Thread by @TheDailyMao

You should realize that this isn't just one isolated case. The China Watcher field is full of creeps and pedos - they just hush it up. @BadChinaTake Maybe you, Jessica Drun, and Claire Chu should share some of your stories. Then again, you won't, because "it might hurt the cause"

https://twitter.com/TheDailyMao/status/1353030839886434306

Today in China Watching logic: refusing to speak up against known abusers is a virtuous act if you're doing it to protect your selfish career prospects. Oh and if you get called out on sweeping this under the rug, you should just post private DMs and then block them

But remember this kind of logic doesn't just extend to abuse within the circle. China Watcher hero and idol Matt Pottinger supported initiatives that shielded bacha bazi practitioners when he was in Afghanistan. These accusations are not 'irresponsible', Mr. Rogin.

Then-Lieutenant Matt Pottinger created, trained, mentored, and debriefed the first set of Female Engagement Teams in Afghanistan - who were responsible for doing 'cultural research' to better understand Pashtun cultural dynamics

One of the FETs he nurtured created a report on Pashtun Sexuality that romanticized and whitewashed bacha bazi for the benefit of NATO forces in Afghanistan
info.publicintelligence.net/HTT-PashtunSex…

By 2011, these findings had made their way back into US military policy: US troops were punished for trying to protect boys from being raped by collaborators in the Afghan government

Indeed, Matt Pottinger even met his wife in the context of pederasty - she was there to help the Afghan government improve its HIV testing because so many of the US-friendly warlords were catching the disease via bacha bazi rectalmicrobicides.org/docs/MSM%20in%…

So, far from a few nonces being coddled for 'professional reasons', it seems there is a culture of turning a blind eye to abuse within the China Watcher community - and silencing/blocking critics to protect their policy goals.

Keep that in mind in your future interactions.

/end