The Amazon layoffs are another sign of a new era of labor relations in tech. For those interested in the bigger picture, here’s an analysis I wrote on why layoffs have become so common: www.valueadded.tech/p/why-layoff...

Out now in Competition & Change @compchange.bsky.social “Dependent development in digital capitalism: The politics of startup policies in the new periphery” @journals.sagepub.com #polisky journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1... 1/n

📢 New article alert 📢 "Unlikely Organizers: The Rise of Tech Worker Labor Activism" is out with @ilrreview.bsky.social @js-tan.bsky.social, @emilymazo.bsky.social, and I find tech cos with political and social activism in the workplace saw 1.3x more labor activism in the next 6-12 months (1/2)

So excited to share our new article on tech worker activism, co-authored with @nataliyan.bsky.social and @emilymazo.bsky.social, just published in the @ilrreview.bsky.social!

Baby’s first published academic article! @js-tan.bsky.social and @nataliyan.bsky.social and I analyzed the @techactions.bsky.social archive and find that tech worker labor organizing stands on the shoulders of prior struggle- conflict begets class conflict journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Latest on the CLaSP blog: Why has China’s digital economy developed along such a distinctly consumer-facing path? @js-tan.bsky.social explains 'The Labour Foundations of China’s Consumer-First Internet' www.claspblog.org/blogposts/7l...

In this new piece, I explain why focusing only on red tape and proceduralism (as the Abundance thesis does) misses the bigger story about the American Political Economy and fails to explain the staggering build out of data centers across the country. www.valueadded.tech/p/america-ca...

In my review of Dan Wang's Breakneck, I argue that China’s trajectory looks less unique—and less puzzling—when viewed through the lens of the developmental state, a framework long used to explain the (also building-heavy) rise of Japan and Korea. www.valueadded.tech/p/is-china-a...

Just published a reintroduction to my newsletter, highlighting some of the key cross-cutting themes that tie my interests together. www.valueadded.tech/p/re-introdu...

Very excited to share this workshop I'm helping to host on August 19: "From Tech Lash To Tech Fash: Strategic reflections on a decade of collective organizing in computing" tech-organizing-reflections.github.io

One of the most eye-opening stories I’ve read about how the new right is really just as a bunch of art-boy edgelords; a social club of cancelled men more than a group with any coherent political vision. www.ft.com/content/0e24...

We've just published the first response to our call for new organizing tactics in the tech sector, by an anonymous software engineer: The Case for Sabotage collectiveactionintech.substack.com/p/the-case-f...

My take on the debate on AI diffusion in China. www.valueadded.tech/p/rethinking...

A viral resignation letter from a veteran Alibaba employee offers a rare look at the company’s culture—and the issues now holding it back. Here’s my take on what the letter reveals, and what it means for China’s tech giants as they pivot into the AI era. www.valueadded.tech/p/the-innova...

Microsoft just laid off another 9,000 workers—its largest cut in two years. If you’re trying to make sense of what’s happening across the industry, here’s my recent piece on how to understand the non-stop waves of tech layoffs. www.valueadded.tech/p/why-layoff...

The tech worker movement is in crisis and we want to hear from YOU! We’re launching a new series to highlight the problems that workers are facing in this new political environment. Submissions are open until July 30th, 2025. Please send your responses to [email protected]

This week, I wrote about the ongoing tech layoffs- a topic that I’ve been thinking about for a long time both as a former tech worker and an organizer in the sector. I argue that layoffs are the tip of a broader transformation in labor relations happening in tech. www.valueadded.tech/p/why-layoff...

Join us at #FAccT2025 for the AI Workers’ Inquiry CRAFT workshop, where workers, organizers, and labor experts will explore how AI is transforming our workplaces and discuss strategies for collective resistance. RSVP and more info: ai-workers-inquiry.github.io

When DeepSeek released its latest AI model earlier this year, Silicon Valley panicked. Some claimed it was a product of the Chinese state—or the result of industrial espionage. But as @js-tan.bsky.social argues, the reality is far more complex.

"Across sectors, vertical integration is re-emerging not as a relic of the past, but as a forward-looking strategy for resilience, coordination, and control." Another great post from @js-tan.bsky.social's indispensable newsletter www.valueadded.tech/p/the-return...

Great analysis of the political economy of China's "overcapacity" in electric vehicles. "This is where China's political structure is a problem. The extent to which the Chinese state is embedded and autonomous is complicated by the loose coupling between central and local governments."

This piece looks at how China’s industrial policy—while effective at scaling production—also drives involution-style competition, marked by overcapacity and unsustainable price-cutting. Contrary to how Beijing is often portrayed, this is not its intended outcome. www.valueadded.tech/p/explaining...

Last week, ChinaTalk ran my primer on China’s cloud computing sector. This week, I’m back with a deep dive—unpacking the institutional and structural constraints shaping the industry that underpins China’s AI ambitions. And heads up: this one’s a long one. www.valueadded.tech/p/the-politi...

Thrilled to share my latest piece in @chinatalk.bsky.social on the political economy of China’s cloud computing industry—and how the country’s distinct features has set its cloud firms on a different path from their U.S. counterparts. www.chinatalk.media/p/the-politi...

Trump's promise to bring back American manufacturing has two problems: 1) modern manufacturing won't generate many jobs and 2) the factory jobs that people are nostalgic for were union jobs—something that Trump & Musk are actively undermining. www.valueadded.tech/p/tariff-wre...

As always, it was awesome to be on @techwontsave.us to chat with @parismarx.com! Thanks for having me on 🙏

From Malaysia to Louisiana, governments in the Global South and US heartland are betting on datacenters to drive growth. But can they deliver like factories once did? I explore why they fall short—and how they risk deepening dependency rather than overcoming it. www.valueadded.tech/p/are-data-c...

DeepSeek, Unitree, and BrainCo—leaders in AI, robotics, and brain-computer interface technologies—are all Hangzhou-based. Thats no accident. I wrote about how Hangzhou used talent-focused policies to outpace tier one cities in emerging technology innovations. www.valueadded.tech/p/industrial...

China’s technological rise has sparked countless accusations of theft. Yet, what’s often overlooked is that this was the very same strategy once used by other advanced economies—especially the United States—to climb to the top. www.valueadded.tech/p/how-every-...

✊👇 Opportunity for activism right here ✊👇 We're documenting collective actions by tech workers in the federal government. Taking all steps to protect anonymity in the process Help us out by messaging with relevant actions. DMs are open

Why has China has shied away from enterprise applications of AI, focusing instead on embedding AI into consumer platforms? To understand this, we must look at the socio-economic factors shaping China's digital economy. www.valueadded.tech/p/why-chinas...

The same technology can be diffused along radically different paths depending on a country's political economy. This is what we're seeing with recent efforts to commercialize AI in the U.S. and China. Read my new post with @aiproem.bsky.social: www.valueadded.tech/p/divergent-...

The gist of this article is that tech workers are afraid to organize now. Not surprising, and I mostly agree. But the comparison with early tech activism under Trump 1.0 overlooks how organizing has shifted—it's now more covert, with workers quietly building power. www.ft.com/content/6bad...

For anyone alarmed with the indiscriminate firings in DC right now— this is the piece to read. @js-tan.bsky.social and Clarissa organized a union at a Musk-run business. Learnings below 👇

"In a world where workers are increasingly excluded from the economic gains of the platform economy, this shift should, in theory, re-anchor economic value in labor, reversing decades of wealth concentration in asset-light, rentier industries."

New post on the intellectual history of economic value—how it was once inextricably linked to production and how that link was severed. Hopefully this provides some useful context as the U.S. and China shift away from platform capitalism and back to manufacturing. www.valueadded.tech/p/how-we-for...

I’m co-editing an “AI and society in China” special issue for Chinese Sociological Review. Paper proposal due on 04/30. Full manuscript due on 09/15. Let me know if you have any questions! More info: think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...

I can't think of a better time to share our story about organizing a union at Twitter during Musk’s takeover—and the lessons we learned from witnessing his playbook up close. (new post with Clarissa Redwine) highvalueadded.substack.com/p/control-ov...

In 2022, when Elon Musk took over Twitter, Clarissa and I were union staffers working with the platform's employees to organize a union. We saw firsthand how he gutted the company... and our union drive along with it. What we learned was that Musk’s playbook wasn’t efficiency—it was control. 1/

I can't think of a better time to share our story about organizing a union at Twitter during Musk’s takeover—and the lessons we learned from witnessing his playbook up close. (new post with Clarissa Redwine) highvalueadded.substack.com/p/control-ov...

My piece about DeepSeek (www.chinatalk.media/p/deepseeks-...) is the essay of the week on The Syllabus! How cool is that!

Doge as IMF structural adjustment imperial boomerang 🤯

“We are shocked and saddened by the news of Professor Michael Burawoy’s passing. His untimely death is a great loss to sociology & to movements for justice around the world.” @michaelabenson.bsky.social on a collegiate, courageous giant of the discipline. thesociologicalreview.org/announcement...

wrote a lil post on Trump's tariffs (and why "reviving American manufacturing" is little more than rhetoric), Elon's gutting of state capacity, and Biden's industrial policy legacy highvalueadded.substack.com/p/why-trumps...

A Chinese AI company teaching us that innovation comes from treating your workers right was not on my 2025 bingo card, but here we are. @js-tan.bsky.social www.chinatalk.media/p/deepseeks-...

Our inaugural report is live! acf.sais.jhu.edu/getting-chin... @jonasnahm.com @gwbstr.com @pstasiatech.bsky.social @himself.bsky.social @marygao1969.bsky.social @saranewland.bsky.social @apiavote.bsky.social Tune in today: video.ibm.com/channel/BvDQ... Full agenda: acf.sais.jhu.edu/getting-chin...

Stacking workers in privately owned dorms presents one of the remaining "pockets of growth" for real estate in China

"There’s an excellent case to be made that Eric Schmidt is the most influential American foreign policy thinker of the early 21st century." @himself.bsky.social in response to my Swamp Note on how Silicon Valley has turned into today's defence industrial complex. on.ft.com/3WJsgdl