[Venue-selection] Beijing and Shenzhen

[Dhruv Dhody <[e-mail]>]

Hi,

Full disclosure: I work for a Chinese company but I am based in India (a
country that has its share of troubles with China). I also identify as
queer and non-binary. I serve as an IAB member but this email is without
any hats!

I have been travelling to China since 2003 and thus wanted to share my
first-hand experience. I have been to both Beijing and Shenzhen, with more
time spent in Beijing. I have not travelled to China since Covid so my
experiences are from before but from what I hear anecdotally that things
are returning back to normal.

In all my travels, I have not faced any issue while travelling in and out
of China. I have not faced any racial or homophopic treatment by any
officials or the locals. In the report there is mention of religious
intolerance, but for all practical purposes in Beijing/Shenzhen, I
don't think it to be a problem. The visa process was easy enough, much
easier than some western countries for me (I have applied 18 times, just
counted :)).

I did attend the Beijing IETF back in the day and I thought it went well,
especially the issue of internet access was handled. I am sure this could
be arranged again. I know it would still be an issue outside the meetings
but I think it is manageable, though not ideal.

I do understand the concerns of some who work for governments that consider
China as hostile or are active in the public policy space and would find it
difficult or choose not to travel.  But, as someone who has been working
towards IETF outreach and cares deeply about increasing participation in
IETF from Asia, I would like us to return to China. The participation from
China has been increasing and it has scope for more. We see many Chinese
proponents bringing in new work in IETF and for the future of IETF we need
to strengthen it. We don't have perfect venues in Asia but having meetings
in this part of the world is important and I hope we go back to China. I
understand that there are human rights concerns, we do like the internet
policies in place, but a decision to have a IETF meeting is orthogonal to
that. It should be more about IETF participants and the community in China
rather than the actions of the government in charge.
Thanks!
Dhruv


On Tue, May 23, 2023 at 11:58 PM IETF Executive Director <
[e-mail]> wrote:

> The IETF Administration LLC is seeking community input on the cities of
> Beijing China; Istanbul,Turkiye; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Shenzhen,
> China, which it is considering as future meeting venues. All of these
> cities are being considered for IETF 125 , March 14-20, 2026.  Other cities
> may also be considered for that meeting.
>
> In line with our venue selection process we present assessment reports and
> preliminary recommendations for each city:
>
>         Beijing, no recommendation, report at [1]
>         Istanbul, not recommended as suitable, report at [2]
>         Kuala Lumpur, recommended as suitable, report at [3]
>         Shenzhen, no recommendation, report at [4]
>
> Community input is now sought on these assessment reports and preliminary
> recommendations. To provide input, please email [e-mail]
> with the name of the city in the subject line. This is a publicly visible
> one-way e-mail address: You can read the input [5], but you cannot
> subscribe to it. Additionally, all feedback is collated and published on a
> public Trello board [6].
>
> This call for input closes on 16 June 2023.
>
> Finally, details of the selection process [7] and completed and
> outstanding location assessments [8] are on our website.
>
> [1]
> https://www.ietf.org/media/documents/IETF-Beijing-VenueAssessmentReport-2023-05-22.pdf
> [2]
> https://www.ietf.org/media/documents/IETF-Istanbul-VenueAssessmentReport-2023-05-22.pdf
> [3]
> https://www.ietf.org/media/documents/IETF-KualaLumpur-VenueAssessmentReport-2023-05-22.pdf
> [4]
> https://www.ietf.org/media/documents/IETF-Shenzhen-VenueAssessmentReport-2023-05-22.pdf
> [5] https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/venue-selection
> [6] https://trello.com/b/whq8I098/venue-selection-input
> [7] https://www.ietf.org/how/meetings/planning/
> [8]
> https://www.ietf.org/how/meetings/planning/meeting-location-assessment/
>
> --
> Jay Daley
> IETF Executive Director
> [e-mail]
>
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