Adrian Zenz

on February 6, 2018

Adrian Zenz is Director and Senior Fellow in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, in Washington, D.C. (non-resident). His research focus is on China’s ethnic policy, Beijing’s campaign of mass internment, securitization and forced labor in Xinjiang, public recruitment and coercive poverty alleviation in Tibet and Xinjiang, and China’s domestic security budgets. Zenz is the author of ‘Tibetanness’ under Threat: Neo-Integrationism, Minority Education and Career Strategies in Qinghai, P.R. China (Brill, 2013) and co-editor of Mapping Amdo: Dynamics of Change (Oriental Institute, 2017). He has played a leading role in the analysis of leaked Chinese government documents, including the “China Cables,” the “Karakax List,” and the “Xinjiang Papers.” Zenz is an advisor to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, and a frequent contributor to the international media.

Zenz obtained his Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge. He conducted ethnographic fieldwork in western China in Chinese and regularly analyzes original Chinese source material. He has provided expert testimony to the governments of Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. After publication of his research on forced labor in cotton picking, the U.S. government banned the import of goods made with cotton from Xinjiang. Following his research on population optimization and birth prevention, an independent Tribunal in the United Kingdom determined that China’s policies in the region constitute genocide. Zenz’s work on parent-child separation in Xinjiang prompted The Economist to feature this atrocity on its cover page and to refer to it as “a crime against humanity” that represents “the gravest example of a worldwide attack on human rights.”

Zenz has acted as academic peer reviewer for a wide range of scholarly journals, including The China Journal, Asian Studies Review, International Security (Harvard University), China Perspectives, Central Asian Survey, Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Asian Ethnicity, China: An International Journal, the Journal of Chinese Political Science, Issues and Studies, and Development and Change. He has published opinion pieces with Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, and The New York Times.

The Upside for China in the US Stock Market Plunge – from the Chinese Economist Who Tipped a Big Fall

By Frank Tang on February 6, 2018

A record points plunge in the US stock market this week could be good news for China’s exporters, according to a Chinese government economist who predicted a big correction in American shares four weeks ago.

Business, Economy
Yuan, Stock Market, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Philippines’ Duterte Reneges on China Deal, Bans Foreign Research Ships

By Manuel Mogato on February 6, 2018

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has banned all foreign scientific research off the country’s Pacific coast and told the navy to chase away unauthorised vessels, despite earlier allowing Chinese oceanographers to operate there.

Military, Politics, Science
Philippines, Science, Research, Academic Research, Navy

Photos Show Beijing’s Militarisation of South China Sea in New Detail

By Tom Phillips on February 6, 2018

Beijing has been accused of building “island fortresses” in the South China Sea after a newspaper in the Philippines obtained aerial photographs offering what experts called the most detailed glimpse yet of China’s militarisation of the waterway.

Military, Politics
South China Sea, Militarization, Philippines

NGOs at a Crossroads

A Q&A with Li Dan, Founder of the Crossroads Centre

By Nuala Gathercole Lam on February 5, 2018

“Whether or not these two laws existed hasn’t had much effect on us because we had already felt the impact of the political environment. They just help the government to, as they say, ‘strengthen the rule of law.’ But really the laws are just for the sake of appearances. The government would still be doing the same things without them. Three or four years ago, the government started registering and controlling NGOs. If you had money in other currencies it became very difficult to exchange it into yuan, and if you were using funds from politically sensitive foreign organizations, then many of your events would be banned. It was then that we decided to make a change from doing very politically sensitive advocacy events to collaborative cultural events.”

King-wa Fu

on February 5, 2018

King-wa Fu is an Associate Professor at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on political participation and media use, computational media studies, health and the media, and youth Internet use. He was a visiting Associate Professor at the MIT Media Lab and Fulbright-RGC Hong Kong Senior Research Scholar in 2016-2017. He was a journalist at the Hong Kong Economic Journal.

Kylin Zhang

on February 5, 2018

Kylin Zhang is currently a Master’s student at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong. As an intern reporter, she used to work for Zhejiang Daily and Global Times Metro Shanghai, where she conducted interviews and published over 20 stories. Zhang’s internship inspired her to pursue journalism upon returning from the U.K. with a Bachelor’s in English Language and Literature.