Slashdot Mirror
China Arrests Anti-Corruption Blogger
quantr tips this news from Bloomberg:
"A Chinese journalist who posted allegations of corrupt dealings during the privatization of state-owned assets has been formally arrested on a defamation charge, his lawyer said. The Beijing People's Procuratorate approved Liu Hu's arrest on Sept. 30, lawyer Zhou Ze said by phone yesterday. Liu, who worked for the Guangzhou-based New Express, had been in detention since Aug. 24, according to Zhou. Liu's arrest adds to evidence that the government is stepping up a crackdown against people who go online with revelations of official malfeasance. At the same time that the Communist Party has vowed to get tough on corruption, authorities have targeted outspoken bloggers and announced that people who post comments deemed defamatory could face as much as three years behind bars."
Don't you think? Yet is really is ironic.
Sounds like they're not so much worried about stopping corruption, as stopping people reporting about corruption.
Just like every other government.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
over hear in Crook County, IL, then might find the Chinese government's ideas intriguing and would wish to suscribe to their newsletter
They've simply defined "corruption" as "Speaking out against the government." As experienced coders, you should all be familiar with this type of "operator overload" :-(
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
Blog about corruption, get arrested for defamation.
That's pretty much the point of the YRO section of Slashdot.
You know, Your Rights Online.
At this rate, I won't be surprised to see this start happening in other countries which are supposed to be against this sort of thing. *cough* America *cough*
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
No tech angles in play here.
There probably aren't that many tech angles anywhere. Even most "tech" news these days is really just soap opera based around me-to start-ups. Yeah sure, CEO of MobileSwap, Inc. (a site for posting short messages and pictures) plans to re-write SwapTronic (TM) engine in Python is tech news.... but... does it really matter?
"[Snowden/Assange]'s arrest adds to evidence that the government is stepping up a crackdown against people who go online with revelations of official malfeasance." Yep, sounds good.
Why is this here? How the fuck is this relevant to slashdot? No tech angles in play here. It doesn't matter if you don't live in China. Mind your own fucking business.
There are numerous China blogs that cover this stuff better and more extensively.
I miss the host files rants, now it's all "Why is this here?" posts. how fucking boring.
Be seeing you...
Why this is news for nerds:
For tech nerds
This deals with a blog and the legal ramifications of posts in China. This may lead to administrators having to worry about assets in China and other oppressive countries.
Economics Nerds
In the very lengthy book Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, the authors mention China and its extractive policies and economics and how its tremendous growth will end unless things change. On of those things is the corruption regarding privatization (things like well connected people getting rich for doing nothing other than knowing the right people). This shows that China is more than likely going to have some really bad times ahead - like the end of Soviet Russia.
And when I see American companies scrambling to get into China and moving operations there, I just shake my head and hope they get burned soon so I can jump into the vacuum they leave behind and make my own money or at the very least, pay my student loans.
They didn't hang the blogger on a tree, didn't beat him to death and throw the body somewhere in pit. Instead they arrested this guy officially and they're going to press charge by real laws.
That's so much better than what they had before. People should celebrate!
Um, yeah. It's China.
They are a communist dictatorship. They don't have freedom of the press. If you say things that the government doesn't like, they lock you up. (If they find out and get around to it - for run of the mill stuff, they will have people with the drive and efficiency of your average telephone sanitizer on the job.)
And, of course, there's this as well.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The best way to live outside the law in any country is to live within it.
Didn't pay the necessary bribes to blog about anti-corruption
in bitcoins
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Are you fucking kidding me? I've been coming to /. for 15 years now, and government crackdowns on free speech online have been a core part of their coverage that entire time.
If you don't like then create an account, go into your preferences, and turn off Your Rights Online (YRO). Otherwise, shut the fuck up and go away.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
That's one way to fight corruption -- by quieting those who point it out.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
Everyone except Americans seems to know that.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
"well connected people getting rich for doing nothing other than knowing the right people"
How is this different from the USA?
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
and america arrests journalists who report on whistleblowers. potato po-tah-to.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Well, in my country America means USofA. And even if we are not Americans, we at least know that there is no continent named America. You may think of the Americas if you really want to group two continents together.
A year or so back, the British Secret Services mounted a massive operation against a British man in the UK. His crime? His wife had been unfaithful with one of Tony Blair's VERY powerful cronies, so the unfortunate husband emailed everyone he could that had business relations with the rat, informing them of what kind of man he was.
He was arrested and prosecuted as a result of the combined efforts of MI5, and the London anti-terrorism police division. ONLY the fact that the story broke across the Internet and was making the wrong groups of people feel very uncomfortable indeed (Blair - who by the way rules Britain just as Putin rules Russia- with or without a formal title- had D-noticed the press over the story, but journalists at the bigger papers realised that a refusal to cover this outrage would make them OBVIOUSLY government stooges, even in the eyes of the thicker sheeple, and so exerted maximum pressure to be allowed to write about the police-state atrocity).
The relevant star chamber discussed the issue, and decided that far too much damage was being done in the court of public opinion, and ordered the court to find him not guilty. You see in history, similar cases in Soviet Russia and East Germany, when the target worked to gather so much publicity, they became far too damaging to take out in the usual way.
GOOGLE "Ian Puddick" for the details of this case.
China and despotic Middle East nations actually QUOTE and refer to commonplace abuses of power by the UK government against 'difficult' individuals to justify their own police-state actions. The persecution, arrest and prosecution of protesters in the UK and USA, which has become widespread since Blair first rose to power, is designed to set an example for all those nations that Blair wishes to corrupt. Indeed, when Blair was setting up Gaddafi and Libya for complete destruction, Blair personally oversaw projects to kidnap Libyan dissidents (and their wives and children) abroad using British Intelligence agents, so these people could be transported BACK to Libya for 'torture' (actually, Gaddafi was far too civilised to torture such targets, which is why they are alive and healthy today, helping run the stooge forces that currently control Libya). Blair bought Gaddafi's trust with such acts, persuaded him to disarm, recruited many within his administration (via the multi-faith 'religious' organisation Blair created and heads) to act as fifth columnists, and prepared for the recent invasion that destroyed Libya utterly.
China is corrupt BUT doesn't wish to be corrupt. The UK and USA are infinitely MORE corrupt, with those that rule desiring that even more corruption be possible in the future. You cretinous Yanks, for instance, allow your politicians to LEGALLY indulge in insider trading. THAT is how thick and subservient American sheeple are. And then, while Obama is insider-trading to make him and his family billionaires so his lineage can properly rule over the sheeple for hundreds of years to come, American sheeple worship him as a god.
Why do the owners of Slashdot keep posting ANTI-China and ANTI-Iran stories, and PRO-Israeli ones? A science, engineering, computer and technology portal constantly pushing the agenda of the Neo-cons, and PNAC. They are not exactly subtle, are they?
America is not a country, it's a continent.
No, dink, it's a common shortening of the name for a country; specifically, the United States of America.
You're thinking of North America, or maybe South America, or possibly the quasi-continent in-between known as Central America, but there is no continent that is known as just "America."
Of course, we all know that nobody on the internet is dense and uninformed enough to actually believe in the amiguity you're referring to, so it pretty much goes without saying that your comment is pure troll and nothing else. The real question is, why? What was your purpose behind leaving such an obviously stupid and pointless comment? For the attention?
Well, congrats, you got it: We all now know how stupidly uptight and unreasonable you can be. Bet your parents are real proud.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
And it's largely been that way for decades now.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The USA is different in that its government doesn't put you in jail for pointing that out.
Documentary Narrator: Fortunately, our handsomest politicians came up with a way to combat government corruption. We simply arrest anybody who talks about government corruption. Of course, because the corruption still takes place, we need to arrest more and more people for speaking out against it, solving the problem once and for all.
Suzie: But...
Documentary Narrator: Once and for all!
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
I assume you religiously refer to Rhode Island by its official name, 'Rhode Island and Providence Plantations'.
The CB App. What's your 20?
That America can also informally refer to the USA is from historical precedent, not out of ignorance. Historical precedent in part related to Europeans dicking everybody around in the past few centuries (not that we weren't).
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
The USA is different in that its government doesn't put you in jail for pointing that out.
The other difference is the people need it to be pointed out because they cant work it out for themselves.
And which country are you from. Because I don't know of any country that teaches north america and south america are two separate continents apart from the USA itself.
Ah yes, the incorrect pedant troll. One of my favorites.
It is not possible to form a government where power flows from the top down without the government becoming corrupt. Can't be done. This blogger's arrest proves the point. When a citizen reports official corruption, the citizen is jailed for leaking state secrets. Yes, corruption in China is considered a state secret. Can corruption get any worse? Yes! Look at North Korea. A communist state with a hereditary emperor for a leader. North Korea went from democratic to communist to feudal fiefdom. All to benefit the emperor, which is really funny because communism is supposed to depose emperors not create them. China keeps the emperor in power while the people starve. When the people finally revolt and kill the emperor, they will not turn to China for help rebuilding. China has made itself the enemy of the North Korean People. A mistake they will deeply regret in the future.
He's probably European. They are taught America is one continent, and technically is connected.
China is jailing people for criticizing their government. The US is not.
Snowden has been charged with leaking classified information. That's illegal in every country and has been for a century.
Assange has not been charged with anything by the US government and nobody with authority has proposed doing so.
Actually, if you want to be technical, America is 2 continents. If you are going to be asinine, at least be sure you make a correct asinine statement. North America is a continent, South America is a continent. America generally refers to the country, Americas refers to the two continents and North or South America refer to the individual continents.
AJ Henderson
You can consider America as one, two, or three continents. Although I don't think there's any geographic, but only political, reason to consider it three.
Well, checking the German and Spanish wikipedia articles on Continents, the German intro notes a 7-continent model (with North and South America as separate continents), and the Spanish wikipedia page has a nice section describing which continental divisions are commonly taught in different places. It notes that the Americas are commonly considered a single continent in Latin America, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Belgium. They're considered separate in Japan, countries of the former Soviet Union, most English-speaking countries, and China.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
My country is not USofA. Not sure if that was clear from my comment, or not :-).
Snowden has exposed broad secret surveillance that is clearly breaching the spirit (and probably the letter) of his country's constitution. There's a term for that "whistle-blowing", and it should be protected.
Now, it's normal that he is charged and there is an investigation. What's not normal is that everybody expects him to be convicted by the USA's government^H^H^H^H^H^H^ an impartial judge.
It isn't an arrest in the US, so it is perfectly OK. The US is the sole source of corruption, brutality and malfeasance in the world, so only things that are influenced by them are worth noting. Chinese oppression isn't something we care about on /.
But only because they had trouble extraditing them.
Yes, I've always thought the approach of U.S. policy makers of completely disregarding criticism is more efficient than the approach of Chinese policy makers of trying to stop it and responding to it when it happens.
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
The only difference in the US is that this would be a civil matter instead of criminal. But with a government & laws based in non-capitalist ideals I imagine there are a lot more criminal than civil offenses there when compared to the US.
In Pangaea, we teach that North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica are all one continent.
No, he's probably Latino-American.
We (I'm a Brazilian) are taught in the school that America is either the name of the continent or of the three Americas considered as a whole. We usually refer to the USA as Estados Unidos and some (not including me) even call its inhabitants "estadounidenses" and insist that "Americans" are the inhabitants of any America.
Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
Snowden wasn't indicted for criticizing the government. He was indicted for leaking classified information. That is illegal in every country.
Snowden made no effort to follow established whistleblower protocols. Only judges have the authority to interpret the spirit of the constitution. Snoweden chose to do something illegal because he thinks it's the right thing to do, and that's perfectly noble. But it does not excuse him from punishment for those illegal actions. I have not seen anyone argue that what he did wasn't illegal.
Snowden made no effort to follow established whistleblower protocols.
And he shouldn't have, because if he had, the public still wouldn't know about the NSA surveillance, and everyone else wouldn't be aware of the specifics. What you ask for is that he let politicians blow the fact that the government is blatantly violating the constitution under the rug.
But it does not excuse him from punishment for those illegal actions.
I damn well think it should; the people who should be arrested are the politicians who supported this and everyone directly involved in the NSA.
Da derp dee derp da teedly derpee derpee dum. Rated PG-13.
I'm from Eastern Europe.
I damn well think it should; the people who should be arrested are the politicians who supported this and everyone directly involved in the NSA.
Then you don't believe in the rule of law. If you want the laws to be changed, there are plenty of ways to accomplish that.
The laws we have now disagree with you.
you can read an article and with basic reading comprehension skills discover he posted articles on the internet. internet is technology. internet uses computers. computers are technology. get with the program!
Then you don't believe in the rule of law. If you want the laws to be changed, there are plenty of ways to accomplish that.
The laws we have now disagree with you.
Has the laws' constitutionality been tested ?
A few other democracies have ways to challenge a law right after it's voted, even if the majority and the head of state believe the law is legitimate. In the US, you have to wait until someone can prove that they are affected (standing) before they can start a very very long and costly battle to try to repeal something that is already effected
Only judges have the authority to interpret the spirit of the constitution.
Shiver...
"only judges can issue rulings on the basis of the constitution" FTFY. Everybody can AND SHOULD interpret the spirit, and if there is no safe legal recourse under current law to point out constitutional violations, going to the 4th branch is the right thing to do
Then you don't believe in the rule of law.
Not if those laws are unjust, as many have been.
Da derp dee derp da teedly derpee derpee dum. Rated PG-13.
South America is a continent. North America is a continent. America is a country (actually shorthand for "United States of America").
There is no continent named "America".
I think that speeding laws are unjust. Should I be able to drive as fast as I want?
Am I the only one who sees the irony in the "Communist Party" overseeing "the privatization of state-owned assets"? It's like "we'll go instantaneously from the extreme totalitarian left to the extreme totalitarian right without passing through any democratically controlled space in between. Oh, but we'll hang on that 'Communist' brand name because to admit that didn't work would be losing face."
You can try, but you'll have to find other individuals to get behind you if you expect to get anywhere, as that's where change starts. Your infantile examples and analogies will do you no good.
Da derp dee derp da teedly derpee derpee dum. Rated PG-13.
China is doing the wrong thing, regardless of what the US is doing. I wish for once people would shut up about the US when the story is about particular things that are happening in China.
"Only judges have the authority to interpret the spirit of the constitution."
I haven't seen anyone yet challenge this, how sad. As members of the US public we have the authority, responsibility, and right to interpret the wording and the spirit of the constitution at all times just like any party to any contract.
I think that speeding laws are unjust. Should I be able to drive as fast as I want?
Sorry Trebek.
The actual question, of course, was "if I witness government officials and enforcement agents regularly breaking the law/constitution, should I be prosecuted for providing evidence?"
Then you don't believe in the rule of law. If you want the laws to be changed, there are plenty of ways to accomplish that.
The laws we have now disagree with you.
the law? i am the law!
So does this mean you potentially get offended when people bash "stupid Americans", or does the label apply only when convenient?
...but in England, the defence to a defamation claim is the facts in evidence. The trick is to get the facts in evidence. If you're defending a defamation claim and have the supporting facts in evidence, providing you're not in front of a corrupt judge you're home free; if either condition isn't met, you're fucked.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Is that why they bothered posting corruption allegation on a blog with the aim of informing the public? Why risk being arrested if everyone can work it out for themselves?
isn't there an exception somewhere for when (not if, it is apparently a common occurrence) classification of materials is misused to conceal evidence of criminal activity by the State? For instance, when someone is indicted by the Public Prosecutor in England, any and all evidence whether relied upon or not is revealed and offered to all parties to the case per the Criminal Procedure Rules 2013 Part 1.1 paras. 2(b)-(c). This would necessarily include any and all such documents and other materials marked "Classified". Apart from the content of such documents, knowledge of the existence of said documents would from that point become a matter of public record. There's nothing stopping the court, upon agreement of all parties or by order from the Ministry of Defence per the Official Secrets Act 1911, from only revealing the contents of those documents in chambers, out of public view.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
try it, get dragged through the court system, get it to the Supreme Court and make a Constitutional challenge to speed limits. Best of luck and try not to kill anyone in the process. Point is, aside from the insanely bad analogy, the only way to challenge bad Law is to break it and challenge it in Court at the highest level possible, set precedent - it's precedent that writes Law, not some keyboard monkey in a basement.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
You are either totally naive or you are some NSA bitch.
Have you heard of the crash of TWA 800 over Long Island in 1996?
A few months ago, SIX, not one, not two..SIX former FAA/NTSB investigator who all worked on the crash investigation finally came out (after most/all have retired) recounting that evidence gathered did NOT actually agree with the officially announced cause of the crash (officially a near empty fuel tank exploded causing the the 747 airliner to disintegrate), and that during the investigation, there were official pressure from somewhere higher up to obfuscate the real cause of the crash (unless all SIX are lying, this fact of pressure towards a certain conclusion is disturbing in itself).
I believe one alternative scenario was a stray navy anti-aircraft missile test that went horribly wrong.
These SIX toed the official line until retirement, realizing to speak up would be career suicide.
And you know the most scary part, I saw the story briefly mention a total of ONCE (on CNN morning), nobody in mainstream media seemed interested in the details from these SIX actual investigators.
Conclusion: Official channel is not the way to go. Not any more.
Does Portuguese not have a way to differentiate between America (short hand for U.S.A.) and Americas (shorthand for North, Central, and South America as a whole? In Spanish, for example, FIBA Americas is the name for Mexican-founded basketball league that covers all of the Americas. Although, to confuse things the American Baseball League allows those naughty Canadians to play as pretend Americans, it seems (well, they usually do get paid in USD, so why not).
In Spanish it is called America where is the confusion comes from. Remember that after all the whole thing is named after Americo Vespucci. I think the main issue here is that people in the British colonies referred to them as Americans to differentiate from Europeans, while the Spanish and Portuguese parts of the continent referred themselves as From The Indies, or criollos (creoles). Either way, Europeans in the Americas liked to say they were more pure and that brought a lot of social friction that still remains in Latin America mostly.
Just because everyone knows something is happening, doesn't mean they know all the details about every case.
Where is your countries corruption allegation blog and/or news sites? Your free press should make it perfectly legal to have one.
So the question is.Are Americans more cowardly than the Chinese or more Ill informed/stupid?
Then you don't believe in the rule of law.
Law in a democracy depends on the electorate being informed. Bit difficult to vote and participate based on something you don't even know exists.
In addition "rule of law" works just fine in places like North Korea. I hope you don't think North Korean citizens should feel any moral obligation to obey that law?
Snowden is rightly a hero and an example of true democracy, not the fake democracy you're trying to promote.
Um, yeah. It's America.
They are a two party dictatorship. They don't have freedom of the press. If you report on mass surveillance happening by a section of the government which is playing by their own rules, they lock you up. Its citizen's aren't free to travel to such places as Cuba, but what's worse is even when you leave the US and decide to live somewhere else they still expect you to pay the government taxes on earnings you made outside their country.
Shush
Sounds like Snowden episode to me.
Casteism
Yes, we have this word 'Americas', but we don't feel the need for using it because we never refer to USA as 'America'.
Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
Actually, yes, but on the provision that if you cause an accident the penalties are so harsh you won't do it again.
The label apply only when convenient or true. We cannot feel proud of "American research institutes" or "American prowess during Summer Olympics".
Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.