They’ve tried to kill me in the past. Maybe they aren’t as bloodthirsty anymore, but there has been a lot of Americans with Chinese ancestry that will think they are welcome in China because of their blood, but they get treated as a Chinese citizen in the eyes of the law while simutaneously being mistrusted because of foreign citizenship. What this means is that if you get in political trouble, or just doing something they don’t like (like using VPNs to access Youtube or basically any website outside of China), you can be harassed by cops or potentially even get arrested. But if you do get arrested, they do not let you contact your embassy because, again, they treat you like a Chinese citizen, where as a white American will be allowed to contact the embassy. Then, if things escalate to courts, they could prosecute you as a spy, and with 99% conviction rate you aint gonna be getting out any time soon. That’s where an actual Chinese citizen benefits, because if you are a citizen, might just demand an apology and let you go. So you get the worst of both worlds by being a non Chinese citizen, and being non-white. Even if nothing happens, they could already put you in an “exit-ban” and keep you from leaving indefinitely with no fair appeals process, for any political reason, or just a mistake in the bureauacracy. As a second-born during the one-child policy, I don’t even want to risk there being some “additional fines” that my parents haven’t paid off for some reason, which should already be cleared. China has a network of spies in the US, and you never know if someone walking by is a CCP spy while you were talking with friends about things critical of the CCP. My parents have this “Wechat” thing on their phone and they FUCKING GAVE PERMISSION FOR THE APP TO ACCESS THE MICROPHONE!!! Who knows if they have records of an argument about the CCP and my parents were STILL PRAISING THEM and I told them how much I hate them for trying to kill me. And I often have these arguments at home, when they have their phones near by. The Wechat app could’ve easily sent that conversation back to China and now I’m on their watchlist. Too much risk while CCP is in power.
The thing about being a Chinese-American, is that both shores are unwelcoming. The US is racist and becoming fascist, China thinks of us as traitors. There’s no safe harbor. Maybe Taiwan? I doubt that’s even safe since China wants to invade soon.
Considering that WeChat does video and audio calls it’s pretty reasonable that wechar asks permission to use the microphone. I think you’ve been caught up in fearmongering. China isn’t going to invade Taiwan any time soon. There has been little to any real indication they would or even could. You’ve gotta understand that the CCP is authoritarian but no government is that competent to be keeping tabs on a random Americans conversation that they had at some point at some time who may more may not be ever visiting China. I’m not saying China is run by good people, I’m saying no government is competent enough to actually 1984 anyone in real life.
It’s like the social credit system that doesn’t really exist. The CCP put out a vague instruction to have a credit system based on social stuff because many Chinese people don’t have banks thus don’t have access to regular credit systems. Random cities and provinces came up their own systems with random rules and regulations. Then basically all of them were walked back because they were stupid and random and overbearing, and the CCP delegating their vague orders gives them plausible deniability in that they blamed the stupid systems on local government and played the good guy when they ordered them walked back.
Cons: Not being able to revisit places I’ve been to that I always wanted to go.
Pros: Being safe from an authoritarian government that’s increasingly regressing back to totalitarianism
Visit China
Pros: I can visit places I always wanted to revisit
Cons: Being arrested in China, placed on exit ban, tortured, or executed. And if I somehow leave unharmed, upon returning to the US, I could be accused of being a communist spy due to rising US-China tensions, possibly spending time in prison because of a second red scare.
Do you not understand US-China tensions? Both countries fear each other, and someone who’ve lived in the US for practically their entire life suddenly wants to visit China? That’d definitely raise some alarms about a potential spy. Maybe nothing happens, maybe they falsely assume I’m a spy.
Same thing when I return to the US, those border agents are gonna ask me why I went to my China during these times of high tensions.
There are risks from both countries. Whereas if China was democratic and US-friendly, none of these would be an issue.
Do you know how many people in the US were falsely arrested? That’s in a democratic country. Think about those odds if it were an authoritarian one.
I hope it’s not a stupid question, but… what are you worried would happen to you?
They’ve tried to kill me in the past. Maybe they aren’t as bloodthirsty anymore, but there has been a lot of Americans with Chinese ancestry that will think they are welcome in China because of their blood, but they get treated as a Chinese citizen in the eyes of the law while simutaneously being mistrusted because of foreign citizenship. What this means is that if you get in political trouble, or just doing something they don’t like (like using VPNs to access Youtube or basically any website outside of China), you can be harassed by cops or potentially even get arrested. But if you do get arrested, they do not let you contact your embassy because, again, they treat you like a Chinese citizen, where as a white American will be allowed to contact the embassy. Then, if things escalate to courts, they could prosecute you as a spy, and with 99% conviction rate you aint gonna be getting out any time soon. That’s where an actual Chinese citizen benefits, because if you are a citizen, might just demand an apology and let you go. So you get the worst of both worlds by being a non Chinese citizen, and being non-white. Even if nothing happens, they could already put you in an “exit-ban” and keep you from leaving indefinitely with no fair appeals process, for any political reason, or just a mistake in the bureauacracy. As a second-born during the one-child policy, I don’t even want to risk there being some “additional fines” that my parents haven’t paid off for some reason, which should already be cleared. China has a network of spies in the US, and you never know if someone walking by is a CCP spy while you were talking with friends about things critical of the CCP. My parents have this “Wechat” thing on their phone and they FUCKING GAVE PERMISSION FOR THE APP TO ACCESS THE MICROPHONE!!! Who knows if they have records of an argument about the CCP and my parents were STILL PRAISING THEM and I told them how much I hate them for trying to kill me. And I often have these arguments at home, when they have their phones near by. The Wechat app could’ve easily sent that conversation back to China and now I’m on their watchlist. Too much risk while CCP is in power.
The thing about being a Chinese-American, is that both shores are unwelcoming. The US is racist and becoming fascist, China thinks of us as traitors. There’s no safe harbor. Maybe Taiwan? I doubt that’s even safe since China wants to invade soon.
Considering that WeChat does video and audio calls it’s pretty reasonable that wechar asks permission to use the microphone. I think you’ve been caught up in fearmongering. China isn’t going to invade Taiwan any time soon. There has been little to any real indication they would or even could. You’ve gotta understand that the CCP is authoritarian but no government is that competent to be keeping tabs on a random Americans conversation that they had at some point at some time who may more may not be ever visiting China. I’m not saying China is run by good people, I’m saying no government is competent enough to actually 1984 anyone in real life.
It’s like the social credit system that doesn’t really exist. The CCP put out a vague instruction to have a credit system based on social stuff because many Chinese people don’t have banks thus don’t have access to regular credit systems. Random cities and provinces came up their own systems with random rules and regulations. Then basically all of them were walked back because they were stupid and random and overbearing, and the CCP delegating their vague orders gives them plausible deniability in that they blamed the stupid systems on local government and played the good guy when they ordered them walked back.
I can either:
Cons: Not being able to revisit places I’ve been to that I always wanted to go.
Pros: Being safe from an authoritarian government that’s increasingly regressing back to totalitarianism
Pros: I can visit places I always wanted to revisit
Cons: Being arrested in China, placed on exit ban, tortured, or executed. And if I somehow leave unharmed, upon returning to the US, I could be accused of being a communist spy due to rising US-China tensions, possibly spending time in prison because of a second red scare.
Potential consequences are not worth it.
Tourism is not worth being tortured.
What do you plan on doing in China? You must have quite the crime spree planned.
Just being Canadian is enough if the CCP is playing games.
Do you not understand US-China tensions? Both countries fear each other, and someone who’ve lived in the US for practically their entire life suddenly wants to visit China? That’d definitely raise some alarms about a potential spy. Maybe nothing happens, maybe they falsely assume I’m a spy.
Same thing when I return to the US, those border agents are gonna ask me why I went to my China during these times of high tensions.
There are risks from both countries. Whereas if China was democratic and US-friendly, none of these would be an issue.
Do you know how many people in the US were falsely arrested? That’s in a democratic country. Think about those odds if it were an authoritarian one.
Singapore? The place has its issues but rule of law isn’t one of them and they totally get the “Han but no love for China” perspective.