Thanks to everyone who participated in the weekly open thread that started last Friday. It is still ongoing, one of the more active ones in a while. China must be feeling very confident about its relationship with Europe in its desire to ratify the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, or the PRC officials have massively miscalculated. Today the PRC announced sanctions on ten individuals and their family members and four entities, including the European Council's Political and Security Committee, made up of 27 ambassadors, and the think tank MERICS.
Just learned from my dad that he knew Chen Mingguo, the director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau. Same-year classmates at Peking University. Small world. A nice guy, apparently, and was just promoted to XPSB about a month ago so he probably hasn't actually done anything nasty enough to deserve sanctions yet (though that is probably in the cards for him in the near future). According to my father's ruminations, being promoted into a spot like the director of XPSB might actually serve as a significant acknowledgment of potential for future, higher roles from 中央 since the role is so likely to trigger a Western sanction. Party has your back if you can prove yourself under these harsh conditions and all. Though both Chen Mingguo and my father are ~54 y/o so failure at this stage would also mean basically the end of your career advancement.
China, that is the PRC, in its intransigent and petulant behavior seems to be begging the West to reestablish full diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Is this something Taiwan would welcome, or is this a possible bullseye it would rather not have at this particular moment?
Sanctions; Russia-China; US-China meeting; Vaccines come with a dose of Xi
Chinese are winning the "Needle Diplomacy" https://dianefrancis.substack.com/p/needle-diplomacy
Just learned from my dad that he knew Chen Mingguo, the director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau. Same-year classmates at Peking University. Small world. A nice guy, apparently, and was just promoted to XPSB about a month ago so he probably hasn't actually done anything nasty enough to deserve sanctions yet (though that is probably in the cards for him in the near future). According to my father's ruminations, being promoted into a spot like the director of XPSB might actually serve as a significant acknowledgment of potential for future, higher roles from 中央 since the role is so likely to trigger a Western sanction. Party has your back if you can prove yourself under these harsh conditions and all. Though both Chen Mingguo and my father are ~54 y/o so failure at this stage would also mean basically the end of your career advancement.
China, that is the PRC, in its intransigent and petulant behavior seems to be begging the West to reestablish full diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Is this something Taiwan would welcome, or is this a possible bullseye it would rather not have at this particular moment?