China provides this law because they already track everything every citizen does. This is a virtue signal from a country gripped by a brutal and oppressive government.
I don't fully agree that that is the reasoning. Addictive algorithms or not, Facebook/TikTok et al can and does track you comfortably (as do most states including China).
But if you observe some recent laws you'll see that the government sometimes does do things that are (what it thinks) is good for its citizens. For example there was a recent law limiting gaming hours for children. Agree or disagree with the implementation, a state can simultaneously be doing terrible things while also trying to do good things. Governments are not a monolithic unit.
I think the issue he is pointing out is that China has plenty of laws that, as written, guarantee the exact opposite of what the state actually does. For instance, article 35 of the PRC's constitution guarantees "freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, procession and demonstration.", yet that is obviously not the case in practice.
> Agree or disagree with the implementation, a state can simultaneously be doing terrible things while also trying to do good things. Governments are not a monolithic unit.
Ah! So when enough people disagree with the government then the solution is to change the government! You can change the government in China, right?
Yes. You really can't take China's laws and proclamations at face value. Look at how many times they tried to "ban" Bitcoin or VPNs, yet they keep coming back. China does what China wants, and the written laws are a smokescreen.
So this video is meant to be funny, but it really isn't funny for the government to brainwash school children... or have forced sterilization and prison camps for ethnic minorities.
> One Weibo user from Shandong province said she had to earn 66 points per day - which according to a screenshot of the learning record she posted takes around two hours.
Black Mirror IRL. I'm sure the app is so popular because people install it voluntarily...
It's scary to think that an autocratic government has the power to influence the thoughts and actions of 1.4bn people. The US may spend an exorbitant amount on its defense budget, but the CCP can effectively weaponize the entire population on a whim, which somehow seems even scarier.
Which translates to less than 2% in public security and policing, i.e. less as % of GDP relative to US. All this number shows is PRC doesn't spend much on military and about EU levels on policing but gets misconstrued as PRC overspending on domestic security. That's true for every NATO country that underspends on military.
Maybe it is difficult to distinguish individuals, but I didn't make the original post. You made some broad request for some "evidence" that I feel no need to provide when it is self apparent. What is the Great Firewall of China for? Why does it only exist there? Why doesn't https work... or most VPNs?
If you don't know what a Hukou is, or you don't know about the need to check in with a party representative when you move cities in China (and check in with the police for foreigners) then you should find out (note foreigners can't stay in most hotels, because many don't have procedures in place to track them). If you haven't already seen that you can be jailed for using a VPN in China, or posting material "against the party", then I suspect you're not really interested.
Why did you reply to me directly then? If you don’t know what threads are then you should find out.
In what way exactly was what I asked for broad? Please, I want to hold you to this point.
In my experience, people like you are incapable of backing up your claims with the barest minimum of hard evidence, and you try to cover that fact up with a shotgun spray (or another kind of spray) of narratives and an uppity, condescending affectation. I’m not impressed.
Anyone observing what’s going on within the US-centric Internet right now should be able to understand dispassionately how China benefited from creating the conditions for its own national tech companies to develop. No US company can suddenly shut off mobile payments infrastructure within China, for instance.
To quote you, "Here’s a question I expect you’ll never answer: is it within the capabilities of any groups within the West (state-sponsored or otherwise) to fabricate the information you’re using to make those assessments? And if so, how have you decisively eliminated this possibility?"
Oh you really got me by plumbing my comment history for an out of context non sequitur you could use. It really shows the intellectual depth and substance of your position when you avoid and get triggered by extremely basic but inconvenient questions.
