What happens when you criticize President Xi
The China Letter: August 20, 2020
The censured professor
Cai Xia, who once taught democratic politics at the Central Party School, was disciplined for criticizing the Chinese Communist Party. A leaked audio recording in June featured Cai describing Xi Jinping as a “mafia boss” led to her expulsion from the CCP, and losing her academic pension. She’s now outside China and speaking out about her concerns.
The Wall Street Journal reported how professors who teach classes related to China at universities like Princeton and Harvard are developing ways to protect the identities of their students this fall. Concern grew after how China’s new national security law led to activist arrests in Hong Kong.
Tables turn on an agent
American prosecutors say 67-year-old Alexander Yuk Ching Ma spent the past two decades selling secrets to China. The spying allegedly started in 2001 and lasted for more than a decade: Hong Kong-born Ma allegedly accepted cash from an undercover FBI agent while stating his hope to resume helping his “motherland” with this intel.
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The digital war goes on
“Nothing short of bullying” is what Beijing called the latest U.S. move to curb Huawei’s access to commercially available chips, as part of the latest round of restrictions imposed on the technology company accused of spying. And fast approaching is the September 15 deadline for TikTok:
Oracle joined Microsoft as an interested buyer for the video app, whose global business is valued at $50 billion. It’s also possible that a sale would be limited to its U.S. operations, which include Canada, Australia and New Zealand. No matter who acquires it, the made-in-China data capacities of TikTok are valuable to others.
The festivities stop here
The announcement of the suspension of the annual Shanghai Pride festival was met with the assumption that public LGBT events are being suppressed in China, after two decades in which gay rights advanced from being criminalized as a mental disorder. But the organizers calculated that it’s no longer safe to publicize that this community exists.
The last words, for now
Wuhan went viral in ways that seemed unfathomable six months ago, when COVID-19 started spreading around the world: with images from massive pool parties spreading across the city. The former coronavirus epicentre allegedly claims no new cases since mid-May due to wide testing. Needless to say, Chinese state media claims the world is envious of what they see:
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