This is a really horrendous precedent and it bodes ill for the future. China is going to use their economic might to leverage silence of criticism of its treatment of Hong Kong, Tibet, its Muslim Population, Taiwan, activities in the South China Sea and any other areas of controversy.
Global economic neoliberalism (mainly through trade) was suppose to move China towards freedom, instead Chinese neo-mercantalism has weaponized international trade into a tool to continue its oppression and silence its critics.
I think we could all have seen this coming with the revocation of Taiwan’s UN seat. The precedent for how China interacts with its neighbors is already well established, and has been for several millennia: the very name of China means “Middle Kingdom”, implying that it’s the center of the world, to which all nations are subordinate. With the abuse and mistreatment and de facto colonization that occurred in the 19th century, surely China is pissed at Western critics of its policies. But that doesn’t make it right for China to have a hate boner.
