The Chinese Communist Party gave me a strange Christmas present. On Dec. 23 Foreign Minister Wang Yi an order imposing sanctions on me and Todd Stein, a Tibet expert who serves on the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
The sanctions amount to nothing. The regime froze my assets in China but I don鈥檛 have any. It banned any Chinese entities, institutions or individuals from making 鈥渢ransactions鈥� with me (I have no intention of entering into any such transactions). And it prohibited my immediate family and me from obtaining visas to travel to China. I was born in China, but I regard it as unsafe to visit and haven鈥檛 since 2015.
So what was the point? Publicity. After Mr. Wang鈥檚 order, state propaganda outlets celebrated the news. The English-language Global Times in threatening terms: 鈥淪ince ancient times, all those who have betrayed the country and the nation have met a tragic end. Yu鈥檚 can鈥檛 be any better.鈥�