Calling all Londoners: Join veteran China correspondents for a discussion on the human consequences of Beijing’s moves to become a dominant world power, and the challenges of on the ground reporting!
Joanna Chiu, chair of NüVoices and former AFP Beijing Correspondent, will speak about her new bestselling debut “China Unbound,” in a wide-ranging Q&A moderated by Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Megha Rajagopalan.
FREE BUT RSVP via Eventbrite (first come, first serve): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/china-unbound-book-launch-joanna-chiu-megha-rajagopalan-in-conversation-tickets-210408185547
WHEN: Tuesday, November 30th
WHERE: DLT Lecture Theatre, Ground Floor G2, SOAS University of London
As the world’s second-largest economy, China is extending its influence across the globe with the complicity of democratic nations. Joanna has spent a decade tracking China’s propulsive rise, from the political aspects of the multi-billion-dollar “New Silk Road” global investment project to a growing sway on foreign countries and multilateral institutions through “United Front” efforts. For too long, Western societies have mishandled or simply ignored Beijing’s actions out of narrow self-interest. Decades of willful misinterpretation have over time become complicity in the toxic diplomacy, human rights abuses and foreign interference seen from China today, Joanna argues.
Engaging chapters transport readers to a frozen lake in Russia, protests in Hong Kong, underground churches in Beijing, and exile Uyghur communities in Turkey, exposing Beijing’s high-tech surveillance and aggressive measures resulting in human rights violations against those who challenge its power. The new world disorder documented in ‘China Unbound’ lays out the disturbing implications for global stability, prosperity, and civil rights everywhere.
Discounted books of “China Unbound” will be available for purchase. Book signing will take place following the Q&A. You can also order a copy online HERE
About Joanna
Joanna Chiu is an internationally recognised authority on China, whose work has appeared in The Guardian, Foreign Policy, BBC World, The Atlantic, Newsweek, Quartz, Al Jazeera, GlobalPost, CBC and NPR. For seven years she was based in China as a foreign correspondent, reporting for top news agencies such as AFP and Deutsche Presse-Agentur; in Hong Kong, she reported for the South China Morning Post, The Economist, and AP. In 2012 her story on refugees in Hong Kong won a Human Rights Press Award, and in 2018 her report on #MeToo cases in Asia was named one of the best Foreign Policy long-form stories. She is the founder and chair of the NüVoices editorial collective, which celebrates the creative and academic work of women working on the subject of China. She is currently a senior journalist covering China-related topics for the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper, and previously served as bureau chief of The Star Vancouver. She speaks frequently at major events and conferences.
About Megha
Megha Rajagopalan is an award-winning international correspondent for BuzzFeed News, based in London. She has been a staff correspondent for BuzzFeed News based in China and Thailand as well as in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and before that she was a political correspondent for Reuters in China. She has reported from 23 countries in Asia and the Middle East on stories ranging from the North Korean nuclear crisis to the peace process in Afghanistan. Rajagopalan was the first journalist to find and visit an internment camp for Uighur Muslims in China’s far west — work for which she won the Human Rights Press Award in 2018. In 2019, she won a Mirror Award for an investigation uncovering the links between Facebook and religious violence in Sri Lanka. Previously she was a Fulbright fellow in Beijing and a research fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington DC. She speaks Tamil and Mandarin Chinese.