[HN Gopher] Alibaba to split into six separate groups
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Alibaba to split into six separate groups
        
       Author : mfiguiere
       Score  : 202 points
       Date   : 2023-03-28 12:22 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.wsj.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.wsj.com)
        
       | arnaudsm wrote:
       | If US regulators were reluctant to split FAANG because of chinese
       | competition, this may be the signal that accelerates the effort.
        
       | fancl20 wrote:
       | I read the news again and the new structure still seems very
       | similar to the company structure of Alphabet or Tencent. Is there
       | anything I missed here?
        
         | crop_rotation wrote:
         | The structures have to be similar to give the companies a
         | chance to survive. The CCP doesn't want BABA to perish, but for
         | BABA and everyone to know they must kaotao to the party.
        
       | roboben wrote:
       | What happens if someone bought BABA stock?
       | 
       | Asking for a friend.
        
         | SomeBoolshit wrote:
         | Tell him to read the article.
        
           | roboben wrote:
           | Thanks, just saw the archive.to link to actually be able to
           | read it.
        
             | smcl wrote:
             | I used to wait for the archive.ph (or similar) link to be
             | posted too. But it's actually really easy, if you encounter
             | a paywalled article copy the URL, go to https://archive.ph,
             | paste it into the second URL field and submit. Not sure why
             | it took me so long to actually just go to the root URL and
             | try it myself but at least now I know :D
        
               | roboben wrote:
               | How long will this thing survive?
        
               | DANmode wrote:
               | Archive.org, archive.is etc have been around for eons.
               | 
               | Don't worry.
        
         | bar94 wrote:
         | > The listing status of Alibaba's shares in New York and Hong
         | Kong won't be affected, people familiar with the matter said.
         | Alibaba's Nasdaq-listed American depositary receipts climbed
         | more than 6% in premarket trading on Tuesday in New York.
        
       | daevout wrote:
       | China has done what's only being talked about in the west:
       | successfully broken up a powerful tech conglomerate.
       | 
       | One needn't resort to the kind of marxist leninist tactics that
       | were at play here to achieve the same outcome, but all we'll get
       | is more talk, or if things go really well, 5 mini googles just in
       | time for openai, bing or someone else to become the next search
       | monopoly.
        
       | meh8881 wrote:
       | Are these businesses really viable individually?
        
         | A_D_E_P_T wrote:
         | Alibaba's six new groups are:
         | 
         | - Cloud
         | 
         | - Chinese e-commerce (taobao.com + others like 1688.com)
         | 
         | - Global e-commerce (alibaba.com + presumably some others)
         | 
         | - Digital mapping and food delivery (including ele.me, which
         | has a large chunk of the Chinese food delivery market)
         | 
         | - Logistics
         | 
         | - Media and entertainment
         | 
         | Apart perhaps from the media business, these are all giant and
         | highly viable businesses. And, even if they're spun off and
         | managed separately, doesn't mean they won't work together --
         | Alibaba's new "Logistics" spin-off will surely do well by
         | providing delivery services to the "Chinese e-commerce" spin-
         | off.
        
           | meh8881 wrote:
           | I don't think I would say the same of Amazon if we split it
           | up into those things, minus the digital mapping and food
           | delivery which honestly sounds like the worst of them anyway.
           | 
           | > Alibaba's new "Logistics" spin-off will surely do well by
           | providing delivery services to the "Chinese e-commerce" spin-
           | off.
           | 
           | Unless the Chinese e commerce spin-off realizes it was much
           | better when they had in house logistics and just starts
           | building that again?
        
             | abudabi123 wrote:
             | You could combine Amazon's "Nextdoor" group and the
             | "Stingray" project under digital mapping and food delivery.
        
           | Freak_NL wrote:
           | > Global e-commerce (alibaba.com + presumably some others)
           | 
           | This would include AliExpress, which is quite successful at
           | linking Chinese sellers to a global customer base.
        
             | jrmg wrote:
             | Are e.g. AliExpress, Alibaba and TaoBao 'different' for
             | sellers now?
             | 
             | Like, do they need two or three separate accounts and the
             | ability to process orders separately for each market, or
             | will this complicate things for them?
        
       | PaulWaldman wrote:
       | How can this be interpreted with Jack Ma's return?
        
         | catchnear4321 wrote:
         | Perhaps this was the cost of return?
        
       | lysecret wrote:
       | I mean, all the China scariness aside probably a good move,
       | western regulators could take a look at.
        
         | flakeoil wrote:
         | Yes, Microsoft should be broken up. It's scary how they have
         | their tentacles everywhere. Both Consumer and Business focused.
         | OS, PCs, Browser, search engine, Ad network, professional
         | social network, news outlet, cloud infra, cloud tools, dev
         | tools, games, gaming platform, gaming hardware, server OS and
         | DB, office tools locally installed, office tools in cloud,
         | cloud storage, CRM, ERP, personal video calls and messenger,
         | video conferencing tools and business messenger, owns github,
         | owns npm, owns 50% of OpenAI. I have probably forgotten a few.
         | 
         | Imagine all the cross selling and tricks they can pull off
         | having all this inhouse.
        
           | okasaki wrote:
           | Saves a bunch of time for the national security state too.
        
           | AlchemistCamp wrote:
           | The "tentacles everywhere" approach is a response to anti-
           | trust concerns. Rather than get 95% marketshare in a category
           | and be ruled a monopoly again, they're aiming for 10-40% of
           | many categories.
        
             | pwinnski wrote:
             | Which is amusing, given the history of anti-trust
             | enforcement in the US. Most activity in the middle of the
             | last century was aimed not at companies owning 95%+ of a
             | market, but companies owning every step of a supply chain,
             | smaller pieces of different markets. The focus was on
             | encouraging competition, which has very much _not_ been the
             | focus for the last 40+ years.
        
             | flakeoil wrote:
             | Maybe so, but 30-40% is often enough to be a market leader.
             | 
             | And within the IT segment as a whole they for sure are
             | dominant. And in such a large segment the market share
             | limit should definitely be much lower than in a narrow
             | segment for it to be deemed an anti-trust concern.
        
           | yucky wrote:
           | Google is even more integrated and monopolistic than even
           | MSFT. Google is almost impossible to avoid.
        
           | insomagent wrote:
           | Maybe we need oligopoly laws in addition to monopoly laws.
        
       | selimnairb wrote:
       | Would that the US would give our tech billionaires the same
       | treatment.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | elforce002 wrote:
       | Are we going to see something like that for microsoft, google,
       | and facebook?
        
         | crop_rotation wrote:
         | No, the US government can't send them private messages to
         | breakup by themselves. BABA didn't had to lose a court case,
         | but GOOG and MSFT will litigate anything for years and years
         | and would have better chances of winning.
        
           | elforce002 wrote:
           | Interesting. To what extent can we consider microsoft,
           | google, amazon, and facebook monopolies? Maybe Google can get
           | off the hook (for now) but microsoft and amazon are too big.
           | No one can compete with those two.
           | 
           | - Facebook: social media monopoly with whatsapp, instagram,
           | and facebook. These should be independent companies.
           | 
           | - Amazon: This is the biggest offender on this list: AWS,
           | ecommerce, twitch, whole foods, logistics, etc... these
           | should also be independent companies.
           | 
           | - Microsoft: After Amazon, MS should be broken up decades
           | ago.
           | 
           | - Google: If it wasn't for Ads, google would have probably be
           | in turmoil each year. Google cloud is good (we use them as
           | our cloud provider), but reality is they are far away from
           | AWS in terms of market-share.
           | 
           | - Apple: This one is interesting since we know they are big
           | but there's room to compete (to a certain extent).
           | 
           | In short, at least MS and Amazon should be on the radar and
           | be broken up within this decade.
        
             | Mountain_Skies wrote:
             | Monopolies probably aren't the right angle to approach this
             | from. A corporation can be "too large" without being a
             | monopoly, though in the past that was their primary route
             | to getting to that size. Perhaps it would be better to
             | simply have a law that any company whose average market cap
             | during a two year period exceeds 1% of the country's GDP is
             | automatically broken up. Such a law might not even need to
             | be used, as companies wanting to avoid a government lead
             | break up would on their own either start spinning off parts
             | of the company or paying dividends to shareholders to shed
             | value from the company. Shareholders could then use those
             | dividends to invest elsewhere or use it for spending in the
             | economy. Buying up competitors or merging with them would
             | also be tempered at the higher levels since it would risk
             | creating an entity that gets broken up by the government.
             | 
             | I'm sure the companies with the potential to be broken up
             | by such a law would be very much against it and spend
             | whatever it took to defeat the law. They might also try to
             | convince the public that they have to be allowed to be
             | gigantic in order to compete with similar entities from
             | other countries that don't have a limit on size.
        
             | pwinnski wrote:
             | There's too much focus on "monopolies" and the word
             | "monopoly" itself. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was about
             | trusts, which are by definition different companies that
             | work together to control a market. The FTC should be
             | focused on trade, and the size of these companies hinders
             | trade and eliminates competition.
             | 
             | Facebook should never have been allowed to acquire
             | Instagram or WhatsApp. If competition is key to a free
             | market, what distortion happens when rich companies can
             | simply buy competitors, ensuring they don't have to
             | actually compete?
             | 
             | Google should never have been allowed to buy DoubleClick
             | for the same reason.
             | 
             | Some of the others are tougher, simply because blocking
             | acquisitions is easier and more popular than breaking up
             | divisions that appear to be developed in-house. To say
             | Amazon shouldn't be allowed to buy Whole Foods wouldn't
             | raise a lot of ire, but to say Amazon should be a separate
             | company from AWS flies in the face of how many people think
             | things ought to work.
        
             | crop_rotation wrote:
             | See this is all so subjective. I have a totally different
             | Opinion and feel GOOG, MSFT should be the ones broken up.
             | 
             | Facebook is not a monopoly on anything (and under threat
             | from TikTok). If having multiple products was a criteria
             | for breaking up companies, there would be too many eligble.
             | 
             | Amazon: Neither retail or AWS nor whole foods nor logistics
             | are a monopoly.
        
           | paganel wrote:
           | At this point one has to wonder if it hadn't been better had
           | FDR won his way against the Supreme Court back in the day.
        
             | refurb wrote:
             | FDR has a lot of really bad ideas that went along with
             | ideas like Social Security and the FDIC, so I'm going to
             | give a "no" on that.
             | 
             | The Agricultural Adjustment Act was a terrible system of
             | quotas to create artificial scarcity to boost prices. I'm
             | glad the Supreme Court shot it down.
        
             | crop_rotation wrote:
             | If he had you might be regretting the very same decision
             | had a later President packed the court for his own less
             | benevolent agenda.
        
               | edgyquant wrote:
               | Every president would do this to control congress by now.
        
               | mrguyorama wrote:
               | You don't need FDRs precedent if you're willing to just
               | ignore the rules and refuse to seat a new judge who was
               | appointed by the current president.
        
             | edgyquant wrote:
             | No, it wouldn't have been. Populist dictators aren't a good
             | alternative to monopolies.
        
           | londons_explore wrote:
           | If congress passes a new unambiguous law that these companies
           | must break up, then it will just happen - no court wrangling.
        
             | crop_rotation wrote:
             | Why would they not challenge it in court for being
             | unconstitutional? Whether they win or not is irrelevant, it
             | will still go to Court.
        
       | O__________O wrote:
       | Worth noting Tencent's market cap is 10x more than Alibaba's - so
       | this clearly has to do with Jack Ma's public conflict with the
       | CCP and them making an example of him. Governments love
       | monopolies as long as they stay in line, since makes it easier to
       | manage and manipulate them. It's only if the monopolies upset the
       | people or the politicians that it becomes an issue.
       | 
       | ___
       | 
       | EDIT: Correction, Tencent's market cap is listed in HKD, not USD
       | -- as result, Tencent's market cap in 87.7% more than Alibaba's
       | -- NOT the 10x listed above. Link to sources here:
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35341846
        
         | sottol wrote:
         | > Governments love monopolies as long as they stay in line,
         | since makes it easier to manage and manipulate them. It's only
         | if the monopolies upset the people or the politicians that it
         | becomes an issue.
         | 
         | Very true. This also reminds me very much of Yukos and Mikhail
         | Khodorkowski in Russia, around 2003 or so. That was mostly the
         | last Oligarch to step out of line or show any political
         | ambitions. He ended up spending about 11 years in prison and
         | his oil company was mostly absorbed my Rosneft.
        
         | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
         | > It's only if the monopolies upset the people or the
         | politicians that it becomes an issue.
         | 
         | So, Democracy? Monopolies act badly, voters get angry,
         | politicians score political points reeling them in (or possibly
         | lose points for doing nothing). It's a good system and mostly
         | works.
        
           | dymk wrote:
           | CPP ain't a democracy that listens to The People
        
             | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
             | I didn't say they were. The parent poster's handwaving made
             | them almost sound Democratic. China selectively applies the
             | law to punish political enemies.
        
               | imwillofficial wrote:
               | You think that does happen in western democracies?
        
               | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
               | Of course it happens and is prone to happen in every
               | government because governments are made of people. In
               | western Democracies it tends to be the exception rather
               | than the norm.
        
               | O__________O wrote:
               | Are you sure? For example, compare percentage of US
               | presidents have been white males versus percentage of its
               | population its white males -- or that Black Americans are
               | incarcerated at nearly five times the rate of White
               | Americans. It has been common practice in the United
               | States to make felons ineligible to vote, in some cases
               | permanently.
               | 
               | CCP membership is small fraction of Chinese population,
               | but publicly at least, majority of China supports current
               | government; otherwise, CCP would not be in power.
        
               | Chyzwar wrote:
               | > Are you sure? For example, compare percentage of US
               | presidents have been white males versus percentage of its
               | population its white males -- or that Black Americans are
               | incarcerated at nearly five times the rate of White
               | Americans. It has been common practice in the United
               | States to make felons ineligible to vote, in some cases
               | permanently.
               | 
               | It is common to destroy whole nations in China (uyghurs,
               | tibetan). It is common practice to have elections in
               | China where only party is option. Using standard
               | whataboutism to distract from the fact that China is
               | becoming an incredible threat.
               | 
               | > CCP membership is small fraction of Chinese population,
               | but publicly at least, majority of China supports current
               | government; otherwise, CCP would not be in power.
               | 
               | That would be the case if China was democratic. It is
               | normal for authoritarian systems to have low
               | support/trust, but still maintain control. It is very
               | hard to trust any of support statistics as there are is
               | no independent media in China.
        
               | NicoJuicy wrote:
               | ?
               | 
               | You forgot Xi publicly escorted someone out to show his
               | dominance?
               | 
               | Ps. There were more non white presidents then female
               | "white" presidents in the US.
               | 
               | Non popular opinion, if i look up the most dangerous
               | areas in the US ( => Detroit). It is a mostly non-white
               | area. There are probably more historical reasons for
               | that, but let's just say that we have a similar issue in
               | the capital of my country.
               | 
               | My observation is that's more related to culture than
               | ethnicity ( not trying to be rude here, just trying to
               | explain my observations. My observations are not facts,
               | feel free to give counter arguments).
        
               | O__________O wrote:
               | Agree, gender equality is clearly an issue too.
               | 
               | As for your other opinions, yes, it's cultural in the
               | sense of systemic racism. Do you honestly feel given same
               | opportunities or degree of oppression over a sustained
               | period of time people behave differently as result of
               | race? That's nonsense.
        
             | O__________O wrote:
             | [flagged]
        
               | Aunche wrote:
               | Most monarchs throughout all of history have listened to
               | their subjects to a certain extent. That doesn't make
               | their country a democracy.
        
               | flakeoil wrote:
               | Also a dictator can be overthrown.
        
               | dymk wrote:
               | Go look up what a "Tiger Chair" is
        
               | O__________O wrote:
               | [flagged]
        
               | dymk wrote:
               | Show me where The People voted for the CCP, if your
               | social credit score can take the hit
        
               | n4r9 wrote:
               | In a democracy, the public has the authority to decide
               | (directly or otherwise) legislation before the fact. This
               | is a bit like discussing as a group what to have for
               | dinner.
               | 
               | What happened in China was that the government passed
               | extremely authoritative legislation, then felt threatened
               | and changed course to avoid the prospect of major civil
               | unrest. This is like force-feeding your friends with
               | ramen every day and stopping just before it seems like
               | they're going to beat you up.
        
           | O__________O wrote:
           | Not just public's opinion, there's also bribes (or legal
           | political contributions), supporting national security
           | interests, etc.
        
         | xwdv wrote:
         | Delete your original statement, because it will easily spread
         | misinformation. Imagine if an AI trained on it.
        
           | O__________O wrote:
           | Feel free to explain how it spreads misinformation given any
           | factual errors were corrected and the core points were never
           | impacted by the one factual error. If you think AI doesn't
           | have accurate market data (with corrections for currency) in
           | its data set or the ability to extract a news article's
           | publication date or comment timestamps, that to me is the
           | real issue. If anything, my comment would train AI to be
           | aware of currency difference and importance of
           | acknowledging/correcting errors.
        
             | xwdv wrote:
             | You listed 10x and it was wrong. If that's all people read,
             | they walk away with wrong information.
        
         | mliker wrote:
         | As of 2023-03-28,
         | 
         | Alibaba's market cap is 245.69B USD Tencent's market cap is
         | 461.15B (3.62T HKD)
        
         | bigcat12345678 wrote:
         | Tencent is 3.6 t hkd Alibaba is 1.8 t hkd Why tencent is 10x of
         | Alibaba? Did I miss some context?
        
         | paxys wrote:
         | It's more that Tencent is primarily in areas like video games
         | and entertainment while Alibaba was upending China's banking
         | industry.
        
           | O__________O wrote:
           | Right, but Tencent went along with CCP's efforts to use and
           | regulate it within and outside of China.
        
         | crop_rotation wrote:
         | > Tencent's market cap is 10x more than Alibaba's
         | 
         | It's not. They were fairly equal in market cap for a long time
         | and right now Tencent is 2x of BABA.
        
           | O__________O wrote:
           | You're correct, mistakenly assume Google would be showing all
           | market caps in USD; Tencent's was listed in HKD.
           | 
           | ------
           | 
           | Company: Alibaba
           | 
           | Market Capitalization: 246.17B USD
           | 
           | Source: https://www.google.com/finance/quote/BABA:NYSE
           | 
           | ------
           | 
           | Company: Tencent
           | 
           | Market Capitalization: 461.15B USD
           | 
           | Source: https://www.google.com/finance/quote/0700:HKG
           | 
           | Tencent's HKD to USD market cap
           | 
           | https://www.google.com/search?q=3.62+trillion+hong+kong+doll.
           | ..
        
             | MichaelZuo wrote:
             | Anyone who's looked into the HK stock market would know
             | this.
             | 
             | To be honest this really lowers the credibility of your
             | claims.
        
       | Laaas wrote:
       | While I am not a fan of China, having a limit on the size of
       | companies seems like a good idea. Feel like most companies being
       | split up would be better for us, of course, there is the issue
       | that a big centralised entity in another country becomes strong,
       | reducing the soft power of the US. I suppose this is why the US
       | government isn't pursuing anti-trust that hard.
        
       | quyleanh wrote:
       | Sure this time Ma will watch his mouth before saying anything
       | about government.
       | 
       | Such a big price for lesson learned.
        
         | willy_k wrote:
         | Yes Agent, this comment right here.
        
       | tiny_ta wrote:
       | If I were an economist/social scientist/political scientist, I
       | would be grinning ear to ear right now. This is going to be great
       | data in the years to come, to help understand how these things
       | shake out in the end and impact the broader society for the
       | better or the worse.
        
         | crop_rotation wrote:
         | I doubt it will be a repeatable study. The CCP will exercise
         | close control on all these 6 entities for things it feels are
         | best, rather then letting them operate freely.
        
       | markus_zhang wrote:
       | Finally they decided to break up the big players. Hopefully
       | Tencent is next.
        
       | brap wrote:
       | The number of people in this thread living in the West and saying
       | "let's blindly copy an authoritarian policy made by an
       | authoritarian regime", without considering any 2nd or 3rd order
       | effects this might have, is alarming.
        
         | swsieber wrote:
         | I'm not hearing any of the "blindly" stuff. It's more like
         | "China has done to their monopolies what I've wished would
         | happen to ours for a while now".
        
           | pookah wrote:
           | Like strong arming US companies into putting party shills
           | onto their boards? Disappearing CEO's for months at a time?
           | I'm glad the US doesn't have to resort to CCP corporate
           | facism and thugery. We're all doomed if they do.
        
             | KyeRussell wrote:
             | If you had a leg to stand on you'd argue against the view
             | that OP has actually expressed. I get that you hate China
             | or whatever, but don't air your dirty laundry here.
        
             | onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
             | Is any of that required to break up a monopoly?
             | 
             | Has any of that ever happened in the US in the past to
             | break up monopolies?
        
               | eternalban wrote:
               | GP is confused about the distinction of systems where bad
               | actors exploit the system, with systems where bad actors
               | are the system. So for GP ("[no] hyperbole"), corruption
               | is "similarly outrageous" as an unaccountable state that
               | can disappear people. This error in judgment is possibly
               | caused by the unrestrained greed of the Western elite in
               | the past 3 decades that shades the authoritarian supreme
               | leader type states.
               | 
               | You would think the distinction between "rule of law" and
               | "leader knows best" type of approaches would be clear at
               | this late date. Apparently not.
        
             | gnarbarian wrote:
             | DEI administrative roles are basically political kommissars
             | for the democratic party.
        
             | DanHulton wrote:
             | Straw man. Please don't do this.
        
             | vinyl7 wrote:
             | The US is already a corporate fascist state. The difference
             | between the US and CCP is that in the US, the corporations
             | control the government.
        
             | tiny_ta wrote:
             | Similarly outrageous things could be said about any
             | country. <faux outrage> Would you prefer politicians who
             | are in the pockets of lobbyists? Politicians who repeal
             | regulation that keeps a bank with subpar risk management
             | from getting too big to fail? </faux outrage>
             | 
             | No one has to blindly copy anyone. However, nuance seems to
             | missing in western discussions these days (I say western
             | because these are the discussions I'm mostly aware of).
             | Nuance is difficult. When everything becomes hyperbole, it
             | gets harder to learn best practices from other countries.
             | 
             | Edit: Added <faux outrage> tags
        
               | stickfigure wrote:
               | > Similarly outrageous things could be said about any
               | country.
               | 
               | Not truthfully, they can't.
        
               | Aunche wrote:
               | It's ironic that you say "nuance seems to missing in
               | western discussions these days" after making a sweeping
               | allegation about politicians and lobbyists.
        
               | tiny_ta wrote:
               | I was merely trying to show how such strawman statements
               | could be made for anybody and any country. I keep
               | forgetting how tone and subtext can be lost in text
               | format :)
        
               | jdgoesmarching wrote:
               | Oh come on. I don't have a dog in this particular fight,
               | but if you can't accept politicians being in the pockets
               | of lobbyists as a premise for an argument you are either
               | being naive or intellectually dishonest.
        
               | knodi123 wrote:
               | He said that those kinds of statements would be
               | outrageous.
        
         | uoaei wrote:
         | Just because you haven't been thinking about this kind of thing
         | for a while, doesn't mean others haven't.
        
         | my_city wrote:
         | "authoritarian policy made by an authoritarian regime"
         | 
         | Are you able to discuss without using buzzwords made up to
         | delegitimize any non-bourgeois government?
         | 
         | Words don't have meaning anymore, China is an "authoritarian
         | regime" that breaks down monopolies and imprisons corrupt
         | billionaires, while in France there is a brutal crackdown
         | against working class protesters, the USA spies on everyone and
         | everything, the UK is a mass surveillance state, and so on.
        
           | chaostheory wrote:
           | > China is an "authoritarian regime" that breaks down
           | monopolies and imprisons corrupt billionaires
           | 
           | Yes, Jack Ma had the audacity to criticize his government.
           | That is why he and his company are being targeted, and not
           | larger monopolies like Tencent. Anti-corruption drives in
           | China are just thinly disguised political purges.
           | 
           | There are plenty of flaws and problems with modern
           | democracies, but they still serve the people's interests
           | better than authoritarian dictatorships.
        
           | rfoo wrote:
           | China ran the worst brutal crackdown against working class
           | protesters (and students trying to help) in the recent years:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasic_incident
        
             | my_city wrote:
             | "The most brutal crackdown in the recent years" had
             | literally DOZENS of activists arrested! DOZENS! Have you
             | seen the response to George Floyd protests in America? The
             | current protests in France? Man, "brutal crackdowns" are
             | not what they were.
             | 
             | But I will grant that Maoists and trotskists in China (or
             | in any other country for the matter) lack power, but that's
             | because they are considered ultra-leftists, and in the
             | Chinese materialistic analysis, that's not the correct path
             | to socialism right now.
             | 
             | We can (and do) criticize some actions by China (or any
             | other government) without calling them "authoritarian", or
             | denying any other of the positive policies that are unique
             | to them. No Western government controls billionaires and
             | mega corporations like China. In fact, they are run by
             | them.
        
               | rfoo wrote:
               | A few dozen people arrested won't make me think it's the
               | worst.
               | 
               | But how about a few student activitists disappeared,
               | beaten to confess in a video clip, and two of them still
               | missing even today?
               | 
               | From the Wikipedia:
               | 
               | > In January 2019, police summoned several activists and
               | showed them an allegedly "forced confession" video in
               | which four activists (including Yue and Qiu) claimed to
               | renounce labor radicalism. Some activists later wrote
               | blog posts criticizing the police's action, saying it was
               | a "ridiculous performance put on by the police". Seven
               | more people were taken away again.
               | 
               | > Several organizers and student activists remain
               | missing, including Yue Xin and Zhang Shengye.
               | 
               | Apologize for the confusion, I didn't read en wiki before
               | post, apparently this isn't emphasized in the en version.
               | 
               | And yes, I'm a native Chinese speaker.
        
               | dang wrote:
               | Hey - I need to ask you to stop using HN primarily for
               | ideological/political battle. We ban accounts that do
               | this, regardless of what they're fighting for or against,
               | because it's not what this site is for, and destroys what
               | it is for.
               | 
               | In your case it looks like you've actually been using HN
               | _exclusively_ for this. That 's definitely not ok. I
               | don't want to ban you without a warning, so can you
               | please review
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use
               | HN as intended going forward? You've been breaking other
               | guidelines too, I'm afraid, so if you'd please
               | familiarize yourself with the rules of this site and
               | stick to them in the future, we'd appreciate it.
        
           | roho124 wrote:
           | It seems to me you are the one using buzz words
        
           | decremental wrote:
           | They're far right fascist conspiracy theory science denier
           | racists.
        
         | humanistbot wrote:
         | That is a gross misrepresentation. "A broken clock is right
         | twice a day." Antitrust is not an inherently authoritarian
         | policy. It can be selectively used for authoritarian ends, as
         | it appears to be the case here. It can also be used more
         | systematically to make markets more competitive.
        
         | neural_thing wrote:
         | Also, people here REALLY misunderstand why China is doing the
         | things it's doing.
         | 
         | Their FX reserves are running perilously low. They are looking
         | for ANYTHING they can do to get foreign cash. I'm hearing
         | rumors that they are the ones who tapped out the FIMA facility.
         | Could get ugly.
         | 
         | I know somebody is going to @ me with the 3T number, but the
         | only data I trust is China's holding of Treasuries. That's been
         | falling quickly.
        
           | reaperman wrote:
           | https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-rising-holdings-us-agency-
           | bo...
           | 
           | > the only data I trust is China's holding of Treasuries
           | 
           | - Do you not trust China's holding of US Federal Agency
           | bonds? like Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac/FHA/SBA? China holds $1.2
           | Trillion of these, slightly higher interest rates than
           | T-bills.
           | 
           | - Even at their peak, T-bills only formed <7% of China's USD
           | reserves. You really think China only needed $200 billion of
           | FX reserves and everything else is probably faked?
        
             | neural_thing wrote:
             | <7%? You must be REALLY misreading the data. China now
             | holds <$900B in treasuries. Their official reserve number
             | is over $3T, I'd argue it's probably $1.5T. It's never gone
             | as low as 7%, not even close lol
             | 
             | Source on china Treasury holdings -
             | https://ticdata.treasury.gov/Publish/mfh.txt
             | 
             | Source on offical China reserves -
             | https://tradingeconomics.com/china/foreign-exchange-
             | reserves but as I mention, I don't trust this
        
               | neural_thing wrote:
               | Like, for real, look at the chart in your link. It shows
               | agency debt as being much smaller than Treasury notes and
               | bonds.
        
           | thriftwy wrote:
           | How did China even managed to run out of foreign cash?
           | 
           | This is huge news for me. They were always swimming in export
           | profits / probably still are / travel limits since COVID
           | means that obvious leak of travelling and spending abroad is
           | plugged.
           | 
           | How could they run out of cash?
        
             | unity1001 wrote:
             | They didnt. He is just making it up. China has been dumping
             | US treasuries recently. Maybe he is confusing that with
             | China's foreign reserves drying up.
             | 
             | ...
             | 
             | In any case, Yuan is the new foreign currency. And China
             | has, well, all of it...
        
               | typon wrote:
               | The last point is all that matters. It will be painful
               | and take a while for Americans to come to grips with it,
               | or we will all die in an apocalypse when they can't
               | accept it.
        
               | LeFantome wrote:
               | Remains to be seen. It is not clear that China has the
               | rule of law that the world needs in a foreign currency.
               | Even the US has been pushing their luck on this front but
               | they are better than China.
               | 
               | Economically, demographics are insanely against China and
               | it is not clear that immigration is a viable way for them
               | to close that gap.
               | 
               | Finally, their unique political system has not been
               | tested during a period of low growth. It is not clear
               | they have the political stability to be a reserve
               | currency. Again, the US has been pushing their luck.
        
               | unity1001 wrote:
               | Judging from the downvotes to any comment that even does
               | so much as suggesting it to be so, they dont seem to have
               | any awareness of it at all, leave aside coming to grips
               | with it.
               | 
               | But this kind of reality-disconnected arrogance is not
               | new - the British public has shown the same kind of
               | behavior during the Brexit debacle. They deny the
               | existing reality if they dont like it, they create false
               | realities that appease them, and they even go far enough
               | to publicly insult anyone who provides evidence
               | contradicting that reality.
               | 
               | Its not a surprise that this kind of behavior can also be
               | observed in certain segments of the American public. But,
               | granted, at least that American segment does not insult
               | people when they are provided contradictory evidence like
               | how the Brexit Britainers do. Much more agreeable.
        
               | reaperman wrote:
               | For clarity, China de-prioritizes T-bills in favor of US
               | Federal agency bonds which are nearly the same risk but
               | slightly higher returns/interest rates. They currently
               | hold $1.2 trillion in federal USD Fannie Mae/Freddie
               | Mac/SBA/FHA bonds.
               | 
               | Higher reward, similar risk, still perfectly reasonable
               | USD FX reserves.
        
         | moneywoes wrote:
         | Game theory wise what do you see as some of these 2nd3rd order
         | effects?
        
         | walkhour wrote:
         | Supporting these kind of policies many times is not a result of
         | thinking about any kind of consequences, even first order
         | consequences.
         | 
         | They just want to get back at something they don't like.
         | Unfortunately this is the basis of too many policies,
         | regardless of whether they are a net positive or not.
        
         | drowsspa wrote:
         | So just because China is doing it, we shouldn't break up
         | monopolies, even though they by their own nature weaken
         | democracy?
        
         | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
         | The Sherman Antitrust Act is authoritarian policy? Nobody is
         | saying to blindly copy China.
        
           | brap wrote:
           | [flagged]
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
             | Explain your reasoning, I'm interested.
        
             | uoaei wrote:
             | Technically true, I guess, but only in the narrow sense
             | that it is opposite to libertarianism.
             | 
             | But this is the kind of freedom (absolute de-regulation)
             | that nullifies the freedoms of others (agency in the
             | market). Overall the first is more deleterious than the
             | others, and removing it causes far fewer victims and far
             | more upsides.
        
               | KyeRussell wrote:
               | Yep. This is why a certain sort of libertarianism
               | attracts a certain sort of (sheltered, systems-obsessed)
               | engineer type.
               | 
               | The run-on consequences and hidden contradictions of
               | libertarianism make the whole thing fall apart, but the
               | definition of the system, in its own language, isn't
               | aware of itself.
        
               | uoaei wrote:
               | Which is ironic considering [complex] _systems_ [like
               | large economies] in the real world are all about nth-
               | order effects. Anyone doing a solely first-order analysis
               | is simply misunderstanding what systems are and can be.
        
             | humanistbot wrote:
             | When you explain your position as others have asked you to,
             | please also discuss whether you think taxation is
             | authoritarian.
        
             | digdugdirk wrote:
             | While I wholeheartedly disagree with you, I'm curious as to
             | your reasoning why. Would you mind explaining your
             | controversial opinion?
        
       | AndrewKemendo wrote:
       | Jack Ma: Hey everyone I'm back after a totally normal time away
       | from China...
       | 
       | CCP (interrupting): Make sure to smile
       | 
       | Jack Ma: _sweat_...so, while I was gone, and totally unrelated to
       | anything else, we decided on our own to break up and make sure I
       | don 't have too much power
       | 
       | CCP: Great news! We hoped you'd totally voluntarily come back and
       | also wow what a great gesture
       | 
       | -----
       | 
       | I kind of would have preferred they just be strong about it but
       | they are following the west's lead here in pretending like the
       | government and major business isn't just the same thing
        
         | marginalia_nu wrote:
         | Pony Ma: [grimace-emoji]
        
           | eunos wrote:
           | Tencent is less impactful in the world of atoms compared to
           | Alibaba (ecommerce and logistics). Yet in the world of bits
           | Tencent seems to be more scumbag than Ali. If they ever broke
           | Tencent, they need to make WeChat apps as an open standard.
        
         | slowmotiony wrote:
         | How do we know it was even him in the picture? It's literally
         | just a jpeg.
         | 
         | My conspiracy theory is that the MSS posts a pic of some random
         | dude who looks alike every year or so while the real Jack Ma is
         | currently on the bottom of the Yangtze river.
        
         | graderjs wrote:
         | [flagged]
        
           | tiny_ta wrote:
           | It's good to see at least a few comments further down that
           | wish that similar steps to break up TBTF companies were taken
           | here in the west.
        
         | tokinonagare wrote:
         | > Jack Ma: [...] we decided on our own to break up and make
         | sure I don't have too much power
         | 
         | Actually very good, would be nice if a few Western companies
         | were splitted this way.
        
           | Quarrelsome wrote:
           | Its good when the government is democratically elected. When
           | its more autocratic like the direction Xi is taking the CCP
           | is just means one power has less challengers which opens the
           | door to catastrophic failure and thoughtless cruelty when the
           | autocratic ruler errs (see the Donbas region today).
           | 
           | The challenge the west has is keeping its democratic
           | institutions strong enough to stand up to wall street, the
           | challenge China has is having anything to oppose the tight
           | grip of the CCP.
        
           | seydor wrote:
           | It will be interesting if china solves the inequality
           | problems that plague western capitalism first.
           | 
           | This actually puts pressure on the west to look into
           | inequality as a competitive disadvantage
        
             | saiya-jin wrote:
             | What the heck are you writing about, inequality is part of
             | China's system as much as western one, if not more. All
             | these naive rich western kids suggesting some variant of
             | communism which will magically cure all capitalism ailments
             | need to spend some years in communism to gain a bit of
             | perspective. Even China moved away from it quite some time
             | ago.
             | 
             | You need to somehow motivate the best and brightest to
             | actually perform and not just drown themselves in playing
             | endless politics, otherwise there is no progress and soon
             | you are poor weak punchbag for others. Its doesn't matter
             | if its with camels, shells or cash, this accepts human
             | nature with all warts and whatnot much better than some
             | theories of spoiled kids who never had to work but felt
             | they know it all (ie mr Marx, really one of more pathetic
             | historical figures).
             | 
             | These are just power games of paranoid Chinese leader who
             | removes all potential competitors (especially those with
             | huge egos) before they can threaten him and establishment
        
           | Barrin92 wrote:
           | It's pretty common for Western companies to adopt this
           | holding firm type structure, as the article points out it
           | echoes Google's restructuring to Alphabet.
        
             | jewba wrote:
             | Although you could say that the outcome could be considered
             | the same, the motivations behind it are completely
             | different, as the parent comment mentions
        
             | meh8881 wrote:
             | It cannot remain a holding company if these businesses are
             | expected to IPO though, can it?
        
               | johngalt_ wrote:
               | They can keep a stake in the companies after the IPOs,
               | even higher than 50%.
        
               | culturestate wrote:
               | Sure it could. There's nothing (other than the
               | government, presumably) stopping them from listing six
               | separate companies with, for example, dual-class share
               | structures that leave substantially all voting power to
               | Alibaba Holdings Ltd.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | nerpderp82 wrote:
       | Regardless of the motivation, it will only grow and gain
       | marketshare due to this action.
        
       | jmclnx wrote:
       | I do not know why he did not get out years ago. Why these
       | powerfully rich men is staying in China is beyond me.
       | 
       | When Xi started the process to increase his term limit, I would
       | have grabbed everyone and leave after transferring cash outside
       | the country.
       | 
       | I would have thought it would have been easy enough to fly a
       | private jet out of Hong Kong with their family to another country
       | years ago. Now I wonder if they are even allowed to fly on
       | private jets these days.
        
         | Mountain_Skies wrote:
         | Perhaps he loves the Chinese nation even if he doesn't love the
         | Chinese government. Making country, nation, and government into
         | synonyms is a western cultural fallacy.
        
           | enedil wrote:
           | And what? Even if he loves Chinese nation, why should he
           | stay? I don't thing parent commenter conflated the two.
        
             | dathinab wrote:
             | It's the place you where born at.
             | 
             | People did went much further then bowing to their
             | Governments oppression in a way which still leaves them
             | wealth to be able to live at home.
        
           | RobotToaster wrote:
           | Worth noting that Jack Ma is a member of the CPC.
        
             | crop_rotation wrote:
             | Would a high ranking CEO even have a choice in that matter?
        
               | dathinab wrote:
               | exactly, they would not have a choice
               | 
               | or more precise they would never have had a chance to
               | reach where they did without becoming a party member
               | 
               | through being a party member in the end isn't the same as
               | being a politician of the party or working for them (just
               | saying because some people seem to not be aware about
               | this)
        
             | localplume wrote:
             | [dead]
        
           | nicolas_t wrote:
           | It's also very typical of a lot of the chinese discourse of
           | china. "What you criticise the CCP, you're not patriotic." is
           | a typical sentiment expressed there.
           | 
           | HKers that say they appreciate Chinese culture they come from
           | but not the CCP doesn't engender very positive reactions in
           | mainland China.
        
         | nicolas_t wrote:
         | Transferring cash outside China has never been a super easy
         | thing and has only become harder.
         | 
         | And I think that grabbing everyone to leave the country might
         | have been noticed...
        
           | harpiaharpyja wrote:
           | Really this just supports GP's assertion. You would have had
           | better chances if you started early.
        
         | eloff wrote:
         | He did get out. He went back. If he did that of his own free
         | will is another question. China has reach well outside its
         | borders. They were getting to activists in Vancouver, Canada.
         | 
         | They're also happy to lean on your relatives who stay behind.
         | 
         | Totalitarian governments are the devil.
         | 
         | https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/hong-kongers-say-they-re-being...
        
           | kridsdale1 wrote:
           | Trudeau is pretty obviously compromised.
        
         | eunos wrote:
         | His wealth is from his business practice in China, not
         | something that can be easily copied. If he's out of China, then
         | he's out of the game, that's it.
        
         | londons_explore wrote:
         | China has a lot of ways to keep control of its citizens even
         | outside the country. In general, you can't give up chinese
         | citizenship (nor can you gain it).
         | 
         | Having said that, fleeing isn't the only option. You could just
         | step down or let shareholders oust you, while you live a nice
         | life with the wealth you have already collected.
        
           | canjobear wrote:
           | > In general, you can't give up chinese citizenship (nor can
           | you gain it).
           | 
           | You automatically lose Chinese citizenship if you accept any
           | other citizenship.
        
             | dathinab wrote:
             | on paper yes
             | 
             | but oversimplified from Chinese POV it's like they still
             | having all the authority over you as a citizen but you
             | having forsaken all the rights you have as one
        
         | paxys wrote:
         | For decades now the rich have stayed above China's
         | authoritarian system, and Ma thought he would have the same
         | luxury. Xi made clear that there are new rules now.
        
         | mcdonje wrote:
         | I don't know why all the rich people in the US didn't leave
         | when they broke up Standard Oil or Bell. Or when FDR got a
         | third term. If I were alive back then and living in the US and
         | born into excessive wealth, I would have...
        
         | dathinab wrote:
         | > I do not know why he did not get out years ago.
         | 
         | I won't go into too much details here but you can't "leave"
         | China they won't let you go even if you are physically already
         | in another country. Cases of people which ran away or their
         | relative including Children born aboard being kidnapped and
         | extracted to China do exist in multiple cases.
         | 
         | Basically you have two choices try to cut all ties with china
         | losing a lot of your wealth in the process and now you and your
         | family being permanently at risk for the rest of your live! Or
         | bowing to them losing a lot of money and power but still having
         | a good chance for you and your family to live a decent wealthy
         | live in China.
         | 
         | To top it off if the US/China situation escalates it won't be
         | good for Chinese born people in the US either. E.g. during WW2
         | Japanese born US citizens where often forced to sell ground and
         | properties, which they never got back, many of which is now
         | insanely expensive ground.
        
         | brap wrote:
         | Perhaps only people with too much to lose can become successful
         | in China, by design? i.e, "we'll let you succeed - but only if
         | we have enough leverage to control you". Think family,
         | reputation, etc.
        
       | SentientAtom wrote:
       | Is Jack Ma alive? Thought they took him back im 2021
        
         | est wrote:
         | Jack was back to mainland today, he was reported visiting a
         | middle school and talked about education and ChatGPT.
        
       | fnord77 wrote:
       | wish the US govt took steps to keep corps from getting too
       | powerful
        
       | FreeCodeFreak wrote:
       | This can be very bad news even in the west, but in context of the
       | Chinese totalitarian dictatorship (Btw. Also allied with Russia),
       | this is just an expression of an authoritarian regime suppressing
       | private freedom. It's nothing but another abuse to suppress their
       | own society.
        
         | bigbillheck wrote:
         | As an American I would love for my government to break up a
         | whole bunch of giant corporations.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | 9999px wrote:
         | It's just the result of a people-oriented state.
        
       | hospitalJail wrote:
       | Between the Uyghur Genocide and Jack Ma's disappearance(and
       | drastic change after reappearance), China is scary. Not the kind
       | of scary where you bend the knee, but the kind of scary you don't
       | invite them to your birthday party.
       | 
       | After I learned of the Uyghur genocide, I decided against having
       | them manufacture my designed parts. Half of it was ethics, half
       | of it was self preservation. Seeing what they did to Ma has
       | convinced me it was the correct decision.
       | 
       | Now I just need to find a source of cheap electronics to run my
       | device.
        
         | rejectfinite wrote:
         | >Not the kind of scary where you bend the knee, but the kind of
         | scary you don't invite them to your birthday party.
         | 
         | The Marvel movies were a mistake.
        
         | elforce002 wrote:
         | Are vietnam, singapur, etc.., viable solutions? have you
         | checked if you can get your supplies from LATAM?
        
         | pjc50 wrote:
         | > Not the kind of scary where you bend the knee, but the kind
         | of scary you don't invite them to your birthday party.
         | 
         | What on earth does this mean?
        
           | smoldesu wrote:
           | I read it as meaning "non-threatening but uncomfortable to be
           | around".
        
             | dathinab wrote:
             | Or threatening enough to give you a panic attack if you
             | close by, but if you are not you feel like you can ignore
             | them.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | MSFT_Edging wrote:
         | [flagged]
        
           | JumpCrisscross wrote:
           | > _While what was happening in Xiajiang wasn 't great, it was
           | not a Genocide_
           | 
           | Nobody mentioned Adrian Zenz--you brought him up as a straw
           | man. The genocide label is based on forced sterilisation,
           | induced abortions, extrajudicial kidnapping and execution,
           | _et cetera_. These observations are supported by a wide range
           | of sources [1]. The spectre of crimes against humanity has
           | been formally raised by the UN [2].
           | 
           | [1]
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_genocide#References
           | 
           | [2] https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/08/un-human-
           | rig...
        
             | MSFT_Edging wrote:
             | You don't have to mention Adrian Zenz, he's core to the
             | reporting.
             | 
             | This AP article for instance, listed in the wikipedia
             | references under the sterilization,
             | https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-international-news-
             | we...
             | 
             | "The hundreds of millions of dollars the government pours
             | into birth control has transformed Xinjiang from one of
             | China's fastest-growing regions to among its slowest in
             | just a few years, according to new research obtained by The
             | Associated Press in advance of publication by China scholar
             | Adrian Zenz."
             | 
             | From the UN report: "Prior to 2017, ethnic minorities such
             | as the Uyghurs were allowed to have one more child than Han
             | Chinese, meaning that urban Uyghur couples could have two
             | children and rural Uyghur couples could have three
             | children, while urban Han were allowed one child and rural
             | Han were allowed two children respectively. Overall, the
             | Government reports that the population of XUAR grew from
             | 12.98 million in the 2010 census to 14.93 million in the
             | 2020 census, and that the Uyghur population grew from 10
             | million in the 2010 census to 11.6 million in the 2020
             | census, an annual average of 1.52 per cent. 106. In 2017,
             | XUAR amended its regional family planning policy to permit
             | people of all ethnic groups to have two children in urban
             | areas and three in rural, thus equalizing the policy and
             | allowing Han Chinese couples to have equal numbers of
             | children as ethnic minorities.240 The amendments also
             | enhanced enforcement, including through a threefold
             | increase in the "social maintenance payment" payable by
             | persons who violate the policy.241 In June 2021, in line
             | with the new national policy, XUAR introduced the three-
             | child policy for all ethnic groups. 107. Official
             | population figures indicate a sharp decline in birth rates
             | in XUAR from 2017.242 Data from the 2020 Chinese
             | Statistical Yearbook, covering 2019, shows that in the
             | space of two years the birth rate in Xinjiang dropped
             | approximately 48.7 per cent, from 15.88 per thousand in
             | 2017 to 8.14 per thousand in 2019. The average for all of
             | China is 10.48 per thousand."
             | 
             | The UN Report has no mention of Executions or Kidnapping.
             | 
             | All of the reporting on this comes from groups such as the
             | Heritage Foundation(Far-right think tank). I've gone down
             | this rabbit hole. It was a propaganda stunt.
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _don 't have to mention Adrian Zenz, he's core to the
               | reporting_
               | 
               | Nothing you have mentioned makes him critical. Out of 537
               | sources, you picked one that mentions Zenz. There may be
               | a handful more. There are hundreds of others independent
               | of his work.
               | 
               | > _UN Report has no mention of Executions or Kidnapping_
               | 
               | Nobody said they did. The UN documented concentration
               | camps, sexual violence, and induced sterilisation, among
               | other atrocities, that brought it to raise the spectre of
               | crimes against humanity. That is the most they can do
               | since China refuses to be investigated. The kidnapping
               | and execution is documented by the other sources,
               | including those based on leaked Chinese documents.
               | 
               | > _gone down this rabbit hole. It was a propaganda stunt_
               | 
               | The UN has discussed crimes against humanity three times
               | this century: in Gaza, Myanmar and China. Arguing this is
               | a propaganda stunt because some people exaggerated their
               | findings is like denying the Holocaust because someone
               | lied about Hitler having horns.
        
         | weregiraffe wrote:
         | >Between the Uyghur Genocide and Jack Ma's disappearance
         | 
         | These two are not in the same category.
        
           | glenstein wrote:
           | What's the category?
        
         | Workaccount2 wrote:
         | The push back on banning (social media app) is befuddling to
         | me. It's an egregious national security threat to have the
         | youth of your nation addicted to an algorithm controlled by
         | these same people.
         | 
         | Censored because at least on reddit the bots will swoop in on
         | any mention of it.
        
           | bigbillheck wrote:
           | Surely this argument applies to every other country in the
           | world and the allowing or otherwise of facebook, twitter, and
           | so on?
        
             | Workaccount2 wrote:
             | Your argument hinges on the US government and Chinese
             | government being equivalent.
             | 
             | In the US you can take the government to court and actually
             | win.
        
             | bnjms wrote:
             | What is the reason we're given for banning TikTok? Is it
             | just "China scares us"? Because that's what it looks like.
             | And that feels like it's against western ideals. Maybe it's
             | "tit off tat" setting similar boundaries as what Western
             | companies have to follow in China. That makes sense but
             | I've not heard it packed that way. Also our own social
             | media companies are mostly unpopular right now.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | stormfather wrote:
               | It's because every corporate entity in China is partially
               | controlled by the CCP and their interests are often
               | diametrically opposed to ours. There's no clear
               | separation between corporate structure and party there.
               | If it's in China's interest to influence our youth
               | through TikTok they will do so.
        
       | eunos wrote:
       | So Bell Lab break up with Chinese characteristics?
        
       | seo-speedwagon wrote:
       | It would be pretty funny if one of the groups' business model was
       | just drop shipping stuff from the other 5
        
       | AnotherGoodName wrote:
       | Alibaba group were the ones that disclosed the log4shell
       | vulnerability which always surprised me. There they were sitting
       | on the biggest security vulnerability ever and they tell the West
       | about it!?
       | 
       | I don't expect this to happen again.
        
         | woodruffw wrote:
         | Magnitude isn't really what's important for state-sponsored
         | hacking, at least not of the kind that China (and the US)
         | engage in. Covertness and deniability are more important, as is
         | being able to target an attack to a particular victim.
         | Log4shell doesn't satisfy any of these constraints.
         | 
         | The Tianfu Cup, on the other hand, exists primarily because
         | Chinese researchers kept disclosing valuable bugs at
         | Pwn2Own[1].
         | 
         | [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn2Own#2018
        
         | Shank wrote:
         | > Alibaba group were the ones that disclosed the log4shell
         | vulnerability which always surprised me
         | 
         | Really? My memory of the event was that the news broke in
         | Minecraft servers [0] before it was expanded to all Java apps
         | that used log4j.
         | 
         | [0]: https://arstechnica.com/information-
         | technology/2021/12/the-l...
        
           | shagie wrote:
           | It started here https://github.com/apache/logging-
           | log4j2/pull/608#issuecomme... and was rapidly recognized that
           | this impacted almost everything.
           | 
           | Minecraft servers were one of the most accessible places to
           | use the exploit and at the same time, some of the ones that
           | are least likely to patch updates rapidly.
        
             | AnotherGoodName wrote:
             | As others pointed out that comment was after the cve was
             | created.
        
               | shagie wrote:
               | The comment is, but the start of the PR (by a person from
               | the Apache Foundation org) matches matches the "we told
               | Apache" date.
               | 
               | The "all hell broke lose" starts with that comment.
               | 
               | Note that the LDAP part wasn't sufficient to fully excise
               | the security vulnerability.
        
               | AnotherGoodName wrote:
               | 24th Nov reported by Alibaba and the 30th this
               | conversation starts in response to the heads up right.
        
           | fancl20 wrote:
           | Yeah and they failed to report to China's MIIT within the
           | time window... https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-halts-
           | alibaba-cybersecuri...
           | 
           | (To be clear the obligation is not they have to report to
           | Chinese government first. They just totally forgot to tell
           | the government agency for coordinating these kind of security
           | incident cross companies)
        
             | rfoo wrote:
             | TBF at least half of the firms did't give a fuck to the
             | specific regulation at that time, and given the rumor that
             | the bug is found when a Security Engineer (who works on
             | product security instead of vulnerability research) decided
             | to learn CodeQL I'm not surprised nobody on his report
             | chain cared enough.
             | 
             | ... and oh hi are you the same fancl20 on <that mostly-
             | defunct Chinese Twitter-clone> some 15 years ago?
        
           | crop_rotation wrote:
           | It was the Alibaba group. They were even penalised by Chinese
           | authorities for not following some protocol around
           | disclosures.
        
           | Crosseye_Jack wrote:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log4Shell
           | 
           | > The vulnerability had existed unnoticed since 2013 and was
           | privately disclosed to the Apache Software Foundation, of
           | which Log4j is a project, by Chen Zhaojun of Alibaba Cloud's
           | security team on 24 November 2021. Before an official CVE
           | identifier was made available on December 10th, 2021.
           | 
           | your Link dated 12/13/2021 says:
           | 
           | > Log4Shell is the name given to a critical zero-day
           | vulnerability that surfaced on Thursday when it was exploited
           | in the wild in remote-code compromises against Minecraft
           | servers.
           | 
           | Which would have been around the 9th of Dec.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | bacchusracine wrote:
       | Does this change anything with regard to how average citizens can
       | and cannot order from Alibaba? There are things available on that
       | site that simply do not exist outside of it. Not on Aliexpress or
       | elsewhere that I am aware of.
       | 
       | I'd love to be able to order some of these, not for resale but
       | personal use, but since I am not a corporation they are closed to
       | me.
        
       | sschueller wrote:
       | https://archive.md/FXvGs
        
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