China

What does the TikTok ban mean?

This entry was posted in Censorship and tagged censorship China Internet TikTok on by

Biden signed a bill banning access to an Internet service. The Supreme Court has upheld the ban, ruling in effect that claiming “national security” overrides the First Amendment. What happens next isn’t clear, but the sloppy news reports I’ve seen indicate that it could be worse than I thought. The law doesn’t do much directly to ByteDance, which is a foreign company. It’s really a ban on what businesses in the USA can do.

CNN’s report is typically sloppy and alarming in what it suggests.
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Marvel abets Chinese censorship

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged censorship China Disney Marvel MCU on by

The ruler of the world’s second most powerful country feels so insecure that he has to ban mentions of Winnie the Pooh because some people think there’s a resemblance. It would be laughable except for the real-world consequences. I’m sure none of the panels at the Chengdu Worldcon discussed Milne’s character. You also aren’t allowed to discuss it in an online game called Marvel Rivals. The use of a long list of words and phrases is flagged as inappropriate in game chat. Among the phrases Marvel won’t let you use are “Winnie the Pooh,” “Pooh,” “Tiananmen,” “1989,” and “Free Taiwan.” Ironically, Disney, which owns Marvel, also owns the animated version of Winnie the Pooh. So Disney has acquiesced in censoring the mention of its own property.
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The coming TikTok security disaster

This entry was posted in Censorship Commentary and tagged censorship China TikTok on by

As I’m writing this, the US is set to ban applications that access TikTok’s Internet service on January 19. What no one is talking about is the security nightmare that will result.

The ban won’t forbid access to TikTok; it will just forbid the preferred way to access it. App stores in the US won’t be allowed to offer the client application. Lots of other sources will still offer it. Some will be legitimate. Others will put up Trojan Horse applications. Scammers will target users trying to keep access to their accounts. A lot of devices will be infiltrated with malware.
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“Glory to Hong Kong” on SoundCloud

This entry was posted in Music and tagged China freedom music on by

Apple and Spotify, groveling before China’s government, have reportedly taken down the song “Glory to Hong Kong” worldwide. I don’t know what to make of this, as I can still find the song on both platforms. It may be just the original DGX version that’s been taken down, which seems pointless from a censorship standpoint. Maybe it takes longer to go after the cover performances.

Whatever is happening, it’s something people can push back against. I’d like to see a hundred thousand recordings uploaded to the Web, so the censors will find themselves playing a futile game of Whack-a-Mole. For my part, I’ve written and recorded a piano arrangement of “Glory to Hong Kong” to SoundCloud. As far as I know, they haven’t banned the song, at least in the USA. In China, even instrumental performances can get the performer arrested.
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Samantha Mills repudiates 2023 Hugo

This entry was posted in News and tagged censorship China conventions fandom science fiction on by

Samantha Mills, winner of the 2023 Hugo Award for “best short story,” has repudiated her award in the light of the censorship scandal. She wrote:

Looking at the information we currently have, it’s hard for me to conclude anything other than: I shouldn’t have been on that ballot. …
 
I spent this morning logging into my various accounts and taking “Hugo” out of my bio. There are almost certainly going to be places it was printed that I miss, so my apologies for that. Here’s the most embarrassing one: my novel already went to the printer and it has “Hugo winner” on the cover. Fucking mortifying!

Update, Feb. 23, 2024: Adrian Tchaikovsky has repudiated his Hugo. “I cannot consider myself a Hugo winner and will not be citing the 2023 award result in my biographical details, or on this site.”

The Hugo cover-up

This entry was posted in Commentary News Writing and tagged China conventions fandom science fiction on by

It’s out in the open now: Legitimate Hugo Award candidates were disqualified because of Chinese censorship. A collection of internal email, posted on Document Cloud, shows that the committee reviewed “anything of a sensitive political nature.” Dave McCarty was specific about the reasons:

In addition to the regular technical review, as we are happening in China and the *laws* we operate under are different … we need to highlight anything of a sensitive political nature in the work. [Ellipses in the original]

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Another story of the Chengdu Worldcon 2

This entry was posted in News and tagged China fandom science fiction on by

This weekend, I heard a remarkable account from a science fiction writer who wanted to go to the Chengdu Worldcon. He was talking to a small group of people including me, but I don’t know if he wants it publicized, so I’ll omit his name.

To go to China you need a visa, which requires going through a Chinese embassy. He made his application and, as requested, listed his professional affiliations. One of them, not surprisingly, was SFWA. He was asked what the abbreviation stood for and explained it’s “Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.” (The name has changed once or twice while keeping the abbreviation.) This got some alarmed responses, and he was told they’d have to get back to him. The process dragged on without a decision. Finally, a few weeks before the con, he withdrew his application so he wouldn’t have a denied visa request on is record.
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The Tianwen project

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged censorship China science fiction on by

File 770 has a fascinating article, “Decoding the Tianwen Project”, about the Chinese government’s aims to achieve a dominant position in the science fiction world. The piece is “posted anonymously to protect the author’s identity, as the author is part of the Chinese diaspora who occasionally travels to China.”

China has already engaged in censorship outside its borders through its print shops. It pressured Disney into killing nearly all the distribution of Kundun, which presents the Dalai Lama favorably and Mao unfavorably. A CNN article says China has “the world’s largest known online disinformation operation.”
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Hugo nominees mysteriously declared ineligible

This entry was posted in Censorship Commentary News and tagged censorship China conventions fandom science fiction on by

The detailed statistics for the 2023 Hugo Awards voting are finally out, and they’ve triggered a controversy. A number of nominees were declared ineligible without explanation.

Kevin Standlee, who has played important roles in running many fan conventions, noted:

An overwhelming majority of the members of WSFS who voted on the site of the 2023 Worldcon (at the 2021 Worldcon in DC) selected Chengdu, China as the host of the 2023 Worldcon. That meant that the members of WSFS who expressed an opinion accepted that the convention would be held under Chinese legal conditions. Furthermore, those people (including me) who suggested that there might be election irregularities were overridden, shouted down, fired from their convention positions, and told that they were evil and probably racist for even suggesting such a thing.

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Coping with Chinese disinformation 1

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged China research writing on by

When researching and writing material about China, you have to be aware of the Chinese government’s disinformation efforts. People who speak out against it are apt to be the targets of systematic insults and character assassination. If you’re operating on a small level, you probably won’t be bothered. Even though my articles on boycotting the Chengdu Worldcon did well in the search engines, I’ve received only one clear threat with a Chinese connection.

CNN has reported on “the world’s largest known online disinformation operation”:

The Chinese government has built up the world’s largest known online disinformation operation and is using it to harass US residents, politicians, and businesses—at times threatening its targets with violence. …

The onslaught of attacks – often of a vile and deeply personal nature – is part of a well-organized, increasingly brazen Chinese government intimidation campaign targeting people in the United States, documents show.

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