The Chinese government has built up the world’s largest known online disinformation operation and is using it to harass US residents, politicians, and businesses—at times threatening its targets with violence, a CNN review of court documents and public disclosures by social media companies has found.

The onslaught of attacks – often of a vile and deeply personal nature – is part of a well-organized, increasingly brazen Chinese government intimidation campaign targeting people in the United States, documents show.

The US State Department says the tactics are part of a broader multi-billion-dollar effort to shape the world’s information environment and silence critics of Beijing that has expanded under President Xi Jinping. On Wednesday, President Biden is due to meet Xi at a summit in San Francisco.

Victims face a barrage of tens of thousands of social media posts that call them traitors, dogs, and racist and homophobic slurs. They say it’s all part of an effort to drive them into a state of constant fear and paranoia.

  • @interceder270
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    -47 months ago

    Did any communist nations in history try to reduce the disparity in wealth?

      • @interceder270
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        7 months ago

        Really? It looks to me like ‘almost every single one’ tried to use communism as an excuse to funnel as much wealth as possible to their ruling classes, just like capitalism and Russian/North Korean/Chinese communism.

        But can you name some specifics? That way we know exactly what you’re talking about.

        Edit: Still waiting on those specific countries.

        • @[email protected]
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          7 months ago

          Generally these countries already had massive wealth disparity so keep that in mind, with a few landlords and the rich ruling over vast amounts of a mostly rural populace.

          The USSR massively reduced wealth inequality and then it rose against after it fell. The funneling as much wealth as possible to their ruling classes happened more afterwards, with the rise of the oligarchs.

          North Korea was a lot more equal than South Korea when it was formed although I’m sure it’s changed since then, but they don’t let people in so there’s not many official figures. China is basically a capitalist country now, although notably it’s income inequality rose more when it implemented these market reforms that made it more capitalist. It’s wealth inequality is less than the US’s, or about the same, anyway.

          Cuba was a lot more equal after the revolution than before. They basically removed homelessness, fed everyone, gave everyone health care, etc. It’s commonly known that the Batista era was filled with graft, rich landowners and club owners, and corrupt government officials while most of the countryanguished in poverty. Inequality has only risen when they had to implement more capitalist-like market reforms after the Soviet Union fell and they lost their major trading partner.

          Vietnam had also done well at that front, increasing growth with only slight increases in inequality, doing better than China on that front. They’re still worried about it after implementing market reforms as well but are working on it, and have still done better than other countries.

          Notably Social Democratic countries like the Nordic ones have also done well in terms of wealth inequality, but like these other ones examples, it can trend worse when increasing - privatization or similar capitalistic reforms. Some of these countries like Norway also have even more publically owned goods and companies than countries people think of as socialist, like Venezuela.

          Speaking of, Venezuela had the lowest inequality in South America for a long time, although crashing oil prices has impacted that.