Arrested Chinese Blogger "Confesses" On State TV, Praises Censorship 349
Koreantoast writes "As part of a broader, chilling Chinese crackdown on Internet dissent, Chinese blogger Charles Xue appeared on Chinese state television in handcuffs on Sunday, denouncing his blog and praising government censorship. He 'confessed' to becoming drunk on the accumulated power of his Weibo blog, which peaked at 12 million followers, and confessed to recklessly spreading unverified rumors and slander, disrupting social harmony and becoming a vent of negative emotion on mainstream society. He also praised new government legislation cracking down on Internet freedom, stating how dangerous the Internet would be if left uncontrolled by the government. Xue was arrested on prostitution solicitation charges though his television confession did not discuss that. His arrest was also suspiciously around the same time as a broader government sweep that picked up other Chinese Internet activists."
Re:Drudge and other U.S. bloggers are next (Score:0, Informative)
Nope, Feinstein is trying to salvage the US by trying to curb the senseless deaths. If she had her way, there would be 26 little kids still alive going to Sandy Hook Elementary.
If you want to know results, try Venezuela. A year ago, they removed the guns from private citizen's hands because of escalating violence. Their crime rate is now 1/1000 (yes, ten cubed) what it was before the gun ban.
O cruel, needless misunderstanding! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Drudge and other U.S. bloggers are next (Score:5, Informative)
Venezuela's crime rate is 1/1000 of what it was? Why are articles like this http://www.english.rfi.fr/americas/20130619-impunity-leads-soaring-venezuela-crime-rate so easily found?
Re:So, in other words: (Score:2, Informative)
Yeah, you can tell how tortured, beaten, starved, and drugged he was during his broadcasted confession in this video:
http://v.163.com/zixun/V8GAM7JAP/V97SHLBI4.html
Re:Drudge and other U.S. bloggers are next (Score:4, Informative)
I'm not going to pretend Canada is some sort of crime-free nation but the crime index is interesting:
US:53.44
Canada: 34.98
Re:Drudge and other U.S. bloggers are next (Score:2, Informative)
Not so fast:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/jun/24/blog-posting/social-media-post-says-uk-has-far-higher-violent-c/ [politifact.com]
Let's check on that real quick (Score:5, Informative)
The crime rate is 0.001% of what it was pre-ban? So if their crime rate was, say 10 in 100,000 citizens it would now be 1 in 10,000,000 citizens.
Ok well in the first two months of 2013 2500 people were killed. This is just murder here, we aren't looking at lesser crimes right now (http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/venezuelan-government-recognizes-record-murder-rate). That means we can expect around 15,000 murders this year. By your logic, that means there was 15,000,000 murders last year, or over half their population.
However if we do a little more looking, in the same article, we discover that no, there was about 16,000 murders last year, meaning this one looks about the same as the last.
In other words, you are just completely making shit up. If you have to resort to logic that faulty, that far out, that totally made up to support your position, it leads one to ask how valid your position is.
Re:i wonder what they threatened him with (Score:2, Informative)
The bradley manning confession, do you think american people were smart enough to believe it was forced?
Re:Drudge and other U.S. bloggers are next (Score:4, Informative)
See Switzerland. Vastly higher gun possession rate, gun death rate less than half of the US rate.
They have a very different setup from the US.
First: ALL able-bodied male Swiss citizens are drafted into the military around 20. All.
(Do you really want to return to a mandatory draft in the US?)
In the military they get extensive training in weapons safety, weapons handling, following order, etc.
Those with an exemption from service pay an additional 3% of annual income tax until the age of 30.
(So draft, or more taxes. No escape.)
Second: Every male head-of-household (remember, these are now former military) is required to maintain a working firearm. (They have the option of retaining their service weapon, but it is de-milled to remove full-auto operation.) [There is an upper age cutoff for this, I forget what it is.]
So, yes, there are LOTS of guns in Switzerland. But very, very different rules.
Re:Drudge and other U.S. bloggers are next (Score:4, Informative)
Let's compare violent crime rates per 100K people: US 466, UK 2034
A bullshit comparison that has been debunked often before. The definitions used for "violent crime" are totally different in either country, so it is impossible to compare the stats in any sensible way.