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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Exclusive | China blocks US think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies website following critique on sanctions

  • ‘The biggest change lately is that China now believes it has the right to police debate about China wherever it occurs in the world,’ says US think tank fellow
  • Scholars say Beijing’s at-times seemingly random website targets can involve fairly abstruse material

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Beijing has blocked the Centre for Strategic and International Studies website in China. Image: Shutterstock
Mark Magnier
Beijing has blocked the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) website in China, after the Washington-based group released a piece criticising the country’s sanctions on a European think tank.
This latest page in deteriorating US-China relations comes as academic exchanges wither and the Communist Party steps up efforts to spread its world view well beyond its borders, scholars say.

“It’s ironic that this piece would generate that response from China, given that the whole point was to … reduce restrictions, which is what China’s been pushing for in arguing against decoupling,” said CSIS fellow Scott Kennedy, who co-wrote the critique.

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“The biggest change lately is that China now believes it has the right to police debate about China wherever it occurs in the world, whoever does the work, on whatever platform that it appears.”

02:02

US delegation visits Taiwan as Beijing warns of military action against the island

US delegation visits Taiwan as Beijing warns of military action against the island
The tit-for-tat saga started last month when the European Union – generally more accommodating toward China than Washington – slapped sanctions on four Chinese officials and the Xinjiang public security bureau over human rights abuses. The announcement was coordinated with the United States, Britain and Canada.
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China has reportedly detained over 1 million Uygurs in Xinjiang camps that Beijing has characterised as vocational training centres.
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