Censorship, Surveillance, and Religion in China

Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, will discuss human rights issues in China and how these are being exported globally.

Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, will discuss human rights issues in China and how these are being exported globally. She will address the mass arbitrary detention of the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in centers where they are reportedly forced to undergo “political education”. Richardson will also discuss the abuses of surveillance technology by the Chinese government as well as private businesses like tech giant ZTE which has provided countries like Venezuela and Ethiopia with tech to track citizen’s online activity and eavesdrop on their phone conversations. She will discuss the violations of academic freedoms of students that are causing US universities like Cornell to close down partnerships and programs with Chinese universities. Finally, she will address the censorship by the government that keeps much of this information from its citizens. 

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. She has provided commentary to the BBC, CNN, the Far Eastern Economic Review, Foreign Policy, National Public Radio, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. Dr. Richardson is the author of China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (Columbia University Press, Dec. 2009), an in-depth examination of China's foreign policy since 1954's Geneva Conference, including rare interviews with policy makers.

Please reserve no later than 12:00 pm on Tuesday, January 22. Cancellations must be made by 12:00 pm on Tuesday, January 22 in order to receive a refund.