qwename

joined 4 years ago
[–] qwename@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I've transferred the community to GrainEater and left the mod team, I will now apply for mod again.

Here are some reasons why I want to be mod:

  • I'm Chinese, I was born in China, raised in Singapore, studied for a while in Canada, returned to China.
  • I like fact checking, but that doesn't mean I'm always right or the authoritative source on China.
  • I have some experience with being a moderator.

Here are some reasons why I might not be suitable for mod:

  • I am not a neutral or impartial third party and will never be one, I side with China not just because of my nationality, but also because I believe China is truly developing Marxism or scientific socialism.
  • While I like fact checking, I didn't apply it rigorously to every post/comment in /c/China or on China-related posts/comments on Lemmygrad. There are times when I see questionable statements and let it slide because it's too troublesome to fact check it properly. Sometimes it's because the content is posted on websites not accessible in China and I don't use a VPN (unlike others), and alternative front-ends like Invidious (for YouTube) or those for X/Twitter or Reddit may not be working properly. (News sites are fine because of archive services.)
1
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by qwename@lemmygrad.ml to c/china@lemmygrad.ml
 

As mentioned in the post (https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5205977) discussing a rule about anti-promotion of drugs and other substances:

If a lot of people oppose this rule, either by downvotes and/or number of comments, I will willingly step down as moderator of this community.

I didn't see a large opposition to this rule which has now been deleted (see https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5220158), but I will pass the moderator position back to the instance admins nevertheless, specifically to @GrainEater@lemmygrad.ml who gave me the position when I requested it months ago. This post can be used to select new moderators by leaving a comment if you're interested. I will also take part in applying to become a mod.

 

I'm sure some have seen the discussion around a new rule against the promotion of various substances in this community. This will be the summary based on data collected at this snapshot in time.

Post score (upvotes/downvotes): 33/19 (Note that hexbear users cannot downvote)

Number of users who left comments (including me): 21

Number of comments: 51 = 19 (left by me) + 32 (others)

The following is a crude categorization of the 32 comments left by others, each category begins with the name and a 4-tuple of (number of unique users, number of comments, total comment upvotes, maximum upvotes obtained by a single comment). If the same user left multiple comments that are categorized the same, only the comment with the highest upvote will be counted when tallying upvotes, the rest are excluded.

  • Agree (2 users, 4 comments, 7 upvotes total, 4 upvotes max): Comments that agree without giving an explanation, 2 comments excluded from upvotes total.
  • Agree because history (2 users, 2 comments, 16 upvotes total, 11 upvotes max) : Comments that agree and mention China's history.
  • Agree because history but questionable (2 users, 2 comments, 20 upvotes total, 14 upvotes max) : Comments that agree because of China's history, but raised questions
  • Disagree (2 users, 2 comments, 16 upvotes total, 9 upvotes max)
  • Medical (4 users, 7 comments, 29 upvotes total, 8 upvotes max) : Comments that mention medical properties of certain substances, or their normal use in certain cultures.
  • Abstain (1 user, 1 comment, 7 upvotes total, 7 upvotes max)
  • Others: Discuss rule (4 users, 7 comments), Joke (5 users, 5 comments), Off-topic (1 user, 2 comments)

The data show that most people agree to the rule partially due to China's history, but also question the necessity of having this rule and it's phrasing. Some people raised valid points about the medical properties of certain substances, and discussed changes to the rule to accommodate those points. Disagreements were seen mostly in downvotes or questions about the rule, only a few users left comments explicitly opposing the rule.

Overall I would conclude that there isn't a strong consensus to keep this new rule, especially not in its original phrasing, and modifications to the rule have not been thoroughly discussed. There has also not been any evidence to an urgent need for the rule. Thus the rule will be deleted from the community rules in the spirit of democratic centralism.

[–] qwename@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 years ago

One solution is for someone from hexbear to comment that they're against this new rule, and then people from hexbear can upvote that comment.

[–] qwename@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

This is the /c/China community on Lemmygrad.ml, not hexbear.net.

 

(Note that this post might be updated over time, do not cross-post it by copying the contents as it might become outdated)

There are already well-known platforms like marxists.org that have a comprehensive collection of the works of various Marxists, but they have yet to include prominent figures like Xi Jinping. As this is a community on China, this post will focus primarily on the works of Chinese Communists from official Chinese websites. The available Chinese resources are more comprehensive than English resources.

English resources

  • Qiushi Journal (http://en.qstheory.cn/) - English Edition of 求是杂志, a CPC Central Committee Bimonthly. Please note that this website does not support HTTPS!
  • National People's Congress (http://en.npc.gov.cn.cdurl.cn/) - English version of 中国人大网. Please note that this website does not support HTTPS!
  • Theory China (https://en.theorychina.org.cn/) - English version of 理论中国网, website by the History and Literature Research Institute of the CPC Central Committee (中共中央党史和文献研究院)
    • The section titled "Leaders' Works" includes: selected works of Mao Zedong 毛泽东, Zhou Enlai 周恩来, Liu Shaoqi 刘少奇, Zhu De 朱德, Deng Xiaoping 邓小平, Chen Yun 陈云, Jiang Zemin 江泽民. Only includes a few of the works by Hu Jintao 胡锦涛 and Xi Jinping 习近平.
    • The books are read through a browser ebook reader interface. Text can be selected and copied by first clicking on the "T" icon at the bottom-right corner for "Select Text" (on mobile, you have to tap on the circle with three dots first), then selecting the passage desired and clicking on the "Copy" button that appears near the cursor.

Chinese resources

  • 学习强国 (https://www.xuexi.cn/) - website by 中共中央宣传部 (Publicity Department of CPC Central Committee), in the section titled "学习理论":
    • 学习全书: Includes the works of 马恩 (Marx and Engels), 列宁 Lenin, 毛泽东 Mao Zedong, 邓小平 Deng Xiaoping, 江泽民 Jiang Zemin, 胡锦涛 Hu Jintao, 习近平 Xi Jinping.
    • 新时代 新经典: Comprehensive list of works by 习近平 Xi Jinping, including works published pre-2012 before he became 总书记 (General Secretary).
  • 理论中国网 (https://www.theorychina.org.cn/) - website by the History and Literature Research Institute of the CPC Central Committee (中共中央党史和文献研究院)
  • 中央党史和文献研究院网 (https://www.dswxyjy.org.cn/) - website of History and Literature Research Institute of the CPC Central Committee
    • The section titled "成果总库" includes the works of more Chinese Communists than those in 学习全书 above, but some books still require Adobe Flash Player to be viewed.
  • 宣讲家网 (http://www.71.cn/) - website by 中共北京市委宣传部 (Publicity Department of CPC Beijing Municipal Committee). Please note that this website does not support HTTPS!
    • The section titled "经典文献" includes the works of 马恩 (Marx and Engels), 列宁 Lenin, 毛泽东 Mao Zedong, 周恩来 Zhou Enlai, 刘少奇 Liu Shaoqi, 朱德 Zhu De, 邓小平 Deng Xiaoping, 陈云 Chen Yun, 任弼时 Ren Bishi, 江泽民 Jiang Zemin

Chinese audiobooks

  • 共产党员网 (https://www.12371.cn/) - website by 中央组织部 (Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee)
    • The sections titled "思想理论" and "理论学习有声书" contains audiobooks for the works of 毛泽东 Mao Zedong, 邓小平 Deng Xiaoping, 江泽民 Jiang Zemin, 胡锦涛 Hu Jintao, 习近平 Xi Jinping

Other languages

  • Theory China (website by the History and Literature Research Institute of the CPC Central Committee, 中共中央党史和文献研究院) is available in these languages: 中文, English, Français, Pусский, Español, Deutsch, 日本語, العربية. They all have the corresponding section for "Leaders' Works", but there may be less translated works depending on the language.
 

Rule 4: Do not promote or put drugs/alcohol/tobacco/weed/psychedelics/inhalants in a positive light.

Some comrades mentioned in private channels that weed is not addictive, I'm not going to argue on this point because this is a fundamental divide between China and some western countries.

My view is that whether you're addicted to them or not, you shouldn't promote these substances or put them in a positive light. It's fine if you don't agree with me, but anyone who leaves a comment here arguing the opposite will be banned from the community (30 days for now).

If a lot of people oppose this rule, either by downvotes and/or number of comments, I will willingly step down as moderator of this community.

 

I chanced upon another piece of software that includes support for Ukraine on their homepage: pandoc.org, previously saw it on www.vim.org. There are apparently lots of projects on GitHub that do this too: StandWithUkraine. The same cannot be said for Palestine.

So people of Lemmygrad, should we include the flag of Palestine as a banner? Support could also shown in other forms, as long as it's immediately obvious that it's for Palestine.

[–] qwename@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

What does it mean to be a Marxist-Leninist? Answer this question first.

The population of China in 1949 was around 542 million, there were about 4.5 million CPC members at the time, around 0.83% of the population. Is every CPC member a Marxist-Leninist? How many people were MLs but not CPC members? Are you automatically ML if you support the CPC's policies? Are there MLs who aren't CPC members and don't believe in Marxism?

The population of China as of 2023 is about 1.41 billion, there are 99.185 million CPC members, around 7% of the population. The same questions asked above can be asked here. How many MLs are there in China?

Here's a long Chinese article about what it means to be a Marxist according to Mao Zedong: http://dangshi.people.com.cn/n/2013/1225/c85037-23943401.html

[–] qwename@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Emphasis on "liberal" in when I say "decent Chinese liberal analysis", because the author is still using a binary leftist/conservatism against "reformist"/liberal mindset throughout the paper. This same mindset is shared by ultra-lefts, or left-deviationists, so really these are two extremes in ideology.

In China, reformers include both those who seek to get rid of the Chinese Communist Party and make the country a liberal democracy, as well as those who believe in the necessity of economic marketization, opening up to the outside world, and allowing some limited political reform that falls short of challenging the party’s supremacy. Conservatives oppose a market economy and political liberalization, usually in the name of safeguarding socialist orthodoxy, i.e., an economic system based on public ownership of property or economic assets, class struggle, and the party’s absolute control. In this paper, China’s conservatives are also interchangeably referred to as “leftists,” whereas the reformers are usually regarded as being on the right side of China’s ideological spectrum.

This binary categorization is why the author concludes that leftists won over reformists and China is now going down the path of "Maoist conservatism". The author is unable to deal with dialectics as he views the following as policy contradictions:

First, if Xi was empowered by an elite consensus, what explains the policy contradictions during his early years in power? The party called for deepening marketization while further empowering the state-owned enterprises. It also advocated the rule of law while at the same time emphasizing the party’s unrestrained leadership and tightening up political control. In short, conservative and reformist policies coexisted in a confusing way. Such confusion raises the question of whether there was a unified collective patron who entrusted power to Xi.

My view is that Deng's reforms and thus Socialism with Chinese Characteristics is socialist reform at its core, and ideological struggles within the party are not class struggles (socialism vs capitalism), they are instead debates on how to develop socialism. Mao vs Deng is a false antagonism, Mao was never ultra-left, as much as ultras and liberals wished he was. The "complication" with China's politics as viewed by outsiders arises because they tend to associate certain tools with certain ideologies, like linking markets to capitalism, linking government planning and regulation with socialism. All confusion surrounding China's politics comes from a lack of dialectical thinking.

[–] qwename@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I wouldn't call this "western academia", because the author's name is "Lin Le", an unambiguous Chinese name that suggests a mainland China education background. The fact that the author provides hundreds of references to Chinese articles, and is aware of nuanced political language is also evidence of this.

Thus I would say that this is a decent Chinese liberal analysis of Chinese politics, that goes beyond simple factionalism-based analysis.

[–] qwename@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Why hasn't China cut ties with the US or Japan, why did China build diplomatic relations with them in the first place back in 1972? Why does China not have diplomatic relations with countries that "recognize" Taiwan province as an "independent country", but still maintain ties with a genocidal Israel? Why hasn't Russia cut ties with the US?

What does it mean to cut ties, for all official communication between two governments to stop? For all trade between two countries to stop? Cutting ties will not stop Israel from continuing its war crimes. I think China wants to be more of a mediator between Israel and Palestine as it supports a two-state solution, so cutting ties with any side will work against that.

According to this Wikipedia page:

As of 28 May 2024, 145 of the 193 United Nations (UN) member states officially recognize the State of Palestine (Israel is recognized by 165).

 

According to the modlog for !worldnews@lemmy.ml, @yogthos@lemmy.ml (display name: ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆) was banned by the instance admin @davel@lemmy.ml on March 20, 2024 08:52:45PM for "spam". Upon examining the most recent 119 posts in that community (6 pages from https://lemmy.ml/c/worldnews?dataType=Post&sort=New to https://lemmy.ml/c/worldnews?dataType=Post&pageCursor=Pc99aa0&sort=New), I have found that yogthos is indeed the top poster in this past week, contributing to 19 out of 119 or almost 16% of the posts, with the second most posts coming from @naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca at 15 posts.

Just being the top poster over the past week or so doesn't make someone a spammer, if we examine yogthos' recent 19 posts, we can find that they vary in topics and sources. I hope that davel or someone can explain this ban or undo it if it was a mistake.

List of 19 posts, ordered by most recent: (Number of posts on each page examined: 5+3+4+2+2+3=19)

Vietnam seeks death for tycoon in $12bn fraud case

https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2761251/prosecutors-seek-death-penalty-for-mastermind-of-vietnams-largest-financial-scam

China keeps on finding ways to hurt USA Inc.

https://www.businessinsider.com/china-has-found-another-way-to-hurt-usa-inc-2024-3

Another Boeing emergency: Delta Airlines 737 plane makes emergency landing after one of the engines caught fire moments after taking off in Aruba

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/another-boeing-emergency-delta-airlines-737-plane-makes-emergency-landing-after-one-of-the-engines-caught-fire-moments-after-taking-off-in-aruba/ar-BB1kdWb9

Symbolism or Strategy? Ukraine Battles to Retain Small Gains.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/20/world/europe/ukraine-russia-south.html

IDF chief Herzi Halevi expected to resign later this year, Israeli reports say

https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-792885

Brazil's Bolsonaro is indicted for first time over alleged falsification of his own vaccination data

https://apnews.com/article/bolsonaro-brazil-federal-police-indicted-covid-a0c1f1dba71553096d0de0f4f39d4caa

The Attritional Art of War: Lessons from the Russian War on Ukraine

https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/attritional-art-war-lessons-russian-war-ukraine

UN weather agency issues ‘red alert’ on climate change after record heat

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/19/un-weather-agency-issues-red-alert-on-climate-change-after-record-heat

Lindsey Graham, visiting Kyiv, urges Ukraine to pass mobilization law

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/18/lindsey-graham-visiting-kyiv-urges-ukraine-pass-mobilization-law/

China is now visa-free for Europeans: Take a high-speed train to futuristic cities and fabulous food

https://www.euronews.com/travel/2024/03/18/china-is-now-visa-free-for-europeans-take-a-high-speed-train-to-futuristic-cities-and-fabu

What Might the US Owe the World for Covid-19?

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/covid-19-gain-of-function-us-research

Record heat index of 62.3C scorches Rio de Janeiro

https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/3/18/photos-record-heat-index-of-62-3c-scorches-rio-de-janeiro

China's Global South exports surge in first two months

https://asiatimes.com/2024/03/chinas-global-south-exports-surge-in-1st-2-months/

America Pulls Back from Ukraine

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/briefing/ukraine-us-aid.html

Niger revokes military accord with US, junta spokesperson says

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/niger-revokes-military-accord-with-us-junta-spokesperson-says-2024-03-16/

Here’s How The Russians Are Taking Out Ukraine’s M-1 Abrams Tanks

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/03/13/heres-how-russian-troops-are-taking-out-ukraines-m-1-abrams-tanks/

Funding failure puts US at China's high-tech mercy

https://asiatimes.com/2024/03/funding-failure-puts-us-at-chinas-high-tech-mercy/

Chinese buyers cancel, postpone Australian wheat buys amid global surplus

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/chinese-buyers-cancel-or-postpone-australian-wheat-buys-amid-global-oversupply-2024-03-14/

I guess we now know who is all behind those Sinophobic anti-China posts online.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/14/24100984/cia-china-fake-social-media-spying

 

I just noticed that out of the 4 moderators of !china@lemmygrad.ml, 3 have been inactive since 2020/2021 (@MountainChen@lemmygrad.ml, @redjoker@lemmygrad.ml, @Iskender@lemmygrad.ml, and along with the 4th mod (@Makan@lemmygrad.ml), all of them are the same moderators of !cpusa@lemmygrad.ml.

I hereby make a request to become a moderator of !china@lemmygrad.ml, and to remove all 4 current mods.

My qualifications include:

  • I am Chinese
  • I like to fact check information

I hope other comrades will also step forward to help moderate !china@lemmygrad.ml.

[–] qwename@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

The Bloomberg article cited (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-09/china-says-cracked-apple-s-airdrop-to-identify-message-sources or https://archive.is/XnvO8) once again doesn't mention the relevant institute by name, but here's the Chinese article from Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice: 2024-01-08 司法鉴定:司法鉴定揭开“隔空投送”匿名传输的神秘面纱 https://sfj.beijing.gov.cn/sfj/sfdt/ywdt82/flfw93/436331732/index.html

This paragraph reveals how they found out the AirDrop sender's email and phone number:

北京网神洞鉴司法鉴定所的司法鉴定技术专家们通过深度解析iPhone设备日志,明确传输原理,找出了与AirDrop 相关的记录。经检验发现发送者的设备名、邮箱和手机号相关字段,其中手机号与邮箱相关字段是以哈希值的形式记录,且哈希值部分字段被隐藏。为实现快速破解该字段,技术团队制作了一张详尽的手机号与邮箱账号“彩虹表 ”,能够将密文转换成原始文本,快速锁定发送者的手机号与邮箱账号。

Basically the sender's phone number and email addresses were stored as hash values, but the hashes were just partial values. The judicial appraisal institute "北京网神洞鉴" created rainbow tables (precomputed table for caching the outputs of a cryptographic hash function, usually for cracking password hashes) to bruteforce the information.

As Chinese mobile numbers follow certain formats (11 digits, starts with 1, known list of prefixes etc.) it is probably very easy to generate a rainbow table for this. Though the article doesn't mention if the phone numbers and email had separate hash values so this is just one way to do it.

From Apple's "AirDrop security" page we can see that this matches up: https://support.apple.com/guide/security/airdrop-security-sec2261183f4/web

AirDrop uses iCloud services to help users authenticate. When a user signs in to iCloud, a 2048-bit RSA identity is stored on the device, and when the user turns on AirDrop, an AirDrop short identity hash is created based on the email addresses and phone numbers associated with the user’s Apple ID.

When a user chooses AirDrop as the method for sharing an item, the sending device emits an AirDrop signal over BLE that includes the user’s AirDrop short identity hash. Other Apple devices that are awake, in close proximity, and have AirDrop turned on, detect the signal and respond using peer-to-peer Wi-Fi, so that the sending device can discover the identity of any responding devices.

This article is about the AirDrop receiver finding out the sender's information, but doesn't mention if the reverse is possible. But if we look at the same AirDrop security page, it is probable that in AirDrop "Everyone mode" an attacker could find out the information of Apple devices around them:

In Contacts Only mode, the received AirDrop short identity hash is compared with hashes of people in the receiving device’s Contacts app. If a match is found, the receiving device responds over peer-to-peer Wi-Fi with its identity information. If there is no match, the device doesn’t respond.

In Everyone mode, the same overall process is used. However, the receiving device responds even if there is no match in the device’s Contacts app.

For people using Apple devices or even other brands, especially in the US, take caution as this is a finding one Chinese local government published, who knows how many vectors of attack the US intelligence agencies is aware of.

[–] qwename@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I will paste this old comment of mine to see what real anarchists like yourself think about it, I may have conflated anarchists with anti-authoritarians, so correct me if I'm wrong:

Anti-authoritarians have no future, one either supports an existing authority or tries to become a new authority. Everyone can have a say in a democracy, but when it comes down to decision, whether through majority vote or expert opinion or other methods, the decision then becomes authority.

Even if someone claims to hate all forms of authority, this person will become the authority on “hating authority” if a following is gained. That’s how anarchists are doomed for failure.

[–] qwename@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

This is the second time I'm seeing the Cultural Revolution put in a good light in this post, get off your high horses you naive idealists!

The Cultural Revolution was hijacked by ultras, Lin Biao tried to assassinate Mao.

This is the Constitution of the CPC in 1969: https://fuwu.12371.cn/2014/12/24/ARTI1419387596442272.shtml, it includes this paragraph in the preamble:

林彪同志一贯高举毛泽东思想伟大红旗,最忠诚、最坚定地执行和捍卫毛泽东同志的无产阶级革命路线。林彪同志是毛泽东同志的亲密战友和接班人。

(DeepL translation) Comrade Lin Biao has consistently held high the great red flag of Mao Zedong Thought and has most faithfully and resolutely implemented and defended the proletarian revolutionary line of Comrade Mao Zedong. Comrade Lin Biao is Comrade Mao Zedong's close comrade-in-arms and successor.

Utterly disgusting.