Xiao Qiang (, born November 19, 1961) is a Chinese-born American physicist and activist. He is the director and Research Scientist of Counter-Power Lab, an interdisciplinary faculty-student research group focusing on digital rights and

internet freedom Internet censorship is the legal censorship, control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific Network domain, internet domains (such as ''Wikipedia.org'', for exam ...

, based in the School of Information,

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and is funded by the

US Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

. He also serves as the director of the China Internet Project at Berkeley. Xiao is an adjunct professor at the School of Information and the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief of '' China Digital Times'', a bilingual news website. Xiao teaches classes Digital Activism, Internet Freedom and Blogging in China at both the School of Information and the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California at Berkeley. In fall 2003, Xiao launched ''China Digital Times'' to explore how to apply cutting edge technologies to aggregate, contextualize and translate online information from and about China. His current research focuses on state censorship,

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

and

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

, as well as

mass surveillance in China Mass surveillance in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is the network of monitoring systems used by the Chinese central government to monitor Chinese citizens. It is primarily conducted through the government, although corporate surveillance ...

Biography

A theoretical physicist by training, he studied at the

University of Science and Technology of China The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) is a public university in Hefei, China. It is affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and co-funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Education of the People' ...

and entered the PhD program (1986–1989) in astrophysics at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

. He became a full-time human rights activist after the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...

. Xiao was the executive director of the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

-based organization

Human Rights in China Human rights in the People's Republic of China are poor, as per reviews by international bodies, such as human rights treaty bodies and the United Nations Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), th ...

from 1991 to 2002 and vice chairman of the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy.

Recognition

Xiao is a recipient of the

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

in 2001, and is profiled in the book "Soul Purpose: 40 People Who Are Changing the World for the Better" ( Melcher Media, 2003). He was also a visiting fellow of the

Santa Fe Institute The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, inc ...

in Spring, 2002. In January 2015, Xiao has been named to ''

Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

'' magazine's Pacific Power Index, a list of "50 people shaping the future of the U.S.-China relationship." He was named on the list "for taking on China's Great Firewall of censorship."

References

External links

*
Rock-n-Go
Xiao's personal blog
Q&A: Xiao Qiang on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square and the right to information in China

Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its original purpose was "to assess the performance ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xiao, Qiang Chinese dissidents MacArthur Fellows Chinese male journalists Chinese male bloggers Chinese bloggers Chinese emigrants to the United States University of California, Berkeley School of Information faculty Notre Dame College of Arts and Letters alumni Living people Writers from Santa Fe, New Mexico Chinese human rights activists Chinese physicists Theoretical physicists 1961 births People associated with WikiLeaks University of Science and Technology of China alumni