Love poetry, human rights, & kitties? Check out Sharon Hom's Substack: substack.com/@talkingcat88 Sharon (fmr exec dir of Human Rights in China) is a brilliant mind & a wonderful soul. I've learned so much from her over the years. Come for the poetry, stay for the updates about her cats!

Researchers at the Citizen Lab and director @rondeibert.bsky.social sign open letter to the Canadian Minister of AI and Minister of Industry rejecting the “National Sprint” on AI strategy. Read it here: bccla.org/policy-submi...

There's something very telling about Brown's actions--we suddenly have an influx of China experts who want to get in on Taiwan since it's a sexy topic, but disregard the existing Taiwan experts, and want to bury those existing experts because they are competition

So many harms have already emerged from reckless and oppressive uses of AI, with such wide-ranging & far-reaching consequences, to so many groups of people, that it seems almost impossible to document them all. But we tried, in this open letter to Minister Solomon: bccla.org/policy-submi... (1/x)

PEN Canada joins 43 organizations and 123 individuals in open letter opposing “National Sprint” consultation on AI strategy, which proposed a mere thirty-day window on short notice. pencanada.ca/news/open-le...

Please take this for what it is. Rhetoric to delegitimize the political opposition as an existential threat to create the conditions for the Ruling Party to deny the opposition the ability to take control of Congress pursuant to genuine election outcomes in 2026.

Canada budget update: A $2.7bn cut to international assistance over 5 years, or about 10-12% of the budget. Particularly focusing on global health, which is worrying because it's a core Canadian priority Not sure we need a resurgence of polio on top of everything, but what do I know

What I'm looking for in the Canadian federal budget: Development - Canada's budget for international stuff is complex. There's the International Assistance Envelope, OECD-measured ODA, plus stuff that falls under Canada's own Act. Plus provincial spending. They all overlap

Amid many a silly “free speech” panic, here is a genuinely chilling case … Sheffield Hallam professor accuses the institution of negotiating “directly with a foreign intelligence service to trade my academic freedom for access to the Chinese student market” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Along with 160+ civil society orgs & individuals, I signed this open letter that raises serious concerns about the Canadian government's proposed AI strategy. With all of the harms associated with AI-based technologies, greater public consultation is needed. bccla.org/policy-submi...

This sounds like the Chinese model of drug detention, which combines compulsory treatment, social isolation, and forced labour. The fact that authoritarians in the US & China increasingly resemble one another no longer surprises me.

NEW: Trump has announced that the US will admit the lowest level of refugees ever at 7,500 in FY 2026. The US will only be admitting as refugees White people from South Africa and "victims of illegal or unjust discrimination," which leaked memos suggest means far-right Europeans.

Ford just put every renter in Ontario into an even more precarious position. This is a clear and present danger to the 1.7 million renters in Ontario.

Trump has functionally killed America's international broadcasting apparatus. Russia and China are making up the difference. if we still care about democracy and liberalism abroad, countries like Canada need to step up. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Good lord, this is beyond the worst thing I could have imagined. If you'd told me "Trump will seek to have refugee eligibility explicitly limited to AfD voters, white South African farmers and organized racists -- " even I would have thought it hyperbole. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

“The proposals would transform a program aimed at helping the most vulnerable people in the world into one that gives preference to mostly white people who say they are being persecuted.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

Absolutely despicable.

Yeah this is my drum that I bang but I have to keep saying it: counter-TNR policies that leave out migration policy are ignoring the elephant in the room, which is that most TNR entails host state cooperation, and “harder” migration systems make cooperation more likely

The lesson of the Trump era is to stick with your principles. He’s coming for you anyway, whether you do or not, so you might as well stick to your principles so people don’t laugh at you afterward and you can look yourself in the mirror.

1/ NEW REPORT: “We Say You Want a Revolution” - An AI-Enabled Influence Operation Aimed at Overthrowing the Iranian Regime. We call it PRISONBREAK. Keep reading to find out why. THREAD 🧵

NEW REPORT: We uncovered a coordinated network of fake X profiles that is spreading AI-generated content to induce revolt in #Iran. We call this network “PRISONBREAK”. Read the report 👉 citizenlab.ca/2025/10/ai-e...

I wanted to share some of the sources and inspirations for my new @jodemocracy.bsky.social essay this week on transnational repression. Like with anything, there are citations but then there's also stuff that doesn't make it into the piece www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the...

For the 100th time: Republicans who were China's loudest critics are now cheerleaders for an American surveillance state. These people have no principled concern for human rights. They are happy for the state to silence, detain & disappear its foes, so long as the state in question is their own.

New today: my essay in @jodemocracy.bsky.social on The Golden Age of Transnational Repression: www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the...

On Orange Shirt Day, I want to share a painting by Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, "Indian Residential School, Leaving the Shallow Graves and Going Home." As Yuxweluptun has said, "This country has to carry the burden of what it did to us, as a nation. It has to be accountable for what it did."

“After his 60 years of engagement with China, Cohen says it saddens him to see the country going down the road of dictatorship. ‘Of course I feel terribly sad, terribly angry. I feel I have to do everything I can to increase public understanding of what’s about to take place. I have an obligation.’”

Sad news and a real loss for the field of China studies. Fortunately there are many people who, inspired by his work, will continue to build bridges between China and the West and advocate for the cause of human rights in China.

@djinnandtonic.bsky.social sticker spotted on H Street in Washington, D.C.

A chilling piece on how transnational repression impacts students in Canada, with quotes from me.

I recently appeared on "Activists of Tech" to discuss the rise of technofascism, how fascists use new technologies to build vicious and backwards-looking societies, the similarity of autocrats in the United States and China, & the need for solidarity. 1/2 rss.com/podcasts/act...

A few (early) thoughts on digital transnational repression and extraterritorial human rights obligations over at @bindinghook.bsky.social. Thanks for the opportunity to share my research (again!).

"Real tensions and fault lines remain beneath the televised displays of camaraderie" between India, China, Russia, and North Korea. Five scholars and journalists reflect on last week's events in Beijing and Tianjin in this ChinaFile Conversation:

On left Rubio 2016: "We write to express grave concern about the campaign of extrajudicial killings...by the government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte under the guise of his so-called 'War on Drugs.'" On right Rubio 2025: Praising presidential killing of alleged drug traffickers

Anyone who saw him suck up to Xi Jinping has seen this before.

“Any blatant move by Beijing to try to control the process of selecting the next Dalai Lama may backfire by driving Tibetan resentment into rage,” write Tenzin Dorjee and Gyal Lo. “For the Chinese, the issue is strategic; for Tibetans, it is existential.”

In 2021, we exposed China’s colonial boarding schools separating Tibetan children from their families. Our new report uncovers even worse abuses, including targeting children as young as four. Read @chinadigitaltimes.net interview with Dr Gyal Lo chinadigitaltimes.net/2025/08/inte...

一名中国学生去休斯顿大学读哲学硕士（有全额奖学金），在休斯顿机场被羁押、盘问36小时，以不能排除移民倾向为由遣返，五年不能入境。看问答好像是因为他加入了休斯顿大学中国学生会聊天群。以前共和党议员说要禁止中国学生到美国学理工科，可以学文科。川普新时代学文科也不许，中国学生会是非法组织

Yes it’s me :( If you know of cool opportunities, please be in touch!

An in-depth @wsj.com look at how China’s Communist Party tries to tackle rising unrest with a new Central Society Work Dept that helps and surveils left-behind communities and social castoffs, using social-control tools to ensure public order. w/ @shen-lu.bsky.social www.wsj.com/world/china/...

As a Canadian & a member of the Order of Canada, this silence saddens me Unfortunately, it's part of a pattern We talk a lot about values and human rights. But time and again, we don't back these words up when it matters, or when it will cost us (e.g., www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...)

China's new model of social governance merges Mao-era grassroots mobilization with digital surveillance and party-led service delivery. Nis Grünberg, Katja Drinhausen and Alexander Davey explore how China’s Communist Party is reinserting itself into daily life: merics.org/en/report/se...

Some personal news, as they say: along with friends and colleagues @zecsaky.bsky.social, @emiledirks.bsky.social, & @alexdukalskis.bsky.social, I’ll be writing a new research report for the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee on transnational repression for presentation in the fall

Chinese policymakers find themselves in the challenging position of trying to understand what the evolving relationship between the state and the business sector means for Asian interests, as the lines between the U.S. civilian and military apparatus are increasingly blurred. 😉

This man sounds like he is from mainland China. In the video, he is crying "help" in Chinese (“救命“). I'm so heartbroken for immigrants from China and around the world who are experiencing this. (Then one naturally wonders, "am I the next, with my strange name and my accent?")

I was encouraged to see the #G7 Leaders' Statement on Transnational Repression which also calls out mitigating harms around mercenary spyware 👇🇨🇦 www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/stat...

An irate reader writes in to The @economist.com: "I was disappointed that there was no mention of the Wu-Tang Clan in your article on chessboxing" www.economist.com/letters/2025...

What exactly sets foreign interference apart from influence? On June 9, join the Citizen Lab’s @emiledirks.bsky.social for an online session that will explore the evolving landscape of China’s transnational influence and repression efforts. Register here: canadachinaforum.ca/2025/05/the-...

🇨🇳 China's reaching across borders, including in Canada, spying on and harassing dissidents, ethnic groups, and politicians while threatening family members back in mainland China. Hard to say for sure, but it feels to us like it's ramping up... www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

A truly stupendous read from Lucy Hornsby on the Xi hagiographies churned out by the Central Party School — all more revealing than one might think! chinabooksreview.com/2025/05/29/s...