Amazon agreed to allow only five-star reviews for Xi’s book in China
thetimes.co.uk
thetimes.co.uk
Which is also largely meaningless.
And in order to show the mercy of his imperial majesty, the execution of the males would be delayed to autumn.
One parable I enjoyed went something like this (paraphrasing extensively because I don't remember details/names).
Mr. Lao was the personal secretary of the king in one of the titular warring states. This gave him a lot of power and influence, in particular because he managed the king's schedule and chose who would receive an audience. One day, a wealthy merchant named Mr. Hsu requested an audience. Mr. Lao was curious, because Mr. Hsu had a reputation for being the handsomest dude in the land. So he goes to his wife and is like "do you think I'm more handsome than Mr. Hsu?" and she said "Of course you are darling". Then he goes to visit his concubine and is like "do you think in more handsome than Mr. Hsu? And the concubine is like "of course you are!". The next day, a merchant like Mr Hsu was waiting in the crowd to request an audience with the king. Mr. Lao asked the same question, and the merchant told him that of course Lao was better looking. The time for Mr. Hsu's audience came, and when he stepped into the room Mr. Lao was like "Damn, that guy is way more handsome than I am".
After the audience, he cleared the room and spoke to the king. "Your majesty, before seeing Mr. Hsu with my own eyes I asked 3 people who they thought was more handsome. My wife said me, because she loves me. My side-chick said me, because she fears me. A petitioner said me, because he wanted something from me. Nevertheless, my appearance is nothing compared to the good looks of Mr. Hsu"
The king pondered this for a few moments before speaking. "My trusted servant, I see your point. From here on out, have our guards and spies give a $10 reward to anyone who criticizes me in private. Give a $100 reward to any petitioner who justifiably thinks I've made a mistake, even if I eventually rule against them. Give $1,000 to any of my advisors who talks shit about me behind my back. Give $10,000 to the ones that have the balls to speak criticisms to me directly."
This was an expensive program, because people will always find something to complain about. But every week, Mr. Lao found himself distributing fewer and fewer bounties. The kingdom ran smoother and smoother as the king heard criticisms that people were afraid to levy before.
It happened during the Warring States period (475 BC - 221 BC). The culture was very different compared to later imperial dynasties. It's more like medieval Europe - consisting of a lot of feudal states rather than being a powerful empire. Ethics drastically varies from person to person, where we can find people truly living with their virtue, and people most cunning.
Original names in case anyone was curious: Mr.Lao -> Zou Ji Mr.Hsu -> Duke Xu King -> King Might of Qi
I'd have thought his economic might would have extended to at least getting one or two of those deleted.
Generally I don't care too much about the rating, I look at the negative reviews and see what they are complaining about. If there is a pattern of apparently legitimate gripes avoid. If it's a bunch of garbage ignore them. (I've seen many, many a one-star review because the buyer didn't understand what they were getting and the "fault" with product is that it won't do something it was never intended to do and in no way implies that it will do.)
One of my reviews was removed once because it mentioned the author lacked expertise in the domain he was commenting on. It was about AI and the author was a historian. I recommended people skip the chapters about AI but apparently that was too critical.
Yelp begs to differ
If you mean professional critics then sure, but they have their own problems and are also divorced from reality but for different reasons than "randos."
I don't know if Yelp is honest in their reviews. I can't tell for certain. But they do have reputation management services for sale, and so you have to question who is the consumer, and who the product.
That doesn't make this okay.
Why are we assuming that a commercial entity is supposed to carry our tacit values to any market it enters? It actually feels like imperial domination to me, more than a story about some country trying to retain its own ideology.
Unless the star ratings for Xi’s book is covered by national security regulations of course.
There are many recent examples that run counter to your claim.
-Most recently a talented female tennis player disappeared. -Ongoing genocide of Uighurs. -Disappearance of Jack Ma. -Repression of political freedom in Hong Kong. -etc.
edit: Maybe we need to start with a common definition of liberty?
Poster was saying we shouldn't impose our own principles on China. I was pointing out these are China's government's stated principles too, they just choose to thoroughly betray them.