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Notes -
2023 World Science Fiction Convention is scheduled to happen in Chengdu, China - as I understand the first in-person Worldcon since the pandemic. The reason why it's in CW topic is because one of the guests of honor is Sergey Lukianenko, who, besides being a mid-grade SciFi writer (his early works are decent, his late stuff is IMO garbage), is an active supporter and propagandist for the Russian war in Ukraine, hating Ukraine so much that he prohibited translating his books into Ukrainian (I am sure Ukrainian-speaking culture is doomed now). If one needs somebody to embody a militant Ukraine hater, who denies the nation's right to exist, claims the whole national claim is fake, the language is broken Russian, Ukrainian government are Nazis, puppeteered by the West, the whole nine yards - he's the man.
Predictably, this did not sit well with everybody. Somebody, representing "Polish fandom", even started a petition to rescind the invitation. However, given as it is unlikely the Chinese organizers didn't know who Lukianenko is and what his views - which he is actively and loudly voicing - are, and general stance of China towards Russia, I do not think anything would happen.
I wonder how would this play out. I used to hold Hugo's in high regard a while ago, but given the wokeisation and politization of everything lately, I don't really care anymore. But I heard WSFS are pretty woke, and so I wonder how it would sit with some of them to appear on the same scene with an actual fascist for once. I am not sure what is the function of the "guest of honor", but obviously the distinguished position alone, in any other setting, for an US person of similar views, would trigger them immediately. And, for various reasons, being Ukraine-friendly is in fashion with the wokes for now. But, the wokes appear to be very deferential to China in general, and maybe they could just pretend nothing is happening. After all, Disney literally filmed a movie with the concentration camps as the background, and everybody pretty much just shrugged. The various Puppies have also a chance to point at this as an exposure of the hypocrisy of the wokes (as if we were short of examples otherwise?) - would they use it?
The other guests of honor are Cixin Liu (who earned the honor, I think, and being Chinese, probably is appropriate figure to appear in this position) and Robert J. Sawyer, a Canadian writer of whom I know virtually nothing, except watching Flashforward (did not read, but liked the idea), and praise by Orson Scott Card, which I value very highly (so maybe I should check more into him?). I wonder if he has had any thoughts on the matter either?
Eh, I think woke support for China tends to be overestimated, especially in right-leaning circles. There are some groups in the woke coalition that take its side for tactical reasons - big business that economically depends on them, and various groups that might at times find that they have a positive edge connecting them in the affect-loading graph (Asian-Americans, staunch technocrats) - and a brief strong enemy-of-my-enemy reflex when the Trump presidency brought some fanatical China haters to the forefront of their outgroup, but otherwise I think they have little love left for them. If China/Taiwan comes to head, I would suspect US alignment chips to fall similarly to Ukraine, with strong bi-partisan support for Taiwan and any insufficiently enthusiastic (or downright pro-China) being overwhelmingly branded right-wing.
Tactically, yes, that's probably what would happen. But culturally, I don't see any mainstream opposition to China or pushback against its obviously fascist nature anywhere in woke cultural spaces. Say "Israel", and you'd get a multi-hour tantrum about apartheid and so on. Say "Russia", and you know. Say "China" and... pretty much nothing? There were some "Free Tibet" groups on the fringe, but I don't think they are taken more seriously than PETA trying to convince us drinking milk is racist. That's one of the reasons why Trump could use China as a wedge issue - because the Left's stance towards China is submissive, and his criticism highlighting it works.
Trump wasn't running against some generic "Left", Trump was running against Biden, and Biden's practical policies towards China have been identical to Trump, if possible even slightly more hostile.
This is a very narrow outlook. While technically true, the issues in play are much wider than Biden personally, who I suspect if he is informed what "his" China policies are at all, doesn't care too much about them. Seeing elections as exclusively personal contest means misunderstanding the whole US politics and missing most of it. America does not just choose between a boisterous populist with weird hair and a senile grandpa with penchant for wild stories, it chooses between political directions those people represent, in Biden's case even more so than in Trump's. So yes, the stance of the generic "Left" and "Right" (it's more complex than binary, if there's ever a place for appropriate use of "non-binary" it's in the US politics) matter, and they matter much more than Biden's persona. But, if we replace Biden with the generic policy package that chooses him embodies, then yes, that was the choice.
And to be honest, beyond some random wild gestures towards Taiwan, I do not really see how Biden admin is that tough on China. They may be continuing Trump's policy, but I think it's rather due to not having their own than following any particular strategy. At least, I haven't seen this strategy coherently expressed anywhere, have you?
Then again, there's a difference between things like trade agreements and monetary policy and whose ships are allowed to parade around which deserted island in the Pacific, and the cultural stance towards what is happening in China. These are related, but different questions. I am talking about the cultural stance and how there's virtually no discussion of China despite their positions being something that would otherwise be very offensive to the woke sensitivities.
It's probably a reference to messing with China's cutting edge industrial/science infrastructure. The whole US persons working for China restrictions that TPOT/ratsphere/postratsphere types went wild about but barely registered in general CW/politics spheres.
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