Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer has been the least controversial of the
Chengdu Worldcon's three Guests of Honor. He's Canadian and isn't under
the same pressures or motivations as Chinese author Cixin Liu and
Russian Sergei Lukianenko. However, he's shown that just a guest spot
and airfare are enough to buy off any principles he might have had.

I'm not expecting him to denounce the treatment of the Uyghurs or
censorship in Hong Kong while he's there. That would be stupid. But he
didn't have to say the things he said.

https://www.ichongqing.info/2023/10/19/exceeding-all-hopes-robert-j-sawyer-on-why-chinas-worldcon-is-the-best/

"It's said of China that you live in a peaceful country in a world that
is not at peace. Here, people from all over the world unite, believing
there will be a future." The people of what used to be Tibet must be
really impressed by how peaceful China is.

"I think China has done in 40-50 years what took the West 200 years.
China's growth is exponential, while the West is stagnant. The U.S. has
recently often defunded universities, science, and education, but China
invests heavily in them." Indeed, China has invested not just in
education, but in re-education.

"This is the best World Science Fiction Convention ever." What could be
better than holding a Worldcon in a country without annoying things like
freedom of speech?

Robert J. Sawyer should be deeply ashamed of himself. Even Lukianenko
did better; he didn't show up.

This post also appeared on my blog:

https://garymcgath.com/wp/sawyer-grovels-to-china/
--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:
> Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer has been the least controversial
> of the Chengdu Worldcon's three Guests of Honor. He's Canadian and
> isn't under the same pressures or motivations as Chinese author
> Cixin Liu and Russian Sergei Lukianenko. However, he's shown that
> just a guest spot and airfare are enough to buy off any principles
> he might have had.

As soon as I learned, 19 months ago, that he had been chosen as GoH,
I emailed him:

From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@KeithLynch.net>
To: "Robert J. Sawyer" <sawyer@sfwriter.com>
Subject: The Chinese Worldcon
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2022 13:47:30 -0400 (EDT)

You may remember me as your passenger on the drive from the 2007
Ravencon in Richmond, where you were guest of honor, to your book
signing in Alexandria. I thank you again for that ride.

The bookstore was on the Jefferson Davis Highway, named for the
president of the Confederacy. Since then that highway, like almost
everything else named for Confederates, has been renamed, and nearly
all Confederate monuments, memorials, and statues have been torn down.

I've read all but the latest of your books, and I've enjoyed them all.

I've been to 110 SF conventions over the past 42 years, including
18 Worldcons. (I'm not counting virtual cons, only in-person ones.)
My most recent con was last year's Worldcon in DC. I plan to be at
next year's Worldcon in Chicago, which will be my fourth Worldcon in
that city.

Congratulations for being named as one of the three guests of honor
for the Chinese Worldcon. But I'm writing to ask that you withdraw
from that convention. The Chinese government strongly opposes freedom
of speech and of the press. As such, it's no place for SF fandom.
The current Chinese government's founder, Mao, is responsible for more
deaths than Hitler and Stalin put together, and, unlike those two
rogues, hasn't been repudiated by his successors.

The Chinese government is currently perpetrating a genocide of the
Uyghurs. It's also repressing the people of Hong Kong, in violation
of their 1997 promise to allow freedom of speech there for 50 years.
And it's still occupying and repressing Tibet, and threatening to do
the same to Taiwan, which hasn't been ruled from mainland China since
the 19th century.

The only reason the Chengdu bid won was because it got more mail-in
votes than Discon 3 had attending members. And Discon 3 is a rules-
based organization, unlike some governments I could name, and there's
no way within the rules to revoke Chengdu's win, despite many angry
demands from various fans that they do so.

One bit of rule-breaking is that Kevin Standlee revealed Chengdu's
lead at Discon before voting was closed, so that Winnipeg-supporters
wouldn't waste their money. (For this, he was fired both from the
Winnipeg bid and the chairmanship of the WSFS business meeting.)

Also, look up Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. They're Canadian
citizens who were detained in China on bogus espionage charges for
nearly three years. They were held as bargaining chips to negotiate
for the release of a Chinese prisoner in Canada, Huawei executive
Meng Wanzhou.

Also, people are known for the company they keep. Your fellow Chengdu
guest of honor, Sergey Lukianenko, is on record as supporting the
current Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has been condemned by the
United Nations, the European Union, the United States, and Canada,
among countless others.

So please reconsider your acceptance. Thanks.

He never replied.

> https://www.ichongqing.info/2023/10/19/exceeding-all-hopes-robert-j-sawyer-on-why-chinas-worldcon-is-the-best/

However, I won't condemn him for that, unless, after he leaves China,
he confirms that he actually said that, and that he wasn't under duress.

If and when it's confirmed, I will definitely not be buying any more
of his books, recommending any of his books to others, voting for him
for any award, or recommending him as a GoH at any future con.

Ironically, one of his novels, _Frameshift_, published in 1997, is
about hunting down and fighting an elderly fugitive Nazi. And the
Nazi is not portrayed sympathetically. So his love for genocidal
totalitarians would seem to be a recent change.

> "It's said of China that you live in a peaceful country in a world
> that is not at peace. Here, people from all over the world unite,
> believing there will be a future."

"They make a desert and call it peace." -- Tacitus, quoting Calgacus

> "I think China has done in 40-50 years what took the West 200 years.

I'm pretty sure China executed more of its own subjects in 40-50 years
than the West has in all of history.

> "This is the best World Science Fiction Convention ever."

That's an insult to everyone who has worked on any past Worldcon,
including me.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:
> Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer has been the least controversial
> of the Chengdu Worldcon's three Guests of Honor. He's Canadian and
> isn't under the same pressures or motivations as Chinese author
> Cixin Liu and Russian Sergei Lukianenko. However, he's shown that
> just a guest spot and airfare are enough to buy off any principles
> he might have had.
>
Not to mention access to the vast Chinese market for SF. Sawyer has
always had an eye on optimizing his personal status.

That said, the moral of his ... WWW? series, I think, is that the world
needs a panopticon nanny state run by an entity without checks and
balances.
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:
> Not to mention access to the vast Chinese market for SF. Sawyer has
> always had an eye on optimizing his personal status.

Sigh.

> That said, the moral of his ... WWW? series, I think, is that the
> world needs a panopticon nanny state run by an entity without checks
> and balances.

Yes and no. In 2007 he and his wife gave me a ride from Ravencon in
Richmond to his scheduled reading (of _Rollback_) at a bookstore in
Alexandria, from which I took Metrorail home. He warned me that I
wasn't to talk during the trip, as he would be listening to a lecture
on AI in preparation for writing this 2009-2011 trilogy. It was
speeded up, and I was impressed with how fast he was apparently able
to understand speech. In gratitude for the ride, I bought a copy of
_Rollback_. I think that was the last time I bought a fiction
hardback, other than used or as a gift.

To clarify, Webmind (the AI protagonist of his WWW trilogy) wasn't
a government surveillance project. It formed spontaneously and
unexpectedly on the World-Wide Web. It was discovered by a blind
teenager whose artificial eyes, intended to let her see her
surroundings, instead let her see the Web. She made friends
with it.

The US government also discovered Webmind, and set out to destroy
it. With the help of the blind girl it was saved, and became a close
personal friend and trusted adviser to every Internet user in the
world, hence largely replacing governments.

If only it was real Sawyer would still have one friend left after his
disgraceful speech at the Worldcon (assuming his alleged speech wasn't
faked or coerced, of course).
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

On 10/20/23 8:17 AM, Gary McGath wrote:
> Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer has been the least controversial of the
> Chengdu Worldcon's three Guests of Honor. He's Canadian and isn't under
> the same pressures or motivations as Chinese author Cixin Liu and
> Russian Sergei Lukianenko. However, he's shown that just a guest spot
> and airfare are enough to buy off any principles he might have had.
>
> I'm not expecting him to denounce the treatment of the Uyghurs or
> censorship in Hong Kong while he's there. That would be stupid. But he
> didn't have to say the things he said.
>
> https://www.ichongqing.info/2023/10/19/exceeding-all-hopes-robert-j-sawyer-on-why-chinas-worldcon-is-the-best/
>

File 770 reports that Sawyer has gone on a signing tour of China, so it
appears the Chinese market was his motive. People who will say anything
for money ought to be able to find a more lucrative way to do it than
writing science fiction.

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

On Saturday, October 21, 2023 at 10:14:21 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
>
> That said, the moral of his ... WWW? series, I think, is that the world
> needs a panopticon nanny state run by an entity without checks and
> balances.
In the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, the legal system of the Neanderthals (who are supposedly more sensible than humans) managed to be worse than many human legal systems in a few crucial ways - for example, if a woman is being abused by the father of her children, her male children will be sterilized if she dares complain.

Another interesting bit from Worldcon. Chris M. Barkley</a>, writing on
his experience on an "Ask a US Fan" panel, reported:
"Also, knowing that whatever was said at this panel would probably be
reviewed by either Communist Party officials or members of the security
services, I had planned in advance to make a point of saying that I was
not a foreign policy expert nor was I there to criticize the government
or policies of the People’s Republic of China."

https://file770.com/a-file-770-chengdu-worldcon-special-jody-lynn-nye-and-chris-m-barkley-in-conversation-the-ask-a-us-fan-panel/

I don't blame him in the least. Probably similar self-censorship went on
at every panel that involved foreign participants, whether it was
explicit or not. (The Chinese participants have undoubtedly made it into
a habit they rarely think about, otherwise the stress would kill them.)

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com