Error message
OFFICE/DEPARTMENT
The East-West Center in Washington held an
Indo-Pacific Democratic Values and Human Rights Series Seminar and Book Launch:
Responding to Data Trafficking by Promoting Good Governance
A Conversation With:
Dr. Aynne Kokas
Associate Professor of Media Studies &
Senior Faculty Fellow, Miller Center for Public Affairs
University of Virginia
Dr. Ryo Sahashi
Associate Professor of International Politics
Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo
Japan Scholar, Wilson Center
Dewardric L. McNeal
Founder and Managing Director, Longview Global, LLC
Former Special Assistant to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia and China Country Director, US Department of Defense
Dr. Satu P. Limaye (Moderator)
Vice President, East-West Center &
Director, Research Program and East-West Center in Washington
In her new book Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty, Aynne Kokas looks at how technology firms in the two largest economies in the world, the United States and China, have exploited government policy (and the lack thereof) to gather information on citizens. Kokas argues that US government leadership failures, Silicon Valley's disruption fetish, and Wall Street's addiction to growth have fueled China's technological goldrush. In turn, American complacency yields an unprecedented opportunity for Chinese firms to gather data in the United States and quietly send it back to China, and by extension, to the Chinese government. This talk examined the governance challenges presented by data trafficking and proposes potential pathways to improved data governance to protect national sovereignty and democracy.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Dr. Aynne Kokas is the C.K. Yen Professor at the Miller Center and an associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. Kokas’ research examines Sino-U.S. media and technology relations. Her book Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty (Oxford University Press, October 2022) argues that exploitative Silicon Valley data governance practices help China build infrastructures for global control. Her award-winning first book Hollywood Made in China (University of California Press, 2017) argues that Chinese investment and regulations have transformed the U.S. commercial media industry, most prominently in the case of media conglomerates’ leverage of global commercial brands.
Kokas is a non-resident scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute of Public Policy, a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a fellow in the National Committee on United States-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program. She has received fellowships from the Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Humanities, Mellon Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Japan’s Abe Fellowship, and other international organizations.
Her writing and commentary have appeared globally in more than 50 countries and 15 languages. In the United States, her research and writing appear regularly in media outlets including CNBC, NPR’s Marketplace, The Washington Post, and Wired. She has testified before the Senate Finance Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Dr. Ryo Sahashi is an Associate Professor of International Relations, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, the University of Tokyo, and Japan Scholar, Wilson Center. Dr. Sahashi specializes on international politics in East Asia. His recent book is US-China Rivalry: A Shift of American Strategy and Divided Worlds (Tokyo: Chuko, 2021),In a Search for Coexistence: the United States and Two Chinas during the Cold War (Tokyo: Keiso, 2015), and he edits East Asian Order in the Post-Cold War Era (Tokyo: Keiso, 2020). His recent articles appears on China International Strategy Review, Contemporary Politics, and Journal of Contemporary China. He serves as a Member for Council on the Actual State of Land Use, Advisory Panel on Science & Technology Diplomacy, and Expert Panel on 50th Year of Japan-ASEAN Friendship and Cooperation. He also works as Faculty Fellow, the Research Institute of Economy, Trade, and Industry; Visiting Fellow 21st Century Policy Institute, Keidanren; Research Fellow of Japan Center for International Exchange. He received his B.A. from International Christian University and his Ph.D. from the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics at the University of Tokyo.
Dewardric L. McNeal is the founder and Managing Director at Longview Global, LLC. He is a former Obama Administration appointee to the U.S. Department of Defense where he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy working on East Asia and China security relations with the United States. He was appointed by President Obama in May 2009 after serving on the 2008 Obama for America Campaign’s Asia Advisor Team. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, he spent four years as the Assistant Director for International Programs at the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Brookings Institution’s first foreign joint research center, which is located in Beijing at the Tsinghua University’s School of Public Policy.
Satu P. Limaye is Vice President of the East-West Center and the Director of the East-West Center’s Research program and Washington office, where he created and now directs the Asia Matters for America initiative and is the founding editor of the Asia Pacific Bulletin. He is also a Senior Advisor at CNA Corp (Center for Naval Analyses). He is a graduate of Georgetown University and received his doctorate from Oxford University (Magdalen College) where he was a George C. Marshall Scholar. He publishes and speaks widely on Indo-Pacific regional issues and supports various U.S. government, foundation, fellowship, and professional organizations. Among his current affiliations are Center for New American Security (CNAS) Task Force on the U.S.-Philippines Alliance, United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Senior Study Group on the North Pacific, Project 2049 Study Group on the U.S.-Australia Alliance, Korea Economic Institute (KEI) Advisory Council, and Global Taiwan Institute-Taiwan Asia Exchange Foundation project. Recent publications include: Southeast Asia’s choices: Economic, political, and geopolitical integration face complications, India in East Asia: Focused on the Quad and Border Disputes with China, and Maintaining the Technology Edge: Strengthening US and Indo-Pacific Alliances to Counter Chinese Technology Acquisition (with Rose Tenyotkin).
The East-West Center in Washington held an
Indo-Pacific Democratic Values and Human Rights Series Seminar and Book Launch:
Responding to Data Trafficking by Promoting Good Governance
A Conversation With:
Dr. Aynne Kokas
Associate Professor of Media Studies &
Senior Faculty Fellow, Miller Center for Public Affairs
University of Virginia
Dr. Ryo Sahashi
Associate Professor of International Politics
Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo
Japan Scholar, Wilson Center
Dewardric L. McNeal
Founder and Managing Director, Longview Global, LLC
Former Special Assistant to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia and China Country Director, US Department of Defense
Dr. Satu P. Limaye (Moderator)
Vice President, East-West Center &
Director, Research Program and East-West Center in Washington
In her new book Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty, Aynne Kokas looks at how technology firms in the two largest economies in the world, the United States and China, have exploited government policy (and the lack thereof) to gather information on citizens. Kokas argues that US government leadership failures, Silicon Valley's disruption fetish, and Wall Street's addiction to growth have fueled China's technological goldrush. In turn, American complacency yields an unprecedented opportunity for Chinese firms to gather data in the United States and quietly send it back to China, and by extension, to the Chinese government. This talk examined the governance challenges presented by data trafficking and proposes potential pathways to improved data governance to protect national sovereignty and democracy.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Dr. Aynne Kokas is the C.K. Yen Professor at the Miller Center and an associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. Kokas’ research examines Sino-U.S. media and technology relations. Her book Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty (Oxford University Press, October 2022) argues that exploitative Silicon Valley data governance practices help China build infrastructures for global control. Her award-winning first book Hollywood Made in China (University of California Press, 2017) argues that Chinese investment and regulations have transformed the U.S. commercial media industry, most prominently in the case of media conglomerates’ leverage of global commercial brands.
Kokas is a non-resident scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute of Public Policy, a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a fellow in the National Committee on United States-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program. She has received fellowships from the Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Humanities, Mellon Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Japan’s Abe Fellowship, and other international organizations.
Her writing and commentary have appeared globally in more than 50 countries and 15 languages. In the United States, her research and writing appear regularly in media outlets including CNBC, NPR’s Marketplace, The Washington Post, and Wired. She has testified before the Senate Finance Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Dr. Ryo Sahashi is an Associate Professor of International Relations, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, the University of Tokyo, and Japan Scholar, Wilson Center. Dr. Sahashi specializes on international politics in East Asia. His recent book is US-China Rivalry: A Shift of American Strategy and Divided Worlds (Tokyo: Chuko, 2021),In a Search for Coexistence: the United States and Two Chinas during the Cold War (Tokyo: Keiso, 2015), and he edits East Asian Order in the Post-Cold War Era (Tokyo: Keiso, 2020). His recent articles appears on China International Strategy Review, Contemporary Politics, and Journal of Contemporary China. He serves as a Member for Council on the Actual State of Land Use, Advisory Panel on Science & Technology Diplomacy, and Expert Panel on 50th Year of Japan-ASEAN Friendship and Cooperation. He also works as Faculty Fellow, the Research Institute of Economy, Trade, and Industry; Visiting Fellow 21st Century Policy Institute, Keidanren; Research Fellow of Japan Center for International Exchange. He received his B.A. from International Christian University and his Ph.D. from the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics at the University of Tokyo.
Dewardric L. McNeal is the founder and Managing Director at Longview Global, LLC. He is a former Obama Administration appointee to the U.S. Department of Defense where he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy working on East Asia and China security relations with the United States. He was appointed by President Obama in May 2009 after serving on the 2008 Obama for America Campaign’s Asia Advisor Team. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, he spent four years as the Assistant Director for International Programs at the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Brookings Institution’s first foreign joint research center, which is located in Beijing at the Tsinghua University’s School of Public Policy.
Satu P. Limaye is Vice President of the East-West Center and the Director of the East-West Center’s Research program and Washington office, where he created and now directs the Asia Matters for America initiative and is the founding editor of the Asia Pacific Bulletin. He is also a Senior Advisor at CNA Corp (Center for Naval Analyses). He is a graduate of Georgetown University and received his doctorate from Oxford University (Magdalen College) where he was a George C. Marshall Scholar. He publishes and speaks widely on Indo-Pacific regional issues and supports various U.S. government, foundation, fellowship, and professional organizations. Among his current affiliations are Center for New American Security (CNAS) Task Force on the U.S.-Philippines Alliance, United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Senior Study Group on the North Pacific, Project 2049 Study Group on the U.S.-Australia Alliance, Korea Economic Institute (KEI) Advisory Council, and Global Taiwan Institute-Taiwan Asia Exchange Foundation project. Recent publications include: Southeast Asia’s choices: Economic, political, and geopolitical integration face complications, India in East Asia: Focused on the Quad and Border Disputes with China, and Maintaining the Technology Edge: Strengthening US and Indo-Pacific Alliances to Counter Chinese Technology Acquisition (with Rose Tenyotkin).
