Shanghai International Debate Open

5th SIDO (2019)

4th SIDO (2018)

R1

THBT states should not prosecute members of terrorist organisations (e.g. ISIS, Al-Qaeda) who surrender to those states.

R2

THW anonymize the funding, display, and sale of art

R3

THW, as a billionaire who opposes Artificial Intelligence, fund violent and destructive action against companies that aim to create strong Artificial Intelligence

R4

THBT NATO should end all political, economic, and military support for the Russian Commonwealth.

R5

THW ban religious institutions from asking for donations from their followers.

R6

THBT former colonial powers should drastically increase the number of immigrants from their ex-colonies.

Novice QF

Countries with declining populations should abandon policies that aim to increase the birth rate (ex. incentivising citizens to marry and have children)

Novice SF

THBT environmental advocacy groups should prioritise individual-centric actions (e.g. recycling, not eating meat etc.) at the expense of policy-level changes

Novice GF

THBT WLDs should introduce ‘youthocratic’ voting.

Open OF

THBT states without the death penalty should never extradite individuals to countries where they may face the death penalty

(info slide: extradition)

Open QF

THBT the IMF should not make financial support conditional on recipient states adopting austerity measures

Open SF

TH, as a parent, would teach their female children to adopt traditionally masculine personality traits (e.g. self-promotion, assertiveness)

Open GF

THR the glorification of hard work

3th SIDO (2017)

R1

THBT China should transition from its character-based script to an alphabet-based script.

In a character-based script,a written character represents a word or phrase, but may not clear as to how it is spoken.In an alphabat-based script, individual character represent sounds rather than concepts, and are combined to make words and phrases that have meanings.

R2

THBT US government employees should leak embarassing information about the Trump Administration to the press e.g. Trump’s tax returns, details of internal political disputes, embarassing personal details, etc.

R3

THBT feminists in developing countries should encourage women not to have children

R4

THW ban all research into the creation of strong AI

R5

TH prefers a world where human beings have no desire to have sex.

R6

TH regrets the reign of Qin Shi Huang.

Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor of a unified china. He unified the country from a collection of warring states.

R7

THW require all citizens to perform two years of national civic services(ex. in healthcare, education, helping the elderly, etc.)

OF

THBT the state should redistribute all donations to charities according to an evidence-based assessment of their utility.

QF

THBT social media should manipulate user experience to promote social harmony.

SF

THBT States should allow private companies to bid for the right to govern part of their territory.

right to govern: the making and enforcement of rules

GF

TH regrets the decision to list democracy as a fundamental human right in the UN’s universal declaration of Human Rights.