News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by z2 on Friday September 25, 2020 @08:54AM (#24589168)
There probably is a pro Taiwan bias in Wikipedia, but ironically a big part of that is from China blocking access to the Chinese Wikipedia for most of its existence. Who else is left to create the Chinese content?
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by actuator on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:06AM (#24589823)
Amusingly enough back when I was still active editing on Wikipedia, there was a lot of trouble related to sourcing articles. Because the media in PRC itself is restricted, you have very less sources you can trust. You can't source content from sources like GT but do you trust CGTN, Xinhua? Eventually, you have to because if you don't you would be left with very less coverage and one from a western perspective even if Xinhua probably doesn't have the credibility/reputation of say BBC.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by ardy42 on Friday September 25, 2020 @03:44PM (#24593417)
> You can't source content from sources like GT but do you trust CGTN, Xinhua?

Interestingly enough, there were some official Wikipedia decisions on that very topic recently:

CGTN and Global Times were given the lowest ranking short of being spam-blacklisted, and the consensus was Xinhua can't be trusted as a source where the PRC government would have a conflict of interest, but it can be used for more mundane coverage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Per...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Per...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Per...

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by JumpCrisscross on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:10AM (#24589876)
> pro Taiwan bias in Wikipedia

Given Taiwan recognizes China but China doesn't recognize Taiwan, a statement of fact--that Taiwan is a de facto sovereign state--would be deemed "pro Taiwan" by Beijing.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by FooBarWidget on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:16AM (#24589953)
Uh, what? Officially, Taiwan is the Republic of China, and claims to be the legitimate government of all of China, and doesn't recognize Beijing. This is a leftover of the civil war between CCP and KMT. The de jure situation is that the civil war is still unfinished.

There are forces that want to move away from that de jure reality. But the fact is that that move hasn't happened (yet?).

When it comes to de facto, Beijing "recognizes" Taiwan by allowing travel, communication and business. By Korean standards, China and Taiwan are unified.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by LGNUITLZCJ on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:46AM (#24590343)
The current ruling party of Taiwan, the DPP, disagrees with the One China Policy. They see Taiwan as a soveriegn nation whose territory consists solely of Taiwan and surrouding islands. Although there isn't an international agreement on this topic, the DPP sees it this way and they control the executive and legislature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Progressive_Party#P...

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by FooBarWidget on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:51AM (#24590407)
That is what I mean by "forces seeking to move away from the de jure reality".

But the fact is, the DPP hasn't officially made this move. Not yet at least.

Anyway, my point is that the person I replied to, said that Taiwan recognizes Beijing. I assert that that's officially not the case. I know, de facto situation is different, but in international relations, and when it comes to international law, the de jure reality matters a lot. Official UN procedures follow the de jure reality, not the de facto one.

And this latter is one of the reason why China behaves like a "grammar nazi" on these matters. They have to, if they want to keep the current de jure reality. It's like a company sending tons of cease and desist letters to all people who produce fan content: it's not necessarily because they want to upset fans, but it's because if they fail to enforce, then they lose the trademark.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by caycep on Friday September 25, 2020 @01:31PM (#24592099)
is part of this due to all the current unofficial policy of "deliberate ambiguity"? If the DPP does officially make a move to state that ROC is Taiwan and a sovereign entity, would that be one condition that might prompt a PLA invasion?
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by FooBarWidget on Friday September 25, 2020 @02:05PM (#24592452)
Yes. PRC has a couple of diplomatic red lines, which have been consistent since 1949, and Taiwanese independence is one of them.

It seems that otherwise, unless the US militarily supports Taiwan, the PRC doesn't care whether Taiwan is de facto independent as long as they don't declare so.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by baybal2 on Friday September 25, 2020 @05:33PM (#24594328)
Chen Shuibian has proclaimed independence like 10 times in a row in his term. Nothing much happened.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by ekpyrotic on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:30AM (#24590158)
I think it is unfair that FooBarWidget's comment is being downvoted.

I have no dog in this fight, but the HN rules state that you should not downvote a comment only because you disagree -- but, instead, because it does not add value to the discussion or is not constructive.

Just keen to protect HN from downvoting less popular views.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by vonmoltke on Friday September 25, 2020 @01:02PM (#24591826)
> the HN rules state that you should not downvote a comment only because you disagree

Despite this. both pg and dang have said this is OK.

Edit: Actually, I just went over the guidelines in detail (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and there is no mention of appropriate or inappropriate use of the downvote. Where did you see this?

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by willis936 on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:09AM (#24590598)
Unfortunately there seems to be a lot of dogs in this specific fight.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by dheera on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:10AM (#24590609)
> HN rules state that you should not downvote a comment only because you disagree

I totally agree with this. Unfortunately HN has gone completely down under now. I get downvoted to oblivion and sometimes even being flagged, every time I say an unpopular opinion, even when I give a full technical explanation to the discussion. I once got downvoted, flagged, and censored out for pointing out un-inclusive language, for example, and another time got downvoted several times for pointing out what I think are very valid privacy issues with Apple's practices.

If I were to make a suggestion, HN should require a reason to hit the downvote button. Otherwise this just amounts to censorship of unpopular opinions.

And in this case it's going to unfortunately turn into a popularity contest fight of up/down arrows between both sides of the Taiwan issue and frankly speaking that's unproductive. I think westerners who haven't studied that aspect of history really should see the historic facts as well as reasons behind why each side has their view. You don't have to agree with both but it's worthwhile understanding the origins in both viewpoints.

UPDATE (9/25 15:14): The downvote army is here again! I personally think I'm contributing to this discussion above, but yet they're still downvoting me.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by aww_dang on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:46AM (#24591021)
>HN should require a reason to hit the downvote button

That's an interesting thought. What if there were an optional drop-down menu that allowed down-voters to provide canned feedback?

Either way, I think you'd enjoy the discussion more if you worried less about voting. Unless you're selling something, the popularity of the sentiment you're expressing isn't especially relevant.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by dheera on Friday September 25, 2020 @12:13PM (#24591336)
I'm not super worried about voting per se. If I get downvoted to death and my account banned, I'll have my discussions elsewhere than HN, and I have plenty of venues to have intellectual debate of higher quality than being downvoted and gagged every time I speak an unpopular opinion. I'm still probably far from that based on my current karma, but I've seen a noticable change in the quality of the community in the past year or so.

It's just that I think it could be a great platform for controversial intellectual discussions, but the algorithm is designed to promote conformity rather than raising unpopular but well-backed opinions. For example, I've gotten my speech muffled by the algorithm every time I speak out against specific Apple practices, or against the current version of capitalism (not even capitalism as a general idea, which I agree with, just not the current implementation). Somehow saying something against Apple or contemporary American capitalism on HN is just like saying something against the leader in authoritarian regimes; you'll be flagged, beaten (downwvoted), muted, and banned by the community.

I definitely like the drop-down idea. "I disagree" would not be one of the options for downvote. Some of the valid options I can think of are:

- Irrelevant to post

- Irrelevant to parent comment

- Offensive or violent language

- Personal attack

- Scientifically inaccurate

- Too terse / needs elaboration

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by aww_dang on Friday September 25, 2020 @12:55PM (#24591757)
Agreed. There's more than a few topics where I self censor. It isn't about the points. Most of these things are either beating a dead horse or the quality of the responses aren't worth engaging with. Some are just too contentious. Other times, I just can't resist.

It is disconcerting to see the popular or establishment view presented with different standards of evidence, sources or logic.

I'd leave "I disagree" as an option in this hypothetical. The down-voting user would have it as a shadow vote, without impacting the comment.

For scientifically inaccurate, I think they should be prompted to reply with a refutation.

Needs elaboration should just open a reply with "Could you please elaborate on..."

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by tomp on Friday September 25, 2020 @03:14PM (#24593146)
You don't understand HN. There's two buttons (once you have enough points, I guess): downvote, and flag. All of the "valid options" you list above, except maybe "irrelevant to parent comment", are better served with the flag button, which will cause the comment to be deleted (if enough people agree with you) (even thus deleted (a.k.a. "flagged") comments are still visible if you want them to be).
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by z2 on Friday September 25, 2020 @04:04PM (#24593601)
I always felt that these things tend to get blurred together especially when tensions flare. The ideal situation for a downvote may be something that doesn't add much to the discussion, whatever that means, be it somewhat off-topic, repetition of existing information, or groundless speculation. The vote helps move that conversation down and ideally allow better more 'additive' ones to float up. But on pure disagreement, it seems like a missed opportunity to discuss. This is unrealistic, but I'd love a middle option between downvote and super-downvote (i.e. flag), where you are required to reply. The extra effort would prevent knee-jerk reactions that silence acceptable comments, but maybe would foster some constructive disagreement now that your username needs to stand behind the downvote.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by dheera on Friday September 25, 2020 @05:23PM (#24594248)
Exactly. One possible fix would be that you don't actually get to see a downvote arrow on anything unless you reply to it first.

Separately, I've had thoughtfully written responses flagged for what is presumably disagreement. So may be the "flag" button needs a dropdown and the downvote button not showing up until you reply would be a good combination solution.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by FooBarWidget on Friday September 25, 2020 @12:15PM (#24591358)
I wonder why nobody else built upon Slashdot's moderation system, which isn't very far from what you suggest here.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by mytailorisrich on Friday September 25, 2020 @05:30PM (#24594300)
Indeed. There was actually a meeting of the two Presidents (Xi Jinping and Ma Ying-jeou) a few years ago in Singapore. Iirc they carefully avoided those titles and used something like "leader of the mainland" and "leader of Taiwan" instead to go round the issue. Of course the meeting also happened because Ma Ying-jeou is from the KMT so both sides did at least agree that this was a Chinese domestic issue.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by JdeBP on Friday September 25, 2020 @09:05AM (#24589258)
I'd be interested to read a disinterested account of this, but note that the account at hand says that the objection was not about the Chinese (language) Wikipedia but about the activities of Wikimedia Taiwan; not about the electronic encyclopaedia, in other words, but about the association of people.

I wonder what the actual objection said.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by RegnisGnaw on Friday September 25, 2020 @09:37AM (#24589551)
If you go by the stance of the Chinese government, there should never be a Wikimedia Taiwan. There is Wikimedia Canada, Wikimedia Deutschland, Wikimedia France, etc. Note they are all countries (France, Germany, Canada). Taiwan is not a country but a rebel province (per the Chinese law).

China doesn't like it when other people use the name Taiwan. Maybe they should change it to "China Taipei"

EDIT: this is not my opinion, but what I see as reality..

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by InfiniteRand on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:17AM (#24589971)
If I recall correctly, at the time Wikimedia Taiwan was added as a "chapter", Wikipedia did not have a clear definition of what type of organizations became community-based affiliate organizations, which is why there are Wikimedia District of Columbia and Wikimedia New York City chapters. I'm not sure if they have any specific restrictions on what types of groups can become chapters now (although I know there are some specific reporting requirements). The current chapters are partly an artifact of which groups were made chapters during a certain period of time and which kept up the reporting requirements.

From the look at things there are some potential future chapters which are at the sub-national level: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters#Chapters_...

In terms of affiliated user groups, they allow people to start them with a variety of justifications, from regional groups, cultural focus groups, etc.

Here's some more information about affiliate groups: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_movement_affiliate...

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by dheera on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:32AM (#24590870)
What if Wikimedia Taiwan had a chapter but that chapter wasn't listed if Wikimedia's website was accessed from a mainland China IP address? Much like Google maps shows different country border delineations depending on where you use it from?

Personally the way I see it is that there are multiple simultaneous realities of the situation and if you give each region what they want to see, everyone will be happy.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by bawolff on Friday September 25, 2020 @12:06PM (#24591250)
Because wikimedia doesnt do shit like telling people what they want to hear. If the consequences of that is china blocks our entry to WIPO, so be it. They already block chinese wikipedia which is something the wikimedia movement cares a lot more about than WIPO
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by dheera on Friday September 25, 2020 @02:42PM (#24592855)
That's fair, but that also means that Wikimedia is then asserting a political opinion rather than being neutral on the issue.

When something is disputed, arguably the most neutral, unbiased way to go about things is to deliver information to each party within the framework that they have established, and technology enables this as a possibility when it used to be cumbersome in the old days.

If Wikimedia wants to assert a position on the Taiwan issue, or politically help Taiwan by supporting its majority viewpoint, then great, I completely understand, though I feel like its fundamental mission would be better accomplished if it did not take sides on any political matters and strive to be the most neutral source of facts in the world.

For example, there exist certain species of birds native to the island of Taiwan. Wikipedia can be a great source of information about those birds. It doesn't need to define what type of political entity Taiwan is in order to deliver great information about those birds; as far as the birds are concerned it's just a huge island.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by bawolff on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:17PM (#24596150)
> When something is disputed, arguably the most neutral, unbiased way to go about things is to deliver information to each party within the framework that they have established, and technology enables this as a possibility when it used to be cumbersome in the old days.

So in wiki-speak, this view is usually refered to as multiple-points of view, and its an idea people sometimes floated in the early days (i think their was a fork called wikiinfo or something at one point)

Its very different from neutral point of view as understood by wikipedia. The goal of neutrality is to come up with a single consistent narrative that all parties agree is fair and accurate (porportionally). Of course that can be very difficult at times, its more a journey than a destination.

In my mind this is actually the killer feature of wikipedia. Without this we may as well just all host apache web servers or write articles on geocities.

>if Wikimedia wants to assert a position on the Taiwan issue, or politically help Taiwan by supporting its majority viewpoint, then great

Wikimedia does not want to do anything. Wikimedia largely speaking wants to allow some folks in Taiwan to form what is basically a local user group so they can try and talk some museums into uploading photos and maybe have a conference.

The contents of the Taiwan article is a local wikipedia matter, and is not something wikimedia (in whatever sense you mean) should have a say in.

Generally speaking though, wikipedia does not want to support the majority view of anyone, but explain all views proportionally as represented in reliable secondary sources. Of course that can be difficult at times.

> For example, there exist certain species of birds native to the island of Taiwan. Wikipedia can be a great source of information about those birds. It doesn't need to define what type of political entity Taiwan is in order to deliver great information about those birds; as far as the birds are concerned it's just a huge island.

Well yes, but nobody is really fighting about the bird articles

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by _imnothere on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:02AM (#24589775)
Dude, Taiwan(or say R.O.C.) is 100% a country in reality, you can't deny that Taiwan isn't ruled by China. And law from China doesn't apply to Taiwan.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by actuator on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:10AM (#24589877)
I have always wondered what's the play there. Since they haven't controlled it for so long, what's the harm in recognising that it's a separate nation. Taiwan's most important resource seems like the human resource, which they can reap the benefit of by having friendly relations; there is no need to launch an invasion over that.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by FooBarWidget on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:24AM (#24590076)
Two reasons.

1. Many Mainland Chinese people have the view that Taiwan is illegally occupied ever since the KMT fled there at the end of the civil war. It's as if the Confederates fled to Puerto Rico or Hawaii, still exist to this day, and claim to be the legitimate ruler of all of the US.

Although nowadays fewer people care about this, since China has surpassed Taiwan economically. But it's still a significant portion who cares. So many, that if the CCP lets Taiwan go, CCP's legitimacy will be called into question, and many people will revolt. If it's up to these people, China would have launched an invasion a decade ago.

2. Geographically, Taiwan is a military significant piece of land. The US can set up base there and blockade all China's naval traffic. China wants to prevent this.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by actuator on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:42AM (#24590288)
> China has surpassed Taiwan economically.

Per capita basis Taiwan is much better, but overall PRC is a lot more stronger.

> So many, that if the CCP lets Taiwan go, many people will revolt.

CCP has the gift of being able to control the narrative though, can't they make it seem like a win-win situation for them by doing it as some grand gesture and peace through largesse of their heart.

> Geographically, Taiwan is a military significant piece of land. The US can set up base there and blockade all China's naval traffic.

While I can see the importance of Taiwan as an opening between Japan and Philippines. Can't an enemy power use Japan, SK and Philippines to still blockade from Pacific.

Also, friendly relations with an independent Taiwan might mean it remains in PRC's sphere of influence

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by FooBarWidget on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:48AM (#24590373)
I am not a military expert, but the analyses I've seen suggest that Taiwan is a key piece that makes or breaks the US' "first island chain", which is crucial in containing China.

Yes China can control the narrative to some extent, and historically they did. For example all of outer Mongolia was ceded to Russia. If you check Taiwan's official claims, you will see that it's much bigger than the People's Republic of China today.

The CCP has a history of ceding land (that is strategically not too valuable) in order to setup peace. I'm guessing that the military significance is the biggest reason why they're not giving up Taiwan.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by actuator on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:53AM (#24590436)
I think you do know more about this, so I will trust your comment.

> The CCP has a history of ceding land (that is strategically not too valuable) in order to setup peace.

This doesn't explain their border differences with India though. For all I can understand only a small part of the western border seems of strategic importance.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by FooBarWidget on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:04AM (#24590557)
I don't know too much about the China-India dispute. From what I know, the current border was unilaterally drawn by the British during India's colonial period. China and India later disagreed on this British-setup border. I heard that China did try to propose some solutions, including one in which more than 50% of the territory is ceded to India, but India has rejected all offers so far.

This article by the Asia Research Institute (set up by Kishore Mahbubani) has some background on the diplomatic history of this issue: https://ari.nus.edu.sg/app-essay-kanti-bajpai

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by sbmthakur on Friday September 25, 2020 @01:39PM (#24592179)
I have read that the proposed solution included China giving up claim on Arunachal Pradesh(de facto Indian territory, South Tibet as per PRC) and India giving up claim on Aksai Chin(de facto Chinese territory, part of Ladakh as per India). Not sure why it was not pursued. Maybe India's relations with Pakistan were a factor.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by Mediterraneo10 on Friday September 25, 2020 @03:22PM (#24593230)
> This doesn't explain their border differences with India though.

Access to the water. The border China would like to control would put the watershed from glaciers on China’s side.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by jariel on Friday September 25, 2020 @01:12PM (#24591918)
It's much simpler: national pride and hubris.

If 'Mississippi' was somehow broken away from the US, the US would spend quite a lot of effort to get it back, even though Mississippi is and of itself, not important.

If one takes a historical view that Taiwan, Tibet, Manchu, S. China Sea 'belong to China' then they will push hard to grab and maintain them.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by kelnos on Friday September 25, 2020 @03:56PM (#24593520)
> ... even though Mississippi is and of itself, not important.

I agree that pride/hubris (more saving face) is indeed a significant component, but Taiwan has huge strategic military importance. Taiwan declaring itself independent and allowing (say) the US to set up a large military presence there would be unacceptable for China.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by jariel on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:43PM (#24596239)
The geography of Taiwan is not important. There are plenty of places for the US to set up shop in that area, and the US does not want to set up shop there anyhow, because it is 'too close'. In a full-on war, there might be some advantage to the fact it's an island, but not really.

The political significance of an independant Taiwan (or not) is 100x any tactical advantage of geography.

S. China sea is actually more important because it's international water, and territory that overlaps with other countries.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by garmaine on Saturday September 26, 2020 @02:15AM (#24596801)
> Since they haven't controlled it for so long

Worth noting that the PRC has never controlled Taiwan.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by RegnisGnaw on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:30AM (#24590152)
Really? Are they in the Olympics? Do they have a seat in the UN? Are they in the WHO? The World Bank? IMF?
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by slumpt_ on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:06AM (#24590570)
Many of these things are short-circuited by China leveraging it’s substantial economic power to force the perspective in their favor.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by RegnisGnaw on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:20AM (#24590738)
Which is what exactly China is doing here.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by actuator on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:50AM (#24590396)
They do participate in Olympics as a separate entity but have to use the name 'Chinese Taipei'
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by RegnisGnaw on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:19AM (#24590725)
(taking devil's advocate view, not my own): Perhaps that chapter of Wikimedia should be called Wikimedia China Taipei instead of Wikimedia Taiwan
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by FooBarWidget on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:33AM (#24590188)
The word "country" has a specific meaning with legal and diplomatic consequences. The layman definition of a "country" is not sufficient.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by slumpt_ on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:05AM (#24590561)
It is a country. The only reason it wouldn’t be recognized as such is related to the pressure China puts on other countries to not do so.

Much in the same way they pressure other countries to ignore the abuses of Uighurs and Tibetans.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by FooBarWidget on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:32AM (#24590865)
I am confused about what it is that you're trying to achieve with this attitude. My point is that international law and international relations are at play, and that they matter. If you are so convinced about Taiwan, you really should do two things:

1. Convince the DPP to officially declare independence. Not just unofficially flirting with the idea, but officially still claiming all of China.

2. After 1 has happened, convince UN members to recognize Taiwan.

From a legal process point of view, I think 2 cannot happen until 1 is done.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by ardy42 on Friday September 25, 2020 @04:03PM (#24593590)
> I am confused about what it is that you're trying to achieve with this attitude. My point is that international law and international relations are at play, and that they matter.

Taiwan is de facto an independent country in every way you could possibly conceive, including having de jure diplomatic relations with a few countries and de facto relations with many more. In international relations, actions matter more than words, and in Taiwan's case, those actions indicate that it's an independent country.

The only reason official declarations stating the obvious haven't been made is due to the threats and coercion conducted by the PRC. The presence of those threats makes the absence of the declarations literally meaningless. It's sort of like being forced to sign a contract under duress.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by CameronNemo on Friday September 25, 2020 @12:56PM (#24591778)
I do not believe that the UN is the arbiter of who is and is not a country. And Taiwan should avoid doing anything that might provoke the CCP (like declaring independence without consulting with the CCP first).
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by FooBarWidget on Friday September 25, 2020 @02:07PM (#24592477)
Perhaps not. But when it comes to UN institutions and their processes, they follow the official UN list of recognized nations.

And legally, how do you recognize a country that does not officially recognize itself? The Taiwanese constitution still says it is the Republic of China. The current legal situation is that, by recognizing Taiwan, you are officially saying that the Taiwanese government is the legit ruler of the mainland.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by gruez on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:03AM (#24589793)
A sibling comment mentioned that theres wikimedia Catalonia.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24589655

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by RegnisGnaw on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:34AM (#24590198)
I don't see this on their list of Chapters https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by bawolff on Friday September 25, 2020 @12:08PM (#24591271)
Its a thematic org not a chapter: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Amical_Wikimedia

It was a lot easier to get chaoter status when wikimedia taiwan did it than it is currently.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by bawolff on Friday September 25, 2020 @12:03PM (#24591225)
Wikimedia cascadia, wikimedia catalonia, both exist....
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by RegnisGnaw on Friday September 25, 2020 @02:12PM (#24592542)
I don't see this on their list of Chapters https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by bawolff on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:20PM (#24596159)
Technically cascadia is a user group and amical is a thematic org.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_movement_affiliate...

Generally speaking it was really easy to become a chapter in the old days, but now you have to be a really big org to get chapter status. So newer things are less likely to be chapters

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by justinclift on Friday September 25, 2020 @07:05PM (#24594965)
> this is not my opinion, but what I see as reality..

Er... doesn't "what I see as reality" specifically mean it is an opinion?

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by garmaine on Saturday September 26, 2020 @02:19AM (#24596809)
If you go outside and look up and tell me that the sky is blue, is that a fact or opinion?
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by justinclift on Saturday September 26, 2020 @05:09AM (#24597431)
Looking out the window at the moment, I'd say "black".

So, definitely opinion. ;)

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by dwheeler on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:27AM (#24590115)
Wikipedia doesn't require things be at the country level. For example, it has Esperanto: https://eo.wikipedia.org
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by JdeBP on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:33AM (#24590187)
Even though I emphasized the two different things Wikipedia and Wikimedia earlier in this discussion, you are conflating them. Wikipedia is an electronic encyclopaedia, divided up into languages. Wikimedia is the name of the Wikimedia Foundation, and (as long as they adhere to various conditions) the names of various Wikimedia chapters, like Wikimedia Taiwan, and Wikimedia thematic organizations.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by bawolff on Friday September 25, 2020 @12:09PM (#24591288)
Wikimedia is the name of the movement, separate from corporate entities that also share that name.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by RegnisGnaw on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:34AM (#24590202)
I don't see this on their list of Chapters https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by kunfuu on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:42AM (#24590302)
Another textual account that I find. It still feels incomplete. https://www.keionline.org/33999

Link to the related webcast. I haven't taken the time to watch it. https://c.connectedviews.com/05/SitePlayer/wipo?session=1095...

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by JdeBP on Friday September 25, 2020 @12:21PM (#24591431)
Thank you. That's much more informative than the Wikimedia Foundation's own version of events. The textual account is incomplete, as there were statements by Iran, Russia, Canada, and Pakistan, and it was China that had the closing remarks, not the United States. It's also not quite an accurate transcript.

So:

It turns out that China looked up the Wikimedia Foundation on Wikipedia.

It compared what Wikipedia said with what was in the Wikimedia Foundation's application documents.

The Wikimedia Foundation put 124 user groups, 39 geographic chapters and 2 thematic organizations on its application form.

The Chinese delegation to WIPO, deciding to trust Wikipedia in this instance, found that Wikipedia stated that the Wikimedia Foundation had 47 user groups, 41 chapters, and 1 thematic organization.

* https://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=维基媒体基金会&oldid=617...

So the first prong of the objection was a formal way of saying "Did this organization lie on its application form?".

The second prong was a vague complaint against unspecified content violating the One China Policy on "the affiliated Web site of the Foundation". This could be the Foundation wiki; Wikimedia Taiwan's own WWW site (http://wikimedia.tw/); the Chinese-language Wikipedia; the English-language Wikipedia; Meta; or even something else entirely. China didn't actually say.

There's some clever chess here. For starters, the Wikimedia Foundation now has to officially state for the record that the Chinese Wikipedia does not provide up-to-date accurate information.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by walrus01 on Friday September 25, 2020 @09:54AM (#24589686)
For domestic Chinese internet users who are inside the great firewall, the authorities intend for people to use this instead, which is censored.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidu_Baike

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baike.com

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by yorwba on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:25AM (#24590795)
There are also https://baike.so.com/ , https://www.baike.com/ and probably some others I don't know about. I don't think the authorities care which one people use so long as it complies with "relevant laws and regulations" (i.e. censors content). There doesn't seem to be much user loyalty either; people use whatever their search engine puts first, so baike.baidu.com if you search with Baidu and baike.so.com if you search with so.com.
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by InfiniteRand on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:05AM (#24589816)
Hong Kong, Singapore, and overseas Chinese have a big impact on the Chinese content. Hong Kong even used to have a chapter (now it's a user group, for reporting compliance reasons)
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by z2 on Friday September 25, 2020 @03:48PM (#24593448)
I actually looked into this after writing the parent post, which was more of a frustrated quip and not grounded in data... Per this 6-years outdated page, in addition to Hong Kong, it seems Mainland China actually overtook Taiwan for edits in 2014, which is doubly surprising considering the ongoing ban and how Wikipedia could possibly tell the true origin if people use web proxies or VPNs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Wikipedia#Origin_of_ed...

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by thackerwayac on Friday September 25, 2020 @10:26AM (#24590108)
>There probably is a pro Taiwan bias in Wikipedia, but ironically a big part of that is from China blocking access to the Chinese Wikipedia

>pro Taiwan bias in Wikipedia

I have previously seen these baseless accusations of Wikipedia and Reddit being pro-Taiwan and pro-India.

There are tens of thousands of pro-Chinese Leftists in the US and Europe. Just take a look at r/GenZedong and r/Socialism. They are China's main propaganda arm in the West. They are far more organized and agenda-driven than Taiwanese and Indian Internet users. They have completely taken over Wikipedia and the comment section on reddit. Anything even slightly critical of China's government gets accused of being CIA propaganda.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by philliphaydon on Friday September 25, 2020 @01:04PM (#24591850)
Wait till you find /r/Sino

I don’t know why this stuff is allowed to exist.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by DobryMorozov on Friday September 25, 2020 @11:57PM (#24596298)
Well it's a reaction to r/China which is completely taken over by anti-China posters
Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by disown on Friday September 25, 2020 @01:49PM (#24592308)
> I have previously seen these baseless accusations of Wikipedia and Reddit being pro-Taiwan and pro-India.

It's not that wikipedia and reddit are pro-taiwan and pro-india, it's that pro-taiwan and pro-indian propagandists have recently flooded these sites. Also, youtube.

> Just take a look at r/GenZedong and r/Socialism.

Have you tried visiting r/china or any other china related sub which are hysterically anti-china?

> There are tens of thousands of pro-Chinese Leftists in the US and Europe

That's it? A few thousand?

> Anything even slightly critical of China's government gets accused of being CIA propaganda.

Give me a break.

I'm sure there are pro-china groups on social media. But there is a hell of a lot more anti-china groups. Go to most china-related thread on reddit I can guarantee you that the anti-china propagandists outnumber the pro-china propagandists 10-1. You aren't doing yourself and the anti-china propagandists any favors by playing the victim here. Especially when your claims are so obviously false.

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by greyman on Friday September 25, 2020 @02:58PM (#24592999)
>But there is a hell of a lot more anti-china groups.

I didn't encountered many, to be honest. There are anti-CCP groups, which is something different. Also, being anti-ccp and criticise their human rights violations doesnt make you a "propagandist".

Re:China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s accreditation to WIPO by disown on Friday September 25, 2020 @09:05PM (#24595576)
> I didn't encountered many, to be honest. There are anti-CCP groups, which is something different.

Ah yes. "CCP". A wonderful new propaganda term that suddenly sprung out of nowhere. What happened to chinazi or the myriad other propaganda terms you guys used? There are certainly a lot of "anti-china", I mean "anti-ccp", propaganda all over social media suddenly.

> Also, being anti-ccp and criticise their human rights violations doesnt make you a "propagandist".

Sure. But most of those who are "anti-china" and criticize their human rights violations are propagandists. Actually, I'd say almost all of them are propagandists. Especially on reddit and other social media platforms.

This is apparent to anyone who has used reddit, youtube, etc. To claim the "anti-china" group is the victim, as the throwaway account claimed, is absurd. It's a lie like most of the anti-china propaganda on social media. But that's the business you guys are in right?