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lchen2024.bsky.social
JD/PhD, UToronto historian of post-1500 Chinese law/politics/culture/intl relations; law & empire & postcolonial studies. Author of "Chinese Law in Imperial Eyes: Sovereignty, Justice, and Transcultural Politics”.
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Snowy Winter in Toronto!

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Canada's long-lamented lack of independent foreign policies might finally start to take a different turn. Despite the immediate shock and pains, Trump's reckless actions might be good for Canada in the long run. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

submitted 26 days ago • 1 comment

It also reminds us of the waning days of the Qing Empire. As we all know, it has often been the case that a dominant power turns protectionist and isolationist when it becomes acutely aware that its days of dominance are numbered, thus pressing the self-preservation button.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Has this helped settle the scholarly debate over whether the U.S. has been an empire (even though few critical scholars have ever doubted it)? www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/u...

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Just hope you will not turn Bluesky into another profit-obsessed Twitter or OpenAi.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Career politicians and bureaucrats can never truly understand the pain and loss of those who have suffered these avoidable tragedies. May thy rest in peace! www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/u...

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Anthropic CEO's long post that provides one of the best examples of how new technology, empire, and geopolitical ideology have become so intertwined. darioamodei.com/on-deepseek-...

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

Happy Lunar New Year to you all! May this year of snake bring you happiness, good health, and success in all your endeavors.

submitted 30 days ago • 1 comment

Anxiety about Trumpism seems to have once again prompted even estranged countries to find common ground for collaboration. Canadian leaders should take note (Playing the China card may be more effective than the energy export card in fending off Trump’s tariffs). www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

The high-tech restrictions might have had the unexpected outcome. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/t...

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

This is a comment on the NYT's website. This is exactly what I have been worried about all along: all these sanctions, high-tech embargoes, and bans on foreign-owned media sites, mostly based on half-baked excuses, may well backfire in the near future, prompting other countries to follow suit.

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

I am no fan of Tiktok, which is just a corporate media like Facebook or X. But I'm more intrigued by the int'l politics involved. This article shows how a label of "foreign adversary" could achieve the political agendas even though the evidence might be lacking. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01...

submitted 42 days ago • 0 comments

I've been gathering materials for a project on the history of modern Sino-American relations. The U.S. S.Ct.'s ruling on Tiktok may be the final push for me to write it in the next few years. As shown in the ruling, the label of "a foreign adversary" is enough, without need to examine the evidence.

submitted 42 days ago • 1 comment

This has to be the most absurd opinion piece ever published by The New York Times. Did the NYT intentionally publish this as a troll piece to drive traffic? Having become a laughing stock, NYT closed the comments section. The 1389 comments are worth reading. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/o...

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

Another NYT gift article: www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/u...

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

For those interested, a virtual talk this Friday (in Chinese).

submitted 50 days ago • 0 comments

The fallout btw Elon Musk & the Trump camp was entirely predictable given that probably the two biggest egos in the world are involved. It's only a matter of time and how this would happen. He appears to have either deleted this post or replaced it with one (on the left) that has a much milder tone.

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

New paper posted to SSRN, a few more to come later this week. The primary claim in this one is that legality and authoritarianism can be politically and administratively synergistic. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

submitted 67 days ago • 0 comments

Another NYT gift article. An interesting and bold suggestion from a veteran China watcher. Trump might be "unpredictable" for a lot of things, but I don't think he's bold enough to try this, given the general Sinophobic atmosphere in today's American politics. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/24/o...

submitted 63 days ago • 0 comments

Utterly appalling and gutless of ABC. There’s no way Trump could have proved reputational harm. And he’s a public figure. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/14/u...

submitted 76 days ago • 237 comments

A virtual conference: "In Search of Early Chinese Empires: The Dynamics between Excavated Manuscripts and Transmitted Texts"; Easter Time: (1) 7:30 pm, Dec. 20-- 4 am Dec. 21; (2) 7:30 pm, Dec. 21-- 4am Dec. 22, 2024 Zoom registration link: notredame.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

submitted 76 days ago • 0 comments

It's unlikely to happen unless Xi believes that this bold move (unprecedented since 1874 in U.S. history) can significantly increase his chance of making the Sino-U.S. relations more manageable, a belief not that crazy given that Trump's love of personal diplomacy. www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-i...

submitted 78 days ago • 4 comments

A chapter from the recently published Chinese anthology "Law, Knowledge, and Power in the Age of Empire," providing some critical reflections on the use and analysis of historical archives in the field of Chinese (legal) history. t.cn/A6mCvA2N ​​​

submitted 84 days ago • 1 comment

Tsinghua Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences (TIAS), where I serve as a faculty, is recruiting TIAS Society of Fellows (2025). Every year we expect to welcome about TEN new posdocs from various disciplines. Check it out😁 tias.tsinghua.edu.cn/application/...

submitted 87 days ago • 1 comment