forkLding

Speaking from what I know and have read, the Chinese govt. keeps things intentionally ambiguous and doesn't directly apply censorship on Chinese web apps and mobile apps like Wechat unless there is something critical or someone popular is saying censored words. They however do issue instructions and specific lists of social and political keywords that need to be censored, although as noted by Citizen Lab, content critical of the govt. can still exist which keeps things confusing.

Thus, what the Chinese govt. does instead is that they expect the companies to self-censor by hiring their own censorship department or content moderation department that includes political censorship to meet the Chinese govt.'s censorship rules. As well, adding to this, the Chinese govt. usually only establishes ambiguous guidelines that encompass wide range of things like can not offend "Chinese culture" or "Socialist values" so that companies usually over-enforce and over-censor to make sure they don't get fined or their operating licence revoked. Essentially if they get fined or punished, either the app/website shuts down because they can't meet the censorship standards or they remove the users creating the offending material or change a lot of things until they meet censorship standards (although they or the users involved would likely still be "banned" for several years to make an example).

Citizen Lab also points out that censored keywords on different Chinese corporate internet platforms differ likely due to the company's own approach and censorship department. Quote: "We compare our dataset to previously extracted keyword data from chat applications used in China and find very limited keyword list overlap within SVPs and between other platforms. This result substantiates previous findings that suggest companies are only given general directives from authorities and have a degree of flexibility in the implementation."

Thus the difference in the documents could largely be explained by the fact that open-source projects from developers and companies follow the same standards where company employees/content moderators or volunteer moderators compile their own lists or the lists are compiled depending on company or organization policy and purpose. Likely because these organizations do not want to be fined or shut down due to breaking censorship.

References: http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2010/10/china-the-art-of-ce...

https://citizenlab.ca/2015/08/every-rose-has-its-thorn/

https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1003390/for-chinas-web-platfo...

https://citizenlab.ca/2015/06/jason-q-ng-on-chinas-censorshi...

https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1003310/the-people-paid-to-he...

http://www.sixthtone.com/news/751/internet-star-papi-jiang-c...

https://citizenlab.ca/2018/08/cant-picture-this-an-analysis-...

http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1000440/chinas-online-multimed...

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/21/china_pact/

https://citizenlab.ca/2013/07/using-the-china-chats-surveill...

http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1001621/chinese-people-trust-t...

I believe the article is wrong. It uses Foxconn as an example despite the fact that Foxconn is a Taiwanese company that suffers all the conditions that the author mentions: Chinese spying, Chinese sanctions against Taiwan and vice versa, etc. for years. China and Taiwan are even still technically at war. However, Foxconn has been in China since 1988 and is very big in China.

In my mind the real killer has been increasing costs, China's manufacturing decline has been showing signs since 2016, and is more related to increased labour costs and increased pollution regulations. The trade war is just another final nail in the coffin. The "China conundrum" or manufacturing moving out of China has been happening for a while, its just people haven't paid much attention to it until now. The decline would have happened even without the trade war.

Seen a couple of my friends and family with these, never really thought about where they came from though, quite interesting to see how big it is

I think the issue is that they wanted to first identify and test the idea first. If you add in humans, you have to find volunteers and then waivers because no one is really willing to hang around in the nude and get bit by horseflies for a day.

As well for humans, you will have to consider demographical data and other data like gender, height, weight, body fat, in general how healthy the human is etc. which lead to even more questions.

Using just the models can mitigate these concerns

Yea it's basically applied game theory because you are never sure if another player wants to cooperate and if they truly mean to cooperate or are just waiting to backstab you once your guard is lowered so you end up competing against others for your own interests even though cooperation is the best outcome.

This is probably a better explanation by the guys at Bigthink:

https://bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/the-dark-forest-theory...

Vice had made several videos of the Ebola outbreak, they showed that there is a lack of trust in govts among the population as govts tend to be corrupt or ineffective so there is even groups of people who believe Ebola was a govt hoax, not sure if they still hold the same views but it shows the complexity of the situation.

I actually tried this out once when I noticed floor lamps of similar quality and make being sold for $100 on Amazon were being sold for $40 on Walmart. I then realized why more people didn't arbitrage large items when I tried to fit 10 floor lamps in my car.

Of note is that large tech companies are becoming prestige careers too.

I'm interested in buying these shoes as a consumer, auto-lacing actually seems like a wonderful app even though it does sound like overkill

I think another way of looking at it is the same way people try to avoid taxes.

In China, with the One-Child policy, you would be fined heavily for having more than one child (now the limit is two). However there will be scenarios where rural and poorer folks have more children so they will under-report or even neglect to report the size of their children because they don't want to be hit with heavy fines. The disadvantage is however that extra children won't be officially registered and have a hukou and won't enjoy official protections of a Chinese citizen. On the other side of the spectrum, very rich to rich Chinese can pay for the fines and thus might choose to have 2 or more children because the fines are not that expensive to them. I have observed both scenarios when I was in China.

Note that there are exceptions to the original one-child policy, ethnic minorities don't need to abide by the one-child policy and rural parents whose first child is a daughter can have an extra child. As well, people from the previous generation who don't have siblings can have two children to make up for the lack of people in their family.

Thus the official numbers will have to be taken with a grain of salt in the same manner people and companies report their taxes as there will be individuals with more than one child who under-report to not incur fines.

Nigeria had the highest rate of deforestation in the world in 2005. Apparently a lot of it is really people cutting down wood for fuel and desertification stepping in, so essentially its woods replaced by desert. As well, govt. doesn't have much regulations on stopping people cutting wood.

Sounds like a tragedy of the commons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_in_Nigeria

What do they mean by corruption? Bribery, embezzlement or some sort of cronyism through connections?

Marie Kondo's marketing has been quite viral, I have not heard of this person 2 weeks before whereas now everyday I see a reference to Marie Kondo and tidying up.

I've never understood why people are so insecure about Chinese companies or East Asian companies rising up, given that the world is 1/5 Chinese and even more East Asians, of course there are going to be large and prosperous Chinese companies because if they can manage to scale to dominate the Chinese market, they can thrive on their internal markets alone. Doesn't have to be just American companies dominating another nation's market. (Same with India and South Asia)

Japanese companies still buy up American companies just like American companies buy up Japanese. Indeed, the job search company was bought for a billion dollars by a Japanese company. Sony PlayStation, Nintendo and the car companies are doing better than ever. It's just it's no longer in people's eyes or really news anymore.

It's also why Starbucks, KFC and Apple have been aggressively growing in China cos there is such a great market in China and East Asia in general.

I believe Pokemon cards, other trading cards and sneakers are all valuable collectible markets as well

Pre-college education separates a lot of things into grades and whatnot, a lot of the subjects can be (if one is interest in doing so) condensed or one can just study all day for several weeks. I remember summer terms in college and they basically condensed a whole semester of 4 months into 2 weeks.

The pricing depends on demand and supply, Airbnb doesn't set the prices, it can recommend prices, however the final decision is with the hosts.

So in a place with a lot of demand and little supply, the prices tend to be high and vice versa. Airbnb pricing is really a small projection of your local housing and rental market. I've managed to find cheaper places to stay on Airbnb than hotels and vice versa.

Source: https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/125/how-is-the-price-dete...

Note that Airbnb does take a service fee, but in reality so does your hotel.

Should be pretty reliable metric, they're not an asset-heavy company (aka they don't own a lot of property etc.) so depreciation isn't likely to be a major part of their expenses anyway.

Most companies are evaluated based on EBITDA as well anyways

I actually read Chinese sci-fi light novels, although a lot of it is trash, there are good ones that come out.

I think with traditional publishing, it's hard to get your book in but easier once you get in. Whereas with self-publishing on the web, it's easier to get in but harder to maintain because of the many demands from readers.

The first sentence is probably parsed wrong, Chinese fairy/mythological novels are very popular in China, they've surpassed Chinese martial arts novels which has broken my heart because the fairy/mythological novels suck: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xianxia_novel

Note 仙 can mean fairy in Chinese, they are part of the Chinese category known as 仙侠 or 玄幻，which is Asian/Chinese themed fantasy that differs from Western fantasy novels because its about Taoism/Buddhism, Chinese dragons, demons, immortals and Chinese legends.

As well Chinese magical fantasy or 奇幻 is still alive and well but they're basically Western fantasy genres written by Chinese people with similar ideas of Kings, Queens, Western Dragons.

Then you might like Han Song

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Song_(writer)

CCP thrives on atheism, most Chinese science fiction novels actually are also non or anti-religion which wins them points in the censor department. At least I've read several post-2015 Chinese sci-fi and whenever religion comes up, the religious figures are always greedy, corrupt and using their religious title for power, "polygamous-cultish" or fanatically stupid.

Although the ones I've read have been remixing Cthulhu with Cyberpunk so I might be digressing. Also note that most Chinese modern sci-fi now begin life as internet and web forum novels because the web is the most important and fast-spreading medium for Chinese fiction readers now.

As well, near-future sci-fi and most importantly those kind of TV shows are pretty much banned in China.

They're like amusement parks in a way so the repeat customers are more spaced out but people will come back due to the memories and bring different people with them.

Also customers come back when themes change for the rooms or the room is redesigned.

Yea, it's a sort of transition that mitigates usage of the straw, right now plastic cups served at fast food restaurants have both a cap and a straw. I think it could be easier for customers to accept just having a cap right now and then later on removing the cap as well and drinking from just a cup.

Wonder what would happen if plastic bags and straws were just no longer used, I already pack my groceries in a school bag when I go shopping because the plastic bags are flimsy.

Straws aren't also necessary, I don't drink coffee I buy with a straw and I'm managing fine. Soft drinks can probably just have those coffee caps and then gradually transition.

I think the real benefit might be considering the price difference.

Do you go for this or still commit to eternally buying makeup

It does match the definition of a robot as based on this dictionary's second definition: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/robot

There was also likely a long process for awards, its a pretty scumbag move to suddenly just not give the award/honor after announcing it, I can imagine my anger too if someone was going to give me an award and then not. CES is in the wrong here, they've been quite unprofessional.

The lady does sound a bit too dramatic but I imagine she is pissed, that's all.

The channel is hosted by a fan but owned by the girl, she uploads her actual content to a short-video site

The article is well-researched, however it misses several details of why people promote Mandarin so much.

Mandarin has been promoted since imperial Chinese times because the emperors, their administration and all officials wanted to understand each other without translators, hence Mandarin or 官话 (language of the officials or "Mandarins") was used when you wanted to communicate properly to officials more senior or junior to you and it thus became prestigious by association.

The reason why it is promoted so heavily to now and sometimes in a degrading manner towards local languages is so that Chinese people can actually communicate with each other even if they're not from the same region.

If you can only speak a local language and not something like Mandarin or occasionally Cantonese, you're looked down because it is like a US person who can't speak English and only some incomprehensible "redneck" language (pardon my rudeness, just an example).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese