Patricia M Thornton

I recently had the privilege of discussing my research on political warfare in #Taiwan with the indomitable @ben__sando from @globaltaiwan . Check it out: globaltaiwan.org/podcasts/gti-i…… The interview builds on my 2023 @lseideas report

NYT's David Pierson: #JimmyLai’s 20-Year Sentence Follows Beijing’s Playbook on Dissent The sentence for the media mogul, along with long prison terms for his editors, shows how #HongKong enforces Xi Jinping’s red lines with a new severity. #香港 nytimes.com/2026/02/09/wor…

New book

1. By way of comparison, China sentenced leading dissidents Liu Xiaobo to 11 years and Xu Zhiyong to 14 years. The Hong Kong Court has topped that with 20 years for Jimmy Lai, effectively a life sentence for an old man. 2. On a personal level I knew senior journalists Chan Pui-man and Law Wai-kwong too, and am devastated that even they got 7 and 10 years. It’s a dark day.

The Guardian: Xi Jinping vows to reunify #China & #Taiwan in New Year’s Eve speech Reunification ‘is unstoppable’, Xi says, a day after the conclusion of intense military drills #台灣 theguardian.com/world/2025/dec…

SCMP: #Trump ‘not worried’ about #China's PLA military drills around #Taiwan, which he dismisses as ‘routine’ even as US arms sales hit record high. "They’ve been doing that for 20-25 years," he said. #台灣 scmp.com/news/us/diplom…

SCMP: #China unveils new ethnic unity & language laws w/‘nat'l security perspective’ that threaten action against those "obstructing" the use of "the standard Chinese language" (now defined as that "statutory common national language”). sc.mp/thm3h?utm_sour… via @scmpnews

联合早报: #China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection took down 64 "tigers" on #corruption charges this year, setting a new record (last year, 58 centrally-managed officials were dismissed) 中纪委今年至今“打虎”64人再刷新纪录 zaobao.com.sg/news/china/sto…

观察者: #Taiwan's parliament votes to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (赖清德) for refusing to publish & sign the revised "Fiscal Revenue & Expenditure Allocation Act" passed by the Legislative Yuan 赖清德弹劾提案，表决通过 guancha.cn/politics/2025_…

14-Hour Shifts and $1 a Delivery—but China’s Army of Gig Workers Keeps Growing: Two hundred million people are turning to food-delivery apps and other informal roles as job creation slows @Kubota_Yoko @ByXiaoXiao @GillSabrie wsj.com/world/asia/14-… wsj.com/world/asia/14-…

But it raises some interesting questions: Xu told the court that his understanding was that the Party did not have the right to order fully armed troops into Beijing & declare martial law w/out the National People's Congress having first voted to do so. rfa.org/mandarin/zheng…

Why is this leaked footage (from 17 March 1990) suddenly circulating on social media (banned in #China, but accessible to netizens with VPN access)? 吴仁华, who acquired the footage, told RFA that he released it only when he was certain that the source that leaked it was safe.

NYT's @ChuBailiang: When #China’s rulers ordered PLA soldiers to crush pro-democracy demonstrations in #TiananmenSquare in 1989, Gen. Xu Qinxian famously said no. Footage from his court-martial trial has mysteriousy found its way onto YouTube. #天安门事件 nytimes.com/2025/12/17/wor…

SCMP: #China’s Fujian aircraft carrier transits #Taiwan Strait as Taipei watches closely Island’s defence ministry says vessel’s passage through the waterway showed ‘no military intent’ & no aircraft were seen on its deck #台灣 scmp.com/news/china/mil…

The death of iRobot (due to PRC dumping) and the transfer of its technology and user data to China is a canary in the coal mine. Do we want America to win the technologies of the future? Do we want American data to be protected? If so, now is the time to act.

How President Trump reacted to the brutal murder of Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner vs How Rob Reiner reacted to the brutal murder of Charlie Kirk.

Jimmy Lai, the Apple 🍎 Daily publisher who spent decades fighting for #HongKong’s freedoms, has been wrongly convicted on national security charges—and may spend the rest of his life behind bars. Analysis by @thecfhk’s @MarkLClifford: Trump Said Freeing Jimmy Lai Would Be Easy. He Should Prove It, in @NYTOpinion nytimes.com/2025/12/14/opi…

Spanning five years & imprisoned for over 1,800 days, #JimmyLai's case (inc. accusations of collusion w/foreign forces) will be decided tomorrow by a #HongKong court. #香港 橫跨五年、囚逾1800日，黎智英涉勾結外國勢力案明裁決 theinitium.com/20251214-whats…

The world’s smartest students have been drawn to our universities for decades. No longer as Trump policies are driving them away. - The New York Times nytimes.com/interactive/20…

.@PM_Thornton: “The chief political utility of Xi’s anti-involution campaign…lies not in addressing the…problems…Instead, its function as a vehicle for blame attribution serves to downshift the focus of attention away from the unimpeachable ‘core.’” prcleader.org/post/punching-…