Tell me the truth? Dictatorship and the commitment to media freedom

The emerging political economy literature on dictatorial media politics rationalizes the cross-country variation in media freedom by dictators’ demand for truthful information. Since a dictator can always punish the media for their truth-telling ex post, concerns of being punished could induce self-censorship and undermine the dictator’s promise to media freedom.

We study a formal model that brings the dictator’s commitment problem to the fore, and characterize situations in which the commitment problem is especially severe. Our analysis suggests that neglecting self-censorship would lead to underestimating the amount of missing information in autocracies as well as overestimating the autocrats’ level of tolerance for criticisms and authoritarian responsiveness. Based on the comparative statics, we contend that the variation in media outlets’ quality and penetration can be leveraged to recover missing information due to self-censorship.

To cite this article: Sheen, Greg Chih-Hsin, Hans H. Tung, and Wen-Chin Wu. 2023. “Tell Me the Truth? Dictatorship and the Commitment to Media Freedom.” Journal of Theoretical Politics, October, 09516298231208419. https://doi.org/10.1177/09516298231208419.

最近在外调研，与课题直接相关的内容没有什么收获，但这几天的经历可以为 China scholars 提供一点进行田野调查的参考价值，毕竟距离下面这篇论文的发表已经过去了 3 年多，情况又发生了很多变化。

Repressive Experiences among China Scholars: New Evidence from Survey Data

本文考察了中国当前的研究环境及其对国外学术研究带来的影响。通过对全球 500 多名从事中国研究的学者的问卷调查，我们发现政府对外国研究人员的阻挠和干扰是一个虽然罕见但真实存在的现象。这些干扰对学者的研究构成了极大的阻碍。在我们的样本中，大约 9% 的学者表示在过去的十年里曾被当局邀请「去喝茶」；26% 的学者称在进行档案研究时不被允许查阅所需材料；5% 的研究人员表示在获得签证上遭遇困难。本文提供了有关这些经历的描述性信息，并分析了影响它们的决定性因素。本文在结论部分进一步探讨了自我审查的现象，同时为从事中国研究的学者们提供了一些应对策略。

Greitens, Sheena Chestnut, and Rory Truex. 2020. “Repressive Experiences among China Scholars: New Evidence from Survey Data.” The China Quarterly 242 (June): 349–75. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741019000365.

Keyboard Maestro 11 更新，这些功能值得关注

https://sspai.com/post/83932

Mao offered Kissinger 10 million Chinese women

https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1718685807874343100

https://foreignpolicy.com/2008/02/15/mao-offered-kissinger-10-million-chinese-women/

美国对外关系 (Foreign Relations of the United States)中记录了毛泽东与基辛格的此次对话：

Chairman Mao: The trade between our two countries at present is very pitiful. It is gradually increasing. You know China is a very poor country. We don’t have much. What we have in excess is women. (Laughter)
Dr. Kissinger: There are no quotas for those or tariffs.
Chairman Mao: So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands. (Laughter)

Chairman Mao: Do you want our Chinese women? We can give you ten million. (Laughter, particularly among the women.)
Dr. Kissinger: The Chairman is improving his offer.
Chairman Mao: By doing so we can let them flood your country with disaster and therefore impair your interests. In our country we have too many women, and they have a way of doing things. They give birth to children and our children are too many. (Laughter)
Dr. Kissinger: It is such a novel proposition, we will have to study it.
Chairman Mao: You can set up a committee to study the issue. That is how your visit to China is settling the population question. (Laughter)
Dr. Kissinger: We will study utilization and allocation.
Chairman Mao: If we ask them to go I think they would be willing.
Prime Minister Chou: Not necessarily.
Chairman Mao: That’s because of their feudal ideas, big nation chauvinism.
Dr. Kissinger: We are certainly willing to receive them.

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v18/d12

Halloween costume 💯

https://fxtwitter.com/manyapan/status/1718948388203315480

李老师回顾了去年这段时间他发的部分投稿 Never forget the zero-COVID policy

https://fxtwitter.com/lilaoshizuikeai/status/1718766941597257800

第一次看见所谓「萧山赘婿」的一手信息

https://fxtwitter.com/dotey/status/1719201912178769941

想起之前在路边看到的一个「征婚启示」

China’s Age of Malaise

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/30/chinas-age-of-malaise

The Maoist Roots of Xi’s Economic Dilemma

For Xi, boosting domestic consumption is not merely a macroeconomic policy oversight; doing so would conflict with his ideological vision for Chinese socialism. At a time when Xi sees both the legitimacy of CCP rule and China’s place in the world threatened by an ideological conflict with the United States, the cure of domestic consumption would be worse for the survival of his vision of China than the disease of economic stagnation.

Mao believed that any attempt to compete with the capitalists on living standards was not only doomed but also meant losing the socialist cause in the process. The goal of socialism was not to out-consume capitalism but rather the creation of a “new man,” one not motivated by individual consumption but rather by the common good.

Xi’s version of socialism is not a socialism of abundance. Rather, it seems to be very much a moral socialism, derived from the Maoist values of his youth to which Xi is known to be partial—despite the persecution of his father by the CCP under Mao.

Xi’s interpretation of Western values seems to take on a decidedly materialist cast. To him, boosting consumption is seen as an ideological surrender to the West that would be even more dangerous to his regime than economic stagnation.

Lu Xun was a writer who focused on the cultural and spiritual barriers that he believed impeded China’s modernization. He criticized retrograde traditional values and the “slave mentality”towards authority that he felt had prevented China from advancing.

Lu Sun’s work was filled with moral conscience and he was admired by Mao Zedong, who called him “the bravest and most correct, the firmest, the most loyal and the most ardent national hero, a hero without parallel in our history.” Despite the Communist Party’s attempts to co-opt Lu’s legacy, his work remains a vital homegrown tradition of probing, outspoken, public criticism from which contemporary Chinese can still draw inspiration to express themselves more freely.

https://www.thewirechina.com/2021/03/14/the-soul-of-lu-xun/

据可靠消息来源称，清史项目产出的完整稿子没过政审，原因与「受国外新清史影响过大」有关。

https://fxtwitter.com/ZhangTaisu/status/1720433121428971934

The good news is that most of this project was complete before NQH became PRC bogeyman. And some of them already have had great influence. For example, 李鸿章全集.

戴逸与清史纂修 - 马大正

2002 年 8 月，中共中央、国务院作出了启动清史纂修工程的决定，成立了国家清史纂修领导小组，同年 12 月 12 日，成立了以戴逸为主任的国家清史编纂委员会。

http://www.nopss.gov.cn/n1/2021/1203/c431454-32298483.html

Ho, Ping-Ti. “The Significance of the Ch’ing Period in Chinese History.” Journal of Asian Studies 26, no. 2 (February 1967): 189–95. https://doi.org/10.2307/2051924.

Rawski, Evelyn S. “Presidential Address: Reenvisioning the Qing: The Significance of the Qing Period in Chinese History.” Journal of Asian Studies 55, no. 4 (November 1996): 829–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/2646525.

Anna's Archive 宣布他们已经获得所谓的读秀书库，总大小约359TB。正在寻求OCR处理。电子书获取界的大事件。

Understanding the Fisherman

当我钓鱼的时候，我在想些什么？

https://nextjs-notion-starter-kit-tau-six.vercel.app/5d4609ff19ba44da8dfd7f667ffd76e6

ChatGPT Rumors

https://fxtwitter.com/arrakis_ai/status/1720139166468755673

自述：存在主义危机，曾促使我从体制中逃离

济前景暗淡的年代，中国居高不下的考公考编热已成为时代景观。年轻人扎堆去卷体制内工作的原因众所周知——面对竞争激烈、收入缩水、工作难找、社会保障差的现实，只有体制才能提供一个安稳、可预期的「庇护所」。然而，如果这「庇护所」本身就是促成经济问题的因素，又怎么指望其中的人可以独善其身呢？

对于曾经改革开放盛期的中国来说，去区分体制内外是有意义的，但一个极权化的国家其实不存在体制外的空间。不是政府机构、事业单位、国企才叫体制，如今的中国就是个以国家为单位的巨大「体制」。

当这个体制承诺为社会提供依靠和庇护的时候，我们应该看到，正是这个体制给社会造成了困境，也正是它与资本主义的暗面同流合污。

普通人在这样的社会里很难找到出路。人们总把考进体制称为「上岸」，仿佛暗示了一劳永逸的解脱和「从此以后」的幸福生活。然而，体制内却又是另一场无望的煎熬，抱怨体制内的工作令人压抑和麻木、令人感觉「浪费生命」的声音同样尖锐。

体制的可怕之处，在于阉割人的自我，剥夺人的能力，使其陷入一种无能状态。可怕的不是离开了它你就没有保障，而是它已潜移默化塑造了你单薄的价值观，狭隘的视野，对人生、对世界极为贫瘠的想象力，并灌输给你超额的贪婪和恐惧。被它规训后的人难以再去为自己掌舵，也只认得出、只会去追求那些他们通过体制所理解的、熟悉的价值。

尽管在体制外生活的空间会随着环境恶化而越发逼仄，它往往意味着匮乏、清贫、孤独……但对于很多心如明镜的人来说，选择这样的生活是一种道德义务——他们拒绝和体制同流合污。

当你走出了自己的路，再回过头去看——离开体制，你确实失去了一些「好处」，但是你的心智早已成长到了更高的境界，不再认同过去的价值，又为什么会为此难过呢？