Hong Kong demos throw Beijing propaganda machine into overdrive - Polidicks

[t]http://imgkk.com/i/spui.jpg[/t] [url]https://au.news.yahoo.com/technology/a/25157969/hong-kong-demos-throw-beijing-propaganda-machine-into-over/[/url] [quote]Fearful of comparisons to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, Beijing has launched a dual effort to suppress news of swelling pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong while giving a heavy spin to what information it allows to get through, analysts say. Scenes of the massive, yet peaceful, protests that have taken over the streets of the former British colony are being flashed around the world, where the reaction has been mostly supportive. On the Chinese mainland, however, the story is being spun to match a different narrative -- one in which the demonstrators are "violent", "extreme" and being manipulated by foreign forces. A front-page story on the protests in Monday's Chinese-language edition of the Global Times tabloid showed not scenes of demonstrators being tear-gassed at close range, but rather rows of police officers trying to keep a surging crowd of protesters at bay. And in what experts say is a record clampdown on social media, news has adhered strictly to the party line, with the ruling Communist Party's censors working to erase social media postings from protesters in Hong Kong or any criticism -- at home and abroad -- directed at Beijing. Viewers watching international broadcasters CNN and BBC in Beijing have seen their screens go dark as soon as the Hong Kong protests are mentioned, for as long as five minutes at a time. "There's very little information aside from the official point of view that you can find that lasts very long," said Jeremy Goldkorn, the founder of Danwei, a Beijing-based firm that tracks Chinese media and Internet. "That doesn't mean that people don't know what's going on, but the messaging is being controlled quite strictly," he added. The photo-sharing app Instagram has been blocked in mainland China since Sunday night when the protests escalated. That put the popular platform in the company of other foreign social media including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube already banned in the country's tightly controlled cyber space.[/quote]

Don't call it a grave, its the future you chose.

Beijing would execute and hang them on display if they were allowed to have their way. At this point there is nothing the world can do to stop a massacre. We're forced to watch from afar and hope Hong Kong has enough push to do what the Tiananmen protesters could only dream of.

[quote]On the Chinese mainland, however, the story is being spun to match a different narrative -- one in which the demonstrators are "violent", "extreme" and being manipulated by foreign forces.[/quote] Yeah, let's flat out lie to people, that's a surefire way to win the support of those who don't trust you.

Cat's already out of the bag, China. Either you nut up and go full tyrant, or you back down and let HK free.

[QUOTE=Midas22;46122842]Don't call it a grave, its the future you chose.[/QUOTE] You've made your bed, now lie in it.

Waiting for unidentified men in green uniform.

China should know that you can't stop information leaking out now with the entire world being connected by social media It's not like pre-Internet where it was rather easy preventing information from seeping through, nowadays there's literally no way to stop it. It's going to leak like it or not

[QUOTE=fruxodaily;46123135]China should know that you can't stop information leaking out now with the entire world being connected by social media It's not like pre-Internet where it was rather easy preventing information from seeping through, nowadays there's literally no way to stop it. It's going to leak like it or not[/QUOTE] Well they probably have control over the network there. They could shut it down but that could be super suspicious and probably make it all worse. China's best hope is give the protesters some minor reforms and hope they go back home/university/abroad

All these news about democracy protests in Hong Kong, but I hear no names. Who are the new "democratic leaders" who want to get into elections and stuff ? Have news mentioned anyone ? Or are they just hiding behind students ?

[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;46123153]Well they probably have control over the network there. They could shut it down but that could be super suspicious and probably make it all worse. China's best hope is give the protesters some minor reforms and hope they go back home/university/abroad[/QUOTE] China has a long standing policy of never giving in with protesters, that's if Tibet is anything to go by. The only way for them to listen is for the entire country to revolt (and I'm not talking about HK itself I'm talking about the mainland too) and for people to enter parliament demanding change [editline]1st October 2014[/editline] but even that would fail

Prepare for flammenwerfers

And then it's easy to wonder how much of our news is manipulated.

[QUOTE=fruxodaily;46123164]China has a long standing policy of never giving in with protesters, that's if Tibet is anything to go by. The only way for them to listen is for the entire country to revolt (and I'm not talking about HK itself I'm talking about the mainland too) and for people to enter parliament demanding change [editline]1st October 2014[/editline] but even that would fail[/QUOTE] Considering that China's military is one of the largest in the world, if not THE largest, you would need a fairly massive defection or else any attempt at a revolt would fail simply because they would not hesitate to rub their own people off the map in the name of their political system.

where on the timeline do you think HK gets independence? before china controls space? [img]http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5d/future_timeline.png[/img] Sucks how the country doesn't even have to chance to decide for itself on independence at the moment, and that's all they want. I fucking hate the censoring of the people trying to get the word out

[QUOTE=Schmaaa;46123176]And then it's easy to wonder how much of our news is manipulated.[/QUOTE] If you read some of the news that the west says about the various problems in the east you can find all sorts of propaganda and sensationalism. Hell, this whole subforum was designed around sensationalist headlines. Edited: I was also based around people killing my merge.

Yeah sometimes you see bias and lies in Western news. But Russian and especially Chinese news is a completely different beast :v:

From political stand point China can afford even using napalm against protesters. They saw what happens if you let protests prolong long enough for clashes reach stalemate (Ukraine), And they saw how world's weak in reaction toward condemantion of military action (Russia) Soo the worst case for China is Hong Kong gets wrecked, World goes mad for a week, Russia supports without questioning anyway, Some lazy sanctions roll in, no real harm done, Russia getting sanctioned for supporting China. China gathers full control of Hong Kong. new tourist t-shirts being printed. Soo at this point i'd say China is more then eager for some "Maidan" alike scenario rolling in, with some radicals taking spotlight, except this time they not going Yanuk around and stomp all protesters at once. Trully sad for common people, in modern world any sort of Civil Protest gets bended toward violence to reach someone elses goals but their.

[QUOTE=Kite_shugo;46123257]where on the timeline do you think HK gets independence? before china controls space? [img]http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5d/future_timeline.png[/img] Sucks how the country doesn't even have to chance to decide for itself on independence at the moment, and that's all they want. I fucking hate the censoring of the people trying to get the word out[/QUOTE] I was expecting Half-Life 3 released to be the last one.

[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;46123153]Well they probably have control over the network there. They could shut it down but that could be super suspicious and probably make it all worse. China's best hope is give the protesters some minor reforms and hope they go back home/university/abroad[/QUOTE] The party is backed into a wall, they either relent and let popular suffrage determine who can run for office or they crack down, or continue to do nothing and continue holding up democracy while the people of hong Kong loose confidence in the government since it neither represents them and further widens the gap between the mainland and them [editline]1st October 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=karimatrix;46123796]From political stand point China can afford even using napalm against protesters. They saw what happens if you let protests prolong long enough for clashes reach stalemate (Ukraine), And they saw how world's weak in reaction toward condemantion of military action (Russia) Soo the worst case for China is Hong Kong gets wrecked, World goes mad for a week, Russia supports without questioning anyway, Some lazy sanctions roll in, no real harm done, Russia getting sanctioned for supporting China. China gathers full control of Hong Kong. new tourist t-shirts being printed. Soo at this point i'd say China is more then eager for some "Maidan" alike scenario rolling in, with some radicals taking spotlight, except this time they not going Yanuk around and stomp all protesters at once. Trully sad for common people, in modern world any sort of Civil Protest gets bended toward violence to reach someone elses goals but their.[/QUOTE] While you're right, I don't think the Ukrainian government and HKs government are suffering the same problems, the protestors just want the mainland to stay out of the HK election while the communists want to carefully control every possible candidate and install a generally mainland-ass kissing government, its basically a turning point, they either back down and loose the chance to continue pushing their indoctrination agenda or let the people get what they want and watch people in the mainland take note, either way the communist party knows its days in power are dangerously short [editline]1st October 2014[/editline] They're not calling for the removal of the current government or revolution but if mismanaged this could get that way but not for a long while

We are really getting into cold war 2 : electric boogaloo with all these protests and shit flaring up around the world

[quote]Viewers watching international broadcasters CNN and BBC in Beijing have seen their screens go dark as soon as the Hong Kong protests are mentioned, for as long as five minutes at a time.[/quote] Very smooth censorship, I'm sure they don't even notice it!

[QUOTE=AntonioR;46123161]All these news about democracy protests in Hong Kong, but I hear no names. Who are the new "democratic leaders" who want to get into elections and stuff ? Have news mentioned anyone ? Or are they just hiding behind students ?[/QUOTE] There are no "leaders"

[QUOTE=Midas22;46122842]Don't call it a grave, its the future you chose.[/QUOTE] I know what you're referencing, but did Hong Kong really have a say on whether or not they integrate with China? Because if they did then yeah, they made their choice and this is the obvious result of making it.

I currently live in China. The censorship and propaganda is quite potent. Your average person knows little about what's actually happening. You can ask them for an opinion, and they'll give you blank statement like "Oh, it's really bad.".

From what I understand, however, there are ways around the great firewall of china, mainly through VPN's. Also, I hear that china is making their own linux based OS since "Windows and mac weren't secure enough" Who is willing to bet their "secure" os will be filled with loopholes to let the government spy on you?