6 ms·

Chinese athlete accuses former top Communist Party official of sexual assault

183 points by forkLding 5y ago

a0-prw 5y ago
"But in 2018, the year Zhang retired from the government, Peng claims he got back in touch with her and the two began a tumultuous but consensual romantic relationship which ended when he cut off all contact." smh typical storm in a teacup that only gets press because they can put "China" in the clickbait.
echelon 5y ago
> Screenshots of Peng's original post continued to circulate widely on the Chinese internet even as censors scrambled to delete any references to her allegations within group chats and blogs, a sign of the immense public interest in her allegations. The speed with which her post was deleted also reflects the extreme sensitivity of her remarks, which come just as Communist Party leaders convene in Beijing for the Sixth Plenum, an important political meeting during which the state is on high alert for any sign of discord. This model of government is toxic. You cannot memory hole the abused to protect the inner circle. Maybe she's a liar, but this claim warrants investigation and corroboration with other potential victims. It should embolden other victims to come forward. The government should serve the people. And its members should be held to a greater standard of accountability.
- hbdlaptoph 5y ago
  so what ever happened to hunter biden's laptop?
- thefounder 5y ago
  >> The government should serve the people. And its members should In the real world the government serves the party people. This happens in democratic systems as well but in a communist/uni-party system is rapart as there is no election, no opposition and no real judiciary system! CCP can never be wrong or do wrong things because that would mean it must held accountable(by who?) and/or be changed...
  - redis_mlc 5y ago
    What's fascinating in China is the extradjudicial repossession of residential land. Normally one gets a 99-year land lease to build a house, but the CCP has been repossessing the land after 30-40 years as it increases in value. The CCP sends a goon squad with no uniform or id and a backhoe to tear down the house. Sometimes they wait for the "owner" to go to work, sometimes they just pull the house down with the occupants inside. But here's the wrinkle. Since it's extrajudicial, the owner can kill the goons and no arrest or prosecution follows. This actually happened in 2020. An owner threw a brick at the backhoe operator, IIRC, killing him, without being arrested. Although the court system is fixed in China, the CCP doesn't want the publicity, since it would reveal a war on citizens' property. So if you can keep killing the goons, you keep your house until the next round.
  - FooBarWidget 5y ago
    Despite not having elections for higher representatives (China does have elections for lower-level representatives) and independent judiciary, China does have accountability for government officials, as well as citizen consultation on policies. It's also not true that China is a country in which CCP "can never be wrong", because criticisms and protests are common. These claims are backed by eyewitnesses (expats living in China) as well as research. Cyrus Janssen: The Truth about Protests in China 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqcScSCTgbM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqcScSCTgbM Harvard: Conditional Receptivity to Citizen Participation: Evidence From a Survey Experiment in China http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.703.3&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.703... American Journal of Political Sciences: Sources of Authoritarian Responsiveness: A Field Experiment in China https://china.ucsd.edu/_files/pe-2014/10062014_Paper_Jen_Pan.pdf https://china.ucsd.edu/_files/pe-2014/10062014_Paper_Jen_Pan... Interesting bits from this last source: - In China, citizen engagement and protest do not contribute to regime change. Instead citizen engagement contributes to regime survival. - Section 6: “upper levels of government use citizens as an oversight mechanism on subnational leaders, which imbues citizens with the ability to sanction lower level leaders, and generates responsiveness among local leaders to citizen demands.” China is neither a western democratic system, nor a totalitarian/communist/dictatorial system. Instead, China is a third distinct category, fitting neither of the first two.
- FooBarWidget 5y ago
  Censorship in China is completely orthogonal to whether the issue will be investigated or not. This is because censorship's primary goal is not to suppress anti-government information, but to supress collective action. Both pro- and anti-govt messages are censored if they have collective action potential. Conversely, anti-govt messages are not censored if they lack collective action potential. Furthermore, the Chinese government is very responsive to citizens' feedback. This means actually addressing feedback by changing policies. Online criticisms and offline protests are common. Threatening the govt with collective action, increases response rate. Thus, a seemingly paradoxical phenomenon is common in China: messages get censored and the govt does something about the issue. All these claims are shown by research: Harvard: Conditional Receptivity to Citizen Participation: Evidence From a Survey Experiment in China http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.703.3&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.703... American Journal of Political Sciences: Sources of Authoritarian Responsiveness: A Field Experiment in China https://china.ucsd.edu/_files/pe-2014/10062014_Paper_Jen_Pan.pdf https://china.ucsd.edu/_files/pe-2014/10062014_Paper_Jen_Pan... Harvard: How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression https://gking.harvard.edu/publications/how-censorship-china-allows-government-criticism-silences-collective-expression https://gking.harvard.edu/publications/how-censorship-china-... At the end of the day, westerners will still not agree with how China works. But I think it's important to keep in mind that China works quite differently from popular imagination.
  - rsj_hn 5y ago
    FYI, it would help if you provided links to the cited studies.
    - FooBarWidget 5y ago
      Done.
    - strogonoff 5y ago
      I’d love to see an example of a pro-government message that had collective action potential (what kind of action would that even be?) and that was censored by the party.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
fnord77 5y ago
rape is about power. unsurprising you'll find rapists at the top of power structures
dng88 5y ago
Only if they actively go after all … otherwise it is a political use of me-too. Just another corruption case we do not agree but let the most powerful one or in power to be ok. Pointless. In a sense. Used. In another sense. It is dangerous to read chinese sanctioned news.
vfclists 5y ago
China is an interesting place for sexual abusers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7OoTaU4Om4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7OoTaU4Om4
thefounder 5y ago
>> Peng's social media post was quickly deleted by government censors. Her social media account disappeared hours after her post. China's state media outlets have not mentioned her accusations at all. So the communist assault has two flavors: On at the individual level (as it happened) and then by the CCP government using censorship.
hikerclimber1 5y ago
Everything is subjective. Especially laws.
himodshinazsi 5y ago
Oh look I made a comment and party officials deleted it within a minute because it reflected badly on those in power.
hellomodsthx 5y ago
Oh look I made a comment and it was deleted within a minute by party officials because it reflected badly on those in power.
aborsy 5y ago
> Peng says Zhang did not contact her for several years after the initial assault. But in 2018, the year Zhang retired from the government, Peng claims he got back in touch with her and the two began a tumultuous but consensual romantic relationship which ended when he cut off all contact. The story is a bit confusing. Sometimes it’s romantic, sometimes it’s not. There is also consent mixed in, that fluctuates.
- voidskull 5y ago
  This plot is similar to Chinese "dog-blood romance" (that's what they call it, when its translated to English) novels which I've read, quite often.
- lrem 5y ago
  Yup, humans can be complicated :/
- garbagetime 5y ago
  Maybe I missed something, but wasn't confusing for me. He sexually assaulted her, then at some later point in time they had a consensual relationship. There's not a contradiction there.
  - Mandelmus 5y ago
    Why did she consent to a relationship after having been raped and traumatised by him before?
    - robinduckett 5y ago
      Gee, I wonder why.
    - diob 5y ago
      Why do folks stay in abusive relationships or situations? Humans are complicated. I can't explain their point of view or the context, but I'm sure there's a reason. Sometimes it can be financial even. Trauma is a hell of a thing. Think about kids who've been abused by their parents. They typically still can't help but try and earn their love. Human brains are. . . fucky, to say the least.
nowherebeen 5y ago
I thought 20 years difference was extreme. This is 40 years. He could be her grandfather.
- unicornporn 5y ago
  You make it sound like a relationship of choice. It was rape. A rapist doesn't seem like the person that has qualms about age difference.
  - kitd 5y ago
    They had a consensual relationship later.
    - dymk 5y ago
      That's not at odds with him having raped her. In addition, most rapes (and murders, and most violent crimes) are committed by those in close relationships. Double in addition, I don't doubt for a minute that a rapist 40 years her senior would manipulate this woman into a "consensual" relationship post-facto.
      - catlikesshrimp 5y ago
        A "the worst has already happened, let's move on" approach? That's nasty To those that will downvote me: I wouldn't prosecute the guy without proof even if I thought he was guilty.
  - nowherebeen 5y ago
    No. I am saying he is disgusting. Your perception on my argument is incorrect.
marco_yolo 5y ago
doubtful there will be any serious investigation or consequences if this in fact occurred. he will just be moved to a less glamourous post at worst. but the party will take care of him.
- powerapple 5y ago
  There would be investigation but mostly at party level. This is not going to be a criminal investigation, I don't think even the lady is asking for a criminal investigation. It is more 'why didn't he divorce' than 'why did he do it to me'. Sometimes, investigation on something minor can lead to major issues, if corruption or other things are dig out. All these will happen in background, people won't have the joy of the drama until it is over.
- rkk3 5y ago
  He is 75 and has already given up most of his duties.
- forkLding 5y ago
  Zhang Gaoli is retired but censorship rules means that all news of this is pretty much censored in China
mogadsheu 5y ago
Interestingly enough, Zhang was a close follower of the previous CCP leader. CCP leaders usually switch every 8 years between north and south, but the last time it was supposed to switch, it didn’t. I don’t know why.
- woutr_be 5y ago
  In 2018, the current leader Xi removed the two term limit, and allowed himself to stay for life. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-43361276 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-43361276
keewee7 5y ago
>Peng's social media post was quickly deleted by government censors. Her social media account disappeared hours after her post. China's state media outlets have not mentioned her accusations at all. >Screenshots of Peng's original post continued to circulate widely on the Chinese internet even as censors scrambled to delete any references to her allegations within group chats and blogs, a sign of the immense public interest in her allegations. The speed with which her post was deleted also reflects the extreme sensitivity of her remarks, which come just as Communist Party leaders convene in Beijing for the Sixth Plenum, an important political meeting during which the state is on high alert for any sign of discord. Chinese internet censorship is insane. How many people work as censors?
- unityByFreedom 5y ago
  Everyone was informing on everyone during the "revolutionary" days. Time will tell. Social credit + 1
- bobthepanda 5y ago
  The State Department estimated that tens of thousands are directly employed by the state: https://share.america.gov/chinese-censorship-is-global-problem/ https://share.america.gov/chinese-censorship-is-global-probl... There are also censors within companies since media is expected to be vigilant about it as well, so probably thousands more on top.
- rabite 5y ago
  > Chinese internet censorship is insane. How many people work as censors? Far less people are working as censors in China than in America. America has censored far more of its citizens than China. China is absolutely the least censorious of the major world powers. The vast majority of people do not have their Internet experiences affected by censorship at all. This is in direct contrast with America, where millions of people have been banned from Facebook and Twitter for supporting the policies that the last (and most popular of our lifetime) President was elected on.
  - amloaz 5y ago
midasuni 5y ago
Typical behaviour in the U.K. with MPs too, power corrupts, and nobody who votes cares.
- schleck8 5y ago
  The difference being that the parliament doesn't order the accuser to be disappeared and doesn't censor all online and offline mentions of it.
  - paganel 5y ago
    > and doesn't censor all online and offline mentions of it. They don't censor it yet because they don't have the capabilities and the actual man-force to do it, but they're not that far off [1]: > The police watchdog is investigating alleged corruption in the Metropolitan Police, including claims it covered up child sex offences because MPs and police officers were involved. [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31907201 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31907201
Markoff 5y ago
As someone who lived in China for years I fail to see what's the news here exactly? It would be strange, if as CCP official he didn't use his position to do this and other criminal acts. You better write articles about not doing it, those will be actually shocking revelations.
- bmn__ 5y ago
  > what's the news here exactly? News was allowed to get out to the point that one could hear about that on abroad platforms. Usually anything that rocks the proverbial boat gets censored without trace. Either there was a fuck-up of epic proportions with several fail-safes in a row not triggering, or (conspiracy theory) this is on purpose to "bury"/distract from more important news or to discredit Zhang so he can be removed easier by his enemies.
  - Markoff 5y ago
    judging by Chinese politics I would say B is right, he must became inconvenient, I'd not say distract staight away
- FooBarWidget 5y ago
  Hasn't the anti-corruption campaign improved things?
  - Markoff 5y ago
    you mean the Removing inconvenient wings/competitors in CCP campaign? anti-coruption campaign LOL
    - FooBarWidget 5y ago
      Please be more specific. Regardless of whether there was a secondary motive of purging political opponents, are you saying that it was ineffective in actually addressing corruption? Can you show some data?
baybal2 5y ago
It used to be common in China for parents to dress young girls as boys, and give them boyish haircuts. You wouldn't want to hear the reason if you are dining now.
- bmn__ 5y ago
  Still in use, probably less common than it used to. Parents do not want their juvenile or young adult daughters to be a rape target or even have consensual romantic or sexual relationships without parental consent, so they take away a part of their sexuality by making them unattractive or passing them off as male with clothing, hair-style, (lack of) jewellery and make-up, mannerisms.
shell0x 5y ago
[flagged]
- secondaryacct 5y ago
  I m a Hong Konger, I have no debt, earn 10k USD a month, pay reasonable taxes for reasonable services and get annoyed like everyone at the yellow vs blue bullshit polarisation of the public discourse. We're fine, but I do feel bad for the americans who live in some sort of delusion that their exploitation is freedom.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - shell0x 5y ago
    Friends from HK including my partner who left that place before it turns into a cesspit like China tend to disagree but good luck to you! You may not earn much in other countries, so you may stay since you don't care about freedom nor values anyway.
- FooBarWidget 5y ago
  Well for one, Xinjiang is nowhere near comparable to Nazi Germany burning jews. Look at this recent article by AP: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-china-health-travel-7a6967f335f97ca868cc618ea84b98b9 https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-ch... Not so long ago, it was said that Xinjiang was "worse than the holocaust". But now "The barbed wire is almost gone. So are the armored personnel carriers. Young [supposedly genocided] Uyghur men are back on the streets" and "sense of normality is creeping back in". What's more, this "Nazi Germany-like regime" is doing all this voluntarily?! The fact that AP backpedaled like this shows how shaky all the evidence was. There is a problem in Xinjiang, no doubt about it. But it's not the second coming of Nazi Germany. It's a heavy-handed fight against sallafist jihadists that have killed thousands of Han and Uyghur alike, with the end goal of making society safe again even if that means collateral damage and intruding on individual rights.
  - 5y ago

183 points by forkLding 5y ago

"But in 2018, the year Zhang retired from the government, Peng claims he got back in touch with her and the two began a tumultuous but consensual romantic relationship which ended when he cut off all contact." smh typical storm in a teacup that only gets press because they can put "China" in the clickbait.

echelon 5y ago

> Screenshots of Peng's original post continued to circulate widely on the Chinese internet even as censors scrambled to delete any references to her allegations within group chats and blogs, a sign of the immense public interest in her allegations. The speed with which her post was deleted also reflects the extreme sensitivity of her remarks, which come just as Communist Party leaders convene in Beijing for the Sixth Plenum, an important political meeting during which the state is on high alert for any sign of discord. This model of government is toxic. You cannot memory hole the abused to protect the inner circle. Maybe she's a liar, but this claim warrants investigation and corroboration with other potential victims. It should embolden other victims to come forward. The government should serve the people. And its members should be held to a greater standard of accountability.

hbdlaptoph 5y ago
so what ever happened to hunter biden's laptop?
thefounder 5y ago
>> The government should serve the people. And its members should In the real world the government serves the party people. This happens in democratic systems as well but in a communist/uni-party system is rapart as there is no election, no opposition and no real judiciary system! CCP can never be wrong or do wrong things because that would mean it must held accountable(by who?) and/or be changed...
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  What's fascinating in China is the extradjudicial repossession of residential land. Normally one gets a 99-year land lease to build a house, but the CCP has been repossessing the land after 30-40 years as it increases in value. The CCP sends a goon squad with no uniform or id and a backhoe to tear down the house. Sometimes they wait for the "owner" to go to work, sometimes they just pull the house down with the occupants inside. But here's the wrinkle. Since it's extrajudicial, the owner can kill the goons and no arrest or prosecution follows. This actually happened in 2020. An owner threw a brick at the backhoe operator, IIRC, killing him, without being arrested. Although the court system is fixed in China, the CCP doesn't want the publicity, since it would reveal a war on citizens' property. So if you can keep killing the goons, you keep your house until the next round.
- FooBarWidget 5y ago
  Despite not having elections for higher representatives (China does have elections for lower-level representatives) and independent judiciary, China does have accountability for government officials, as well as citizen consultation on policies. It's also not true that China is a country in which CCP "can never be wrong", because criticisms and protests are common. These claims are backed by eyewitnesses (expats living in China) as well as research. Cyrus Janssen: The Truth about Protests in China 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqcScSCTgbM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqcScSCTgbM Harvard: Conditional Receptivity to Citizen Participation: Evidence From a Survey Experiment in China http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.703.3&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.703... American Journal of Political Sciences: Sources of Authoritarian Responsiveness: A Field Experiment in China https://china.ucsd.edu/_files/pe-2014/10062014_Paper_Jen_Pan.pdf https://china.ucsd.edu/_files/pe-2014/10062014_Paper_Jen_Pan... Interesting bits from this last source: - In China, citizen engagement and protest do not contribute to regime change. Instead citizen engagement contributes to regime survival. - Section 6: “upper levels of government use citizens as an oversight mechanism on subnational leaders, which imbues citizens with the ability to sanction lower level leaders, and generates responsiveness among local leaders to citizen demands.” China is neither a western democratic system, nor a totalitarian/communist/dictatorial system. Instead, China is a third distinct category, fitting neither of the first two.
FooBarWidget 5y ago
Censorship in China is completely orthogonal to whether the issue will be investigated or not. This is because censorship's primary goal is not to suppress anti-government information, but to supress collective action. Both pro- and anti-govt messages are censored if they have collective action potential. Conversely, anti-govt messages are not censored if they lack collective action potential. Furthermore, the Chinese government is very responsive to citizens' feedback. This means actually addressing feedback by changing policies. Online criticisms and offline protests are common. Threatening the govt with collective action, increases response rate. Thus, a seemingly paradoxical phenomenon is common in China: messages get censored and the govt does something about the issue. All these claims are shown by research: Harvard: Conditional Receptivity to Citizen Participation: Evidence From a Survey Experiment in China http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.703.3&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.703... American Journal of Political Sciences: Sources of Authoritarian Responsiveness: A Field Experiment in China https://china.ucsd.edu/_files/pe-2014/10062014_Paper_Jen_Pan.pdf https://china.ucsd.edu/_files/pe-2014/10062014_Paper_Jen_Pan... Harvard: How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression https://gking.harvard.edu/publications/how-censorship-china-allows-government-criticism-silences-collective-expression https://gking.harvard.edu/publications/how-censorship-china-... At the end of the day, westerners will still not agree with how China works. But I think it's important to keep in mind that China works quite differently from popular imagination.
- rsj_hn 5y ago
  FYI, it would help if you provided links to the cited studies.
  - FooBarWidget 5y ago
    Done.
  - strogonoff 5y ago
    I’d love to see an example of a pro-government message that had collective action potential (what kind of action would that even be?) and that was censored by the party.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

fnord77 5y ago

rape is about power. unsurprising you'll find rapists at the top of power structures

dng88 5y ago

Only if they actively go after all … otherwise it is a political use of me-too. Just another corruption case we do not agree but let the most powerful one or in power to be ok. Pointless. In a sense. Used. In another sense. It is dangerous to read chinese sanctioned news.

vfclists 5y ago

China is an interesting place for sexual abusers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7OoTaU4Om4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7OoTaU4Om4

thefounder 5y ago

>> Peng's social media post was quickly deleted by government censors. Her social media account disappeared hours after her post. China's state media outlets have not mentioned her accusations at all. So the communist assault has two flavors: On at the individual level (as it happened) and then by the CCP government using censorship.

hikerclimber1 5y ago

Everything is subjective. Especially laws.

himodshinazsi 5y ago

Oh look I made a comment and party officials deleted it within a minute because it reflected badly on those in power.

hellomodsthx 5y ago

Oh look I made a comment and it was deleted within a minute by party officials because it reflected badly on those in power.

aborsy 5y ago

> Peng says Zhang did not contact her for several years after the initial assault. But in 2018, the year Zhang retired from the government, Peng claims he got back in touch with her and the two began a tumultuous but consensual romantic relationship which ended when he cut off all contact. The story is a bit confusing. Sometimes it’s romantic, sometimes it’s not. There is also consent mixed in, that fluctuates.

voidskull 5y ago
This plot is similar to Chinese "dog-blood romance" (that's what they call it, when its translated to English) novels which I've read, quite often.
lrem 5y ago
Yup, humans can be complicated :/
garbagetime 5y ago
Maybe I missed something, but wasn't confusing for me. He sexually assaulted her, then at some later point in time they had a consensual relationship. There's not a contradiction there.
- Mandelmus 5y ago
  Why did she consent to a relationship after having been raped and traumatised by him before?
  - robinduckett 5y ago
    Gee, I wonder why.
  - diob 5y ago
    Why do folks stay in abusive relationships or situations? Humans are complicated. I can't explain their point of view or the context, but I'm sure there's a reason. Sometimes it can be financial even. Trauma is a hell of a thing. Think about kids who've been abused by their parents. They typically still can't help but try and earn their love. Human brains are. . . fucky, to say the least.

nowherebeen 5y ago

I thought 20 years difference was extreme. This is 40 years. He could be her grandfather.

unicornporn 5y ago
You make it sound like a relationship of choice. It was rape. A rapist doesn't seem like the person that has qualms about age difference.
- kitd 5y ago
  They had a consensual relationship later.
  - dymk 5y ago
    That's not at odds with him having raped her. In addition, most rapes (and murders, and most violent crimes) are committed by those in close relationships. Double in addition, I don't doubt for a minute that a rapist 40 years her senior would manipulate this woman into a "consensual" relationship post-facto.
    - catlikesshrimp 5y ago
      A "the worst has already happened, let's move on" approach? That's nasty To those that will downvote me: I wouldn't prosecute the guy without proof even if I thought he was guilty.
- nowherebeen 5y ago
  No. I am saying he is disgusting. Your perception on my argument is incorrect.

marco_yolo 5y ago

doubtful there will be any serious investigation or consequences if this in fact occurred. he will just be moved to a less glamourous post at worst. but the party will take care of him.

powerapple 5y ago
There would be investigation but mostly at party level. This is not going to be a criminal investigation, I don't think even the lady is asking for a criminal investigation. It is more 'why didn't he divorce' than 'why did he do it to me'. Sometimes, investigation on something minor can lead to major issues, if corruption or other things are dig out. All these will happen in background, people won't have the joy of the drama until it is over.
rkk3 5y ago
He is 75 and has already given up most of his duties.
forkLding 5y ago
Zhang Gaoli is retired but censorship rules means that all news of this is pretty much censored in China

mogadsheu 5y ago

Interestingly enough, Zhang was a close follower of the previous CCP leader. CCP leaders usually switch every 8 years between north and south, but the last time it was supposed to switch, it didn’t. I don’t know why.

woutr_be 5y ago
In 2018, the current leader Xi removed the two term limit, and allowed himself to stay for life. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-43361276 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-43361276

keewee7 5y ago

>Peng's social media post was quickly deleted by government censors. Her social media account disappeared hours after her post. China's state media outlets have not mentioned her accusations at all. >Screenshots of Peng's original post continued to circulate widely on the Chinese internet even as censors scrambled to delete any references to her allegations within group chats and blogs, a sign of the immense public interest in her allegations. The speed with which her post was deleted also reflects the extreme sensitivity of her remarks, which come just as Communist Party leaders convene in Beijing for the Sixth Plenum, an important political meeting during which the state is on high alert for any sign of discord. Chinese internet censorship is insane. How many people work as censors?

unityByFreedom 5y ago
Everyone was informing on everyone during the "revolutionary" days. Time will tell. Social credit + 1
bobthepanda 5y ago
The State Department estimated that tens of thousands are directly employed by the state: https://share.america.gov/chinese-censorship-is-global-problem/ https://share.america.gov/chinese-censorship-is-global-probl... There are also censors within companies since media is expected to be vigilant about it as well, so probably thousands more on top.
rabite 5y ago
> Chinese internet censorship is insane. How many people work as censors? Far less people are working as censors in China than in America. America has censored far more of its citizens than China. China is absolutely the least censorious of the major world powers. The vast majority of people do not have their Internet experiences affected by censorship at all. This is in direct contrast with America, where millions of people have been banned from Facebook and Twitter for supporting the policies that the last (and most popular of our lifetime) President was elected on.
- amloaz 5y ago

midasuni 5y ago

Typical behaviour in the U.K. with MPs too, power corrupts, and nobody who votes cares.

schleck8 5y ago
The difference being that the parliament doesn't order the accuser to be disappeared and doesn't censor all online and offline mentions of it.
- paganel 5y ago
  > and doesn't censor all online and offline mentions of it. They don't censor it yet because they don't have the capabilities and the actual man-force to do it, but they're not that far off [1]: > The police watchdog is investigating alleged corruption in the Metropolitan Police, including claims it covered up child sex offences because MPs and police officers were involved. [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31907201 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31907201

Markoff 5y ago

As someone who lived in China for years I fail to see what's the news here exactly? It would be strange, if as CCP official he didn't use his position to do this and other criminal acts. You better write articles about not doing it, those will be actually shocking revelations.

bmn__ 5y ago
> what's the news here exactly? News was allowed to get out to the point that one could hear about that on abroad platforms. Usually anything that rocks the proverbial boat gets censored without trace. Either there was a fuck-up of epic proportions with several fail-safes in a row not triggering, or (conspiracy theory) this is on purpose to "bury"/distract from more important news or to discredit Zhang so he can be removed easier by his enemies.
- Markoff 5y ago
  judging by Chinese politics I would say B is right, he must became inconvenient, I'd not say distract staight away
FooBarWidget 5y ago
Hasn't the anti-corruption campaign improved things?
- Markoff 5y ago
  you mean the Removing inconvenient wings/competitors in CCP campaign? anti-coruption campaign LOL
  - FooBarWidget 5y ago
    Please be more specific. Regardless of whether there was a secondary motive of purging political opponents, are you saying that it was ineffective in actually addressing corruption? Can you show some data?

baybal2 5y ago

It used to be common in China for parents to dress young girls as boys, and give them boyish haircuts. You wouldn't want to hear the reason if you are dining now.

bmn__ 5y ago
Still in use, probably less common than it used to. Parents do not want their juvenile or young adult daughters to be a rape target or even have consensual romantic or sexual relationships without parental consent, so they take away a part of their sexuality by making them unattractive or passing them off as male with clothing, hair-style, (lack of) jewellery and make-up, mannerisms.

shell0x 5y ago

[flagged]

secondaryacct 5y ago
I m a Hong Konger, I have no debt, earn 10k USD a month, pay reasonable taxes for reasonable services and get annoyed like everyone at the yellow vs blue bullshit polarisation of the public discourse. We're fine, but I do feel bad for the americans who live in some sort of delusion that their exploitation is freedom.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- shell0x 5y ago
  Friends from HK including my partner who left that place before it turns into a cesspit like China tend to disagree but good luck to you! You may not earn much in other countries, so you may stay since you don't care about freedom nor values anyway.
FooBarWidget 5y ago
Well for one, Xinjiang is nowhere near comparable to Nazi Germany burning jews. Look at this recent article by AP: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-china-health-travel-7a6967f335f97ca868cc618ea84b98b9 https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-ch... Not so long ago, it was said that Xinjiang was "worse than the holocaust". But now "The barbed wire is almost gone. So are the armored personnel carriers. Young [supposedly genocided] Uyghur men are back on the streets" and "sense of normality is creeping back in". What's more, this "Nazi Germany-like regime" is doing all this voluntarily?! The fact that AP backpedaled like this shows how shaky all the evidence was. There is a problem in Xinjiang, no doubt about it. But it's not the second coming of Nazi Germany. It's a heavy-handed fight against sallafist jihadists that have killed thousands of Han and Uyghur alike, with the end goal of making society safe again even if that means collateral damage and intruding on individual rights.
- 5y ago