[iamnotacrook]

Exactly. You look at this, remember that it'll be making its way around the world (slowly at first, admittedly) and it's impossible to ignore the little internal voice where your conscience used to be whispering "kill yourself".

[FooBarWidget]

I really don’t think the Chinese are interested in exporting their governance system.

[coldtea]

No, but all western countries are interested in getting some of that control for themselves...

If you consider what governments track today and what was considered "totalitarian surveillance" back in McCarthy era, it's clear where things are headed.

Or consider how many extra bureaucratic checks, controls, and laws exist now, compared to 1950 or 1920...

[Tade0]

They used to though.

Years ago in communist Poland my father accidentally wound up in some kind of Chinese event where the organizers would give away Mao's Red Book.

At the exit there were two local secret service agents who in turn would politely, but firmly ask for the booklet to be surrendered to them, since this was a flavour of communism not enjoyed by the Big Brother, so illegal.

[FooBarWidget]

They used to when Mao was alive and the country was engulfed by misguided idealism. After Mao was gone they realized what a mistake that was, hence why China started reforming. The party’s official stance is that Mao was 70% right (pre-cultural revolution contributions to freeing the country from oppressors, giving common people power), 30% wrong (cultural revolution).

So whether they used to or not is not relevant.

[iamnotacrook]

The USA and the Chinese governments are not so different. All that ideology bollocks is window dressing; the API. The back end is the same.