Towards a Free and Open China. Voices From the Trenches
Date: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2023
Time: 9:30 am (Washington, DC). 3:30 pm (Zurich). 8:00 pm (New Delhi)
Platform: Zoom (with live streams on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter)
Event Type: Virtual, public, on-the-record and open to the press
Xi Jinping is at the start of an unprecedented third term in power. While he faces strong headwinds that have forced him to make a series of abrupt policy U-turns, there are no signs yet of any immediate threat to his rule. What is the current situation? Do current conditions in China provide a more enabling environment for change? Join us to hear the perspective, aspirations and efforts of four of the largest communities – Chinese Christians, Uyghurs, Tibetans and Hongkongers – facing persecution and violence from the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party.
PARTICIPANTS:
| Bob Fu Founding President of ChinaAid |
Dolkun Isa President, World Uyghur Congress |
| Gonpo Dhundup President, Tibetan Youth Congress |
Anna Kwok Executive Director, Hong Kong Democracy Council |
| Chad Bullard C.E.O ChainaAid |
| Kelsang D. Aukatsang (Moderator) President, Asia Freedom Institute (AFI) |
Sakina Batt (Host) Host, Freedom Hour, AFI |
STREAMING LINKS :
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Asia-Freedom-Institute
YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCbyoi_jze2TiFhir7bMZ3Rg
Twitter: www.twitter.com/AsiaFreedomInst
BIOGRAPHIES OF PARTICIPANTS
Bob (Xiqiu) Fu
Bob Fu is one of the leading voices in the world for persecuted faith communities in China. Fu was born and raised in mainland China and was a student leader during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations for freedom and democracy in 1989. Fu graduated from the School of International Relations at the People’s (Renmin) University in Beijing and taught English to Communist Party officials at the Beijing Administrative College and Beijing Party School of the Chinese Communist Party from 1993-1996. Fu was also a house church leader in Beijing until he and his wife, Heidi, were imprisoned for two months for “illegal evangelism” in 1996. Bob and Heidi fled to the United States as religious refugees in 1997 and subsequently founded ChinaAid in 2002 to bring international attention to China’s gross human rights violations and to promote religious freedom and rule of law in China. As president of ChinaAid, Fu has testified before various bodies in the US, Europe and the UN and regularly briefs the US State Department and Congress. Fu graduated with a Ph.D. from St. John’s College at the University of Durham in the U.K. in the field of religious freedom and from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
Dolkun Isa
Dolkun Isa is a Uyghur politician and activist from East Turkistan (also known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China). Isa was the leader of the student demonstrations on 15 June 1988 and was expelled from Xinjiang university in 1988. He is the 3rd and current president of the World Uyghur Congress, in office since 12 November 2017. He previously served as General Secretary and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the congress, respectively, and has spoken on behalf of the rights of the Uyghurs. He has also presented Uyghur human rights issues to the UN Human Rights Council, European Parliament, European governments and international human rights organizations. He has worked tirelessly to mobilize the Uyghur diaspora community to collectively advocate for their rights and the rights of the Uyghur population in the Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. He received a Master’s degree in Politics and Sociology from Gazi University in Turkey and a degree in Computer Science in Munich, Germany.
Gonpo Dhundup
Gonpo Dhundup is the President of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) is a worldwide organization of more than 38,000 Tibetans across 88 regional chapters united in their common struggle for the restoration of complete independence for the whole of Tibet including the traditional three provinces of U-Tsang, Do-toe, and Do-med. TYC is the largest and most active Tibetan NGO in exile. Gonpo has been the TYC President since 2019. He also served as the President of The Foreign Student’s Association (FOSTAS) in New Delhi in 2017. Gonpo has a BA from Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi and a MA in Public Policy from the O.P Jindal Global University, Sonipat, India.
Anna Kwok
Anna Kwok is the Executive Director at Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC), where she champions Hong Kongers’ fight for freedom and democracy through policy advocacy, diaspora empowerment, and research. During the 2019 movement, Anna spearheaded a global newspaper ad campaign ahead of the G20 Summit, which gathered citywide support to bring on-the-ground Hong Kongers’ voices to the international stage. Prior to her work in political activism, Anna was a filmmaker specializing in production design with a philosophical approach. She received her B.S. in Media, Culture and Communication with a double major in Philosophy at the New York University, where she founded the NYU Hong Kong Student Advocacy Group to organize advocacy events around New York City.
Chad Bullard
Chad Bullard is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of China Aid. Mr. Bullard was in state and federal law enforcement for 15 years. In 2002, he became an agent with the Department of Homeland Security ultimately serving as the United States east coast regional coordinator for investigations while living in Washington, D.C. As the international liaison and supervisor for the National Joint Terrorism Task Force, he traveled extensively overseas meeting with foreign governments. For the past 11 years, Bullard has been a pastor. After serving on the board of ChinaAid for the past eight years, he became the CEO in December 2022.
Kelsang Aukatsang
Kelsang Aukatsang (Kaydor) is the Founding President of the Asia Freedom Institute and nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. Kaydor has held various senior leadership positions in the Central Tibetan Administration including the Washington, DC representative for the Dalai Lama, Special Advisor to the President (Sikyong) of the Central Tibetan Administration, and the Chief Resilience Officer of the CTA. He was a candidate in the 2021 Tibetan presidential (Sikyong) elections. He has a Master’s in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, Medford, USA, and a Bachelor’s in English literature from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi.
Sakina Batt
Sakina Batt is a producer at Meeting Point, a leading audio visual production house and buying agency in Nepal. She directs promotional videos, does voice overs, writes scripts and copywriting for the videos in Meeting Point. Sakina worked for Tibet TV at the Central Tibetan Administration in India for four years (2017-2021) where she served as a news presenter and an interview host. She also made short documentaries for the channel, wrote scripts, conducted research, edited videos and anchored the show In Conversation with Tibet TV. Sakina has a Masters in Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi and a bachelors from Delhi University.
