I’ve seen several references to some sort of rift between the users of these instances today. What’s happening?

  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    Why is it illegal to form a union in China?

    It isn’t, it just must be a part of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions to ensure that no “independent unions” can be wielded by the west or by capitalists to undermine socialism.

    Why does the PRC constitution guarantee freedom of the press but journalists require a liscense? [Bonus: how can you quantify a requirement like “journalist ethics”?]

    To ensure journalists aren’t spreading western disinformation to de-legitimize the state and foment instability, as has happened time and time again in other countries.

    Why is the number of executions in China a state secret?

    For similar reasons as the prior two.

    Edit: Why not respond? You said they were icebreakers, I don’t see how editing your comment to essentially add a soyjack meme furthers any of your goals.

    • ageedizzle@piefed.ca
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      23 hours ago

      The execution thing does seem backwards though, no? The death penalty in general seems pretty backwards. It’s no less barbaric when China does it than when the US does it. Most civilized countries do not kill their own citizens.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        23 hours ago

        I’m against the death penalty in most circumstances, but in the case of China it’s largely for corrupt CEOs and sexual assaulters. I’d prefer more of a focus on rehabilitation, but I’m not going to say the PRC is executing people willy-nilly.

        • FunkyStuff@lemmy.ml
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          23 hours ago

          but in the case of China it’s largely for corrupt CEOs and sexual assaulters.

          Isn’t drug trafficking and murder also punishable by death?

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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            23 hours ago

            Yes, those as well. The PRC is strict about drugs and prostitution in general. I wasn’t meaning a full, comprehensive list, but to say that the death penalty is popularly supported there and largely applied for the most serious offences.

            • FunkyStuff@lemmy.ml
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              23 hours ago

              Yeah for sure, but I think it’s a bit misleading to make it sound like only owners of capital (be it corrupt haute bourgeoisie or human trafficking capitalists) get executed. I don’t know the numbers but I’d assume since murder and drug trafficking are also punishable by death, that means most of the people executed are workers, not capitalists.

              • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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                22 hours ago

                Fair point, yes, though I also included sexual assaulters, who are statistically more likely to be workers.

        • ageedizzle@piefed.ca
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          23 hours ago

          but I’m not going to say the PRC is executing people willy-nilly.

          But how do you know that if they keep the numbers secret?

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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            23 hours ago

            They publicize lots of the information, even if they keep the total secret, and we know that crime rates in the PRC are very low in general. The police don’t even carry guns most of the time. Is it a perfect system? By no means. Is it a regularly improving, functional system? Yes.

            • ageedizzle@piefed.ca
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              23 hours ago

              How do we know the information they make public isn’t cherry picked to make them look good? It takes a lot of trust in the Chinese government take the cases they do publicize at face value and assume that nothing else is going on, because without the total numbers it’s impossible to know how many cases are being omitted.

              I don’t think I could bring myself up to that level of trust. It’s not even anything against the Chinese government in particular; I don’t know if I’d trust any government to that degree.

              • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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                22 hours ago

                You don’t have to take them purely at their word, you can look at tangential topics, such as crime rates, conviction rates, how the police work, etc to see if the claims match up. Even if they did post the totals, you’d still have people claiming they were made up.