How come you NEVER hear stories of westeners being charged in China?

[Aeson]

google: american arrested in china

At least a few stories right off the bat.

[BlackCat]

Wetty, it's you that are silly. When you seach for the exact term "American citizen arrested in China", you only find those that have this. You don't get a hit on f.ex. "In China 20 american citizens was arrested today".

Google is a very stupid search engine because it doesn't have qualifyers.

I had the impression that you was involved in IT, but I assume that I'm wrong.

[Sirotnikov]

i have a suspicion that vet is being ironic

[DaShi]

China is the friend of the westerner.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by VetLegion
BlackCat arrest China

Gives us 8000+ results. What does that mean? That at least some BlackCats were arrested in China? Don't be silly.

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov
i have a suspicion that vet is being ironic

Yeah, it's a possibility, though, it's Vetty, so it's not easy to figure out

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by LordShiva

Well, "lord shiva arrest china" gives 12.000+

[LordShiva]

That's because I have arrested over 12,000 Chinese citizens

[VetLegion]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov
i have a suspicion that vet is being ironic

No I'm not. BlackCat's query proves nothing. Those phrases can and do appear together without the article being about an American citizen being arrested in China. It's a query my grandma would write, not a "search expert".

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by VetLegion


No I'm not. BlackCat's query proves nothing. Those phrases can and do appear together without the article being about an American citizen being arrested in China. It's a query my grandma would write, not a "search expert".

Well, I prove one thing - google is a lousy serch engine

Your seach is worthless since it does only give two hits and mine is similiar since it gives 92.000+ - both results are idiotic.

Thogh, my 92.000+ result is a bit better because it can be improved wich yours can't.

[Aeson]

If more results are better, just add "breasts".

[Alinestra Covelia]

Having lived in China, I can attest that the authorities generally keep an arm's length away from westerners in general.

I've seen a nasty, brutal brawl break out between white guys at Sanlitun bar street in Beijing and the Chinese police arrived and just kept the Chinese citizens out of it. They refused to even arrest or charge the westerners - just stood back and let one guy kick the teeth out of a university student's mouth.

I asked them why they weren't doing anything about it and they were pretty curt. They just said "Let the embassies sort it out".

From my days in journalism I'd heard that the Chinese authorities never incarcerate western journalists, even those who publish anti-Chinese-government articles. The worst that's happened is that the authorities detain journalists for questioning (nonphysical) for a few hours, then ask them to sign a statement admitting some sort of guilt. Regardless of what they do, they typically revoke their work permits and never issue another one, meaning they have to leave the country and not come back.

One time when I was at university in Beijing, a Jewish (white) guy got drunk and hijacked a taxi. It seemed like hilarious fun at the time, I guess, but he left his jacket behind with some papers that showed he was a student at Qinghua Uni. The authorities pulled him in and questioned him at the police station for the best part of a day, plying him with coffee that he never touched. The Jewish student was released just fine but a Chinese-American student who was in the same car with him taking part in the joyride ended up disappearing. We feared for him, but it turned out it wasn't necessary - he had skipped on a plane back to LA and would not be coming back.

Part of this may be racial deference - I've heard other situations where foreigners can get away with a slightly greater amount of presumptive behavior than Asians in China.

But part of this also seems to be racial aversion - almost like you can't trust westerners to behave themselves so just treat them with kid gloves until they buzz off or wise up.

It's all a muddle, true enough.

[VetLegion]

[QUOTE] Originally posted by BlackCat


Well, I prove one thing - google is a lousy serch engine[QUOTE]

It's the best there is, but I've sorely missed it being sensitive to capitalization on few occassions.

Your seach is worthless since it does only give two hits and mine is similiar since it gives 92.000+ - both results are idiotic.

As a way of proving something, yes, they are.

Thogh, my 92.000+ result is a bit better because it can be improved wich yours can't.

Well I'm hitting diminishing returns discussing this further. You can think your result is better if you want . Searching for exact phrases can underestimate the number of potentially interesting documents, but it can't overestimate it. You be the judge which is a better policy, to err on the side of caution or to accuse China based on a figure returned using a few unquoted words which can and do appear in different contexts.

[Wezil]

The fact your "method" didn't turn up results when the rest of got plenty of google hits on your chosen topic indicates which search was better.

[Elok]

Originally posted by BlackCat
google on '"american citizen" arrest china' gives some 92.000 hits. Some of them must be about real arrests.

I estimate that a large portion of those are to random forums and blogs musing on crap like this, while the remainder are to articles about Americans having heart attacks while munching duck in Shanghai.