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China's VPN Developers Face Crackdown (bbc.com)
China recently launched a crackdown on the use of software which allows users to get around its heavy internet censorship. Now as the BBC reports, developers are facing growing pressure. From the report: The three plain-clothes policemen tracked him down using a web address. They came to his house and demanded to see his computer. They told him to take down the app he was selling on Apple's App Store, and filmed it as it was happening. His crime was to develop and sell a piece of software that allows people to get round the tough restrictions that limit access to the internet in China. A virtual private network (VPN) uses servers abroad to provide a secure link to the internet. It's essential in China if you want to access parts of the outside world like Facebook, Gmail or YouTube, all of which are blocked on the mainland. "They insisted they needed to see my computer," the software developer, who didn't want us to use his name, told us during a phone interview. "I said this is my private stuff. How can you search as you please?" No warrant was produced and when he asked them what law he had violated they didn't say. Initially he refused to co-operate but, fearing detention, he relented. Then they told him what they wanted: "If you take the app off the shelf from Apple's App Store then this will be all over." 'Sorry, I can't help you with that'. Up until a few months ago his was a legal business. Then the government changed the regulations. VPN sellers need a licence now.
The Chinese government's censors and snitches have been a lot more active than usual. It started when the current President Xi Jinping rose to power and started his crackdown on Party "corruption". Later with the rising tensions in North Korea they've clamped down on all dissent and this includes tightening the screws on the Great Chinese Firewall.
Wouldn't it have been prudent to do your development work on a server outside the country? And use a VPN (with a password committed only to memory) to connect to the server, and do your coding work via remote desktop, rather than do the development locally? I mean it's not like the binary needs to be compiled inside the country where it's going to be used.
America isn't really a "police" state as it is a "corporatist" state. In China (as in Russia) there is overlap between the people with the money and the people with the guns, but when push comes to shove the people with the guns always win. In the US, the people with the money essentially control the people with the guns (through the facade of the "rule of law"). Insofar as VPNs remain useful to the people with money, VPNs will remain available in the US. In China the people with the guns don't care about privacy so much because even when you do know what they're up to, there's nothing you can do about it, so they're prepared to close off that route to privacy.
This is possibly the most ignorant and narrow-minded comment I've ever read on Slashdot.
How so? I lived in China for several years, travel to China regularly on business, and am currently working in Shanghai. You do not have much protection against search and seizure here. The police have much more power to collect evidence and compel compliance.
But that doesn't mean more oppression. A Chinese citizen is much less likely to actually be arrested and incarcerated. Americans are more than four times as likely to be locked up.
Someone in China has far more rights than someone in the US.
It would be more accurate to say they have different rights.
They have a fairer justice system
They have a different justice system, with a different objective. American courts emphasize (at least in theory) individual rights. Chinese courts emphasize public order. China is mostly successful at that, and is a very safe country. Meanwhile, in America, the plea bargain system has eroded our right to a trial, trials are anything but "speedy", and the rich are far more likely to be acquitted.
To see what is wrong with American justice, look at the trial of O.J. Simpson.
To see what is wrong with Chinese justice, look at the trial of Bo Xilai.
get any (foreign experts) to run their gigantic brand new telescope
https://science.slashdot.org/s...
I mean, you'd really have to pay me a significant premium (not saying you couldn't) to do my job (bioinformatics/genetic engineering) in a country where there is not even a pretense of privacy/access to uncensored news. Of course, (almost) everyone has a price for (almost) every job so I guess they can just keep raising the salary until someone bites, they've got the money. (I realize that there are very few people in the world who fit their qualifications but there are some and I'm sure some of them might be tempted).
The U.S. has tremendously benefited from China developing this way. If it wasn't so draconian on its suppression of (human) rights in the preservation of order (and the enrichment of party members), a lot more ethnic Chinese might be tempted to go. I personally know some Chinese-Americans who are quite prominent in their scientific field (no I didn't go to M.I.T. "Made In Taiwan" but close by!) who have no interest at all in working in Mainland China despite being actively recruited by the government there (basically every time they go to a conference there, someone will approach them). When you look at the number of scientists of (probably) Chinese descent contributing to American and European science (just look at the surnames of the authors of articles on "sciencedaily.com") you'll realize how much of our scientific dominance is due to their work.
Of course Trump may flip this around