News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of victims. Parent comment

Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by ahelwer on Saturday March 06, 2021 @01:58PM (#26369598)
Sanctions lead to widespread suffering & even death among the civilian population. Why do you want the Chinese people to suffer or die? Sanctions are scarcely less psychotic than bombing a school or hospital. The violence is just hidden in life expectancy reduction & many other metrics instead of "N civilians' bodies ripped apart by bombs".

Oh, and targeted sanctions - aren't. Entities will view any sanctions as a legal risk and find it easier to just stop trading with the country at all. See Iran with medical supplies during the pandemic.

This idea that sanctions are a peaceful or nonviolent alternative to bombing things needs to die. In the 90s the sanctions against Iraq led to the deaths of half a million civilians and caused multiple successive UN humanitarian coordinators in Iraq to resign, calling the sanctions regime "genocidal". How anyone can continue to view sanctions as a favorable option is beyond me.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by vharuck on Saturday March 06, 2021 @06:07PM (#26371369)
>Oh, and targeted sanctions - aren't. Entities will view any sanctions as a legal risk and find it easier to just stop trading with the country at all. See Iran with medical supplies during the pandemic.

The sanctions on Iran aren't targeted. They're blanket sanctions with specific exceptions. The problem there is asking international companies to do a bunch of stuff otherwise forbidden by the sanctions (financial, logistical, etc) which I assume is either a pain to get approved ahead of time or frightening to justify after the fact.

A better example of targeted sanctions is what's happening in response to the poisoning of Navalny. Specific Russians were sanctioned. That doesn't hurt uninvolved citizens nearly as much.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by hntrader on Saturday March 06, 2021 @02:25PM (#26369792)
What alternatives do you propose, and do you have the same view about the recent sanctions on the Saudis?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by ahelwer on Saturday March 06, 2021 @02:38PM (#26369890)
Why must there be alternatives? Why do anything at all? This bias toward a manufactured vague "do something!!!" feeling has just led to the deaths of countless civilians around the world.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by hntrader on Saturday March 06, 2021 @02:48PM (#26369971)
Do you think not interfering in the Rwandan genocide was the best move?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by Aunche on Saturday March 06, 2021 @03:14PM (#26370179)
The ethnic tensions were created by western interference in the first place. Perhaps intervention could have mitigated the scale of the tragedy, but it also could have made it worse by prolonging it.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by alacombe on Saturday March 06, 2021 @03:09PM (#26370137)
> Sanctions lead to widespread suffering & even death among the civilian population

So does doing nothing.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by Rebelgecko on Saturday March 06, 2021 @02:40PM (#26369910)
The status quo also leads to suffering and death in the civilian population and it's hard to predict which future would be worse
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by Aunche on Saturday March 06, 2021 @03:07PM (#26370123)
Has more suffering and death occurred in China before or after China opened up to the rest of the world? If they remained closed off to this day, they would much more closely resemble North Korea.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by alacombe on Saturday March 06, 2021 @03:09PM (#26370145)
Before, for sure, Mao policies were pretty ruthless.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by ahelwer on Saturday March 06, 2021 @02:44PM (#26369935)
Actually it's quite easy to predict! We can simply look at the track record of Western intervention since WW2, see that it comes down so squarely on the side of "please USA just leave the world alone, my god" that it achieves the platonic definition of a square, then call it a day.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by Rebelgecko on Saturday March 06, 2021 @02:47PM (#26369963)
Why exclude WW2?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by ahelwer on Saturday March 06, 2021 @02:49PM (#26369986)
I'm assuming you're saying this because you want to compare China to Nazi Germany, which is strange when the USSR is a much more apt comparison that existed in the postwar period.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by AnimalMuppet on Saturday March 06, 2021 @03:16PM (#26370197)
Maybe you shouldn't assume. Maybe you should take Rebelgecko's question at face value, and actually answer it. If you're going to claim that the rest of the world just wants the US to leave it alone, why exclude World War II?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by Rebelgecko on Saturday March 06, 2021 @03:09PM (#26370139)
I'm just curious about people's reasoning whenever they cherrypick arbitrary start/end dates
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by ahelwer on Saturday March 06, 2021 @03:17PM (#26370201)
WW2 marked the birth of America as global superpower, as it was the only developed nation to have its infrastructure basically untouched by the war.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by emteycz on Saturday March 06, 2021 @03:06PM (#26370114)
Why do you think so? China is acting very much like Nazis in many cases. That they both call themselves communists doesn't mean much, actions matter.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Chinese hacking spree hit an ‘astronomical’ number of vic... by emteycz on Saturday March 06, 2021 @03:22PM (#26370236)
There are parts of the world like eastern Europe that would've liked US intervention, on the other hand.
[ Parent | on HN ]