Tokyo University Used "Tiananmen Square" Keyword to Block Chinese Admissions
Tokyo University is reported to have hidden the term “Tiananmen Square” in a graduate admissions page, apparently to trigger China’s Great Firewall and make the site inaccessible to applicants in mainland China. Commenters debate whether this was a racist or xenophobic attempt to reduce Chinese enrollment, a misguided act of activism against Chinese censorship, or simply an amateurish spam/DDoS defense, noting that many Chinese students already use VPNs. The exchange broadens into questions of shared responsibility between censors and those who exploit censorship, the nature of human rights and discrimination, and the fraught geopolitical and historical relationship between Japan and China.
Perceived Motives and Context
- Some see the keyword insertion as a “clever” hack, analogous to data poisoning or the “Tiananmen copypasta” used to trigger censorship elsewhere.
- Others argue it’s “smooth-brain” and ineffective, since serious Chinese applicants and academics commonly use VPNs.
- Several commenters note that Tokyo University has a large proportion of Chinese students (around two-thirds of its international cohort), so this is more likely an individual’s act than official policy.
- Alternative explanation raised: common “snake-oil” anti-spam / anti-DDoS trick in parts of Japan, not necessarily centrally approved.
Effectiveness and Technical Mechanism
- Discussion on how the Great Firewall works with HTTPS:
- Theories include domain-level blocking after crawling, active probing, or scanning content via spiders.
- MITM via Chinese CAs is discussed but viewed as “theoretical” and likely detectable via certificate transparency.
- Some claim inserting banned terms can indeed cause domains to be blocked in China and is sometimes used to block bots/crawlers.
Is It Discrimination?
- One camp: This is clearly discriminatory because the keyword was hidden (meta tag) and specifically leveraged Chinese censorship to deter Chinese applicants.
- Counter-camp: The “real” discriminator is the Chinese government; Tokyo University is merely exposing or mocking censorship.
- Others argue blame is not zero-sum: leveraging an oppressive system for your own ends is still culpable, similar to “swatting.”
Human Rights and Collective Punishment Debate
- Debate over whether human rights are unconditional or practically contingent.
- Some argue there is no “human right” to foreign university admission, so this is ethically bad but not a rights violation.
- Others emphasize collective punishment: blocking students from study abroad both harms them and strengthens CCP censorship by limiting exposure.
Japan–China Relations and Xenophobia
- Multiple comments highlight longstanding mutual negativity between Japanese and Chinese publics, framed more as xenophobia than simple racism.
- Taiwanese tourists and students are said to have a distinctly better reputation in Japan.
- Historical grievances (war crimes, Unit 731) and current geopolitics are referenced as background, though some see governments as cynically weaponizing history.
Normative Judgments and Alternatives
- Some defend the act as resistance to authoritarian censorship; others reject using “authoritarian tools” on individuals caught in those systems.
- Comparisons made to sanctions, academic discrimination by race/nationality, and hypothetical blocking of other nationalities (e.g., Iranians, Nigerians) to test intuitions.