raxxalan (View Comment):
    China has proved remarkable at avoiding conventional wisdom in this regard.   I agree that dictatorships are generally unstable fragile things, but China has proven capable of maintaining it through several transitions and

    In 1989, Russia backed down, while China cracked down.  The disparity in results is apparent to dictators.

    • #33
  4. Raxxalan Member
    Raxxalan
    @Raxxalan
    7:10 AM EST ⋅ Nov 30, 2022

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Steven Seward (View Comment):
    Granted, that is usually the case, but repressive regimes do not last. They eventually collapse because of their own corruption and dissatisfaction among the populace. It may not happen soon, but I expect China will eventually implode.

    I just don’t see things going the other way without violent civil war. Here, Canada, Europe, China, Iran, . . . everywhere.

    In Europe there may have been a period after the fall of the Commies where they were relatively free. But then those countries hooked themselves to the EU, and now technocrats in Brussels oppress them.

    There is no peaceful exit.

    Maybe not.  Hungary, Poland, and perhaps now Italy have already started charting more independent paths, so Europe isn’t monolithic.  I also don’t think that the US is lost without a civil war…yet.  We may be getting that way soon.  I think however it is more likely that the US is coming up on a three/ four party moment where one or both of the major political parties is replaced.   Canada seems strange to me, I am not going to lie about that.  It is amazing to me that Trudeau survived that moment in as good a shape as he appears to have.   

    • #34
  5. BDB Inactive
    BDB
    @BDB
    Post author
    7:11 AM EST ⋅ Nov 30, 2022

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):
    There is no peaceful exit.

    • #35
  6. Raxxalan Member
    Raxxalan
    @Raxxalan
    7:13 AM EST ⋅ Nov 30, 2022

    BDB (View Comment):

    Raxxalan (View Comment):
    China has proved remarkable at avoiding conventional wisdom in this regard. I agree that dictatorships are generally unstable fragile things, but China has proven capable of maintaining it through several transitions and

    In 1989, Russia backed down, while China cracked down. The disparity in results is apparent to dictators.

    Yes but different situations.  Russia couldn’t effectively crackdown and China gambled successfully that they could survive a crackdown.    If China had been in Russia’s situation they wouldn’t have been able to crack down either.  If Russia had been in China’s situation they would have crackdown effectively.   

    • #36
  7. GlennAmurgis Coolidge
    GlennAmurgis
    @GlennAmurgis
    2:39 PM EST ⋅ Nov 30, 2022

    Klaus Schawb favorite country 

    • #37
  8. OkieSailor Member
    OkieSailor
    @OkieSailor
    6:31 AM EST ⋅ Dec 1, 2022

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is there anyone who thinks that the Commie Government of China is going to collapse because of the protests? How many times have we seen this movie? Citizens under an oppressive government protest, the world gets all misty-eyed and cheers them on. The government, being oppressive, brings out the big guns. Protesters die (or are otherwise overcome by the government). Everything goes back to the unacceptable status quo. Repeat every few years in Iran or China. Seen recently in Canada, The Netherlands, Spain, France, Germany, . . . coming soon to the United States?

    When have the citizens won?

    Only when the regime has failed to do whatever is necessary to retain power.  Interesting that the Communist response to this scale of protest has been mild at best, amounting to slightly less draconian lockdowns and easing daily covid testing requirements for the favored few.

    China easing ‘zero-COVID’ policy after historic protests

    • #38
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