Important piece, every American/western HN reader should read.
The relationship between the policies and practices described here and those created by the US post 9/11 is alluded to but not sufficiently explored.
Also insufficiently explored, and I say this with trepidation, having no knowledge or background in the actual conflict in these territories, is the extent to which the practices described here, enabled by tech, are framed by authorities with power as "more humane" than the alternative without technology, which would likely be extermination.
I don't think the alternative would be extermination, as the CCP has been very consistent at using the politically incorrect for slave labor.
The reasoning is given at [1]:
> Mao Zedong's order given in 1957 in one of his speeches, in which Mao explained why political prisoners must not be executed:
> 1st: If one was executed, then more would have to be executed for the same crime later on for equality, and it would difficult to spare the lives of future prisoners who committed the same crime, because justice system would be criticized as unequal, giving preferential treatments
> 2nd: Wrong people and even innocent people might be executed by mistake
> 3rd: Executing prisoners could mean the vanishing of evidence
> 4th: When prisoners were executed, it could not increase production output, could not improve scientific research, could not strengthen national defense, and could not liberate Taiwan
> 5th: You (the Communist regime) would be accused of excessive killings
Tracking down the source hit a dead end because I can't justify spending $44 for a speech from 1957. So this quote may not be accurate, but it is pretty consistent with the CCP's behavior.
Much of "The Selected Work of Mao Zedong" is freely available online at [1]. Looking through the speeches readily available, I can't find any 1957 speech containing the content quoted above.
It looks the the only English language reference to the texted quoted above originates from a single Wikipedia edit from 2007 [2]. Neither the articles on "Re-education through labor" nor "Laogai" reference this quote.
It is my belief that this is likely a specious quotation. Mao likely did not say the text quoted.
The relationship between the policies and practices described here and those created by the US post 9/11 is alluded to but not sufficiently explored.
Also insufficiently explored, and I say this with trepidation, having no knowledge or background in the actual conflict in these territories, is the extent to which the practices described here, enabled by tech, are framed by authorities with power as "more humane" than the alternative without technology, which would likely be extermination.