Re: China -- the fragile glimmer of freedom

[liberty@gate.net (Jim Ray)]

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[Warning! This post is not primarily about "writing code." Instead,
it's about cypherpunks "spreading crypto."]

Tim May [& usually I agree with him] wrote:

>At 12:10 AM 2/16/96, Bryce wrote:
>...

<snip>

>>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?

Obviously, there aren't any. (Being an outraged cypherpunk in the PRC
would no-doubt be harmful to the outraged cypherpunk's health.)

>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 think that the goal here is to try to generate just one small group of
cypherpunks in Hong Kong, who plan to stay on after the occupation. They
will necessarily be very brave people, but IMO brave people _are_ there.
I won't say bravery of that sort is common, but there are many people
in China, and we all remember the guy who stood there in front of the
tank...IMO remailer technology transfers will be _at least_ as important
to this [admittedly ambitious] goal as direct crypto transfers are, as
traffic-analysis is _VERY useful_ to the surveilance state. When the
"remailer-in-a-box" is finished by a friend of mine "Real Soon Now" (tm)
I hope that the directions to it are translated and that it is widely
distributed [legally, of course]. ;)

>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.

Tim, you're giving up too quickly on most of the rest of the planet.
As long as repression ever works somewhere, statists will attempt to
(selectively) use annoying examples of how "orderly" it makes life.

It's a one-way ratchet: When a moron bombs a building here, the US
politicians cancel a repeal of the "assault weapons" ban. When some
moron plants a bomb in London (or Paris) their politicians' reaction
is not exactly the reverse...

>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.

I think that these statistics are likely correct, but I think it's not
important, and we can't just give up this easily...We already know that
China will be swallowing Hong Kong, a haven of capitalism, and IMHO we
should work to make this process as "interesting" as possible. Anonymity
is likely to upset the Chinese authorities as much as it upset the CO$.

I know nobody in Hong Kong who will be staying, but I'm sure that some
people on this list do, and Hong Kong is likely to be a better place for
us to "infiltrate" than Beijing. Time is short, but if the fax machine
gave us Tienanmen(sp?) I am optimistic about e-mail. Singapore residents
(at least, those with a hankering for chewing-gum) might feel they have
a reason to help us, if we simply try to be polite when we ask for help
in putting together a good-looking Trojan Horse.
JMR [who is even now preparing for the flames.]

<snip>

- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regards, Jim Ray <liberty@gate.net> Boycott espionage-enabled software!

"If I had to summarize [Republican candidate Morry] Taylor's campaign
 message, I'd boil it down to two basic points:
1. The problem with this country is that the government is run by lawyers.
2. And these are *stupid* lawyers."  --  Dave Barry 2/17/96
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