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In principle - would you accept work in China?

Called in at Cheers for a pint. I've never been to Boston in the UK, I've driven through it a few times on my way to Skegvegas which probably says something though.
Went to Boston for a 12 hour track race. It was quite an interesting drive there along what felt like endless flat roads connecting nothing with nothing.
 
I would, like a shot. As far as principles are concerned i already work in a mostly fascist state that works to remove human rights and destroys the environment at an alarming rate so not sure what principles would be at risk. But unfortunately I'm sure they have all the bus drivers they need already.
 
This kind of shit is why you shouldn't work in mainland fucking China

Australian journalist Cheng Lei says she spent more than three years in detention in China for breaking an embargo with a television broadcast on a state-run TV network.

Cheng‘s first television interview since she was freed was broadcast in Australia on Tuesday almost a week after she returned to her mother and two children, aged 11 and 14, in the city of Melbourne.

The Chinese-born 48-year-old was an English-language anchor for state-run China Global Television Network in Beijing when she was detained in August 2020.

She said her offense was breaking a government-imposed embargo by a few minutes following a briefing by officials.


 
I work there sometimes, I love it. I think the current governments of the US and the UK are just as immoral as the CCP, which can at least claim to have brought a billion people out of poverty.
 
No, not under any circumstances. Living here, I can call the King a cunt if I so wish, and no one will bat an eyelid. Do similar in China and you will be locked up.

That's before you start looking at the forced labour camps. There are many parallels between modern China and 1930s to mid forties Germany.
 
No, not under any circumstances. Living here, I can call the King a cunt if I so wish, and no one will bat an eyelid. Do similar in China and you will be locked up.

Try expressing support for the Palestinians in the USA.

You're right about the labor camps though.
 
No, not under any circumstances. Living here, I can call the King a cunt if I so wish, and no one will bat an eyelid. Do similar in China and you will be locked up.


They locked these lot up. Albeit just for a night.

We aren’t as bad as China yet but Brexit paved the way by returning sovereignty to those that wish to enslave the masses.

Next step is to leave European Court of Human Rights and then we’re truly on the path to 1984.
 
Like you I've thought about it. I don't think disliking the current regime would put me off, I've travelled and worked and lived in lots of places with shit governments, like the UK for example. I guess if you're talking about a small country and perhaps more wrt tourism that working abroad, there's an argument that your economic contribution is helping to prop up whatever rotten regime is in power (like, I probably wouldn't go on holiday to North Korea), but I can't really see how one more or less computer geek is going to have a significant effect on the world's largest productive economy.

If I did go I'd want to learn Chinese, interact as much as possible socially with the people I met and worked with, and be as open as possible about my views on Western politics (probably going to keep my mouth pretty shut on Chinese politics, more due to a lack of understanding than a fear of going to jail, although probably also that).

Probably missed the boat though, my days of up and leave at a moment's notice are well and truly over.
 
I’m fairly certain you’d get away with calling King Charles a cunt in China also. Not that you would… :p
Well, he's the King. Can't say I'm hugely enthused by him, but he had huge shoes to fill.

He did have a hefty input on the design of the new coins though, so not all bad. :)
 
Well it depends, doesn't it? Who would I be working for, and what would I be doing? I know to some that might sound like a cop-out, but the details matter, dammit.

Practical concerns would be a consideration before questions of principles even arise. I can't speak more than a word of Mandarin and I can't read Chinese characters. I'm unfamiliar with the typical Chinese outlook and I've not had to deal with that level of culture shock before.
 
Well it depends, doesn't it? Who would I be working for, and what would I be doing? I know to some that might sound like a cop-out, but the details matter, dammit.

Practical concerns would be a consideration before questions of principles even arise. I can't speak more than a word of Mandarin and I can't read Chinese characters. I'm unfamiliar with the typical Chinese outlook and I've not had to deal with that level of culture shock before.

Yes, I have huge admiration for those who learn Mandarin as a second language.

When I was doing leave relief in BMH Hong Kong, Med Stores had a Chinese character typewriter. It was a wonder to behold.
 
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I wouldn’t work in PR of China for a chinese company or their government. I might have worked as an English teacher or similar.

I’d love to work in Taiwan.
 
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Try expressing support for the Palestinians in the USA.
These people along with thousands of others have all just expressed support for Palestine in the USA. What is supposed to have happened them according to you?

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These people along with thousands of others have all just expressed support for Palestine in the USA. What is supposed to have happened them according to you?

View attachment 396006



They'll be exiled to Burkina Faso.

Only kidding. This is the kind of thing I mean:

 
No, not under any circumstances. Living here, I can call the King a cunt if I so wish, and no one will bat an eyelid. Do similar in China and you will be locked up.

That's before you start looking at the forced labour camps. There are many parallels between modern China and 1930s to mid forties Germany.
Lots of people would be rather taken aback if you, Scotland's premier royalist, called the king a cunt
 
These people along with thousands of others have all just expressed support for Palestine in the USA. What is supposed to have happened them according to you?

View attachment 396006



Sone people might say that they disagree with them. In sone cases they might do this by shouting nasty words. And this is absolutely identical to be locked up in a reeducation camp and your kids taken away, or executed, your organs harvested and your family billed for the bullet. And if you say it isn’t the same you are a nasty smelly fascist…
 
So a few people lost their jobs over social media posts. Happens every day for a ton of different reasons in a ton of different occupations.

Now that I've cleared that up for you, naturally you'll now be withdrawing your earlier, thoroughly misleading assertion?

It's much more serious than you suggest. There's a concerted, organized campaign to make public criticism of Israel impossible. I believe you've seen signs of it in the UK too. The New York Times is a pro-Zionist paper, but even they're reporting it:

 
What makes you think that?

Many ex-pats have been leaving because they feel that the Chinese government has been cracking down on any discontent. A lot of multi-nationals are leaving because they feel the Chinese government isn't a good, long-term choice. Add to that, the rise of worker protests and a basic lack of ability to redress grievances and you're creating a pressure cooker. Even Apple has pulled up stakes and moved most of their manufacturing to India.

To be fair, the US might unravel dramatically in the next few years too, but I have resources and contacts here to survive if need be.
 
Many ex-pats have been leaving because they feel that the Chinese government has been cracking down on any discontent. A lot of multi-nationals are leaving because they feel the Chinese government isn't a good, long-term choice. Add to that, the rise of worker protests and a basic lack of ability to redress grievances and you're creating a pressure cooker. Even Apple has pulled up stakes and moved most of their manufacturing to India.

To be fair, the US might unravel dramatically in the next few years too, but I have resources and contacts here to survive if need be.

The US is already unravelling, not to say unravelled.

China's about the most stable state I've ever visited. At least it seems that way...
 
The US is already unravelling, not to say unravelled.

China's about the most stable state I've ever visited. At least it seems that way...

Have you accounted for the American cultural tendency to "let it all hang out"? What looks like chaos is sometimes just the US chewing on a problem and figuring a way forward.

The Chinese I've met seem very much the opposite culturally.
 
Many ex-pats have been leaving because they feel that the Chinese government has been cracking down on any discontent. A lot of multi-nationals are leaving because they feel the Chinese government isn't a good, long-term choice. Add to that, the rise of worker protests and a basic lack of ability to redress grievances and you're creating a pressure cooker. Even Apple has pulled up stakes and moved most of their manufacturing to India.

To be fair, the US might unravel dramatically in the next few years too, but I have resources and contacts here to survive if need be.
I thought the bulk of Apple's manufacturing was still in China? Clearly, lots of companies are rethinking their positioning ahead of the (disclaimer: my speculation) coming Taiwan invasion in the next five years...
 
I thought the bulk of Apple's manufacturing was still in China? Clearly, lots of companies are rethinking their positioning ahead of the (disclaimer: my speculation) coming Taiwan invasion in the next five years...

A company that large is going to take a bit to make the transition. From what I've seen of their reports, they're planning on leaving China almost entirely over the next five years.
 
Have you accounted for the American cultural tendency to "let it all hang out"?

The Chinese I've met seem very much the opposite culturally.

True enough on the last bit.

But I've never seen anywhere in the condition of the USA in the early C21st. It goes far beyond "letting it all hang out." There are school shootings almost every day, mass drug addiction, an unprecedented epidemic of mental illness, homeless encampments filling every city center, a visibly senile President who can barely walk or talk, a foreign policy consisting of unthinking rage and aggression, and I could go on and on and on. Don't get me wrong, I love the place, but ravelled it ain't.
 
True enough on the last bit.

But I've never seen anywhere in the condition of the USA in the early C21st. It goes far beyond "letting it all hang out." There are school shootings almost every day, mass drug addiction, an unprecedented epidemic of mental illness, homeless encampments filling every city center, a visibly senile President who can barely walk or talk, a foreign policy consisting of unthinking rage and aggression, and I could go on and on and on. Don't get me wrong, I love the place, but ravelled it ain't.

The main problem with the US at the moment is the division in our society over socio-cultural and political issues. Some of this has been stoked from abroad, but the wedge has been there for a while. Once there's a clear winner on those issues, the US will likely pull itself together. It seems to happen in the US in about 50-60 year intervals and we usually pull our shit together afterward. There is a chance we won't and that won't be pretty, of course.
 
A company that large is going to take a bit to make the transition. From what I've seen of their reports, they're planning on leaving China almost entirely over the next five years.
Yep that’s what I’ve been readying (India, Vietnam with a possible South America factory). They’re also moving into 3D printing which would mean more plants closer to their key markets
 
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