File 770 has a fascinating article, “Decoding the Tianwen Project”, about the Chinese government’s aims to achieve a dominant position in the science fiction world. The piece is “posted anonymously to protect the author’s identity, as the author is part of the Chinese diaspora who occasionally travels to China.”

China has already engaged in censorship outside its borders through its print shops. It pressured Disney into killing nearly all the distribution of Kundun, which presents the Dalai Lama favorably and Mao unfavorably. A CNN article says China has “the world’s largest known online disinformation operation.”

The article on the Tianwen Project says:

Two main points here are that China wants to use the Tianwen project to unify the Science Fiction industry, placing everything from publishing, awards, movies, games, and other IP under one umbrella — which I’m sure, will also eventually incorporate even the actual space exploration industry in some way. Second, not only is the focus on China itself, but the goal is stated for the Science Fiction industry to “explode[s] with mighty power [onto the world]”.

The Chinese interference with the Hugos was obvious and clumsy. Other efforts to influence science fiction will doubtless be more subtle, discouraging publishers and producers from releasing anything that makes the Beijing government look bad. They’ll find useful idiots to yell “Racist!” at anyone who discusses Chinese tyranny. Look for Chinese-influenced “influencers” and astroturf reviews, among other techniques.

Another article on the “Launch of the Tianwen Program” includes a picture clearly intended to create the impression that the project has some connection to WSFS, which would create the impression of global recognition. Dave McCarty, head of the 2023 Hugo Award Selection Committee, is listed as one of the participants in the unveiling. He’s the guy who stonewalled questions about the works excluded from eligibility.

Worldcon GoH Robert J. Sawyer posted a Facebook statement implying he was conned into putting his name on the press release:

I had zero — absolutely zero, none whatsoever, nada, zilch, nil — involvement with the planning, development, or any other aspect of the Tianwen Program or the proposed Global Science Fiction Literature Award.
 
I hadn’t even heard of either of them until the specific programming event at Chengdu Worldcon referred to in the press release. Nor have I heard of either of them again since the convention until today; I was involved in no way before or after Chengdu Worldcon with them — not in any way at all — and have had absolutely no discussions or correspondence with anyone anywhere about them ever.
 
You can take this part of the press release literally: “Those who pressed the release button together were …,” followed by a long list of names. Seeing no documents whatsoever in advance, I was brought by my handler/interpreter to the appropriate hall, ushered on stage, and asked, along with the others mentioned in the release, to jointly “press the release button,” which was a bit of pure theatrics involving pushing a giant on-screen button (as you can see in the photograph; that’s me at the far right).

Incidentally, I’ve updated my old post on Sawyer to cite some post-con statements by him.

The project’s aim is laid out:

Additionally, the “Tianwen” project will host various activities to promote the integrated development of the global science fiction industry. These include sub-forums, award ceremonies, promotion conferences, creation salons, exhibitions, and industry roadshows.

I’ll grant them this: They understand that science fiction is a powerful tool for influencing how people think about the future. Controlling it like a “global industry” would give China a lot of influence on how people think.