Human Rights in US-China Relations
Date: Wednesday Nov. 29, 2023
Time: 10:00-11:30 am (Eastern)
Place: Wilf Hall 5th floor conference room (in person, NYU ID-holders)
RSVP
About the event:
Human rights has long been one of the most contentious issues in US-China relations. With bilateral relations at their lowest point since Nixon’s trip to Beijing in 1972, Presidents Biden and Xi recently met to restore normal channels of communication and explore areas for ongoing dialogue and cooperation. Can human rights be one such area? Four Chinese experts on human rights will speak at NYU Law about their government’s human rights policies and priorities, the relationship between human rights and security, China’s aspirations for the global human rights system, human rights education in China, and related topics.
About the speakers:
ZHANG Yonghe is a professor of law at Southwest University of Political Science and Law, executive director and chief expert of the university’s Human Rights Institute, and director of the university’s Non-traditional Security Institute. He is also a standing member of the China Society for Human Rights Studies and council member of the China Foundation for Human Rights Development. His research focuses on anti-discrimination, the right to development, comparative China-US human rights studies, and non-traditional security and human rights. Professor Zhang is editor-in-chief of two academic journals, Human Rights Law and China Human Rights Review. He has been a visiting scholar at Cambridge University and the London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK.
LI Xiao is secretory-general of the Chinese Judicial Studies Association, and a former senior judge and first-level inspector in the Research Department of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC). She also is executive director of the China Society for Human Rights Studies. Ms. Li began working at the Henan Provincial High People's Court in 1984 in criminal trials. She transferred to the SPC Research Office in 1993 she was mainly responsible for drafting criminal judicial interpretations and human rights affairs. She has participated in many bilateral and multilateral human rights conferences, engaged in work related to human rights white papers, trained judges on human rights, and handled affairs related to judicial protection of human rights. She has participated in many major projects related to foreign-related rule of law work. Li received a master’s of law degree from the China University of Political Science and Law in 1993 and an LL.M. from Columbia University School of Law in 2002. She has been a visiting scholar at both Columbia University School of Law and New York University School of Law.、
ZHU Yuanqing is deputy director of the Human Rights Institute at Southwest University of Political Science and Law, focusing on the study of human rights in the US and international exchange and cooperation. He has participated multiple UN Human Rights Council sessions and organized several side events and parallel sessions. He was one of the curators of the China Human Rights Achievements Picture Exhibition held in 2016 at the New York UN Headquarters. Mr. Zhu is the chief translator of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China. In 2020, Mr. Zhu translated the Chinese edition of Taking the Stand: My Life in the Law, the memoir of Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz. Mr. Zhu has a master’s degree in international law.
ZHOU Li is an associate professor at the Human Rights Institute at Southwest University of Political Science and Law, head of the Scientific Research Management Department, deputy editor-in-chief of the Journal of Human Rights Law, director of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, executive director of Chongqing University Journal Association. He has a doctorate in law. He joined the Human Rights Institute in 2012, and focuses on the theory of human dignity and the protection of the rights and interests of vulnerable groups. In recent years, Professor Zhou has focused on human rights issues in the Belt and Road Initiative, the theory and practice of the “human rights economy,” the relationship between non-traditional security and human rights, and the human rights work of international organizations and the United Nations human rights mechanism. He has participated in the interpretation of contemporary Chinese views on human rights and the theoretical construction of human rights sociology and human rights anthropology. He has frequently traveled with delegations of the China Society for Human Rights Studies to Europe and South America to carry out research and academic exchanges. He has drafted reports on China’s human rights implementation for the UN Human Rights Council and other bodies, and drafted national human rights action plans, white papers on human rights, and other documents.