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Q: Does the Chinese government have a legal mandate to spy on it's own people?
Does ANY government have the legal right to spy on it's own people?
Which governments don't, to one extent or the other, spy on its own citizens? I guess it's how you define "spy". One man's spying is another man's information gathering. For sure, the extent to which it happens in China is uncomfortable for many people but it certainly isn't going to change. Just one of the little pleasures of living here. Do they have the legal mandate? The CPC (or CCP) have the mandate to apply legislation in the PRC so I guess that gives them the mandate to "gather information".
A common trait of non-elected leaders is paranoia. Especially China has 5000 years of history of backstabbing its leaders. The prime directive of the CCP is self-conservation, this is more important than any other things such as growing the
The UN Human Rights declaration does state that people have the right to privacy, but there is no clear definition of the meaning of this. Can one really have privacy in the public space ? Spying on people in their own homes would be, according to my understanding of privacy, be a violation hereof.
Remember, China has a bigger budget for "internal security" than it has for its armed forces.
Traveler:
That's because the biggest threat to the CCP is it's own people.
I would think that any Government does not have an ABSOLUTE legal mandate to spy on its own people. But to a larger or smaller extent I will be willing to grant a partial right if the good of the lage majority is in peril for a period of time.
you must really think we are stupid. first there is no human rights or even civil rights in china. there is no rule of law in china.
so the ccp can do whatever it wants to it's people. and it does. forced abortins, detaining citizens, spying on citizens, you name it.
crimochina:
which is why this is a big deal in the states we are not china
Silly question! Of course they do!
All governments have the legal right to 'protect its citizens', and they'll do that in basically any way they choose.
Just how far they choose to take that... well, that all depends on the gov in question! But, as technology develops. they're going to more and more sophisticated ways to do it.
Question for you all - do you think those search engines that pick up certain combinations of words count as 'spying'?? You know, so if you're having a conversation with someone - email, qq, telephone, skype, etc - and you use words like 'president' and 'bomb' etc, and they start to take notice... are they ok???
angelina8:
What the search engines are doing can become spying. They have so much power, it is only a question of willingness on their side to abuse that power.
It's scary how all our personal information is being stored somewhere, including sexual fetishes and personal conversations.
GuilinRaf:
Even the Big Bang Theory touched on this. When Sheldon wanted to google how to excite 12 year old girls (into studying science) both Leonard and Howard stopped him.
No, No government should spy on its people. with that being said, how many governments actually listen to their people anyway? Asian or western nations?
None...
One of the core foundations of the CCP's code of ethics is that it must spy on it's own people, in order to be able to control them.
They don't need a mandate as they take it as their right!
Since when has any government actually sought a mandate for anything?
Perhaps those who don't know what I am suggesting may look up the career of a certain Dr Henry Kissinger.
