“On Monday, the Chinese government demonstrated just how much power it has over the opinions of its billion-strong population by deciding to ban use of a single letter,” Matthew Humphries reports for PC Magazine. “That letter is ‘N’ and its censorship followed moves by the Chinese Communist Party to remove the ten year limit on a presidency from the country’s Constitution.”
“As the BBC explained, the party is proposing to remove the expression ‘shall serve no more than two consecutive terms’ from the country’s Constitution in relation to how long both the President and Vice-President can remain in power,” Humphries reports. “If removed, it would mean current President Xi Jinping could rule for as long as he wants and continue to consolidate his power.”
“As you’d expect, the discussion that followed this proposal online was far from positive. Business Insider reports that China’s Internet censors went into overdrive, banning words including ‘Xi JinP,’ ’emigrate,’ ‘lifelong,’ ‘indefinite control,’ and “‘I disagree.”‘ But they also went a step further and banned all use of the letter ‘N.’ That may sound strange until you realize in China, N is the equivalent of how we use X in algebra to represent an unknown value. N also represents infinity,” Humphries reports. “Chats on services such as the very popular Weibo were using N in a number of ways including to represent how long Xi Jinping would now be in power (infinity)…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Why can’t Chinese citizens be trusted with freedom?
Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. — Potter Stewart
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. ― Benjamin Franklin
If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. ― George Washington
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. ― United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Internet treats censorship as a malfunction and routes around it. — John Perry Barlow
SEE ALSO:
Apple is under fire for moving iCloud data to China; Amnesty International blasts move – February 28, 2018
Apple moves to store iCloud keys in China, raising human rights fears – February 26, 2018
Apple’s China lesson: Think different, but not too different – February 26, 2018
Apple in talks for first order from a Chinese chipmaker – February 14, 2018
Apple utterly dominates the premium smartphone market in China with 85% share – February 7, 2018
Apple warns users who created Apple IDs overseas on dodging China’s new data law – January 12, 2018
How U.S. iCloud users can ensure their data isn’t migrated to state-owned servers in China – January 11, 2018
Apple sets date to turn over cloud operations to a state-owned data center in China – January 10, 2018
U.S. Senate Republican Marco Rubio hits Tim Cook for kowtowing to China – December 13, 2017
Apple CEO Cook kissed the ring in China because he had no choice – December 4, 2017
Apple CEO Cook in China: Internet must have security, humanity – December 4, 2017
U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Patrick Leahy blast Apple CEO Tim Cook for removing VPN apps from App Store in China – October 20, 2017
Apple issues statement regarding removal of VPN apps from China App Store – July 31, 2017
Apple removes VPN apps from China App Store – July 29, 2017
Apple sets up China data center to meet new cybersecurity rules – July 12, 2017
Analyst: China iPhone sales are pivotal for Apple – June 26, 2017
In bid to improve censorship, China to summon Apple execs to discuss stricter App Store oversight – April 20, 2017
Apple CEO Tim Cook named recipient of Newseum’s 2017 Free Expression Award – February 2, 2017
This is what communism looks like. This is what a country whose people have no access to guns looks like. This is what people on our extreme left want the USA to look like.
Didn’t expect the comments to take a hard turn so quickly.
Yup.
You don’t get off that easily. This is what totalitarianism looks like, including the fascist forms favored by Trump. He actually praises dictators, and thinks he should be able to rule by edict. Yet you right-wingers lap it up like it was manna from heaven. How long do you think it’d be before he’d be making similar edicts if he were allowed to do so? That he can’t hasn’t been for lack of trying.
The Chinese Government is Communist in name only, just as it was the case in the Soviet Union, so spare us the conflation of liberalism with Communism.
It’s not people on the political left that are trying to force religion on kids in schools, forbidding teachers from discussions about climate change, evolution or abortion or passing laws taxing solar panels to destroy the financial advantage of using them for residential power or passing laws at the state level to prohibit community broadband. That would be the Republicans.
No, I am not a Democrat.
“spare us the conflation of liberalism with Communism”
That would require them knowing what what liberalism and communism actually mean… which, clearly, they do not.
True. I wonder if the Home Schooled understand conflation.
no, you’re not a democrat, you’re just a regular idiot.
Pot meets pot it discovered in the mirror.
Dementia is sad.
@bot… Wow!!!!!! The insight! The piercing intellect! Just amazing to bask in the glory of such a mind!
thanks, John…you may rise now.
This is NOTHING at all what “the left” wants for this country. This is the OPPOSITE of what progressives and liberals want. Your guy in the White House likes fellow strongmen, like Putin and Dutarte in the Philippines.
You know what people in the “extreme left” want our country to look like? Norway. Universal Health Care, free universities, and a living wage for all.
“Free Universities”
Yep because in libtard land stuff is just free. WriterGuy I hope you write comedy because your stuff is PURE GOLD.
I suppose health care is free too? When really the word “free” really means you just get others to pay for your shit.
You just proved the OP right. the”extreme left” are just like communists.
Its the far left who want to censor language in the US. University speech codes, gender pronounces. PC language. even cartoon frogs are frowned upon. the list goes on. If it weren’t for the first amendment people would be getting arresting the US in the EU, UK and Australia.
Right. Guns would fix that problem. The only solution is violence. This world is doomed if it is run by people like you.
More guns is far more preferable to more government by fscktard liberal fsckwits.
This is what people on our extreme left want the USA to look like.
AND extreme right.
Totalitarianism is the result of ALL failed, bad governmental ideas. There’s a control CRASH, then the rats scramble around taking control over everything ane everyone in an attempt to save face and to force their BS system to work, which it never will. There’s no such thing as a viable monoculture. <-Rule of nature and humanity.
“Why can’t Chinese citizens be trusted with freedom?”-MDN
Atheist aka Communist government is paranoid.
There’s nothing about atheism that leads to totalitarianism. If anything, it’s the opposite. Atheists love freedom so much, we don’t even like when invisible supernatural entities tell us what to do.
totalitarianism can arise through the efforts of people of faith and no faith alike. right wing and left wing alike.
the one thing totalitarians have in common is that they are driven by an unquenchable thirst for the universal three P’s, power, plunder and pussy.
they want to call the shots, live in the best castles, eat the best foods, drink the best wines, have all the money and bang all the best looking women that they can beg borrow or steal. some things never change
.and if you are really hung up on the notion that totalitarians are atheists, leave us not forget that herr hitler was raised a catholic and it was the catholic church in italy that help shephard many high ranking nazis out of europe and make their escape to south america.
that took organization, planning and funding that could only have been authorized from the very top.
the list is long and dark, eichmann, and mengele, top the list and there were many, many others.
bad people are bad people they come in all shapes sizes and backgrounds. nobody has a monopoly on evil
Which is exactly why we (humanity) need governments that are limited in power and scope… to keep those “bad people” at bay.
Unfortunately, that means limiting the “good” as well as the “bad”. Because when we make exceptions (to limits on the power and scope of what the state can do) by justifying them so we can do “good things”, we open up the state to use its increased power and scope to do “bad things”.
Which it will inevitably do. History shows us this… no exceptions.
By way of analogy, think of the situation about creating a “back door” in the iPhone OS (or any phone OS). It leaves an opening for the “bad guys”, as well as the “good guys”, to use (or abuse) as they see fit.
China and Chinese are whacked. Stupid ass country and stupid ass people.
What a profound lack of empathy for people who have lived in poverty not just economically but also intellectually. The Chinese people do not have access to the information that we do in the West. Most of them can’t make informed choices.
China is not communist. It is a totalitarian government. Someone calling themselves communist doesn’t make it so, just like North Korea isn’t a democracy despite it in their name. For further reading, please refer to elementary school.
Completely in agreement. If you travel in any Chinese city, you realize it is an enormous bastion of capitalism. Little shops crowd every side street, tons of advertising, huge malls for the affluent and tourists. Everyone is selling something there, all the time.
It’s not a free society by any stretch, but it’s certainly not communistic, either/
This guy President Xi Jinping is certainly a few steps ahead in the super power race to the bottom. Makes me feel so relieved to know that I’m part of the free and civilized world.
yeah, he’s sure not the dancer that Prime Menstrual Trudy is.
That’s for sure, but I bet you he’s making the chump drool right at the moment.
Since when has “communism” trusted the citizens it pretends to serve?
Never.
China: Criminal Nation Hell Hole
This is just another in a long list of things censored and banned in China.
One of my recent favorites is when the CCP literally banned “Winnie the Pooh” from the internet.
Wow, at least it’s good thing they didn’t ban If You See Kay.
Only show I ever got physically injured at while “dancing”. Check that.. Frontier at The Empty Bottle blew out my eardrums for around two weeks. That’s the price we pay for lovin livin and lovin. Ban that, haters.
Preside t Xi Ji pi g 😉