by WorldTribune Staff, October 4, 2017
A conservative think tank in Washington called off a public meeting with Chinese dissident Guo Wengui after the think tank’s website was targeted in a denial of service cyber attack traced to Shanghai, a report said.
The Hudson Institute on Oct. 2 sent an email notice stating the widely-anticipated session with Guo, which was scheduled for Oct. 3, had been postponed.
“Chinese involvement in a cyber attack against a U.S. academic institution highlights the priority Beijing appears to have placed on silencing Guo,” Bill Gertz wrote in an Oct. 4 report for the Washington Free Beacon.
While acknowledging the Hudson Institute had been under pressure from Beijing, spokesman David Tell said the talk with Guo was canceled due to improper planning. “The planning just got away from us and we feel bad,” he told the Washington Free Beacon.
Since it announced its “Conversation with Guo Wengui” last month, the Hudson Institute received numerous protest phone calls from the Chinese Embassy in Washington.
“From the get go we knew there were people in Beijing who would not be happy about this,” Tell told the Free Beacon, referring to the Guo meeting.
Tell insisted, however, “we don’t give a rat’s ass what Beijing thinks,” adding that Hudson has hosted several recent events on China, including a conference on Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea.
On the cancellation of the event one day before it was to be held, Tell said: “We don’t like to operate this way. But it is what it is.”
Tell said the cyber attack against the think tank’s website was thwarted and only caused a minor disruption.
Guo, who has exposed corruption in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is now living in exile in New York City and recently applied for political asylum in the U.S.
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