A draft law banning speech and dressing “detrimental to the spirit of Chinese people” has sparked debate in China.

If the law comes into force, people found guilty could be fined or jailed but the proposal does not yet spell out what constitutes a violation.

Social media users and legal experts have called for more clarity to avoid excessive enforcement.

China recently released a swathe of proposed changes to its public security laws - the first reforms in decades.

The clothing law has drawn immediate reaction from the public - with many online criticising it as excessive and absurd.

The contentious clauses suggest that people who wear or force others to wear clothing and symbols that “undermine the spirit or hurt the feelings of the Chinese nation” could be detained for up to 15 days and fined up to 5,000 yuan ($680; £550).

  • Fondots@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I find this kind of interesting after Naomi Wu (also known as SexyCyborg) recently had a run-in with the CCP and has largely gone silent online.

    For anyone not familiar with her/her situation, she’s a tech/maker YouTuber. She has a pretty radical look with enormous fake boobs and skimpy outfits, but she does have some genuinely interesting content. She had been calling out some security vulnerabilities that recently got some attention so that’s likely why the Chinese government, in her words, clipped her wings, but she had a bit of a target painted on her back regardless because of her appearance, being a lesbian, and because her girlfriend is a Uyghur.

    • SCB@lemmy.world
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      bit of a target painted on her back regardless because of her appearance, being a lesbian, and because her girlfriend is a Uyghur.

      “Bit of a target” indeed. She’s like a walking Bingo card of everything China suppresses.

      Hope she’s okay.

      • Fondots@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The wild part to me is that overall I never got the impression from anything I saw from her that she was particularly anti-ccp, some of the annoyed grumbling I’d expect from literally anybody living under any government in the world, but that’s about it. Overall she seemed to be a pretty proud Chinese citizen, and probably a good spokesperson for the Chinese tech sector, from watching her videos I know that I’m slightly less quick to dismiss any Chinese gadgets as chinesium garbage. I’d think she’d be more useful to keep around for PR purposes, but after her previous incidents didn’t make significant waves with her western audience, it seems that they figured they’re free to bully her however they want to now.

    • vlad@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      Jesus Christ, I know moving your life is not that simple, but she and her gf need to run from that hell hole.

      • Fondots@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        She actually did partially address that, obviously without going into too many details, saying that she could leave but her girlfriend couldn’t, so they’re pretty much just going to keep their heads down and play by the rules.

    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      She’s a pretty smart gal, but uses her looks to Garner views and get attention which I would imagine is very difficult for female tech enthusiasts in China, which is male dominated.

      She also has non traditional sexual gender identities which doesn’t endear her to the Chinese authorities. But the real kicker is when she identified a security and privacy issue with an android keyboard.

  • Fuck Yankies@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Yeah? How about closing those sweatshops that pollute Chinese rivers, drinking water, that destroys soil so that plants can never grow again, where Chinese works inhale colorant and chemicals… how about that shit, CCP?

    • SCB@lemmy.world
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      That hurts the land and the people and not the CCP’s feelings, so the CCP doesn’t care.

    • Armen12@lemm.ee
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      But then how is the CCP supposed to get money for more PR campaigns that magically don’t ever show those parts of China?

  • Pat12@lemmy.world
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    For those wondering, “Hurting the feelings of the Chinese people” is an actual phrase (伤害中国人民的感情) it started all the way back in the late 50s.

    this last part “感情 ganqing” translated as “feelings” or “emotional attachment”, it’s actually an important part of chinese culture, esp business culture (similar to this is “guanxi” which is someone’s network). These are major parts of chinese culture and relationships with others. this phrase is more like “you’re hurting our relationship”

    • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      This seems similar to Republicans’ current crusade to ban books they believe will hurt the “fabric of the country.”

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        If your nation is that weak it isn’t worth saving, it should just die and be replaced by something better. Which is just about anything.

    • chaircat@lemdro.id
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      It feels shady the way the media uses this overly literal translation of ‘hurt the feelings’ all the time in order to make the Chinese sound ridiculous. Could make any foreign language speaker sound ridiculous by cherry picking funny but common phrases and translating them literally.

      • Pat12@lemmy.world
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        ? It’s the best way to translate it, some Chinese words don’t have good English translations and vice versa

        • chaircat@lemdro.id
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          There’s a better translation right here in this thread. “Hurting our relationship” is not so literal and so doesn’t sound daft in English.

          • Pat12@lemmy.world
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            no, that’s not the same thing. “our relationship” does not convey the same emotion that is intended in the chinese word.

  • Glide
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    1 year ago

    Zhao Hong, a law professor at the Chinese University of Political Science and Law said the lack of clarity could lead to an infringement of personal.

    Adorable that anyone is suggesting this is a bug, not a feature.

    • BNE@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      From how I understand the situation, that’s the quiet thing they don’t get to say out loud…

    • Iteria@sh.itjust.works
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      Honestly, I feel the same about both: it’s absurd. With France I get the “freedom from religion” spiel from some Frenchman, but it’s veiled xenophobia to me. When you ban a kind of clothing but only for one group of people, that’s basically the definition. Here, it’s just fascism. At least the Chinese people are speaking out.

      • Armen12@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        France doesn’t ban religious anything, only in public schools, that’s all. Outside education people are free to do what they want. What China is doing is wildly different, China just bans things in general for all sectors of life

        • Iteria@sh.itjust.works
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          Public school? You mean that place that children are mandated to be? Also you forgot government. It was a whole thing. So if you’re a Muslim and you want to be a part of the French government, then I hope you don’t have any attachment to those head scarves. There are other religions ornamentation, but the head scarves one was the last one I saw. And whether school or a DMV clerk, it’s dumb.

          Also noticed I used two different labels for France rather than China. I think China is fascist with what they’re doing. France is xenophobic with what they’re doing.

          • Armen12@lemm.ee
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            France is the least Xenophobic country on Earth, what are you even saying?

      • wahming@monyet.cc
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        1 year ago

        The French didn’t ban for only one group of people, all religions are affected.

        • lud@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          It targeted one group of people though.

          Either way banning clothes is stupid.

          • wahming@monyet.cc
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            Other groups of people have been affected in the past. The Muslims are just the current latest group affected by it.

            Either way banning clothes is stupid.

            They have pretty sound logic for doing it

            • lud@lemm.ee
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              Other groups of people have been affected in the past. The Muslims are just the current latest group affected by it.

              Any recent examples?

              They have pretty sound logic for doing it

              What’s the logic?

          • Armen12@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            I’ve been to France many times and religion isn’t banned at all, France is an incredibly diverse country, probably the most in all of Europe

              • Armen12@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                Yes you are, that’s what you people are all implying and it’s completely false

                • Lols [they/them]@lemm.ee
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                  can you explain who “you people” are? are they in the room with us right now?

                  can you also give the specific quote where “you people” said france bans all religion? you didnt just, y’know, imagine it did you?

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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          Yeah this is equality vs equity. If your religion has no religious outfits it doesn’t impact you if your religion does it does impact you. You can’t make a rule that only impacts one minority group and claim that it is fair because it hurts everyone the same way, since it clearly doesn’t.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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      My comments were about the same. As much as I hate religion you have every right to express it. French students should be able to wear religious symbols and garments in schools, the CCP should not be going after this shit, men have a right to sag their pants. I can go on but I think my point is clear, freedom includes the freedom to be offensive or it means nothing.

    • Pat12@lemmy.world
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      when women are obligated to cover up, people just accept those governments telling them what to do; have you seen any protests lately about governments in the middle east and asia telling women to cover up?

  • bfg9k@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    BORN TO DIE

    WORLD IS A FUCK

    Kill Em All 1989

    I am trash man

    410,757,864,530 DEAD COPS

      • rhsJack@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They are listing all the printed t-shirts I have. Funny side story, while teaching in Japan, I’ve taught grannies with printed shirts that said stuff like this and they didnt understand. They thought it was cute and had foreign words. I think they needed to study more before their lessons.

        • stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Ohhhhhhhhh

          Haha these shirts are actually kinda funny in this context 😂

          Idk banning stuff is probably detrimental and a slippery slope but idk. Probably shouldn’t have your countries people running around with vial shit on their clothes (yeah yeah freedom of freedom with extra freedom and no responsibility, but like hitler tho.)

          Idk tough topic, knowing China though it’s probably just another power grab for them to take from their people. Cringe af no cap

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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          “Missouri: the show me state” I have seen that shirt quite a few times in Asia. No, I didn’t ask any of them about it.

  • Pat12@lemmy.world
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    “Will wearing a suit and tie count? Marxism originated in the West. Would its presence in China also count as hurting national feelings,” one user posted on Chinese Twitter-like platform Weibo.

    She cited one case that drew headlines in China last year where a kimono-clad woman was detained in the city of Suzhou and accused of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” because she had worn the Japanese garment. The incident sparked outrage across Chinese social media.

    “To wear a kimono is to hurt the feelings of the Chinese nation, to eat Japanese food is to jeopardise its spirit? When did the feelings and spirit of the time-tested Chinese nation become so fragile?” wrote one popular social commentator online, who writes under the pen name Wang Wusi.

    from here: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58394906

    In 2019, during further moves on censorship, China blurred out the earlobes of some of its young male pop stars in television and internet appearances to hide their piercings. Tattoos and men’s ponytails have also previously been blurred from screens.

  • sonnenzeit@feddit.de
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    but the proposal does not yet spell out what constitutes a violation.

    and this is not a coincidence. Authoritarian states love vaguely operationalized definitions like this because it’s basically a blanko check to arrest anyone at any time. And it puts the populace into a fearful, fatalist mindset of “I could be arrested at any time for bogus charges, even if I did nothing wrong.”

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    What more do they want? They already got rid of the Winnie the Pooh costume at Shanghai Disneyland.

  • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
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    I’m unable to find the original Chinese, but couldn’t “hurt national feelings” just as well be translated as “do emotional damage”? Like walking around London 1997 with a shirt that said “Princess Di deserved to die”? Now while that aint illegal in the UK (as far as I know) it’s at least a little less ridiculous to talk about trauma from events that affect a nation rather than this dismissive right-wing language of “hurt national feelings”.

    (this is not a pro-CCP comment please give me the benefit of the doubt)