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 & Manuel Chris Meserole | Deputy Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative, Brookings Institution Moderator Larry Diamond | Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution and FSI, Principal Investigator, Global Digital Policy Incubator

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 global partnerships to research and develop AI; and the problem of illicit technology transfer/theft. Panelists Steven Feldstein | Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Lindsay Gorman | Fellow for Emerging Technologies, Alliance for Securing Democracy, German Marshall Fund Maya Wang | China Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch Moderator Dominic Ziegler | Senior Asia Correspondent and Banyan Columnist, The Economist

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? Listen to learn more. Panelists Mary Hui | Hong Kong-based Technology and Business Reporter, Quartz Megha Rajagopalan | International Correspondent and Former China Bureau Chief, Buzzfeed News Alex Stamos | Director, Stanford Internet Observatory & Former Chief Security Officer, Facebook Moderator | Casey Newton | Silicon Valley Editor, The Verge

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 weaponizing AI domestically, exporting surveillance tools to countries around the world, and demanding ideological compliance in the global market. In this series of events, speakers will explore: the extent to which artificial intelligence (AI) is used inside China today; how the Chinese government and big tech are shaping the global market; how surveillance technology is exported around the world; and what can be done to meet this rising challenge; and ultimately, what are the ethical responsibilities inherent in developing these technologies? Panelists: Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian | China Reporter, Axios Paul Mozur | Asia Technology Correspondent, New York Times Glenn Tiffert | Research Fellow, Hoover Institution Xiao Qiang | UC Berkeley & Editor-in-Chief, China Digital Times Moderator: Melissa Chan | Journalist, The Global Reporting Centre

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 and corrupt officials.

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 survive police brutality? How can people remain hopeful and support protestors in Burundi?

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 prisoner, Yang Jianli • BuzzFeed news world correspondent Mega Rajagopalan •Chinese Canadaian actress and beauty queen turned human rights activist Anastasia Lin • Founding director of Hong Kong Democracy Council Samuel M. Chu • Hong Kong based journalist and activist Frances Hui

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, how street movements are like startups, and how protest movements are adapting to the Coronavirus and new government emergency laws and surveillance done in the name of public health. Recorded 04/22/2020