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Andreas Fulda Profile picture
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25 Mar, 10 tweets, 5 min read
This is getting ridiculous. Now the Chinese Communist Party is sanctioning nine individuals and four entities in the UK 🇬🇧 for their critique of the party-state’s crimes against humanity. Particularly galling is the singling out of fellow academic @j_smithfinley #AcademicFreedom
Here is the statement of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs h/t @MahmutRahima
The Chinese Communist Party “warns the UK side not go further down the wrong path”. Such bullying shows us what kind of regime we are dealing with. Time for the British state and British civil society to push back against the CCP’s authoritarian overreach. globaltimes.cn/page/202103/12…
Also curious timing of the announcement - Thursday late evening in the UK, as if to give the British media less time to respond. But make no mistake - the response by the Fleet Street will come and the reviews won’t be kind to the Chinese Communist Party. theguardian.com/world/2021/mar…
And this is a good observation, too. The Chinese Communist Party is on a path of no return. From here on onwards UK-China relations will only know one direction, and that is downhill.
The counter-sanctions reveal that the Chinese Communist Party neither understands the difference between the British state and UK civil society nor that it recognizes the separation of powers in our liberal democracy.
This uncalled-for escalation by the Chinese Communist Party means that there can not be 'business as usual' for British academia. We need to start a vigorous debate about how to deal with the CCP's political censorship. Self-censorship is not an option.
And @ipacglobal is of course right in calling on the British government “to urgently review attempts by the Chinese government to undermine free and open public debate.”

Good to hear Prime Minister Boris Johnson lending his support to all those individuals and entities which have been sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party.
And very interesting to see the contrast between post-Brexit Britain and the EU when it comes to political leadership vis-a-vis China.

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Andreas Fulda Profile picture
26 Mar
"The CCP retaliated by sanctioning five MPs, lawyers and - what I find particularly galling - a British academic and Xinjiang expert, Dr Jo Smith Finley @j_smithfinley. She is a Reader in Chinese Studies at Newcastle University" - Andreas Fulda on @AlJazeera, 26 March 2021 /1
"Both sides now are in a double bind. The CCP will not back down ... but neither can western liberal democracies afford to give ground when it comes to dealing with what is effectively a genocide in Xinjiang. Right now I can't see an off ramp in terms of diplomacy." @AlJazeera /2
"What we've seen is an overreaction. Many commentators have noted that the counter-sanctions were disproportionate. They also not only targeted state actors but also civil society & academia. In Germany a very well respected think tank @merics_eu was put on the sanction list" /3
Read 5 tweets
Andreas Fulda Profile picture
26 Mar
I hereby call on all China specialists in the UK to stand in solidarity with @j_smithfinley from Newcastle University.

@bacs_china should also issue a public statement condemning the Chinese Communist Party’s threats to #AcademicFreedom and #FreedomOfSpeech.

Enough is enough.
As scholars we have a shared responsibility to address the issue of domestic and international threats to #AcademicFreedom in the UK. @DavidJRMissal and I developed the following framework when discussing Germany's case in an article for the International Journal of Human Rights. Image
Good to see that the Academic Freedom and Internationalisation Working Group (AFIWG) has issued this statement.
Read 5 tweets
Andreas Fulda Profile picture
24 Mar
In this German-language report @FriederikeBoege and @MichaelaWiegel write about the Chinese Communist Party's attempts to 'control the global narrative about China' with the help of 'defamation and intimidation' /1

faz.net/aktuell/politi…
This report is remarkable for various reasons. In the past there has been a great reluctance among German elites to pick a fight with the Chinese Communist Party. But now that the party-state has sanctioned the widely respected German think tank @merics_eu, things will change /2
As @FriederikeBoege and @MichaelaWiegel rightly point out, @merics_eu is hardly a hawkish think tank. Under @m_huotari's leadership it has gained a reputation of being both critical and constructive. Merics is widely respected, both within the German government and academia /3
Read 10 tweets
Andreas Fulda Profile picture
24 Mar
The German Association for Asian Studies (DGA) can no longer hide behind it’s proclaimed ‘neutral’ position @feiduoli. The DGA has to address the Chinese Communist Party’s threat to #academicfreedom. We should stand in solidarity with @adrianzenz, @MareikeOhlberg and @gusiting /1
A learned society should address the threat which the CCP's political censorship poses to open-ended knowledge production. Yet in June 2020 the DGA board issued a controversial statement 'Beware the polarisation'. It's claim to 'neutrality' was widely criticised on Twitter /2 ImageImageImage
A German and English-language version of the DGA board's highly controversial statement 'Beware the polarisation' is available here /3 aktuell.asienforschung.de/ein-plaedoyer-…
Read 9 tweets
Andreas Fulda Profile picture
4 Mar
Former German Chancellor Gerhard 'Gazprom' Schroeder has done it again. In a new German-language op-ed for @handelsblatt he argues against a value-based European China policy. What follows is a critique of his simplistic analysis of EU-China relations /1

handelsblatt.com/meinung/gastbe…
He frames EU-China relations in opposition to the geopolitical rivalry between the US and China, which he likens to a new Cold War.

Schroeder argues for multipolarity, European sovereignty & demands that in future reforms EU member states renounce further sovereignty rights /2
When it comes to China he briefly mentions that Beijing has smashed Hong Kong's democracy movement and that religious and ethnic groups are being suppressed. He also recognises the expansionism in the South China Sea. Schroeder calls all of the above a 'controlled offensive' /3
Read 14 tweets
Andreas Fulda Profile picture
25 Jan
BREAKING: 100+ China experts and human rights activists slam “naïve” EU-China deal for “entrenching Europe’s strategic dependency on China”

Maik Baumgaertner and Ann-Katrin Mueller report about open letter for @SPIEGEL_English 1/32

spiegel.de/international/…
🔸What follows is the text of the open letter in full 🔸

We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the China-European Union Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) and call on the European Union to withdraw from this agreement 2/32

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…
The signal sent by both the timing and the substance of CAI is that European leaders are set on pursuing access to Chinese markets, even if this is at the expense of the bloc’s values and national security. 3/32

theguardian.com/world/2021/jan…
Read 32 tweets

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