The Rights Defense Movement emerged in China's party-state in the early 2000s, but after Xi Jinping came to power, the movement has been almost wiped out. The rise and fall of the human rights movement reflect the political limitations on legal development and bring opportunities and challenges to political transition.
Dr. Teng Biao is a human-rights lawyer, currently as the Grove Human Rights Scholar at Hunter College, the City University of New York. Previously, he was a lecturer at the China University of Politics and Law (Beijing), and a visiting scholar at Yale, Harvard, and New York University. Teng’s research focuses on criminal justice, human rights, social movements, and political transition in China. He co-founded two human rights NGOs—the Open Constitution Initiative, and China Against the Death Penalty. He is one of the earliest promoters of the Rights Defense Movement in China and the manifesto Charter 08. Teng has received various international human rights awards including the Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
Professor Biao's lecture is part of a course, "Connection in China," taught by Victoria Hui, associate professor of Political Science and a Faculty Fellow of the Liu Institute