The people's surveillance state
I take the same precautions crossing a Chinese border as I do crossing a US one.
That bad, huh?
Reason 91627 why you shouldn't go to this authoritarian shithole
Posting how much I hate authoritarian surveillance states on all my favorite NSA-infested social media accounts.
Authoritarian China acting like authoritarian China. What a surprise
GrapheneOS and duress PIN.
So you are okay with not getting your phone back from authorities...
It's a given if you go to any kind of dictatorship like this one.
In some cases that's better than getting your data stolen by the authorities. Especially in a communist dictatorship like China.
That's better in all cases. But the original comment sounded like "look how I can go to this authoritarian county, encounter police who would ask me for my phone, and remain free and safe afterwards". That would not be a good idea.
Another reason to not go to China
At some point I'm going to have to because the woman I love is from there. Probably I will need to get a burner phone for the occasion. It does seem like a beautiful country full of interesting culture. Shame about the government though.
Stick close to her and trusted family and friends. Though cash must be accepted legally , its hardly used. Getting a simcard requires registering with your passport now. If you're okay with that, a cheap burner phone with wechat for payments and comms and standard phone number yo get hold of your family back home. Needless to say you wont be anonymous so my attitude when visiting there was kind of just accept that, and don't do/say anything stupid. i.e assimilate temporarily with that way of life. All of these concerns are only a small part of life and of course a billion or so people are living with it. You are totally right that the place is full of interesting and amazing history, culture, food and really friendly and hospitable people despite the bs they have to put up with.
Make sure you're out before Canada gets into another dispute with China and they resort to hostage diplomacy again.
Yeah, good point. Luckily my name isn't Michael which improves my odds somewhat
Kinda the same reason it has always been.
So like the TSA?
I don't understand people who downvote you. TSA does indeed the same
Their Authoritarian Surveillance State
Our Robust National Security System
Bringing your real phone instead of a burner phone into the PRC is just asking for your shit to get stolen. I have never brought my real phone into the PRC.
I wonder why, knowing this, one would go to China in the first place.
I wanted to see the great wall while I was studying in Asia.
Fair enough, I mean the history is fascinating, some years ago I might have gone, but nowadays....
Yeah, definitely, the intensifying cold war makes me wonder if I'll ever go back again. Doesn't feel like tourists will really be allowed back in, in my lifetime, once things start getting really bad.
Even as far back as 2010 the corpo I worked for had an official travel protocol that dictated backing up Blackberries, factory resetting them, crossing the border, then restoring them from the cloud. That was for crossing any border.
I'm not saying that that's an unreasonable policy for companies to have, but I will bet that only a very small portion of individuals normally do that for personal smartphones.
Anybody surprised by this hasn't passed basic world history yet..
Where do you think Americans learn about non-European countries in World History? History started with the founding of England and ended with WW2. I think we dropped a nuclear bomb on some East Asian country where all the anime comes from. But other than that, who gives a shit about Asia?
counterespionage law already pushed a lot business and investment away from China.
Not to mention a lot of stabbing targeting foreigners by nationalist https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-25/japanese-mother-child-attacked-with-knife-in-city-near-shanghai
I don't understand who be interested going to China anymore
I've personally never done the trip to China for a lot of reasons (you know you are living your best life when a postdoc explains that you should never under any circumstances go to China because of what you have said) but do a lot of foreign travel for work:
No company should let any employee bring corporate electronics on international travel. Have burner phones and laptops that are set up to do incredibly minimal work locally (basically just have the slides... maybe) and to remote in. And work with your IT department to "randomly lock" them if a wrong password is detected in an airport or government facility.
It doesn't matter if it is the UK asking if we want the left or right hand this time or the CCP: It is just an unnecessary risk that is easily avoided.
And then inform the traveler of whether they want to bring their personal devices or not.
Seems fair to me, tbh. I wouldn't go there without diplomatic immunity or a burner anyways.
For the CCP arbitrary enforcement is less a risk and more a guarantee.
The CCP is growing more paranoid.
Fun fact. If you come to Australia the border force can basically do the same thing. Take a burner with you when you travel, it’s not worth the hassle at the airport. Bonus points, if you lose your phone or get it stolen it won’t hurt as much as if it happened to your main device.
Yeah, but Australia isn't going to detain you for posting a picture of Winnie the Poo on your social media.
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