From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 1996 02:57:34 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: China -- the fragile glimmer of freedom
Message-ID: <ad4b4f880c02100476b8@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 12:10 AM 2/16/96, Bryce wrote:
...
>For people who spewed forth hundreds of articles of rants
>when the toothless CDA outlawed lewdity and advice about
>abortion, and for people who bravely and promptly took
>action to protect the free speech of a <contempt>Holocaust
>denier</contempt>, the cpunks have been noticeably silent
>about this much more cruel and widespread repression.

>
>Perhaps you think that the compliant Chinese person is
>satisfied with his or her role as lackey of his government?
>Or is it that we and the Asians inhabit such different
>worlds that we will have to make do without each other's
>help?

Well, where are the posts from outraged Cypherpunks living in the People's
Republic of China?

Some countries are so far gone, so deep in the muck of statism, that
nothing their governments do is very surprising.  Ranting about how bad
things are in some country is not very meaningful. Supplying them with
tools is more meaningful. However, given that I know of no list members
living in the PRC, nor even any in soon-to-be-assimilated Hong Kong, I'm
not sure what the point is.

I don't know about others, but I think the focus should be on the folks who
are salvageable, not the billion or so Chinese or the hundreds of millions
of Islamic women awaiting their clitorectomies and bowing toward Mecca for
guidance.

Fact is that 90%+ of all list members are in the United States, and 97%+
are in the so-called "Western world." We have a chance to deploy strong
crypto, the residents of Nepal and Singapore do not.

(By mentioning Singapore, I will get insulting e-mail, as I did last time,
furiously declaring Singapore to be a haven of freedom, free from the
corrupt thoughts of decadent imperialist empires, and secure in the
knowledge that Lee Kuan Yu (sp?) knows what is best for all of his
children.)

But if a branch of Cypherpunks wants to start up in Beijing, I'll send them
some complimentary copies of my "Crypto Anarchist Manifesto" to pass out to
local Party members!

--Tim May


Boycott espionage-enabled software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."