but his commitment and cooperation would be critical for any of the agreements made here to be successful. how do you interpret his absence? he is utterly focused on what s going on inside china right now. and the reason, alex, next fall, the next iteration of the communist party congress is going to make a decision about who is going to run china for yet another five-year period. president xi desperately wants to be that person. so he is spending his energy working domestically in china, which has many different kinds of problems, including a significant real estate bubble that s looking like it might pop. environmental damage to the point of the secretary of state, tony blinken. as well as a sense of unrest from various corners, the uighur
bibles. all of this is seen as part of the communist party s wider goal of establishing and asserting and maintaining more control. their view toward organized religion as being something that could be a threat in terms of its very ability to organize people and to invite in foreign influence. so we have seen these measures to curtail religion. certainly, it is legal to practice religion in china, but houses of worship are, of course, subject to surveillance by the communist party. wong yee was the pastor of, again, an unregistered church which is something that would have put him on the radar of authorities. not to mention the fact he was certainly fiery and outspoken in his criticism. he is facing a very serious crime now, george. if convicted he could face up to 15 years in prison. so, this is the kind of arrest that is absolutely raising alarm among activists in china and internationally as well as some western governments that have been keeping a careful eye on what s going on ins