Sophie Richardson is the China director at Human Rights Watch. A graduate of the University of Virginia, the Hopkins-Nanjing Program, and Oberlin College, Dr. Richardson is the author of numerous articles on domestic Chinese political reform, democratization, and human rights in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Vietnam. She has testified before the European Parliament and the US Senate and House of Representatives and is a frequent media commentator. Dr. Richardson is the author of China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, an in-depth examination of China’s foreign policy since 1954’s Geneva Conference, including rare interviews with policy makers.

Recorded on January 21, 2021

Christopher Walker discusses Sharp Power as a Concept

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Christopher Walker is vice president for studies and analysis at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world. In this capacity, he oversees the department responsible for NED’s multifaceted analytical work. Walker is an expert on authoritarian regimes and has been at the forefront of the discussion on authoritarian influence on open systems, including through what is often termed “sharp power.” His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and the Journal of Democracy. He is coeditor of the volume Authoritarianism Goes Global: The Challenge to Democracy and of the report Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence.

Recorded on January 14, 2021

Suisheng Zhao discusses China “Going Global."

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Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at UC Berkeley’s School of Information and the founder and editor-in-chief of China Digital Times, a bilingual China news website, discusses China’s Model of Digital Authoritarianism. A theoretical physicist by training, he became a full-time human rights activist after the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989. Xiao was the executive director of the New York–based NGO Human Rights in China from 1991 to 2002 and vice chairman of the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy. In Fall 2003, he launched China Digital Times to aggregate, contextualize, and translate online information from and about China. Xiao’s current research focuses on state censorship, propaganda, and disinformation, as well as emerging AI-driven mass surveillance and social control in China. He is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship.

Recorded on January 7, 2021

Hoover senior fellow, Elizabeth Economy discusses the structure of the Chinese party-state, and Xi Jinping's populist appeal.

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Elizabeth Economy is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Her most recent book is The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State. She is also the author of the award-winning The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future and By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest is Changing the World, coauthored with Michael Levi. She has published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and the New York Times, among other media outlets. In June 2018, Politico Magazine named her one of “10 Names That Matter on China Policy.” She received her BA from Swarthmore College, her AM from Stanford University, and her PhD from the University of Michigan.