Communism in China and the Oppression of Ethnic Minorities

The Institute of World Politics

This lecture is in partnership with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and was recorded live on September 29, 2022 at The Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C.. About the Lecture Dr. Adrian Zenz will discuss how under Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party is resorting to Mao Zedong's playbook of using ideology to oppress and assimilate ethnic groups. He will describe the suppression of religious and other freedoms especially among Uyghurs and Tibetans, and describe what can be done today to promote human rights for those who suffer under this regime. About the Speaker Dr. Adrian Zenz is Senior Fellow and Director in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Washington, D.C. (non-resident). His research focus is on China’s ethnic policy, Beijing’s campaign of mass internment, securitization and forced labor in Xinjiang, public recruitment and coercive poverty alleviation in Tibet and Xinjiang, and China’s domestic security budgets. Dr. Zenz is the author of Tibetanness under Threat and co-editor of Mapping Amdo: Dynamics of Change. He has played a leading role in the analysis of leaked Chinese government documents, including the “China Cables,” the “Karakax List,” and the “Xinjiang Papers.” Dr. Zenz is an advisor to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, and a frequent contributor to the international media. Dr. Zenz obtained his Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge. He conducted ethnographic fieldwork in western China in Chinese and regularly analyses original Chinese source material. Dr. Zenz has provided expert testimony to the governments of Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. After the publication of his research on forced labor in cotton picking, the U.S. government banned the import of goods made with cotton from Xinjiang. Following his research on population optimization and birth prevention, an independent Tribunal in the United Kingdom determined that China’s policies in the region constitute genocide. Dr. Zenz’s work on parent-child separation in Xinjiang prompted The Economist to feature this atrocity on its cover page and to refer to it as “a crime against humanity” that represents “the gravest example of a worldwide attack on human rights.” Dr. Zenz has acted as an academic peer reviewer for a wide range of scholarly journals, including The China Journal, Asian Studies Review, International Security (Harvard University), China Perspectives, Central Asian Survey, the Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Asian Ethnicity, China: An International Journal, the Journal of Chinese Political Science, Issues and Studies, and Development and Change. Dr. Zenz is a member of the Association of Asian Studies. He has published opinion pieces with Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. IWP Admissions https://www.iwp.edu/admissions/ Support IWP https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E231090&id=3