Date and time: March 21 (Friday), 4:00pm Pacific/7:00pm Eastern
Location: SFU Harbour Centre HC 7000

In-person attendees register here

Virtual attendees register here

Description: Join us for an important discussion on the case of Dr. Anming Hu, a respected scientist who was wrongfully targeted under the previous Trump administration‘s China Initiative. Dr. Hu‘s case highlights critical issues of racial profiling, academic freedom, and the growing surveillance of scholars in North America.

This event will feature insights into Dr. Anming Hu‘s case and experience, the broader implications for researchers of Chinese origin, and the fight for justice in academia in North America. We will also discuss what universities, scholars, and policymakers can do to protect academic integrity and prevent future injustices.

Featured speaker: Dr. Anming Hu, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Discussants: Dr. Jane Wang, University of British Columbia
Dr. Jie Yang, Simon Fraser University

Moderator: Dr. Xinying Hu, Simon Fraser University

Sponsored by:

• The Labour Studies Program, Simon Fraser University
• The SFU Morgan Centre for Labour Research
• The Canadian Association of University Teachers
• Canada-China Focus

Supported by: Stop Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Advocacy Group: 

In this special spotlight on Trump's trade war and implications for Canada — and Asia, and U.S.-Asia and Canada-Asia relations — the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada presents analysis and commentary on this existential threat to our economy and sovereignty through the publications, podcasts, video presentations, and guest contributions you will find collected below.

Practices of authoritarian surveillance are not limited to so-called authoritarian states. Authoritarian surveillance has been increasingly witnessed in countries that uphold liberal democratic principles and institutions in the twenty-first century, along with accelerated automation of mass surveillance.

This article situates authoritarian surveillance as a problem in the heart of democracy and capitalism in its materiality and imperial expansion and discusses how mass surveillance has redrawn boundaries of democratic principles. What Edward Snowden has revealed since 2013 is a good reminder of the materiality of the global surveillance networks built under the “War on Terror” that we still live in. They are embedded within digital communication infrastructures by the security agencies in the United States, the self-defined champion of liberal democracy.

Nonetheless, a decade after the Snowden revelations, the authoritarian surveillance within democracy has been whitewashed in technological competitions with the Global South, such as China and India, and in tech-savvy culture in the Global North. What is the driving force of this oblivion? In a contrast with the COVID-19 pandemic surveillance, I highlight the exceptional position given to the security intelligence and policing agencies within liberal democratic institutions to generate authoritarian surveillance continuously from the imperial to postcolonial times.

It is critically important to deconstruct the binary discourse of democratic states versus authoritarian states because this view tends to only problematize surveillance activities by countries located outside the “West” and sees authoritarian surveillance practiced by self-defined democratic states as harmless or even necessary to counter perceived authoritarian states. It further fuels global dissemination of surveillance technologies, just like the nuclear arms races, and produces more victims of authoritarian surveillance on earth, without borders.

On top of threatened U.S. tariffs, China has brought down another hammer on many Canadian farm and seafood exports, hitting them with a “double trade war” that industry leaders say will slam Canadian producers.

In response, B.C. Premier David Eby called on Ottawa to revisit its tariff policy with all countries, adding that Canada got nothing out of trying to align trade policy with the United States last fall ahead of President Donald Trump‘s election.

Eby, who stepped up measures against the United States along with Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Monday, said the government of Canada should offer a concession in the trade dispute it has with China.

Published: March 17, 2025

In This Issue #319

• NYU Shanghai Receives Record Number of Applicants
• JACL and OCA Join Lawsuit Against Musk and DOGE
• Latest on Birthright Citizenship, Texas SB17, and Ban on Student Visas 
• Who Will Be Next After Mahmoud Khalil? 
• News and Activities for the Communities

Representatives of Iran, Russia and China have urged United States President Donald Trump‘s administration to end sanctions imposed against Tehran over its rapidly advancing nuclear programme, while calling for the resumption of the multilateral talks on the issue.

The three nations “emphasised the necessity of terminating all unlawful unilateral sanctions”, China‘s Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu read from a joint statement issued on Friday. He was flanked by his counterparts from Russia, Ryabkov Sergey Alexeevich, and Iran, Kazem Gharibabadi.

“The relevant parties should work to eliminate the root causes of the current situation and abandon sanctions, pressure and threats of the use of force,” Ma said.

It was one of China‘s most ambitious environmental endeavours ever.

The Loess plateau, an area spanning more than 245,000 sq miles (640,000 sq km) across three provinces and parts of four others, supports about 100 million people. By the end of the 20th century, however, this land, once fertile and productive, was considered the most eroded place on Earth, according to a documentary by the ecologist John D Liu.

The climate around the Loess plateau is changing, which means what existed, or even thrived, several decades ago can‘t necessarily be put back, says Bridgewater. “But we can produce something, a system that will produce ecosystem services at a better range and a better quality and more regularly than the systems that we‘ve destabilised.”

U.S. embassies and consulates have stopped monitoring air quality abroad, ending a program that had provided essential public health data for more than a decade.

The State Department said its collection of air pollution data at more than 60 U.S. embassies and consulates around the world had been suspended as of Tuesday due to “budget constraints.”

“The current budget climate requires us to make difficult cuts,” a spokesperson said. “Unfortunately, we cannot continue to publish this data.”

The UK is hoping to shape a new global axis in favour of climate action along with China and a host of developing countries, to offset the impact of Donald Trump‘s abandonment of green policies and his sharp veer towards climate-hostile countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Ed Miliband, the UK‘s energy and net zero secretary, arrived in Beijing on Friday for three days of talks with top Chinese officials, including discussions on green technology supply chains, coal and the critical minerals needed for clean energy. The UK‘s green economy is growing three times faster than the rest of the economy, but access to components and materials will be crucial for that to continue.

But this was not an AI showroom or laboratory – this robot was living on a coffee table in a Beijing apartment, along with Timmy.

China is embracing AI in its bid to become a tech superpower by 2030.

DeepSeek, the breakthrough Chinese chatbot that caught the world's attention in January, was just the first hint of that ambition.

Money is pouring into AI businesses seeking more capital, fuelling domestic competition. There are more than 4,500 firms developing and selling AI, schools in the capital Beijing are introducing AI courses for primary and secondary students later this year, and universities have increased the number of places available for students studying AI.

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