Foreigner Detention and Deported For Sharing Porn in WeChat (UPDATED!)

[DavyJonesLocker]

========. Edit : 9th Sept. 2019. =======

 

See page two, it appears that this might is fake news as the picture used in the link was also used in another news item  from several years early . 

 

Rest of thread is worth a read though. From what I can gather it's a criminal act and punishable up to two years in prison to distribute or share explicit sexual images in China by electronic means (e.g. wechat) it otherwise

 

========== End of edit ==========

 

 

For anyone living in China please take note. 

 

Foreigner Detention and Deported For Sharing Porn in WeChat

 

On a related topic: i generally believe in live and let live, don't care if people share porn (privately not publically) but I'm on several wechat groups and some of the content is becoming too vile. highly racist towards chinese, filth, political criticism, manipulating niaev chinese young woman to be sex toys, etc and it's not just a few foreigners doing it! I had to remove myself from the group.  It does really irritate me the integrity of many foreigners in china as we are all painted with the same brush. 

 

Different topic i suppose

 

Anyway best take note and watch what you do on wechat

Edited September 9, 2019 at 03:50 AM by DavyJonesLocker

[Jim]

Crikey, must be in the wrong groups - mine are full of literary chat, family pics and jokes from the inlaws or notifications from daughter's pre-school.

[DavyJonesLocker]

I should say I was on not I am on. Deleted myself from both groups a while ago.

 

wechat groups are a funny one, I originally get added on by gym buddies, male friends etc, but inevitable they grow and grow to more than a hundred members and then can take a turn for the worse. One bad apple rots the lot at times. I noticed though several other people before me left the group.

 

i think the issue is that many come to China a short time and really think there is no fall back to whatever they do as they will be leaving sooner or later. Problem is, there is a steady influx of said types

[Jim]

Yeah, I suppose it's like being trapped in an ex-pat bar with all the resident arseholes 24/7  Don't go there!

[DavyJonesLocker]

My partner is a lawyer and she tells me to avoid foreigners that participate in  criminal or deemed socially unacceptable behaviour in China.

She says in a party situation or whatever social group I'm at, if someone starts smoking weed, popping pills , just get out and go home. Guilty by association is not  something to dismiss in China. Even if it doesn't come to actual detention but will tarnish you as a undesirable laowai which will effect visa situation.

 

Initially It did seem like scare mongering but having personally  seen what happened to two people and I know and further her senior colleagues strongly  voiced the same opinion I took note!

 

They tell me it's all very well to talk about due procese but when you get detained and immediate deportation it's all too late to protest your innocence . 

[889]

"They tell me it's all very well to talk about due process . . ."

 

In China?

[vellocet]

A lot of people find that when they arrive in China, they no longer have control of their lives like they had at home.  They're illiterate, unable to speak, and don't bother learning either.  The lack food from home is a huge gripe. And I don't mean "Western food", I mean those bagels just like that shop on 59th street in NYC does them.  That Italian restaurant is crap - because it's Roman food and the complainer is from northern Italy.  They can't talk to their landlords. They don't understand why people in public don't behave the same way they're accustomed to at home. In Spain everyone knows you make an orderly line when waiting to get on the metro! They get very frustrated and they lash out. 

 

This awakens an angry childish streak, even in the most educated and erudite of people.  They start behaving like children, name-calling and hurling childish insults at Chinese people and Chinese culture.  Their sense of wholeness has been violated and they feel they must restore it.  TAKE THAT! they scream at the entity causing them so much pain, with the Ph.D they choose to display behind their name in Wechat not mattering a whit.  

 

You'd think if they hated China so much they'd just leave.  But no.  Too many Americans got student loans and spent them like a drunken sailor on useless degrees.  They're now unemployable at home, and now they're stuck in the only job they qualify for.  Add to that Europeans masquerading as Canadian who can't get work at home either, and you're left with an undesirable mix of educated people who wallow in the exact same behaviors that when others do them, are considered deplorable.  But it's OK when we good people do them.

[DavyJonesLocker]

6 minutes ago, 889 said:

"They tell me it's all very well to talk about due process . . ."

 

In China?

 

 

 I mean I think   many foreigners fail to realise , the way you will be treated in China will be very different than your home country even if there are laws to protect you. 

 

Also, many aren't aware  that police have a lot more powers so being shipped off to prison (or whatever it's called) without trail is "administive detention" I believe, and one is not  require to be arrested, trial , convicted and sentenced like a western country under the concept of "due process"

 

[ChTTay]

The topic in itself is worth discussing and a valid post again from Davy ... 

 

However, I discount most articles that appear on these random wechat based blogs or “news” sites. They’re most always fake click bait at worst or plain misleading at best. 

 

It seems like they get shared really easily easily because they’re already in wechat. I remember ages ago as a manager of an English school an article caused panic and stress (from foreign teachers) because it talked about subway shut down during work hours. Once someone actually told us about it, a quick Chinese search on the official subway app/site showed they were all open during the hours in question. 

 

The article here doesn’t fill me with confidence after reading the first sentence: 

”A foreigenr was sentenced to 3 months for "share" short porn videos to WeChat friends” 

[DavyJonesLocker]

20 minutes ago, ChTTay said:

However, I discount most articles that appear on these random wechat based blogs or “news” sites. They’re most always fake click bait at worst or plain misleading at best. 

 

 

 

I too, but i really don't know, everyday I am still finding out something new here. There could be a lot more to it than we know, was there underage porn on there but if so that would warrant a lot more severe sentence, did he annoy someone, was it politically motivated, being made an example of?  I asked a few people today and they didn't seem surprised and there is an actual law which applies to all citizens, but if that was rigorously applied, a fair percentage of the male (+female) population would be behind bars I daresay 

 

For those of you who wish to read the criminal code act the relevant section (send to me on wechat) a website is here

http://www.chinalawedu.com/new/23223a23228a2010/20101222shangf111042.shtml

 

The relevant section is 

 

　第三百六十四条 传播淫秽的书刊、影片、音像、图片或者其他淫秽物品，情节严重的，处二年以下有期徒刑、拘役或者管制。

　　Article 364 Whoever disseminates pornographic materials including books, periodicals, movies, video-audio tapes and pictures, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than two years, criminal detention or public surveillance.

 

I think these posts are important as @vellocet noted, foreigners tend to lose themselves here at times (temporarily or otherwise)  and really don't know what can happen to them (drink driving, weed etc) . I try to remind people, especially the younger chaps who come here, "look you can get away with a lot and the chances of being caught are most likely small but the problem is: if you are the unlikely one that does happen to get caught you can be in a for a world of trouble!"

 

[889]

I'm also a skeptic: a quick Google search didn't turn up any Chinese news about this.

 

Anyway, there will always be foreigners complaining about Chinese, like they are so much better.

 

Just as there will always be foreigners complaining about other foreigners. Like they are so much better.

 

In any event, new arrivals complaining about the natives happens everywhere. E.g., the Whingeing Pom.

 

[Shelley]

3 hours ago, ChTTay said:

A foreigenr was sentenced to 3 months for "share" short porn videos to WeChat friends” 

 

Yes, the spelling is often a very big give away. I consider correct spelling to be very important in any writing, except for a quick text between friends maybe, it is so easy these days to get it right, there is no excuse.

The correct spelling helps to lend credence to any articles.

I will often dismiss an otherwise well written piece if it is rife with spelling mistakes. It doesn't have to be like that and is almost an insult to the reader.

 

On the actual topic, you have got to be stupid as a foreigner in a country such as China to do anything but behave correctly.

[mungouk]

2 hours ago, Shelley said:

I consider correct spelling to be very important in any writing, except for a quick text between friends maybe, it is so easy these days to get it right, there is no excuse.

 

I read The Guardian.  *cough*

 

[重大雷雨]

14 hours ago, vellocet said:

 In Spain everyone knows you make an orderly line when waiting to get on the metro!

 

The Chinese natives themselves frequently complain about many of these aspects of what you are calling "cultural differences".  I believe it was the government's justification for implementing the social credit system.  Somehow it is wrong for foreigners to complain about it too?

 

Some of your points are very legitimate.  Reminds me of a couple of months ago when my Venezualen Uber driver began to lecture me on how America needs to confiscate all guns because that is how it was in the country he decided he couldn't tolerate living in anymore.

 

Not sure what your nationality is, but Americans who take out loans for highly respected engineering and computer science degrees are still having a very difficult time finding jobs that actually require any college degree.  Many of us realize we will never be able to pay our student loans off even if we find a good job and live according to thrift.  We never will be able to afford a house, a wife or family;  that can cause some very real anti-social behaviour.

 

14 hours ago, DavyJonesLocker said:

Guilty by association is not  something to dismiss in China. Even if it doesn't come to actual detention but will tarnish you as a undesirable laowai which will effect visa situation.

 

Exactly why I am uneasy about living in China now.  Communism does not tend to care about truth, justice or morality;  It only cares about image, politics and assignment of guilt.  We all may live to see 1984 yet.

[imron]

10 hours ago, DavyJonesLocker said:

if the circumstances are serious,

The clause that allows this law to be applied arbitrarily depending on subjective interpretations of what "serious" means.

[Dawei3]

5 hours ago, 重大雷雨 said:

Somehow it is wrong for foreigners to complain about it too

 

Having lived in many places in the US and in England, I found the same reaction:  If you're a "local", you can complain.  If you're not, you can easily upset the locals.  So foreigners complaining in any country, including China, can upset people.  

 

Even for serious issues, I strive not to sound like I'm complaining.  When Chinese friends & the US and China talked to me about China's pollution, rather than sounding like I'm complaining about it, I express true concern about my good friends who have to live with it everyday.  And I discuss some of the reasons the Chinese government has been ineffective in controlling it despite much desire to do so.

 

As with the Venezuelen uber driver, complaints from "foreigners" annoy Americans too.  A Chinese guy I know in the US posted a Wechat moment complaining about censorship when Google & Facebook's deleted Chinese gov't posts about HK.  It annoyed me (and actually still does).  I wanted to write back and say "Why don't you write Facebook and Twitter posts in China to protest?"  (knowing that both are banned in China). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim]

I often find people positively inviting me to make negative comparisons of China with the UK the way they steer the conversation. Maybe it's the context, as it'll be, say, someone I met at the village basketball court when I take daughter down there to play or out and about in little country places round and about the village, so I might be seen as slightly more "in-group".

[重大雷雨]

18 hours ago, Dawei3 said:

If you're not, you can easily upset the locals. 

 

I don't entirely agree with you.   The main point of my post was that some of the issues are not "cultural differences";  They are just problems everyone recognizes.  That being said, you are correct that locals would not like you looking down on them or censuring them for their problems.  If the problem is discussed, talked about negatively and satirized on an expat WeChat group, I do not think there is any issue with it.

 

However, there are genuine cultural differences that a foreigner needs to be considerate of.   That was my point with the Venezuelan Uber driver.  It is his job to assimilate to the culture.  We have enshrined the right to self defense and the right to bear arms as the second most important right in our constitution, only behind free speech.   That was a major rejection of the culture of the nation he decided to live in. 

[Moshen]

Quote

However, there are genuine cultural differences that a foreigner needs to be considerate of.   That was my point with the Venezuelan Uber driver.  It is his job to assimilate to the culture.  We have enshrined the right to self defense and the right to bear arms as the second most important right in our constitution, only behind free speech.   That was a major rejection of the culture of the nation he decided to live in. 

 

I'm a native-born American and I'm with the Venezuelan taxi driver.  That's not a "genuine cultural difference" at all.  It's political.  Any American has a right to disagree with the Second Amendment, and so do immigrants.

 

A cultural difference would be things like lining up in a queue or not, giving gifts to teachers or not, saying hello to strangers or not, and so on.

 

We had a case in my town a couple of years ago where a couple from Sweden left their infant outside a restaurant in his/her stroller while they ate, and they were arrested for child neglect.  Turns out that that's very common behavior in Sweden, and totally accepted there.  Now that's a cultural difference.

[Lu]

On 9/5/2019 at 8:32 AM, vellocet said:

But it's OK when we good people do them.

THANK YOU for posting this article.

 

Guys, go read it. It explains why Americans would be annoyed about the Venezuelan taxi driver even when half the country actually agrees with him.