How did this become the leading blog on boycotting the Chengdu Worldcon? I don’t know, but here are two new items for the list of reasons to stay away.

In Manchester, UK, employees of the Chinese Consulate assaulted protesters on the street. They dragged a man into the consulate and beat him, as well as grabbing posters from the protesters. The UK government has done nothing. The Chinese version is that the consulate staff was defending itself against a barrage of hurt feelings, and that they were trying to hold the man back as he crawled into the consulate, dragging their hands with his hair.

Back in Chengdu, the city is requiring government approval for murder mystery LARP scripts. The alleged reason is to protect minors, but you can be sure that any script that makes the Chinese government look bad will have a hard time getting approval.

I can do post after post on why having a Worldcon in Chengdu (or Jeddah, for that matter) is a horrible idea. What I want is to see more people speaking out, so it doesn’t happen again. The Chicon resolution condemning Lukianenko as a GoH was a good step. A country where the discussion of ideas is heavily restricted is no place for a Worldcon. Say it. Your voice matters.