China

Chengdu Worldcon GoH gets Putin appointment

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Congratulations to Sergei Lukianenko on being (probably) the first person ever to be both a guest of honor at a Worldcon and an appointee of Vladimir Putin. Putin appointed the loyal advocate of the war of aggression against Ukraine to Russia’s Civic Chamber. He’s also a guest of honor at the 2023 Chengdu Worldcon.

In an interview for the occasion he recommended “the establishment of some kind of federal structure that would publish books that are niche, but useful, educating the reader in the right values and the ability to think.” In other words, a government bureau to publish propaganda books. I’m sure he’d be glad to write some of them.

The Chengdu Worldcon’s speech code

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The China Worldcon finally released a progress report, much later in the cycle than normal. The prospect of heavy Western attendance at the con is dead, but I’d like to focus here on the Code of Conduct, and in particular on the speech-related rules. The PR says:

Discrimination (based on but not limited to, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation,
gender identity, neuro-diversity, physical appearance, body size, or physical/mental disability) will
not be tolerated. Racism and politicization are where discrimination prevails.
 

Any acts of aggression, contempt, indifference or offensive words and abusive behavior are
unacceptable, such as judging people of color as less knowledgeable about fannish topics, or
provoking unrelated political topics to attack people of different beliefs. [Emphasis added]

The list of prohibited behaviors includes “comments that belittle or demean others” and “Costumes/Cosplay that are historically or otherwise offensive.”
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Dark clouds over the Chengdu Worldcon

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The video of the Chengdu presentation at Smofcon 2022 is up on YouTube. It provides some insight into how the 2023 Worldcon is going. Mostly, it’s going badly. The presentation was about a month ago, but I haven’t seen any significant change since then. Correct me if I’ve missed anything. My focus here isn’t on the logistical issues as such, but on the underlying problems.

PR #1 wasn’t out then and still isn’t out. Ben Yalow said that members won’t receive it “until everything is locked in to the satisfaction of people who get very nervous. … We’re holding off on releasing PR 1 until everything in PR 1 we know is absolutely, completely certain.”
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Thug threatens pro-China freedom activist — and me

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I’d wondered if China’s thugs would ever threaten me for all the posts I’ve made about the China Worldcon. Well, you know what they say: Be careful what you wish for, or you may live in interesting times. Before the sun came up this morning, I had my life threatened on Twitter. Since originally posting this, I’ve received new information and updated this post.

Let’s start at the beginning. In today’s news I read that one Xiaolei Wu was arrested for threatening violence against a pro-Chinese freedom activist. I did a search on Twitter to see what I could find about Xiaolei Wu and found a post by a person using that name. As we know all too well, names on Twitter prove nothing, but this person claimed to “represent the future of China” and was begging to the Chinese ambassador for help. I later learned that the holder of this account is an impersonator, so I was threatened, but as a bad joke and not by the same person who was arrested. Here’s the reply I got:
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The silence of the Chengdu Worldcon

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These are, as they say, interesting times in China. The anti-scientific “zero Covid” policy and the resulting extreme lockdowns have made people unable to get basic necessities. In at least one case, they’ve killed people, as residents in a burning building were literally imprisoned in their apartments. This has led to mass protests at great personal risk, in a country with 1984-level mass surveillance.

The committee of the Chengdu Worldcon has said nothing. Not a word. If I’ve missed something, please correct me in the comments.
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China’s intimidation of academic institutions

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For some time I’ve known it’s dangerous to criticize the Chinese government on some American campuses. Emerson College investigated a student group that dared to criticize the Chinese rulers and then suspended it, and as far as I can tell it has never backed away from its contemptible decree. Mark Wrighton, president of George Washington University, declared he was “personally offended” by posters criticizing China and would “undertake an effort to determine who is responsible.” He backed off when he found himself facing more publicity than he bargained for.

Fandom gets a large proportion of its new people from college students and recent graduates. If they learn there that they should shut up about China while on campus, they may carry that habit over into their fannish activities. This, I’m sure, is one reason for the lack of widespread calls to boycott the Chengdu Worldcon. But how widespread is this effect? Are Emerson and GWU outliers? Lately I’ve looked into the ways China intimidates Western educational institutions and found that varying levels of intimidation are common.
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Gay rights and the China Worldcon

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Till recently, I hadn’t paid much attention to the gay rights issue in China. It’s not as bad as in some countries, but it’s poor and may be getting worse with this year’s changes in the government. That’s a major issue for many fans, yet I haven’t seen any discussion of it in connection with the 2023 Worldcon in Chengdu.

The good news is that homosexuality isn’t illegal in China. However, same-sex marriage isn’t recognized, and same-sex couples aren’t allowed to adopt. This shouldn’t directly affect visitors, but it’s one more reason to question the choice of China as a host country for the Worldcon.
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Doha and Chengdu: Comparing the cases for boycotting

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As I’m writing this, the FIFA World Cup is about to start up in Doha, Qatar. Many people have called for a boycott on human rights grounds. I agree, though my focus has been on a different boycott: the 2023 World Science Fiction Convention in Chengdu, China. It’s interesting to look at the arguments for and against the Qatar boycott and see how they apply to China.

The case against Qatar is strong. Migrant workers building the infrastructure have been ill-treated, and the number of deaths has been put in the thousands. Homosexual sex is illegal in Qatar, with a penalty of up to seven years in prison. The law is actively enforced. Human Rights Watch has reported multiple cases of “severe and repeated beatings and … sexual harassment in police custody.” Detainees have been subject to “physical abuse, ranging from slapping to kicking and punching until they bled.”
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Beatings in Manchester, LARP control in Chengdu 1

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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.
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