Chinese Officials Are Weaponizing COVID Health Tracker To Block Protests 74
Chinese bank depositors planning a protest about their frozen funds saw their health code mysteriously turn red and were stopped from traveling to the site of a rally, confirming fears that China's vast COVID-tracking system could be weaponized as a powerful tool to stifle dissent. Motherboard reports: A red health code designated the would-be protesters as suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients, limiting their movement and access to public transportation. Their rallies in the central Henan province this week were thwarted as some were forced into quarantine and others detained by police. A 38-year-old software engineer was among hundreds who could not access their savings at four rural banks since mid-April. She had planned to travel from her home in Jiangxi province to Zhengzhou, Henan's capital city, to join a group petition this week to demand her money back. But her health code turned from green to red shortly after she bought a train ticket on Sunday. She said a nucleic test for COVID she took the night before came back negative and her hometown has not reported any infection recently.
"Henan authorities targeted the health code of bank depositors in order to stop us from defending our rights," she told VICE World News, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid government reprisal. She eventually managed to reach Zhengzhou using her green health code on a different app, but was daunted by the sight of police officers out in force. More than 200 bank depositors from all over the country saw their health codes turned red over the past week, which effectively foiled a planned protest outside the Henan branch of China's banking regulator. Chinese activists and dissidents have reported similar experiences in the past, but the latest crackdown appears to be the most brazen example of how the authorities could exploit the supposed COVID-19 measure for political purposes.
"Henan authorities targeted the health code of bank depositors in order to stop us from defending our rights," she told VICE World News, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid government reprisal. She eventually managed to reach Zhengzhou using her green health code on a different app, but was daunted by the sight of police officers out in force. More than 200 bank depositors from all over the country saw their health codes turned red over the past week, which effectively foiled a planned protest outside the Henan branch of China's banking regulator. Chinese activists and dissidents have reported similar experiences in the past, but the latest crackdown appears to be the most brazen example of how the authorities could exploit the supposed COVID-19 measure for political purposes.
Inconceivable! (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, wait... no.
Exactly as expected.
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Omicron is extremely mild. Why would China even need to bother with locking down for COVID now?
There's so many ways to answer that question that volumes could be written to answer that question.
The only reason I can see for continuing COVID restrictions is so that the gov't can impose ever greater control over the population. This article is proof of that.
The Chinese government is in quite a bind right now and so will be prone to over reacting to every threat.
China is facing a threat of a population collapse. The government imposed birth controls, as well as various cultural and economic forces, created a population of too many men and not enough women. If there is an outbreak of an illness then they may have an even bigger population problem.
China is facing
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These radioactive elements hold properties that make them useful for nuclear fission fuel.
The waste from rare earths already mined would power the entire planet for over 1000 years right now. Just thought you should know how much Thorium has been pulled up from rare earth mines. There is enough in the US alone for at least 50 years of global power supply. That 100,000X factor (how much more powerful nuclear is than fossil fuels) and that 100,000,000X factor (how much more powerful nuclear is than renewables) is really hard to conceive in ones mind.
Re:Why is China even still doing COVID lockdowns? (Score:5, Interesting)
Very surprising they were allowed to protest (Score:2)
I had thought that all protests about anything were strictly banned. That was the reason for the crack down on Fulun Gong, long before Xi.
How is it they were going to a protest at all?
As to using Covid, the Australian Victorian government used Covid as a great excuse to attack protesters in Melbourne a few months ago.
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Falun Gong (Score:2)
There were two phases. The first was merely intimidation by the CCP because they did not like having any organization that they did not control, with a bottom up structure.
Then in 1999 the Falun Gong organized a silent protest in which some 10,000 assembled for a while at a government office and then left peacefully. That put the wind up the CCP and the full on persecution started.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Indeed. Many CCP members subscirbed to Falun Gong befor 1999.
I suspect that Xi keeps a wary eye on those Dancing Grandmas. If ever he got off side with them, they could be a powerful force. And there is some respect for age in China.
Tradtionally, "square dancing" means 4 couples in a square. But The Guardian used it to mean dancing in a (town) square :)
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They have been doing it in the UK since pretty much the start of the lockdowns, so it was only a matter of time before China copied the idea.
There was an infamous vigil for a woman raped and murdered by a cop, who claimed she was breaking COVID rules. The police violently broke up the vigil on COVID rule grounds as well.
Missing the other point (Score:1)
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Yup. Government is doing sketchy shit with power. I'm SHOCKED, shocked I say! It baffles me that some people don't understand why some people oppose giving power to government regardless of how reasonable the excuse is.
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>Exactly as expected.
wait a minute . . . are you saying that a communist regime asserting control over those who think and blocking them was something we could have anticipated???
from the beloved dictatorship of the proletariat?
say it isn't so . . .
The CCP turning good to evil should be expected (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you finally now realize the danger of the CCP to everyone? They are leading the way to super and undefeatable 1984.
Remember that the Chinese people are the first victims of the CCP.
Re:The CCP turning good to evil should be expected (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: The CCP turning good to evil should be expecte (Score:1)
Do you finally now realize the danger of the CCP to everyone?
Even bevore the advent of tracking apps, in early days of Covid when tracking was still done by writing your name with pen & paper in a restaurant notebook, police in various European countries went along, collected said notebooks, and began sifting through the entries to solve petty crimes.
Tracking based on misuse of methods and datasets collected for a different purpose isn't an invention of, or inherently related to, the CCP.
Heck, you need to look no further than your own government for that. Google
Re: The CCP turning good to evil should be expect (Score:1)
Losing control (Score:2)
Now that they're openly abusing the COVID tracker for non-COVID purposes, the people will no longer comply when it is genuinely about COVID.
Great work, dipshits.
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Do the tanks not go there? Did they surround Shanghai with Ukranian mud or something?
Re: Losing control (Score:2)
"Not forced labor! Yes. Yes. We're closing your workplace's door and locking it shut from the outside - errrr - for your protection! Yes!"
Executed officials (Score:2)
Sign me up (Score:3)
I definitely better knowing the West would never do this
Who cares what the CCP does. (Score:1)
Use crypto (Score:2)
If you live in China, convert all your money to crypto quickly. Then head for the nearest bus/plane (assuming you still can???) and GTFO of that hell hole. Convert your currency back to your newly chosen refuge country. (This assumes you can find a new country that doesn't have extradition back to China for free speech charges.)
Re: Use crypto (Score:2)
Re: Use crypto (Score:3)
onvert all your money to crypto quickly.
Sure, why not? Pay $10-15 for any transaction, wait a minimum 10-30 minutes for it to get validated (or a few days, who knows), and if you ever in your life even so much as buy a dim sum at the wrong restaurant and they link your wallet ID to your real name, they'll reconstruct all your transaction history going back to the early 1800s or so; because, by definition, it's all there In. The. Fucking. Ledger.
I wonder how people are not storming to cryptocurrencies as we speak. /s
Re: Use crypto (Score:2)
Use crypto with the lowest volatility. (I know there is some with every single one.) Also use the one with the lowest transaction time. Trade your China money for crypto as a person to person trade. Yes, this will eat into your money. But, better this than ALL of your money "turned off" at the whim of the government.
Re: Use crypto (Score:2)
Use crypto with the lowest volatility. (I know there is some with every single one.) Also use the one with the lowest transaction time.
So, which one would be that, and how low are the theoretical and de-facto transaction times today?
Trade your China money for crypto as a person to person trade.
That's the one thing cryptocurrencies are the least fit for. It begins with the ledger, which with Bitcoin apparently already is large enough to not fit on typical devices you'd be comfortable carrying everywhere with you. Don't know about others, but seriously ask 1 bn people to use it for "daily transactions" and see what happens.
Cryotpcoins fulfill one scope only: they're a theoretical exercise to show that
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You don't have a right to bear arms, fool. Biggest fraud played on Americans and they still haven't figured it out.
Hint- try looking up chief justice Burger...in addition to reading all the 2nd... I don't expect somebody who thinks background checks do nothing to have the brains...
Aside from the fact that if you had a civil war requiring taking guns that you'd just break the law and fight against the democracy anyway.
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Unless they're LGBT, Black or Mexican, then it's straight to the Thin Blue Line shooting squad.
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A democracy is the rule by the majority. A republic means the rights of the few are protected.
Actually, no. Democracy is the rule in hands of the people (either directly or through elected representatives), and a republic is literally a-state-that-is-not-a-monarchy. Where did you get "rule by majority" and "rights of the few are protected" is beyond me.
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Where did I get those ideas? A dictionary.
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Citation, please. Dictionary and edition. Otherwise I'll keep assuming you're making shit up. Example:
OED entry for democracy: [oed.com] "Government by the people; that form of government in which the sovereign power resides in the people as a whole, and is exercised either directly by them (as in the small republics of antiquity) or by officers elected by them."
OED entry for republic: [oed.com] "A state in which the supreme power rests in the people and their elected representatives or officers, as opposed to one governed
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To enjoy a state of freedom against ones oppressor's, the people need to be armed and know well how use those arms against their oppressors. The right to protect oneself against his/her oppressors is a GOD given right and the 2A exists to limit Gov, not the people.
or..
"A well regulated Militia" (a well trained and functional Militia of the people, I.E: you and I)
"being necessary to the security of a free State" (is needed to secure the state of being free)
"the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
Re: Of course they are. (Score:1)
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How stupid (Score:2)
Of course, authoritarian assholes never understand that misuse of emergency mechanisms always leads to them not working anymore in the longer run. One of the reasons why any authoritarian regime universally assures a poor population and a place in the 2nd or 3rd world longer term.
Who could have foreseen such a thing? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure this comes to a shock to everyone. A government abusing citizen tracking measures, how could anyone have known? BTW, don't fool yourself thinking that this is something specific to the Chinese government. Your own government, regardless where you live, will do the same thing if it can.
Who could have guessed? (Score:4, Insightful)
And it could also happen elsewhere. Do not fall into the folly of thinking that it can't possibly happen to you, where you live.
For example with how often my own politicians here in Germany tried to shove blanket surveillance down the throat of the country, and we could only hope for the separation of powers to do its job with the judicial system ruling legislation like that as unconstitutional, any remaining trust in this regard is long gone already.
Say it (Score:2)
"Come on, man! China's not so bad!" -- Hollywood, the NBA, and US manufacturing firms.
SAME as in Canada (Score:4, Insightful)
We had the EXACT same abuse of Covid tracking apps against Canadian protestors.
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Sounds Like... (Score:2)
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Evidence, please. America's system isn't perfect, but it has checks and balances due to having 3 branches of gov't and a competitive political system where politicians have an incentive to rat other politicians out when they cheat. China largely lacks that. What Xi says goes, evil or not.
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> And exactly no fucks are given when caught red-handed.
As Lincoln said, you can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
And now you know why this was never a good idea (Score:1)
Xi, you're a fucking dick! (Score:1)
nuf sed
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