Editor’s note for Tuesday, September 28, 2021
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn. Today: NATO has the good idea to publish a Chinese-language readout of a high-level meeting; influential tech journalist Kara Swisher argues for a China-style crackdown in the U.S.; and faculty members at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, are demanding the reinstatement of Anming Hu, who was targeted by the China Initiative.
My thoughts today:
A good idea from NATO: After a video call between China’s top diplomat Wáng Yì 王毅 and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg “to discuss the situation in Afghanistan,” Nato released its own readout of the call, in Chinese. All countries and companies should do this.
A China-style crackdown for the U.S.? Influential tech journalist Kara Swisher argues that it’s time for American lawmakers to “finally act against Big Tech” in a New York Times piece.
Correction: Mèng Wǎnzhōu 孟晚舟 was not under “house arrest” in Vancouver as stated in yesterday’s report on her return to China: she was in fact out on bail, and able to travel freely around the Vancouver area within rather generous parameters.
Related: if you missed it, it was not only the two Canadians who China has let go: The Liu siblings, American citizens who had been prohibited from leaving China for the last three years, were allowed to go home to the U.S. on the weekend.
Faculty members at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville are demanding that nanotechnologist Anming Hu, who was arrested and charged with trumped-up charges under the misguided China Initiative, get his job back after he was completely cleared of all wrongdoing.
Our word of the day is “dual control” (双控 shuāng kòng), which means lowering energy consumption and energy intensity.
—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief
