I’m not persuaded by most infohazard arguments, so I have a hard time understanding your perspective on why this would be risky/sensitive to discuss in public: could you please explain?
The brief answer is that it could cause harm to EA’s efforts, to EA people in China, or to EA people working on China-related issues.
The Chinese government is very sensitive. It takes perceived slights quite seriously, and has lashed out in the past against national governments, corporations, and individuals for perceived slights. Any discussion of China that is connected to EA and is publicly available could easily get EA banned in China if it is perceived as against China at some point in the future. That would cause serious difficulties for some EA causes, as well as for some people connected to EA who are working on related issues.
Anything related to China publicly should be done with great caution, as it would be far too easy to get an organization or a movement declared illegal in China.
When one doesn’t live in and think about autocratic governments, then it is easy to forget how flimsy of a justification the state needs for putting someone under house arrest, or for taking someone to a detention center.
However, if the research is valuable enough (like the sheer quantity of open source research here, that virtually noone would already know everything regardless of expertise), and if it’s private enough e.g. communicated through DMs and in-person, then the benefits usually exceed the costs. China is pretty well known to crack down on outspoken critics, not people who “know too much”.
Policy prescriptions, embarrasing/disturbing info about governments, and outright denunciations of foreign governments are definitely going to ramp up those risks. There’s also complicated delicate diplomatic situations/negotiations to consider; pareto solutions often involve some amount of facilitating internal situations in other countries since those are the top priority there.
The brief answer is that it could cause harm to EA’s efforts, to EA people in China, or to EA people working on China-related issues.
The Chinese government is very sensitive. It takes perceived slights quite seriously, and has lashed out in the past against national governments, corporations, and individuals for perceived slights. Any discussion of China that is connected to EA and is publicly available could easily get EA banned in China if it is perceived as against China at some point in the future. That would cause serious difficulties for some EA causes, as well as for some people connected to EA who are working on related issues.
Anything related to China publicly should be done with great caution, as it would be far too easy to get an organization or a movement declared illegal in China.
When one doesn’t live in and think about autocratic governments, then it is easy to forget how flimsy of a justification the state needs for putting someone under house arrest, or for taking someone to a detention center.
However, if the research is valuable enough (like the sheer quantity of open source research here, that virtually noone would already know everything regardless of expertise), and if it’s private enough e.g. communicated through DMs and in-person, then the benefits usually exceed the costs. China is pretty well known to crack down on outspoken critics, not people who “know too much”.
Policy prescriptions, embarrasing/disturbing info about governments, and outright denunciations of foreign governments are definitely going to ramp up those risks. There’s also complicated delicate diplomatic situations/negotiations to consider; pareto solutions often involve some amount of facilitating internal situations in other countries since those are the top priority there.