Teen Killed At Chinese Internet Addiction Camp 334
eldavojohn writes "Sixteen-year-old Deng Senshan was tragically beaten to death by three of his instructors in an internet addiction camp in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China. Reportedly it was for not being able to run fast enough. An article in the Wall Street Journal says that, 'China's netizens have played a key role in drawing nationwide attention to recent cases of deaths in prisons and detention centers, so it should be no surprise that they are up in arms over the fate of one of their own. Many questioned the fairly new diagnosis of "Internet addiction" as a mental disorder.' You may recall electroshock treatment being banned from use on internet addicts in China. According to Xinhua, more than 100 juveniles remain in 'treatment' at the camp, which has stayed open. Perhaps for Senshan it would have been better to let him endure his cruel affliction instead of having his parents pay over $1,000 to have him beaten to death?"
Don't worry (Score:5, Funny)
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He only last 1 day. Poor kid got ganked. Damn pvp.
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PvP? Sounds more like he got banned for failure to follow an ever-changing ToS.
Re:Don't worry (Score:5, Funny)
Go to high school, get a course on religion (Score:3, Funny)
Hindus believe that you respawn on the same server but the new character type and class depend on your current Karma rating.
For some reason, I feel that I will do fine when I respawn as a troll.
Re:Go to high school, get a course on religion (Score:4, Funny)
Respawning as a troll is too good for an Anonymous Cowardon.
Upshot (Score:5, Funny)
On the upshot, that kid is no longer addicted to gaming...
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He obviously forgot to use his speed buff.
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Yeah, that sounds exactly the same as killing someone.
In New York City, you can get an airline/bus/train ticket out of town if you are homeless, so long as there is something awaiting you at the destination. This seems like common sense to me... send people back to where their support structure is. Even the most fucked up people usually have SOMEONE who still cares about them.
Beware (Score:5, Funny)
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I'm so ronery
So ronery
So ronery and sadry arone
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..and we shall call it 'internet subtraction'.
Meet the new China...same as the old China (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps for Senshan it would have been better to let him endure his cruel affliction instead of having his parents pay over $1,000 to have him beaten to death?
And knowing China, they probably also charged his parents for the cost of the stick used to beat him.
Also, I don't know much about these "internet addiction" facilities. Are we talking about people who spend too much time playing WoW, or dissidents who use the internet for communication? Somehow I'm seeing this as being a gulag for political prisoners, but maybe that's just me being cynical.
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Re:Meet the new China...same as the old China (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, they usually don't kill their victims. That's usually reserved for kids that are suspected of being "gay".
I love this, because some of us here actually broke the barriers, and straight guys are actually standing up for gay guys. It's awesome, because when you see some kid getting hit and beaten until he's bruised and bleeding, you can pretty much walk up, grab a nearby metal stick, and start busting people in the face for being assholes. It's always fun to rip the shit out of people for being total dickwads, you don't have to be gay to enjoy that!
Actually it's funny, people might still think you're a faggot for standing up for a faggot; but you can beat them into a bloody mass, so who gives a fuck what they think anyhow? If they want to do something about it... well, they can't, there's that whole beaten-to-a-bloody-mass thing when they jump you in the alley.
Not being an asshole has many advantages.....
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you can pretty much walk up, grab a nearby metal stick, and start busting people in the face for being assholes. It's always fun to rip the shit out of people for being total dickwads, you don't have to be gay to enjoy that!
You know... lawful evil is not all that much better than chaotic evil =)
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Yeah, but until they get enough power to bend the laws their way, which one would you rather have living next door?
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Who cares if someone thinks you're gay?
Anyone who's a decent human being IMO doesn't give a shit what other people think about their sexual orientation. I'd stand up for anyone who's getting the shit beat outta them.
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I was born a poor, geeky child... really. My Momma told us,"When there's a difference in size, equalize." She didn't care what we did to them as long as her little boys came home alive. That shit hole town in Texas definitely taught me to be a cut-throat, mean-ass, sonofabitch in a fight.
Re:Meet the new China...same as the old China (Score:5, Interesting)
So, given conditions in China (those parents are bound to be away working more than the typical parents here), as well as how addicting those games really are, and that Chinese parents generally really do want their kids to 'succeed', I really can see parents sending kids off to Internet (or Gaming) addiction camp. I mean hell, we have Fat Camps in North America to deal with our problem with obese kids, they have Internet Addiction Camps to deal with their problem with kids gaming way too much. This is no excuse for abuse and killing the poor kid. That shit's fucking horrible. Fuckers should be put in jail. And I think they will be. China might be a totalitarian government, but they still have to pretend to care.
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China might be a totalitarian government, but they still have to pretend to care.
No, they have to care. Otherwise, there'll be unrest all over, and the minority groups like the Uyghurs and Tibetans will take advantage of the situation to cause more problems. Local governments aren't necessarily subject to the same restrictions as the central government, but if things start getting too ridiculous, the low-level politicans in charge will pay.
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... and forget about girls
You must be new here
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Maybe there are some camps that are gulags. But I think the majority of the cases are 'legit'.
It's not like the same thing doesn't happen in the US. A kid in Florida died after being beaten by his boot camp instructors. The beating was even caught on tape. The murderers got off scot free [go.com].
At least that incident prompted Florida to close its boot camps. Hopefully this incident will get China to close its camps.
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Is he actually the first person who has died? (Score:5, Insightful)
I can only wonder if there have been other deaths in this program that did not make the news.
Re:Is he actually the first person who has died? (Score:5, Interesting)
The poor kid didn't even make it one day, yet the camp took a stand much like the Chinese government, denying that anything happened and that the kid had a fever. Apparently in China fevers involve a bruised/bloodied face and handcuffs. China has had attention called to it's human rights violations before, now that we are seeing the murder of a child that didn't do anything wrong in worldwide news, maybe we'll start seeing global pressure on China to change their ways a bit.
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Maybe. The problem is that many westerners are comfortable with harsh treatment for people they have mentally classified as 'bad'.
For example, see the blase attitude of many Americans towards prison rape and so forth.
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China has had attention called to it's human rights violations before, now that we are seeing the murder of a child that didn't do anything wrong in worldwide news, maybe we'll start seeing global pressure on China to change their ways a bit.
Dear China,
Please stop killing the internet addicts. We really need the money that you're loaning to us to finance our bailout and people may become a little uncomfortable if they ever link our financial system with murder in their little heads. While the chances of this are remote, and the chances of them actually boycotting Chinese made goods even less, it would still make our lives and our re-elections campaigns much easier if you could stop, or at least cover up better, these little murders.
Thank y
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maybe we'll start seeing global pressure on China to change their ways a bit.
you're new, here, aren't you?
2000lb gorillas don't take to 'rational talk' and china does not listen to the world.
if we stopped buying walmart goods for a month, they'd listen. but the US won't do that. we need cheap goods that break quickly and are unsafe! china to the rescue.
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The father is rich, well-connected to the police, and hellbent on getting the word out, yet he couldn't even get more than the most basic details of the crime. It's an extremely sad state of affairs.
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The father is rich, well-connected to the police, and hellbent on getting the word out, yet he couldn't even get more than the most basic details of the crime.
And this probably answers the question posed in this thread's title. If a rich, well-connected father has to fight the "blue wall of silence", what chance have other parents who aren't so rich and/or well-connected?
Whenever you find only the powerful being successful at publicising bad news, you should assume that you're just seeing the "tip of the i
Internet Addiction? What a Farce. (Score:3, Informative)
I can only wonder if there have been other deaths in this program that did not make the news.
Probably. What I can't believe is that no one seems to be questioning the assumptions of this nonsense (or if they are, the media in its usual incompetent or complicit way is ignorning it): that internet addiction even exists, period.
The very concept is farcical. Like "television addiction", there may be people whose lifestyles are too sedentary, whose lives center more on the couch or computer than most of us are
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for what? (Score:5, Funny)
Reportedly it was for not being able to run fast enough
If only China had the same attitude towards Windows...
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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I wonder what the trade deficit would be if they actually respected our intellectual property and paid the going rate for it instead of stealing it?
Good point. It's also ironic since most of /. would have you believe that piracy isn't stealing, and yet their own lives might be noticeably better if stated countries paid for, instead of pirated, American software.
Think about what the economy would look like!
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are you sure there'd be much difference. The cost of Windows 7 in China is quite low [china.org.cn] at $60. I couldn't comment on how many Chinese will pirate it anyway.
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$60 x 1.3 billion = a lot of cash, even for a company like Microsoft.
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Doncha think? (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder what the trade deficit would be if they actually respected our intellectual property and paid the going rate for it instead of stealing it?
Good point. It's also ironic since most of /. would have you believe that piracy isn't stealing, and yet their own lives might be noticeably better if stated countries paid for, instead of pirated, American software.
Ironic? I don't know if that's the right word for it. That is nothing like rain on your wedding day, for instance.
I mean, look - yes, some people take that stance, that software piracy isn't "stealing". That point alone is just splitting hairs over terminology. The choice of words there is designed to make people sympathize with the copyright holders, and I think people don't always appreciate that sort of spin.
And then also consider - when we have a stance on what we consider right and wrong, in princi
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But I fail to understand the fixation with the trade deficit that many people have - do you also worry about people in Illinois pirating windows and hence the trade deficit between IL and WA? If not, why should one arbitrary political boundary matter more than another?
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do you also worry about people in Illinois pirating windows and hence the trade deficit between IL and WA? If not, why should one arbitrary political boundary matter more than another?
I don't know, has Illinois borrowed a few trillion dollars from Washington?
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China doesn't have the same values about IP as the US does. But they pay for tangibles, i.e. material property and skilled labor. Construction projects are built with US and European equipment and managed by US and European contractors. So they do pay for intellectual property, just not in the same way.
Why don't you complain about the consumerism and runaway consumption that's the cause of the trade deficit in the first place? That's a far bigger problem, because so long as that mentality pervades, then the
Motivational cooking (Score:2)
If a sauce is supposed to run when poured, but doesn't, beating it never helps. Simmering over low heat is a much better option.
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So... what you're saying is, they should have lit a fire under him?
Life Imitates Art (Score:5, Funny)
When I saw this, I couldn't help but think about the classical Rowan Atkinson sketch [youtube.com].
Did anyone notice the cost? (Score:5, Funny)
Does anyone else see the irony in sending a bunch of computer nerds to camp, and charging them a nice even binary number to do it?
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I don't think 7 is a binary number. Er, a number involved in binary.
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0 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024 2048 4096
One of these is not a power of 2.
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None of these is in Yuan....
Re:Did anyone notice the cost? (Score:4, Funny)
Duh.
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One of those is (still) not a power of two.
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> FTA: "Deng Fei paid the camp 7,000 yuan ($1,024) for one month of training."
I wonder, if he's gonna get a refund now...:
"Dear Sir,
due to lesser than anticipated expenses regarding the training of your son we're very happy to confirm an immediate charge-back of 6947 Yuan (7000Y - 50Y/1 day lodging - 2Y/wooden stick - 1Y/floor-cleaning solution) to your credit card. To adjust for certain inconveniences we'd further like to send you these '50% OFF' attendance vouchers which your other children can take ad
Courtesy of /g/ (Score:5, Funny)
Did he drop any good items?
Communist China... (Score:5, Funny)
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Wrong country, right joke. Still delightfully offensive.
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Only when it is funny.
China Strong (Score:2)
Reminds me of this gem:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/china_strong [theonion.com]
Not just China (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not just China (Score:4, Interesting)
What is amazing, is that the guy that started all this continues, and that nobody really care.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/09/us/boot-camps-proponent-becomes-focus-of-critics.html?pagewanted=all [nytimes.com]
I'd be the parent of one of the dead kids, I'd lodge a bullet into that asshole's head, whatever the cost would be.
(flame)
Of course, customers of those camps are religious families, so they mostly sit there, whining about the loss, but still thanking god for His Impenetrable Ways. Morons. Ooops. Sorry.
(/flame)
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If you're referring to Cartesano, he didn't start it (though he did help popularize so-called "wilderness" therapy). The whole industry (wider spectrum including actual boot camps, RTCs, etc...) started in Southern California from a little cult known as Synanon [culthelp.info] which was based on AA. Most of the parents aren't religious either and this is hardly a religious issue at all. The parents are conned and scared; told that their kids will be dead insane or in jail without the program. When people are desperate
Hrm. (Score:5, Funny)
"Reportedly it was for not being able to run fast enough."
Isn't that the reason why anyone gets beaten to death?
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> "Reportedly it was for not being able to run fast enough."
I told him to press Shift...but NOOOoooooooo!
"I was a Chinese Internet Addict" article (Score:3, Informative)
Wha? (Score:2)
When I was little, we had "internet addiction camp" too. We called it, "Camp." There were all kinds of activities from learning about native american myths, to swimming, sailing, ropes courses, firearms, hikes...
So many things to pique your interest in activity. How could anyone want to waste a lot of time in "second" life when they could be living real life?
happens too often at US reform schools too (Score:2)
Sad (Score:5, Insightful)
I liked these "Internet Addiction Camps" better when they were called "Summer Camp".
Seriously, when I got too into games as a kid (Dragon Warrior 3, Wizardry 2, and Final Fantasy 2 being the early ones) my mother just walked in, hit the power button, and told me to go outside and not come back in until the sun was down.
Why is this such a hard concept? Is it an asian culture thing? I mean, think of Japan. You have hikikomoris, sitting in the dark in their rooms, with parents enabling them by just feeding them sliced cheese through the crack under the door. China and Kroea have people literally playing video games until their bladders burst and they die.
Granted, A+ for effort but big fat F for common sense, eh?
Is "He'll leave the room when he gets hungry enough" or "Just turn off the freaking router" such a hard concept?
Re:er...uh...okay (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:er...uh...okay (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:internet addiction camp (Score:2)
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i'm sure there are holidays camps or scouts or whatever goes hiking away from wifi
In China? Maybe. I don't really know what is available for kids in China. However, if we're talking about clinical addiction, such a simplistic view of a cure is just as bad as this approach. I'll agree that parents are likely to blame because they are the most likely enabler for the addicted child. But once you have reached clinical addiction levels, it is extremely difficult to break, and most people will struggle with it for most of their lives.
Re:er...uh...okay (Score:5, Insightful)
There is a larger problem. Chinese parents _paid_ money to send their kids into these needless camps to be "cured" of this so called "internet addiction". It's exactly the same as how American parents _paid_ money to send their kids into these needless camps to be "cured" of homosexuality. In the end, it's those panicky, ill informed, and lazy parents who entrust others with their children without actually bother doing proper research on the subject matter, the people who operate the camp, and their own children that cause pointless deaths like this. I am rather disappointed in the Chinese population today. In all honesty, learning from the western culture doesn't mean they should replicate mistakes in the western cultures too.
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Just because China has a "communist" government doesn't mean they murder children at random. The Cold War is over, you can come outside now.
They are murderers and it has nothing to do with the label they stick on it on their government; they're a totalitarian regime.
Re:er...uh...okay (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:er...uh...okay (Score:5, Insightful)
Look people, tragedies happen all the time. For every poor kid beaten to death in China at a "gaming addiction recovery camp", there's thousands more dying of starvation and illnesses in other parts of the world.
This isn't news. This is China. Do you expect differently?
So because the numbers are small, we should ignore it? If you were raped and murdered we could go to the police with your logic and say, "Look, for every person raped and murdered thousands die in automobile accidents on the streets so don't waste your time with this case."
The fact that 'internet addiction' is ill defined and that this was a CHILD not an adult and the fact that it's government run should cause alarm bells to ring even if it is only one case. How do you know the action of beating children is not commonplace and applied to thousands of so called "internet addicts"? How do you know this isn't an attempt to weed out would-be dissidents at an early age?
Your compliance amazes me. Yes, hunger and starvation is a problem but so is this we can report about this on Slashdot and read about hunger and food shortages on CNN.
I'm sorry but "this is China" does not cause me to close my eyes to unalienable human rights that every human being in the world deserves!
Re:er...uh...okay (Score:5, Insightful)
You fucking hypocrite. You are sitting on /. typing your rant on a computer that was largely made with Chinese parts/labor, probably wearing shoes/clothing that were made in China and god knows what else. I'm sorry but you don't get to throw stones when you live in a glass house.
I submitted this story in an attempt to raise awareness in our community about a death in an internet addiction camp. Who knows how many others there have been prior to this? And what, stone thrower, have you done?
... not pushing my ideals and isms on the sovereign people of China. Basic human rights are the only thing I push and I'm prepared to argue that.
And now you're criticizing me for purchasing Chinese products? What the hell does that have to do with this? You think the solution is for us to band together and boycott Chinese products? Do you really believe that causing their economic structure to collapse would be the answer? Did trade embargoes work for North Korea and pre-war Iraq?
I'm an American citizen, I have no control over the sovereign nation of China. All I can hope to do is get word out to everyone around the world and hopefully spread news to the citizens of China so they take action. A revolution from the outside is meaningless and often dangerous/deadly/destructive.
I don't want Chinese people to suffer, that's it. I don't care if their system is Communist, Capitalist, Dictatorship or Democracy. Get the word out so they fix it. Go ahead and call me a hypocrite but I'm doing what little I can by spreading facts and news
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And now you're criticizing me for purchasing Chinese products? What the hell does that have to do with this?
Many of these products (and/or their parts/ingredients) are manufactured in prison labor camps where many more than one person has died. Not that I disagree with your rant, in general, but you should know that by buying Chinese products you are supporting a system that has killed many more than the unfortunate individual in this article. As such, your outrage over this death seems somewhat suspect,
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If your alarm bells weren't ringing about China long before...
Big "if". Or maybe I should say "really big 'if'". It's like that Twinkie(TM) in Ghostbusters. It's thirty-five feet long, weighing approximately six hundred pounds.
You are sitting on /. typing your rant on a computer that was largely made with Chinese parts/labor, probably wearing shoes/clothing that were made in China and god knows what else. I'm sorry but you don't get to throw stones when you live in a glass house.
Objection, your hon
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You are throwing stones about compliance? You fucking hypocrite. You are sitting on /. typing your rant on a computer that was largely made with Chinese parts/labor, probably wearing shoes/clothing that were made in China and god knows what else. I'm sorry but you don't get to throw stones when you live in a glass house.
These aren't logically related arguments. Though China's method and source of labor is largely tied to the government, one does not definitely rely on the other.
People also fail to understand the many layers and the sheer number of people that make up China's typically oppressive government. Mandates from the "top" can very much take immediate action but within the lesser structure decisions can be met with confusion, disorder and lead to unsightly results. This is probably what caused the mess at Tiananman
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Probably because he was trolling.
Re:er...uh...okay (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't news. This is China. Do you expect differently?
From you? Not really. From people like you, I expect braindead nonsense whenever the subject contains the word "China" or other related subjects.
For the rest of us - I think it is worth noting that TFA mentions that "a police officer" states that "We are investigating a case where a high school student was beaten to death by his camp supervisors. The case is still under investigation" - IOW, a representative of the local officialdom talks openly about this case to a newsagency, in much the same way as a London police officer would, and refuses to give further details because they are still investigating, just like elsewhere in the world.
The reason I feel the need to draw attention to this is, that it seems to escape the attention of some. Do I need to spell it out any further? There is no "Government Coverup" here; no reasons to hate the Chinese for being Chinese.
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Re:er...uh...okay (Score:4, Insightful)
While I agree with most of what you had to say, I find it interesting that *this* makes news on slashdot while hundreds of people in the US are beaten (and sometimes killed) for being gay, but we don't seem to be as outraged. Thousands are routinely abused in mental institutions and elder care facilities (and again, many die) and again, it's not as apparent that slashdotters feel the need to draw attention to it.
Unfortunately, something that happens frequently isn't considered "news", no matter how much of a tragedy it is.
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no reasons to hate the Chinese for being Chinese.
But then how will people justify their xenophobia?
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The article was pretty clear how the kid was sent to the camp: his parents paid about $1,024 to the camp for one month of
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Enjoyment does not equal addiction.
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