A draft law banning speech and dressing "detrimental to the spirit of Chinese people" has sparked debate in China.

If the law comes into force, people found guilty could be fined or jailed but the proposal does not yet spell out what constitutes a violation.

Social media users and legal experts have called for more clarity to avoid excessive enforcement.

China recently released a swathe of proposed changes to its public security laws - the first reforms in decades.

The clothing law has drawn immediate reaction from the public - with many online criticising it as excessive and absurd.

The contentious clauses suggest that people who wear or force others to wear clothing and symbols that "undermine the spirit or hurt the feelings of the Chinese nation" could be detained for up to 15 days and fined up to 5,000 yuan ($680; £550).

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[–] 114 points 3 years ago (13 children)

I find this kind of interesting after Naomi Wu (also known as SexyCyborg) recently had a run-in with the CCP and has largely gone silent online.

For anyone not familiar with her/her situation, she's a tech/maker YouTuber. She has a pretty radical look with enormous fake boobs and skimpy outfits, but she does have some genuinely interesting content. She had been calling out some security vulnerabilities that recently got some attention so that's likely why the Chinese government, in her words, clipped her wings, but she had a bit of a target painted on her back regardless because of her appearance, being a lesbian, and because her girlfriend is a Uyghur.

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  • [–] 52 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    bit of a target painted on her back regardless because of her appearance, being a lesbian, and because her girlfriend is a Uyghur.

    "Bit of a target" indeed. She's like a walking Bingo card of everything China suppresses.

    Hope she's okay.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 years ago

    The wild part to me is that overall I never got the impression from anything I saw from her that she was particularly anti-ccp, some of the annoyed grumbling I'd expect from literally anybody living under any government in the world, but that's about it. Overall she seemed to be a pretty proud Chinese citizen, and probably a good spokesperson for the Chinese tech sector, from watching her videos I know that I'm slightly less quick to dismiss any Chinese gadgets as chinesium garbage. I'd think she'd be more useful to keep around for PR purposes, but after her previous incidents didn't make significant waves with her western audience, it seems that they figured they're free to bully her however they want to now.

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  • [–] 50 points 3 years ago (6 children)

    Jesus Christ, I know moving your life is not that simple, but she and her gf need to run from that hell hole.

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  • [–] 23 points 3 years ago

    She actually did partially address that, obviously without going into too many details, saying that she could leave but her girlfriend couldn't, so they're pretty much just going to keep their heads down and play by the rules.

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    [–] 38 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Yeah? How about closing those sweatshops that pollute Chinese rivers, drinking water, that destroys soil so that plants can never grow again, where Chinese works inhale colorant and chemicals... how about that shit, CCP?

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    [–] 34 points 3 years ago* (6 children)

    For those wondering, "Hurting the feelings of the Chinese people" is an actual phrase (伤害中国人民的感情) it started all the way back in the late 50s.

    this last part "感情 ganqing" translated as "feelings" or "emotional attachment", it's actually an important part of chinese culture, esp business culture (similar to this is "guanxi" which is someone's network). These are major parts of chinese culture and relationships with others. this phrase is more like "you're hurting our relationship"

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  • [–] 33 points 3 years ago

    Knowing the control China demands I am not shocked.

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  • [–] 30 points 3 years ago

    And this is how the Chinese ends up wearing a national uniform.

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  • [–] 28 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Zhao Hong, a law professor at the Chinese University of Political Science and Law said the lack of clarity could lead to an infringement of personal.

    Adorable that anyone is suggesting this is a bug, not a feature.

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    [+] 22 points 3 years ago (21 children)
  • [–] 25 points 3 years ago (16 children)

    Honestly, I feel the same about both: it's absurd. With France I get the "freedom from religion" spiel from some Frenchman, but it's veiled xenophobia to me. When you ban a kind of clothing but only for one group of people, that's basically the definition. Here, it's just fascism. At least the Chinese people are speaking out.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    France doesn't ban religious anything, only in public schools, that's all. Outside education people are free to do what they want. What China is doing is wildly different, China just bans things in general for all sectors of life

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Public school? You mean that place that children are mandated to be? Also you forgot government. It was a whole thing. So if you're a Muslim and you want to be a part of the French government, then I hope you don't have any attachment to those head scarves. There are other religions ornamentation, but the head scarves one was the last one I saw. And whether school or a DMV clerk, it's dumb.

    Also noticed I used two different labels for France rather than China. I think China is fascist with what they're doing. France is xenophobic with what they're doing.

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    [–] 21 points 3 years ago (3 children)
  • [–] 21 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    "Will wearing a suit and tie count? Marxism originated in the West. Would its presence in China also count as hurting national feelings," one user posted on Chinese Twitter-like platform Weibo.

    She cited one case that drew headlines in China last year where a kimono-clad woman was detained in the city of Suzhou and accused of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" because she had worn the Japanese garment. The incident sparked outrage across Chinese social media.

    "To wear a kimono is to hurt the feelings of the Chinese nation, to eat Japanese food is to jeopardise its spirit? When did the feelings and spirit of the time-tested Chinese nation become so fragile?" wrote one popular social commentator online, who writes under the pen name Wang Wusi.

    from here: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58394906

    In 2019, during further moves on censorship, China blurred out the earlobes of some of its young male pop stars in television and internet appearances to hide their piercings. Tattoos and men's ponytails have also previously been blurred from screens.

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    [–] 21 points 3 years ago

    but the proposal does not yet spell out what constitutes a violation.

    and this is not a coincidence. Authoritarian states love vaguely operationalized definitions like this because it's basically a blanko check to arrest anyone at any time. And it puts the populace into a fearful, fatalist mindset of "I could be arrested at any time for bogus charges, even if I did nothing wrong."

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  • [–] 21 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    BORN TO DIE

    WORLD IS A FUCK

    Kill Em All 1989

    I am trash man

    410,757,864,530 DEAD COPS

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    i kinda want to build a storefront that only sells things on the ban list.

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  • [–] 15 points 3 years ago

    What more do they want? They already got rid of the Winnie the Pooh costume at Shanghai Disneyland.

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  • [–] 14 points 3 years ago* (7 children)

    I'm unable to find the original Chinese, but couldn't "hurt national feelings" just as well be translated as "do emotional damage"? Like walking around London 1997 with a shirt that said "Princess Di deserved to die"? Now while that aint illegal in the UK (as far as I know) it's at least a little less ridiculous to talk about trauma from events that affect a nation rather than this dismissive right-wing language of "hurt national feelings".

    (this is not a pro-CCP comment please give me the benefit of the doubt)

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    [–] 10 points 3 years ago

    Is china hoping to become more like north korea?

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago

    Gonna be a bunch of nude people, everything upsets these pooh-soft dopes

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (4 children)
  • [–] [B] 7 points 3 years ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    A draft law banning speech and dressing "detrimental to the spirit of Chinese people" has sparked debate in China.

    The proposed legal changes also forbid "insulting, slandering or otherwise infringing upon the names of local heroes and martyrs" as well as vandalism of their memorial statues.

    Would its presence in China also count as hurting national feelings," one user posted on Chinese Twitter-like platform Weibo.

    She cited one case that drew headlines in China last year where a kimono-clad woman was detained in the city of Suzhou and accused of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" because she had worn the Japanese garment.

    In March this year, police detained a woman donning a replica of a Japanese military uniform at a night market.

    And earlier last month, people who wore rainbow print clothing were denied entry to a concert by Taiwanese singer Chang Hui-mei in Beijing.


    The original article contains 520 words, the summary contains 145 words. Saved 72%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago

    This creates a funny image in my mind.

    Does this implies we are about to see the comeback of the blue and brown clothing of the Mao era or can we expect the return of the imperial style to the rulling class?

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (7 children)

    This is awful and wrong and a violation of the human rights of the citizens of that country. Thankfully, we don't let the government decide what people are allowed to wear here in the good ol US of A...doesnt matter how many conservatives' feelings are hurt. Small government and all that...

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    [–] 4 points 3 years ago

    I urge y'all to look up laowhy86 on YouTube and look at his Beijing flood video. Or even the last few videos tbh.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    hey so does that mean they're gonna stop making Japanese street fashion clothes over there? I use to buy directly from TaoBao and a few years ago lolita was still pretty popular in China.

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