Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer has been the least controversial of the Chengdu Worldcon’s three Guests of Honor. He’s Canadian and isn’t under the same pressures or motivations as Chinese author Cixin Liu and Russian Sergei Lukianenko. However, he’s shown that just a guest spot and airfare are enough to buy off any principles he might have had.
I’m not expecting him to denounce the treatment of the Uyghurs or censorship in Hong Kong while he’s there. That would be stupid. But he didn’t have to say the things he said.
“It’s said of China that you live in a peaceful country in a world that is not at peace. Here, people from all over the world unite, believing there will be a future.” The people of what used to be Tibet must be really impressed by how peaceful China is.
“I think China has done in 40-50 years what took the West 200 years. China’s growth is exponential, while the West is stagnant. The U.S. has recently often defunded universities, science, and education, but China invests heavily in them.” Indeed, China has invested not just in education, but in re-education.
“This is the best World Science Fiction Convention ever.” What could be better than holding a Worldcon in a country without annoying things like freedom of speech?
Robert J. Sawyer should be deeply ashamed of himself. Even Lukianenko did better; he didn’t show up.
Update, November 2, 2023: File 770 reports that “post-Worldcon Robert J. Sawyer embarked on a short signing tour of China.” That seems to explain it, but really, if you’re the kind of person who’ll do anything for money, science fiction writing is the wrong field to enter. The article links to a video, which I haven’t watched because I won’t enable JavaScript for Chinese websites.
Update, February 4, 2024: Today I saw a recent statement by Sawyer (scroll down to item 4). This post still gets views, and the new information is important. A couple of things are especially relevant:
Once I found out about Lukyanenko’s past (his name meant nothing to me when I first heard it), I told the con in writing that I wouldn’t appear with him. I was aware of and supportive of the behind-the-scenes efforts to disentangle him from the convention, and I knew in advance of arriving at the convention that he would not be there at all. …
I received nothing at all from the Chinese government. Nothing.
The article also quotes a Facebook comment in which he denied any association with the Tianwen Program and implies he was conned into putting his name on it. I’m currently preparing a blog post on that subject (and will link to it from here when it’s live), so I won’t go into that point here.
His praise of the Chinese government remains contemptible, but these statements somewhat make up for it.