Re: China -- the fragile glimmer of freedom

At 12:10 AM 2/16/96, Bryce wrote: ...
For people who spewed forth hundreds of articles of rants when the toothless CDA outlawed lewdity and advice about abortion, and for people who bravely and promptly took action to protect the free speech of a <contempt>Holocaust denier</contempt>, the cpunks have been noticeably silent about this much more cruel and widespread repression.
Perhaps you think that the compliant Chinese person is satisfied with his or her role as lackey of his government? Or is it that we and the Asians inhabit such different worlds that we will have to make do without each other's help?
Well, where are the posts from outraged Cypherpunks living in the People's Republic of China? Some countries are so far gone, so deep in the muck of statism, that nothing their governments do is very surprising. Ranting about how bad things are in some country is not very meaningful. Supplying them with tools is more meaningful. However, given that I know of no list members living in the PRC, nor even any in soon-to-be-assimilated Hong Kong, I'm not sure what the point is. I don't know about others, but I think the focus should be on the folks who are salvageable, not the billion or so Chinese or the hundreds of millions of Islamic women awaiting their clitorectomies and bowing toward Mecca for guidance. Fact is that 90%+ of all list members are in the United States, and 97%+ are in the so-called "Western world." We have a chance to deploy strong crypto, the residents of Nepal and Singapore do not. (By mentioning Singapore, I will get insulting e-mail, as I did last time, furiously declaring Singapore to be a haven of freedom, free from the corrupt thoughts of decadent imperialist empires, and secure in the knowledge that Lee Kuan Yu (sp?) knows what is best for all of his children.) But if a branch of Cypherpunks wants to start up in Beijing, I'll send them some complimentary copies of my "Crypto Anarchist Manifesto" to pass out to local Party members! --Tim May Boycott espionage-enabled software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
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