The World Science Fiction Convention scheduled for 2023 in Chengdu hasn’t made a lot of news lately. This is normal for a con in its early stages of preparation. I’d really hoped that the calls for boycotting it would grow, though, especially since they would have a bearing on the NASFiC to be held the same year. Winnipeg and Orlando have filed bids. Florida also falls below some people’s threshold of acceptability because of things its government has done, but that’s a discussion for another time. If Florida is unacceptable, China certainly has to be.
The Chinese government can bring trouble for anyone who criticizes it, even outside China. I’m obscure and hard to put pressure on, so I haven’t run into any problems, though that could change. My obscurity means I don’t have a lot of influence on many fans, though I turn up high in the search results if you look for something like “boycott Chengdu Worldcon.”
A lot of organizations get Chinese money and don’t want to endanger it. When random sock puppets claim it’s “racist” to care about the Uyghurs and Hong Kong, it doesn’t matter; but when criticism can put your job in danger, it’s a problem. For example, the University of San Diego launched a sham investigation of Professor Thomas Smith for suggesting that COVID-19 came from a lab in Wuhan. The inquisitors invented the notion that the expression “cock swaddle,” which Smith used, was an anti-Asian racial slur. It’s an obscure term, but I think it’s obvious from context that it means “nonsense,” with a possible relationship to terms like “a cock and bull story.” The university has given up its investigation, but the message is clear: Criticize the sources of our funding, and we’ll make trouble for you.
Similarly, Emerson College suspended a student organization for saying that China is “kinda sus.” If you’re a college student, it’s understandable you could be reluctant to talk about boycotting Chengdu.
But every day we see more outrages from the Chinese government. It put millions of people under extended house arrest as part of its COVID lockdown. Freedom in Hong Kong is being rapidly destroyed. SF fans need to take a strong stand and say they’ll have nothing to do with a convention hosted by so authoritarian a country.
Sergey Lukianenko, a fan of the Ukraine invasion, remains one of the convention’s guests of honor.
The convention’s organizers are in a horrible spot. I don’t blame them for wanting a Worldcon in their country, but they’re at the mercy of the government, far more than any professor or student — or even NBA player — in the US is. Giving them a chance to come to other countries would be a great thing. But right now, I hope that fans will overcome their fears and declare they won’t touch the con.
Ben Yalow and Don Eastlake, you can admit you made a mistake and withdraw. Your names carry a lot of honor in fandom; why are you throwing it at the feet of tyrants?