© International Crisis Group/AFPTV/KCNA via KNS The two Canadians detained in China: Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
Jeff Wasserstrom is a self-proclaimed China specialist who is seriously considering never returning to China -- at least, he says, not while President Xi Jinping is in power.
The American professor, who for decades made multiple trips a year to China and was last there in 2018, hasn't focused his career on Tibet or Taiwan -- lightning-rod issues which attract Beijing's ire at lightning-quick speed -- but he has written about cultural diversity and student protests in mainland China, and appeared on panels with people he says the Communist Party is "clearly upset with."
Three years ago, that made the California-based academic wonder if his visa application to China might be rejected.
Today, it makes him consider whether crossing the border risks his indefinite arbitrary detention. The chance of that outcome, Wasserstrom says, might be "pretty minimal," but the consequences are so grave -- those detained can be locked up for years without contact with their families or a trial date -- he is not willing to gamble.
And he is not alone.
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WNU Editor: I lived and worked in China in the 1980s. And after that I have made multiple trips to China, the last one being 3 years ago. In view of what has happened in China in the past 2-3 years, I have zero interest to go there even though all of my friends and contacts say that I should visit them.
Will I eventually go there? Definitely. But only after the pandemic has passed through, and to visit old friends and business contacts.
As to Westerners being scared to visit China. There are hundreds of thousands (if not more) Westerners in China today, and they are OK. My advice to those who want to go there is to stay away from politics and shady business deals, and the Chinese authorities will leave you alone.
3 comments:
I've been to China several times...mainland ,Hong Kong and even south China islands. .
It varies A LOT where you go. Don't expect a warm welcome on e.g Hainan if you're a westerner they assume you're a spy. Bunch of suspicious Islamist terrorist looking type of people hiding out in the hotels there,just FYI
Hong Kong was ofc very open, before it became part of the joyful mainland China club. I would not go there now.
Mainland. .same thing. .I would not go there now. If you go for business there's almost no way you don't end up in a hotel with a camera in it. I'm sure I was filmed countless times as I usually stay in high end 5 stars in beijing and shanghai and that's their target group..
At a chinese airport they tried to also talk me into accepting a jacket before security. ..you can be assured if you take that Hjacket it's filled with contraband and they'll try to pressure you into working for them
I do not agree with WNUs assessment. 5 years ago it was bad. Now you have to be crazy to go over there unless you have no choice and even then I'd avoid it. They may not target Russians, dear WNU,but they do target westerners,particularly if you go on business and represent a technology or finance or energy or communication company
the COVID anal swab is enough to put me off
I found the staff at the Chinese airport nice enough. Maybe it is, because who I am with.
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