Oppression, Resistance and the High-tech Totalitarianism

By Teng Biao, published by Democracy Seminar on December 16, 2020

This piece is based on Teng Biao’s presentation during “Repression and Resistance: Inside and Outside the Academy” webinar organized by the New University in Exile on November 12, 2020 (video available). The webinar was focused on discussing the rise of authoritarianism, anti-intellectualism, and censorship globally, offering perspectives from Turkey, China, and Brazil. The presentations called attention to restrictions on academic freedom and free speech in each country, and highlighted strategies academics use to push back on governmental repression”. The keynote was delivered by Judith Butler on “The Human, Humanities, and Human Rights” which focused on the shutting down of gender studies programs globally and how this connects to the issue of human rights. Elzbieta Matynia was the moderator.

In this piece human rights lawyer, dissident, and scholar from China, Teng Biao, discusses restrictions on academic freedom in China. He writes, “The list of sensitive issues is always expanding and changing. So a writer, editor or scholar has to judge and calculate —how far to go, how explicit to be, with whom to ally, and so on. If you calculate incorrectly, you can lose your job, be imprisoned, tortured, or even executed.”

Read the full article here.

Dr. Teng Biao is an academic lawyer, currently Grove Human Rights Scholar at Hunter College, and Pozen Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago; he held the position of lecturer at the China University of Politics and Law (Beijing).