also he thought that the CCP wasn’t even suppressing free speech, guess who just got banned from a certain tankie cercle jerk instance
also he thought that the CCP wasn’t even suppressing free speech, guess who just got banned from a certain tankie cercle jerk instance
I don’t find fearmongering about China to be worthwhile, and don’t see why I can’t take their position at face value if we’re taking western positions at face value. I really don’t see the issue with, or grand conspiracy behind, Chinese people living abroad volunteering to help other Chinese people living abroad
…That’s because you’re starting with the assumption that they’re helping, rather than acting as agents of the Chinese gov’t. You believe the denials of the Chinese gov’t, but won’t accept similar denials of western gov’ts or comparable abuses or human rights or sovereignty.
I am not going to give special credibility to ned/western backed NGOs just because they’re badmouthing China.
There are two possible contentions, one that there are dozens of secret Chinese police stations around the world being used to disappear and intimidate dissidents. The second is that it’s a bunch of volunteers living abroad helping other people living abroad to access government services.
The second one is just more plausible to me, just looks like special pleading to claim otherwise.
There wasn’t even a claim of any actual abductions in the thing you linked, just that a refugee political dissadent “felt unsafe”, because they were there. Just paranoid sounding, really.
“Just more plausible to me” is another way of saying, “I’m biased”, especially when you’re intentionally ignoring reporting by people that have a degree of expertise in the issue, and are showing their work.
If a woman said that she had a stalker showing up everywhere she went, I would hope that you wouldn’t say that they just sounded paranoid. It’s not normal or acceptable behaviour for a person’s former country–whether it’s the US, Russia, or China, or any other country–to follow them around and threaten them (assuming that they aren’t an immediate security risk).
When the US does shit like this, call them the fuck out! Fuck knows that the US has done some pretty egregiously awful shit, like the Tuskeegee syphilis experiments (!!!). But you’re hypocritical if you aren’t going to accept the same level of evidence regarding China, Russia, et al., and also call them out.
Yes, that’s a big issue, but it’s not what’s happening.
Very different to say “I had people threaten me nonspecifically online” vs “the police followed me home”
I completely disavow all state repression. These people seem very intimidated and they should feel safe, but I could list a litany of awful shit the US has done with far more concrete evidence. (I really don’t feel it’s necessary and it would just get dismissed as whataboutism anyways.)
However I don’t agree with extrapolating a testimony of online harassments into some narrative about how these aren’t just random civically-minded volunteers but a vast world-spanning conspiracy to surreptitiously kidnap offenders. It’s unfounded and the fact that the link you provided is citing elected conservatives demagoguing should really cue you into that.
Excuse me, are you a woman? If not, fuck off with these analogies