throw142857

6 years agodiscuss

Oh I’m comfortable with commenting on political topics. I’m not comfortable with commenting on China topics, since (a) there’s a very good chance my comment would be voted to oblivion so no one would see what I wrote anyway (this one was instantly downvoted, then voted back); (b) I would be called a shill; (c) correcting people who use a circlejerk of questionable sources to support opinions about things they have absolutely no experience with yet feel very confident about is both exhausting and mostly pointless. This post is a good example. Zero references, but will be used as fact in the next round of discussions.

throw142857

6 years agodiscuss

Disclosure: I don’t frequent Weibo. The conclusions I posted above come from a general understanding after having lived and worked in China for a significant period of time, plus some personal investigations into Weibo and other major Chinese social media services (e.g. Baidu Tieba, which was the top dog of a bygone age) after discussing such topics with Western friends in the past. I’m very confident in my conclusion that the death penalty is very welcome in China, random hearsay and conversation stoppers like “but social credit points” be damned (that’s a whole other topic I don’t want to get into).

With that out of way, I can objectively say that I’ve never seen cases of political dissent announced anywhere. If you ask me, I’d say such cases, if there are any, wouldn’t be publicized. Additionally, if there were to be such cases, I suspect (private) opinions would be more divided than murder cases but still tilt the “wrong” way. By my observations, people tend to sympathize with little guys adversely affected by corrupt officials or big corps, and you can see that kind of stories retweeted on social media, a lot, as people love to “spread the word to get the attention of higher-ups”; but “human rights activists” are usually met with sneer. The high profile activists tend to be the butt of jokes in my experience.

throw142857

6 years agodiscuss

Even though the article’s claims are not sourced, I don’t see any mention of “protesting for democracy”, or protest of any kind. It’s just talking about executions in general. The first picture features a criminal with a “murderer” sign hanging from her neck. The video doesn’t have much context. The second picture is a stock photo from an article about global executions on the decline. The third group of photos have an outgoing link with invalid cert so I didn’t proceed (who knows if it’s rigged with malware). Did I miss anything?

throw142857

6 years agodiscuss

Throwaway because I don’t really want to taint my account with no-good discussions like this. (I’m an HN regular with some 8k karma.)

If you know the Chinese language, go to Weibo and find announcements of rulings on high profile murder cases, rape cases, etc. Most likely you’ll see that people overwhelmingly call for tougher punishment; comments expressing dissatisfaction with non-capital punishment are often voted to the top.

It’s a different culture, the majority or at least an extremely vocal minority (I highly doubt it’s a minority, but that’s a possibility) expect an-eye-for-an-eye punishment for murder as well as some other morally outrageous crimes. You may find it barbaric or whatever, but it’s a different culture.

See also (on the largest Chinese language Q/A site, like Quora):

https://www.zhihu.com/question/25084350 Why do you support capital punishment?

https://www.zhihu.com/question/25084336 Why do you oppose capital punishment in China?

You can gauge the relative popularity of opinions from the stats alone. Mind you, the user base of that site is relatively well-educated and progressive.