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“So far as you get a guilty plea, that gives the regime the opportunity to make the point that these wrongdoers have known the error in their ways,” said Eva Pils, a law scholar at Kings College London who studies China.

Eva Pils, a law professor at King’s College London, said guilty pleas would allow China to argue that the “wrongdoers” had seen the error of their ways.

There’s also concern whether China will respond to official channels being blocked by doubling down on off-books methods, Pils said, “where agents of the Chinese state carry out what they see as a kind of law enforcement activity, but without permission.”

Pushback against Chinese methods and the Liu judgment should make extraditions to China more difficult, but it remains unclear how much separate governments will respect the European Court of Human Rights judgment, noted Eva Pils, an expert on Chinese law at King’s College London.

The city has a huge and historic brewery, Stiegl, pumping out superb Helles; a wheat-beer brewery, Die Weisse; and delicious Pils brewed by the nearby Trumer.