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by hawkice 3364 days ago
I think that it's very possible that unrestricted political speech isn't needed for dynamic business environments. I feel like a lot of Americans are waiting for the other shoe to drop, but only use vague innuendo or metaphor to explain why free speech is necessary for the next electronics innovation.

Can't we just say we like free speech? Because if we dont, and they can develop new commercial products without it, China will likely never get free speech. They'll just hear about it as something Western companies wanted that China succeeded without.
2 comments
rmason 3364 days ago
The Tianenmen square protests failed ultimately because the rest of China didn't know they were going on.

What happens now when with a flick of wechat the entire nation takes to the streets? All it will take is a leaders mistakes and a single spark.

It's not a question of whether China will have free speech and democracy but when.

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foldr 3364 days ago
The Western world isn't doing a great job of advertising democracy at the moment. There's no natural progression towards free speech and democracy. It will happen if a majority of Chinese people are persuaded that it's a good idea. When they look at Trump and Brexit, I'm not so sure that they will be.
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CuriouslyC 3364 days ago
Having more control over their lives makes people intrinsically happier. As a result, even if everything else about their lives is the same, people in a democracy will be happier than people in an autocracy.

The Chinese people are riding a wave of growing affluence that is smoothing over the oppressive nature of the regime, but when growth stalls things are going to look very different.

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foldr 3364 days ago
Maybe. The future isn't that easy to predict, in my opinion. It's not as if every affluent society with low growth has become a democracy.
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T-A 3364 days ago
> What happens now when with a flick of wechat the entire nation takes to the streets?

If you can think of it, then so can the Chinese party state:

https://qz.com/848885/china-is-censoring-peoples-chats-witho...

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LiweiZ 3364 days ago
After n rounds of chaos and peace cycles and losting millions of lives in best case.
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chaostheory 3364 days ago
Dynamic business environments - no. World changing innovation - yes.
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