Activist, lawyer and professor Dr Teng Biao at FAU CHREN
A protagonist of human rights defense
At a moment when the global legal order is under threat, the defence of human rights in consolidated autocracies such as that of the People’s Republic of China has become more difficult and dangerous than ever. On 13 and 14 March 2025, CHREN was honoured to welcome Dr Teng Biao, one of the protagonists of human rights defence against the Chinese authorities’ systematic attacks and abuses.
How can human rights defenders and system critics cope in global settings of autocratization?
Now based in the United States, he was also one of the key supporters of China’s New Citizens Movement, and through activities such as his work with the China Journal of Democracy, has continued to engage with human rights in China and beyond. In our conversations with him we had the opportunity to discuss how human rights defenders, system critics and other actors have reacted to the party-state’s autocratic closures, how they cope with and resist autocracy in a world in which the Party increasingly governs beyond its borders, and how in global settings of autocratization, independent civil society and academic work on these and related issues continue.
Photo: Natalia Wrzaszczyk
Activist, lawyer and professor Dr Teng Biao at FAU CHREN
A protagonist of human rights defense
At a moment when the global legal order is under threat, the defence of human rights in consolidated autocracies such as that of the People’s Republic of China has become more difficult and dangerous than ever. On 13 and 14 March 2025, CHREN was honoured to welcome Dr Teng Biao, one of the protagonists of human rights defence against the Chinese authorities’ systematic attacks and abuses.
How can human rights defenders and system critics cope in global settings of autocratization?
Now based in the United States, he was also one of the key supporters of China’s New Citizens Movement, and through activities such as his work with the China Journal of Democracy, has continued to engage with human rights in China and beyond. In our conversations with him we had the opportunity to discuss how human rights defenders, system critics and other actors have reacted to the party-state’s autocratic closures, how they cope with and resist autocracy in a world in which the Party increasingly governs beyond its borders, and how in global settings of autocratization, independent civil society and academic work on these and related issues continue.
Photo: Natalia Wrzaszczyk