Just saw this provocative idea on Twitter.
You remember that fantastic Barbara Demick article for the LA Times about the blogging Chinese hacker named Wang? The same Wang who lamented that his work is “[n]othing at all like the unkempt hackers of popular imagination” with an 8 a.m. to 5:30pm workday, required military uniform, “no money and little free time”, and the promise of ramen noodles waiting for him? That Wang wrote that “[f]ate has made me feel that I am imprisoned . . . I want to escape . . How can passionate young people like us handle a prison-like environment like this?”
Well, Stewart Baker had a very interesting idea on his Skating on Stilts blog: offer depressed Chinese hackers like our friend Wang an S visa to come to the United States. Baker explains:
So under current law, the Justice Department could send QQ messages to all the guys we’ve already identified as Chinese hackers, saying “The first of you who shows up at a US consulate with a full flash drive will get an S visa and a million bucks; the second one will get an S visa and $100,000. The third will get an S visa and $10,000. And the rest of you will be indicted with the evidence supplied by the first three, making China a prison you’ll never break out of.
Love it.
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