Dr. Jianli Yang, a world renown human rights scholar and advocate, is a major architect and leader for China’s democracy. He was a Tiananmen student leader and a political prisoner of China. He helped found and lead several advocacy and research organizations including Citizen Power Initiatives for China. He has organized annual Interethnic/Interfaith Leadership Conferences since 2000 and published the online publication Yibao since 2001. He co-authored a Democratic Constitution for China (1993) and co-Chaired The Geneva Internet Freedom Declaration (2010). A recipient of multiple awards including Harvard KSG Alumni Achievement Award, UN Watch Human Rights Award and Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom, Dr. Yang represented Liu Xiaobo at the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony. Dr.Yang holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from U.C. Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Political Economy from Harvard University. He is also a frequent public speaker on various world forums and contributor to various international magazines on topics ranging from human rights in China, China’s democratization, China’s politics, ethnic relations in the PRC, cross-strait relations, and on US China policies. He is author of For Us, The Living: A Journey to Shine the Light on Truth and It’s Time for a Values-Based “Economic NATO”.
Project: A Comparative Study of China’s Surveillance Statism and Surveillance Capitalism: Impacts on Human Rights and Democracy Digital technology—once hailed as a tool for advancing human rights—has increasingly empowered authoritarian control and undermined democracy. China’s model of Surveillance Statism fuses state power with commercial technology to enforce political control, extending repression beyond borders. In contrast, Surveillance Capitalism in the West prioritizes profit, often at the expense of privacy, autonomy, and truth, compressing online space for human rights discourse and enabling populist manipulation. The chaotic, algorithm-driven online environment amplifies conspiracy theories and political polarization, while authoritarian regimes exploit this disarray for disinformation campaigns. The convergence of statism and capitalism threatens global democracy and human rights alike. Dr. Jianli Yang’s research focuses on (1) analyzing China’s surveillance statism as a model for authoritarian governance; (2) comparing it with Western surveillance capitalism; (3) exploring their convergence and global influence; and (4) proposing democratic, legal, and technological strategies to counter both.