Editor’s note for May 15, 2023
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
Dear reader:
Mutual suspicion between China and the U.S. continues: Today brings news of the sentencing to life in prison for espionage charges of a U.S. citizen who was a participant in high-level exchanges with China under the auspices of the Communist Party’s United Front: scroll down for a summary or click through for details.
Meanwhile in the U.S., a Boston resident was arrested last week for acting as a foreign agent on behalf of the Chinese government by tracking Chinese dissidents.
This week, we’ll be watching the results of elections in Thailand and Turkey, both of which could result in changes in China policies.
In Thailand, Pita Limjaroenrat, the Move Forward Party candidate who could become prime minister, answered a media question about his country’s relations with China and the U.S. He said that Thailand should not take sides, but needed to support a rules-based international order and speak out for itself rather than following “bamboo diplomacy” — which means keeping quiet and bending with the wind.
Our Word of the Day is: Sentenced to life imprisonment (判处无期徒刑 pànchǔ wúqí túxíng).
