Prenatal Test Developed With Chinese Military Harvests Gene Data From Millions of Women (reuters.com) 122
A prenatal test taken by millions of pregnant women globally was developed by Chinese gene company BGI Group in collaboration with the Chinese military and is being used by the firm to collect genetic data, a Reuters review of publicly available documents found. From the report: The report is the first to reveal that the company collaborated with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to develop and improve the test, taken in early pregnancy, as well as the scope of BGI's storage and analysis of the data. The United States sees BGI's efforts to collect and analyze human gene data as a national security threat. China's biggest genomics firm, BGI began marketing the test abroad in 2013. Branded NIFTY, it is among the world's top selling non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT). These screen a sample of blood from a pregnant woman to detect abnormalities such as Down's syndrome in a developing fetus. So far more than 8 million women globally have taken BGI's prenatal tests, BGI has said. NIFTY is sold in at least 52 countries, including Britain, Europe, Canada, Australia, Thailand and India, but not the United States.
BGI uses leftover blood samples sent to its laboratory in Hong Kong and genetic data from the tests for population research, the company confirmed to Reuters. Reuters found the genetic data of over 500 women who took the test, including women in Europe and Asia, is also stored in the government-funded China National GeneBank in Shenzhen, which BGI runs. Reuters found no evidence BGI violated privacy agreements or regulations; the company said it obtains signed consent and destroys overseas samples and data after five years. "At no stage throughout the testing or research process does BGI have access to any identifiable personal data," the company said. However, the test's privacy policy says data collected can be shared when it is "directly relevant to national security or national defense security" in China. BGI said it "has never been asked to provide -- nor provided -- data from its NIFTY tests to Chinese authorities for national security or national defense purposes." "Non-invasive prenatal testing kits marketed by Chinese biotech firms serve an important medical function, but they can also provide another mechanism for the People's Republic of China and Chinese biotech companies to collect genetic and genomic data from around the globe," the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center said.
China's foreign ministry said Reuters' findings reflected "groundless accusations and smears" of U.S. agencies.
BGI uses leftover blood samples sent to its laboratory in Hong Kong and genetic data from the tests for population research, the company confirmed to Reuters. Reuters found the genetic data of over 500 women who took the test, including women in Europe and Asia, is also stored in the government-funded China National GeneBank in Shenzhen, which BGI runs. Reuters found no evidence BGI violated privacy agreements or regulations; the company said it obtains signed consent and destroys overseas samples and data after five years. "At no stage throughout the testing or research process does BGI have access to any identifiable personal data," the company said. However, the test's privacy policy says data collected can be shared when it is "directly relevant to national security or national defense security" in China. BGI said it "has never been asked to provide -- nor provided -- data from its NIFTY tests to Chinese authorities for national security or national defense purposes." "Non-invasive prenatal testing kits marketed by Chinese biotech firms serve an important medical function, but they can also provide another mechanism for the People's Republic of China and Chinese biotech companies to collect genetic and genomic data from around the globe," the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center said.
China's foreign ministry said Reuters' findings reflected "groundless accusations and smears" of U.S. agencies.
the ultimate PID (Score:4, Informative)
Re:the ultimate PID (Score:4, Insightful)
If a genome is not personally identifiable data, then wtf is?
Absolutely. Not much different from Ancestry.com or 23 and Me from what I see.
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Re:the ultimate PID (Score:4, Insightful)
US law enforcement is using the data that was collected, you can guarantee the intelligence agencies have access too.
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Your "proof" is some dumb television show? No wonder this country is in such a state...
Lots of good science shows on TV. I suspect you don't like science.
Genetic genealogy is pretty leading edge stuff. This is the company that the TV show follows as they solve cold cases using DNA evidence in the publicly available GEDmatch database that is not in CODIS.
https://snapshot.parabon-nanol... [parabon-nanolabs.com]
Surely you must have a least heard the news about how they caught the Golden State killer? No, probably more likely you get all your news from Facebook.
Re:the ultimate PID (Score:5, Interesting)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/... [www.cbc.ca]
As long as one of your relatives is using one of the gene sites, don't do any heinous crimes. They will find you.
That also mean that if you submit your DNA, you can have the pleasure of being involved in a police investigation for something a relative have done.
I have no doubt that in the future more investigations will use the DNA bank route.
"Okey, so we found you a partial match, so we are going to need to swab all your relatives to catch or get closer to the killer"
In the dystopic far future, routine DNA registration will happen at birth. At first it will be offered as a way to test for genetic diseases, you know, FOR THE CHILDREN.
Re: the ultimate PID (Score:4, Informative)
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here in Argentina we have the DNI (national identity document) which has your photo and fingerprint.
When you need a passport (because most people don't have one, as we don't need it to travel in south america), you just request it and they send it to your house - complete with photo, fingerprint, and biometric chip.
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Not so far and distant a future, I would think.
Is this a bad thing by default? (Score:3, Interesting)
Imagine a society that can accelerate evolution with eugenics and weed out psychopaths or put them into positions where being a psychopath might be a benefit. If you can find a murder-rapist within days with a gene-analysis method, is it that bad?
Sure, I get the problem that you don't want the next Hitler & Himmler Tag-Team getting their hands on technology like this, but my take is that a society that is chill about feasible eugenics and genetic crime-solving might actually be advanced enough to be the
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It makes sense to screen for certain genetic defects, although even that is controversial e.g. is a minor cosmetic issue grounds for correction or termination of the pregnancy?
But super smart people, be it via eugenics or engineering or an implant, the problem is always going to be access. Unless everyone can get it you just end up creating more inequality, and literal 2nd class citizens.
While it's tempting to think that a few super smart people could do wonders for us or that we should revere any kind of "
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"what would it to live in a world where everyone has an IQ of 150+? "
You'd have a lot of janitors, baristas and garbage men with IQs of 150. I'd guess they wouldn't be the happiest bunch. Maybe even more likely to overthrow the government or get a gun and shoot up a school or workplace.
Smart people are an overall plus for humanity, but have you ever noticed most serial killers are noted to have had very high intelligence?
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You might want to ask Kermit Gosnell about that.
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Found the psychopath.
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Imagine a society that can accelerate evolution with eugenics and weed out psychopaths or put them into positions where being a psychopath might be a benefit. If you can find a murder-rapist within days with a gene-analysis method, is it that bad?
But it never works that way. Genetics is, effectively, random. we simply cant predict what genes lead to what traits at this point in time.
Also, you're assuming that antisocial disorders are genetic. These are more likely to be a result of a poor upbringing rather than a genetic disorder. If Hitler's father had of been less abusive and more supportive he might not have taken his rejection from the Vienna academy of arts so badly and we might be talking about his paintings of Austrian landscapes and life
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Pretty low threshold there, Sparky.
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That pre-supposes that psychopathy is an isolated genetic trait which can be weeded out without affecting other traits. More than likely, it's an emergent trait that arises as a side-effect of the interaction between other desirable traits. Like how sickle cell an [wikipedia.org]
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As long as one of your relatives is using one of the gene sites, don't do any heinous crimes. They will find you. That also mean that if you submit your DNA, you can have the pleasure of being involved in a police investigation for something a relative have done.
Yes, that is the fascinating thing. They don't need the criminal to upload their sequences, a second or third cousin will do.
The documentary series I referenced above actually talks to some of those relatives whose DNA is used to solve cold cases. Most of them seem fine, indeed many are happy with the fact that their Ancestry result helped capture a distant relative who just happened to be a serial killer.
Re:the ultimate PID (Score:4, Informative)
https://www.statnews.com/2018/... [statnews.com]
The state got a genetic match with a murder suspect using DNA in a genealogy website.
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Nice bit of whatboutism there. But I will bite.
The difference is lying to the customer.
The stated purpose of a prenatal test is to identify potential medical issues of an unborn child.
The stated purpose of 23&me and ancestry.com is to build a shared database of relatives, and ancestral descent.
Building a database of results (and other info) from the first case is unexpected by the typical user (although it may be revealed in the fine print...) Doing so in the second case is understood to be part of the
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Oof. (Score:5, Interesting)
They are taking this genocide of the Uyghurs further than anyone expected. I suppose they are all going in a database. I'm betting some of the CCP have rare conditions and need to find people with compatible DNA before harvesting their organs.
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Of course, I'm sure demolishing all of their cultural sites was just an accident and not systematically trying to erase their history.
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The re-education camps? They're fucking heinous. The cultural crushing... terrible.
But calling it a genocide is so overtly political it's almost insulting to anyone who belongs to a people who endured an actual genocide.
The Chinese aren't trying to exterminate the Uyghurs, they're a totalitarian government ruthlessly bringing part of its population in line.
As the above said, calling it a genocide
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Tell that to the Tibetans. Tibet is being Han-ified. In a few more generations, there won't be any native Tibetans left. This is what is in store for Hong Kong (minus the ethnic angle) but, in my opinion, is planned for Taiwan.
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Tell that to the Tibetans. Tibet is being Han-ified. In a few more generations, there won't be any native Tibetans left. This is what is in store for Hong Kong (minus the ethnic angle) but, in my opinion, is planned for Taiwan.
That's utter horseshit.
They're going culturally Han-ified, for sure.
The Tibetan ethnicity is in no risk of disappearing from this Earth. That is misinformation that you pulled from your ass.
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Not to mention for the whole rest of the world. They've already got such a plan in progress in Africa. (Not that anything ever makes a dent in Africa, at least not for long.)
Side thought: Why is it really bad if the Tibetans are genetically extincted, but really good if European whites are genetically extincted??
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But calling it a genocide is so overtly political it's almost insulting to anyone who belongs to a people who endured an actual genocide.
Mass forced sterilisations are pretty close to genocide imo.
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It's just genocide with a time delay. Boiling the frog, as it were. Keeps the idiots spouting nonsense about how it's not actually genocide, this is totally okay, blah blah blah.
You can't fix stupid. Best you can do is appeal to those who still have brains left.
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It is true that contraceptive rates are higher in Xianjing than the rest of China, and China has no problem jailing anyone in their country for having "too many children", it's still far from "mass forced sterilization" (in so much, that the population there is growing, not shrinking)
It seems apparently obvious that the Chinese are in fact pressuring the population to limit its growth (with an obvious threat of ending up in a re-education camp)
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Let's examine.
What the USCIRF actually said:
might meet the legal criteria for genocide under international law.
OK, I can't argue with that.
Might is a pretty flexible word.
There are obviously some interpretations of the CPPCG, made by fucking idiots or partisan hacks, that could outlaw what is happening as genocide.
However, the evidence on the ground is pretty clear.
The forced sterilizations are disgusting, however, the population growth rate is still far above replacement, so that m
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Ah, so you are saying the forced labor camps for the Uyghurs is actually part of a baby-making scheme, those bastards!
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genocide is the sole effective way to fight superstition.
Religion is far worse than the CCP.
You advocate for the genocide of the vast majority of humans on this planet? That sure sounds like a prehistoric solution. Whatever culture you are part of is clearly more primitive than those you wish to destroy.
This can not be good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Given what we saw last year, expecting the CCP to demonstrate even basic ethics would be monumental stupidity.
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Given what we saw last year, expecting the CCP to demonstrate even basic ethics would be monumental stupidity.
And yet there's still people in the world dumb enough to tolerate and/or do business with communists.
China is not communist (Score:4, Insightful)
In China the people are subservient to the state, which is an inversion of the communist corner stone that the state is subservient to the workers (people).
China is far worse, it is an Autocracy, it is an authoritarian dictatorship in communist rags. The real ideology of China is now far closer to fascism than anything espoused by Marx, et. al.
Re: China is not communist (Score:1)
Re: China is not communist (Score:3)
Xi's term limits were removed.
Re: China is not communist (Score:1)
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Having no term limits on an elected position breeds corruption. Just look at Congress.
Re: China is not communist (Score:2)
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Jinping.
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Jinping.
AKA Winnie the Pooh
Re: China is not communist (Score:2)
It's obvious to anyone with a minimum of knowledge that China is not communist. Neither are Russia, Cuba or North Korea.
The fact that every attempt at creating a communist country ended in a dictatorship (and the fact that communism is a utopia, which is doomed to fail for as long as resources are limited, due to human individualism and greed) doesn't mean that the dictatorships that claim to be communist are communist.
If you attempt to build a nuclear powered motorbike, fail halfway through and end up with
Re: China is not communist (Score:2)
Re: China is not communist (Score:2)
Maybe. The us playing as the world savior didn't help for sure, although there is a case to be made that communism is a utopia and cannot be realized.
Communism requires a dictatorship of the people.
But if the dictatorship actually is "of the people", i highly doubt it would function well and not get destroyed from within our without rapidly.
If it isn't of the people, we get China and Russia. History showed us that benevolent dictators are the exception.
Re: China is not communist (Score:2)
Re: China is not communist (Score:2)
But China did become capitalist. Even if the state has a lot of control over private industries, their economic system now is thousands of time closer to capitalism than to communism. The main difference is that they are not an honest player on the international stage, where they tightly control access to their market while being given nearly free access to everywhere else.
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The fact that every attempt at creating a communist country ended in a dictatorship (and the fact that communism is a utopia, which is doomed to fail for as long as resources are limited, due to human individualism and greed) doesn't mean that the dictatorships that claim to be communist are communist.
What you're doing is trying to turn a guaranteed atrocity into a philosophical argument, no good comes from that. Sure, you can argue "it wasn't true communism" all you want, but the fact remains: every time Humans push for communism the result is genocide. At some point you have to just stop and go "maybe we shouldn't do that thing, you can't get there from here even if it seems like a good idea, which we can't actually prove."
Re: China is not communist (Score:2)
What I said implies nothing about whether communism itself is a good system or not.
The fact that true communism was never achieved and all attempts ended in atrocity is not exclusive to the idea that true communism may also be a shitty system.
True communism sounds good on paper, but it does have a lot of issues too. That's another debate.
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China is far worse, it is an Autocracy, it is an authoritarian dictatorship in communist rags. The real ideology of China is now far closer to fascism than anything espoused by Marx, et. al.
That's literally what communism is in every implementation case. Communism is bait to get people to go along with atrocities, no one in power fights to give up power, they just tell people that's what they do for the sake of getting support.
Re: iTs NoT rEaL ComMunIsm! (Score:2)
The guy said that China's system is worse than communism, not that communism is good.
If I say that eating vomit is worse that eating shit, by your logic, I am defending eating shit. I am not.
China's system (and cuba's, Russia's, North Korea's, etc) is worse than what real communism would be. That doesn't say anything more than that and you're just strawmanning for nothing.
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"And yet there's still people in the world dumb enough to tolerate and/or do business with communists."
Why do communist nations get so much hate yet I rarely see any concern for monarchs?
And as best as I can tell, Republics outnumber Communist countries by ~20:1. They lost. In time, they will be gone.
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What genocides have happened in Cuba since they went Communist?
And, weren't the Soviet Communists integral in defeating the NAZIs, helping prevent the continuation of the Jewish genocide?
I'm not saying communism is good, but it seems many like to blindly call it the boogeyman.
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And, weren't the Soviet Communists integral in defeating the NAZIs, helping prevent the continuation of the Jewish genocide?
Stalin killed WAY more people than the NAZIs did.
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What genocides have happened in Cuba since they went Communist?
Not all genocides are instant, the more insidious kind are long and drawn out picking off a few at a time consistently, here's the latest: 1 [youtube.com], 1 [youtube.com].
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How is this different to what US companies do? They are all harvesting personal data, there are very few data protection laws to prevent them doing it.
Seems like BGI just got the jump on them, that's all.
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The U.S. companies are not the state, yet. However, now that corporations have individual rights, their ability to control the state is increasing.
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Is there much real difference? The state has National Security Letters, if the NSA hasn't already hacked them.
FWIW BGI are saying that the Chinese state has not requested any data from them either. I really don't see any difference between that and the situation in the US, especially as neither countries have strong laws protecting this kind of personal data or regulating it's use.
Weasel Words (Score:5, Interesting)
BGI said it "has never been asked to provide -- nor provided -- data from its NIFTY tests to Chinese authorities for national security or national defense purposes."
So, just what purposes DID they provide the information to Chinese authorities?
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Have a listen to Josh Rogin on The Realignment:
https://youtu.be/BXyGYWl8G0E [youtu.be]
He's the best reporter on this stuff and makes clear that the CCP views all technology platforms as dual-use.
That's why the French were kicked out of the Wuhan BSL4. After they built the damn thing as a cooperation overture.
People in China don't have civil rights (Score:3)
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You could at least read TFS and understand this isn't just about people in China.
At times like this, (Score:4, Insightful)
and also prompted by many other events in the past few decades, I wonder if the people who were all "Rah! Rah!" over globalization ever think about how much better off we might be if we had maintained a greater degree of insularity and independence from other nations.
It occurs to me that globalization is somewhat analogous to keeping borders fully open during a pandemic. Cultural, political, ideological, and tactical "infections" can more fully and rapidly spread into populations that haven't formed an immunity to them.
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The problem is not globalisation, per-say. China is exploiting it for nationalist end. The problem of China can be mitigated with more globalisation, not less. Sharing the fruits of freedom with more people not less, the rest of Asian, South America and Africa.
The big goal of humanity needs to be global freedom, global democracy. Rational people should be working to end petty and small minded nationalism. The nation state is dead, it just doesn't know it, and if we are not very careful it might just provide
Re: At times like this, (Score:3, Informative)
Re: At times like this, (Score:2)
Or in other words, There Is No Alternative.
If globalisation isn't working then it's because there's not enough of it. It can be no other way.
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Or in other words, There Is No Alternative.
If globalisation isn't working then it's because there's not enough of it. It can be no other way.
You could cut your country off from the world North Korea style. But don't expect a much better outcome than they achieved.
Re: At times like this, (Score:2)
Alternatively democratic nations could have free trade rules only amongst themselves and let trade deals be ad hoc, limited and designed to achieve geopolitcal aims by simple design rather than religious faith in globalisation going hand in hand with progress.
I get part of your plan.
1. Open the borders
2. All the people from failed nations with backwards cultures come to the west, outnumbering progressives and being at a severe productivity deficit for many generations (potentially indefinetely if economic p
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Maybe I misunderstood your initial premise. I assumed if you didn't want globalization, you were implying that you would cut your country off, thinking you could go it alone.
But I see what you're proposing now isn't just cutting your country off.
It's banding together to force some other country(s) to be cut off. It could work.
You'd have to have a reason that countries would choose your group over the other group. Get bullied by China or bullied by America. It's not so clear you could stop enough countri
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Nice false dichotomy, globalist.
Re: At times like this, (Score:4, Insightful)
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Whatever, the U.S. has allies, China has none, unless you count the Norks.
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Globalism is deliberate social sabotage. (Score:2)
Its intent is to level all humanity to the lowest common denominator by destroying every national, group and individual advantage, and it is working.
Rational people (Score:3)
Rational people have had good reason to be sceptical of the American industrial complex for a long time because of their past abuses but they have been bound to some extent by US constitution sensibilities.
So if you thought that was bad, imagine how bad will it be when the leaders think human rights come at very best second to the needs of the state.
Isn't this just the kind of data (Score:2, Flamebait)
Eugenics (Score:5, Interesting)
Large scale harvesting of genetic info is one of the biggest warnings for both eugenics and genocide. Think about how many women in the US alone were sterilized without their knowledge and against their will. [pbs.org]
The CCP is the 21st century version of the Nazis.
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It hasn't stopped. We still forcibly sterilize people here. [washingtonpost.com]
Genetically engineered plague on the way! (Score:3)
How can you make a plague that kills 100% of your enemy without your enemy's DNA?
You're not as concerned as you should be. (Score:2)
Over the past couple of decades, Chinese military leaders have made a number of public statements to the effect that Chinese scientists are working on a disease that will kill any non-Chinese person. These statements have generally not received much press in western countries, but they have indeed been repeatedly made and anybody can find them by searching.
China is officially a communist nation, which means [among other things] it's only political party is one with all of its government [including the milit
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Since you seem to be the only one with these issues... have you ever entertained the idea that the reason might not be the pages but the one thing these problems all have in common?
Correction : actual criminals (Score:3)
US police are using genetic data from ancestry websites to track down and arrest actual criminals. But, yeah, let's scaremonger about evidence based policing.
Re: Correction : actual criminals (Score:2)
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Well, so do the Chinese.
What changes is the definition of "actual criminal". But then again, the definition of "actual criminal" is also changing over here, so...
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Ya, "actual criminal" is morphing into "voting freely".