Juicy candidates for expanded sanction list.
Not really, expanding the sanctions list too much is actually counterproductive.
The primary rational for imposing sanctions is to achieve deterrence for certain activities by imposing a cost for doing so. Deterrence only works when bystanders see that said sanctions have teeth.
Most of the hacks working at Hudson are most likely just the typical no-talent intellectual prostitutes that populate the overwhelming majority of western think tanks; their only value is in providing an ‘independent’ rubber stamp for people to promote their own interests and sell that as for the greater good. Such people are generally far too unimportant for Chinese sanctions to actually affect them directly.
The worst thing China can do is add people willy nilly to its sanctions list, and have some of them use that almost as a badge of pride and free advertising by coming out and saying, ‘hey look, big bad China is sanctioning poor little old me over nothing, but it’s having zero impact on me haha!’
What China could and should do is sanction Hudson itself, especially its investment activities to both make sure it doesn’t make any money off of China directly, and also prove that it’s sanctions aren’t a joke. It may also be worthwhile to take a close look at the donors list of Hudson.
But personally, I don’t think there will be any big fish to catch even there, as Hudson would not have offered Fat Pomp the job if any of their major donors were at risk of Chinese sanctions. Besides, I doubt China will look to be so petty as it has already achieved its primary objective. I think they will only sanction Hudson donors if any companies with links to major political financiers donate to it, since that will likely be those whales testing the waters, so China needs to make it clear to them that Fat Pomp is now radioactive, and fallout will land on them if they so much as touch him with a barge pole.