Editor’s note for Thursday, October 15, 2020

My thoughts today:

Chinese Australians, like ethnic Chinese communities in the U.S. and several other countries, are finding themselves increasingly subject to loyalty tests. Three Australian citizens of Chinese descent were asked “to condemn the Chinese Communist Party as they appeared before a government inquiry into diaspora issues.” As one of them put it in an op-ed, “I was born in Australia. Why do I need to renounce the Chinese Communist Party?” After all, no one asked anyone who did not have Chinese blood to say anything about the CCP.

Beijing makes it much worse for the Chinese diaspora. At about the same time that the Chinese Australians were being treated like fifth columnists, Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 was in Shantou saying (in Chinese): “One of the most important characteristics of overseas Chinese is that they love their country, their hometowns, and their families… China’s development and construction is inseparable from the fact that we have such a large number of overseas Chinese whose hearts are tied to…the motherland.”

Meanwhile, in Canada, the Globe and Mail reports that “China’s ambassador to Canada is urging Ottawa to stop granting asylum to democracy activists from Hong Kong, whom he described as ‘violent criminals’ and warned that accepting these people could jeopardize the ‘health and safety’ of 300,000 Canadian citizens still living in the former British colony.”

The ambassador also defended China’s revenge detention of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor and said that the Uyghurs “live in harmony” and China’s human rights record “is the best in history.”

Upcoming event: This year’s NEXTChina conference is online and will gather together some of the world’s leading experts on all things China as they discuss how the U.S. presidential election will impact the next four years of geopolitics and business. Access members can join for free by using the promo code NC20ACCESS.

Our word of the day is Ant Group (蚂蚁集团 mǎyǐ jítuán).

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief