Dissidents and Dictators

How should the rest of the world, and especially the world's democracies, react to China's bid to harness AI for ill as well as good? How do we strike the right balance between vigilance in defense of human rights and national security and xenophobic overreaction? Panelists Christopher Balding | Associate Professor, Fulbright University Vietnam Anja Manuel | Co-Founder, Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manue...

How should we think about China's growing influence in the realm of AI and the attendant geopolitical risks and implications? This session will explore China’s bid through Huawei to build and control the world's 5G networks, and what that implies for human rights and national sovereignty and security; China's export of surveillance technology to authoritarian regimes around the world; China's glob...

The Ethics of Doing Business with China and Chinese Companies: What dynamics are at play in China's effort to establish market dominance for Chinese companies, both domestically and globally? What demands are placed on non-Chinese technology companies to participate? What dynamics are at play in China's effort to establish market dominance for Chinese companies, both domestically and globally? Lis...

China’s authoritarianism has fully expanded into the digital space. Through hundreds of millions of surveillance cameras, unprecedented amounts of data collection, state-sponsored technological investment, and global research partnerships, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is aiming to become the world’s leading AI superpower by 2030. In doing so, the Chinese government and corporate actors are we...

Weeks of protests have brought the regime of Alexander Lukashenko to the brink. As Belarus teeters on the verge of a democratic breakthrough, HRF’s Alexander Sikorski speaks to Andrei Sannikov, a Belarusian democracy activist and former presidential candidate about the history of activism in Belarus, the role of technology in the current protests, and what the future may have in store for Belarus.

On November 16, 2009, Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer of global financier Bill Browder, was murdered for uncovering a $230 million corruption scheme by officials within Russia’s Interior Ministry. Bill became a thorn in Putin’s side after he began a campaign to seek justice for Sergei through the Global Magnitsky Act, which implements visa bans and asset freezes against serious human rights abusers a...

Ketty Nivyabandi is a Burundian activist and poet who led the first women-only demonstrations against Burundi’s president in 2015. She defied police beatings, tear gas, and a water cannon to make women’s voices heard. In this podcast we dive into Burundi’s authoritarian regime and Ketty’s resistance to Burundi’s dictatorship. What role can women play in protesting and organizing? How do you surviv...

On June 4, 1989 the Chinese government ordered the People’s Liberation Army to turn its weapons and tanks on innocent, unarmed students in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. On the 31st Anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, the Human Rights Foundation spoke with • American investigative journalist and Tiananmen eyewitness Claudia Rosett • Tiananmen massacre survivor, and former Chinese political prisone...

In the 1990's, Srdja Popovic built a youth movement in Serbia that ended up toppling Slobodan Milošević, a brutal dictator, without firing a single shot. In this episode, we dive into Srdja's personal story and discuss how to scale a movement from a handful to millions, how to overcome a regime that holds all the power and weapons, why peaceful revolutions are more successful than violent ones, ho...