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David Tobin

@drdavidtobin.bsky.social
1.1K followers 509 following 140 posts

Lecturer in East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield. Author of 'Securing China's Northwest Frontier: Identity and Insecurity in Xinjiang' (Cambridge University Press) sheffield.ac.uk/las/people/east-asi…

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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
This is tomorrow!
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
As part of Uyghur Solidarity Month, Amnesty International are screening Echoes of Home, a documentary by David Tobin and Mirshad Ghalip. The panel discussion afterwards includes Kabir Qurban. I hope you can join us. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/echoes-of-...
eventbrite.co.uk
Echoes of Home - Live Documentary Screening and Panel Discussion
Echoes of Home is a film about the Uyghur American Cup and its deep significance to Uyghur diaspora communities.
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
A lack of knowledge drives positive international opinion towards the CCP.
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
"The case of Turkey demonstrates that China’s repertoire of transnational repression operates in interaction with the host state’s administrative and ideological apparatus, and that this repressive architecture progressively erodes the diaspora’s security" www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
tandfonline.com
The politics of debilitation: host state authoritarianism and China’s transnational repression in Turkey
Authoritarian regimes increasingly rely on transnational repression to silence exiled dissidents, yet we know far less about how host state authoritarianization shapes these practices and restructu...
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David Stroup @davidstroup.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Withdrawal of formal support for language and cultural education is already risks turning minority languages into “kitchen languages” something @geraldroche.bsky.social has written eloquently about (link below). The new law would potentially go further www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501... /8
cornellpress.cornell.edu
The Politics of Language Oppression in Tibet by Gerald Roche | Paperback | Cornell University Press
In The Politics of Language Oppression in Tibet, Gerald Roche sheds light on a global crisis of linguistic diversity that will see at least half of the world's languages disappear this century. Roche....
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PEN International @peninternational.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
#China: Nine years after Liu Xiaobo’s death in state custody, we join the Independent Chinese PEN Centre and PEN America in calling for the release of writers imprisoned for free expression. Read the joint statement ⬇️ www.pen-international.org/news/china-n...
pen-international.org
China: nine years after Liu Xiaobo’s death in custody, risks for writers persist  — PEN International | Promoting Literature & Defending Freedom of Expression Worldwide
‘Liu Xiaobo embodied nonviolent resistance with a lifetime of hardship, sacrificing his own liberty to unveil the grim reality of a populace deprived of freedom. In his final journey toward death, wha...
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
"我没有敌人" youtu.be/2VUfQ9LfN5Y
youtu.be
No Enemies - Liu Xiaobo
YouTube video by Front Line Defenders
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Alex Dukalskis @alexdukalskis.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
New review article now available in @govandopp.bsky.social open access: @cooleyoneurasia.bsky.social and I analyse the vast and diverse scholarly literature on authoritarian regimes extending their influence abroad.
cambridge.org
Transnational Authoritarianism | Government and Opposition | Cambridge Core
Transnational Authoritarianism - Volume 61
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
The Party's Working Group meetings after the events of July 5th and 7th 2009 were the key turning point in China's ethnic policy shift towards violent assimilation. xinjiang.sppga.ubc.ca/chinese-sour...
xinjiang.sppga.ubc.ca
50 Whys - Xinjiang Documentation Project
‘The 50 Whys: Protecting National Unification, Opposing Ethnic Separatism, Strengthening Ethnic Unity Study Book’ For Original Materials, find here 50个’为什么’ Introduction Following violent clashes betw...
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Sorry but debates between different London-centric perspectives is really not what will help people in Belfast right now.
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
"I will not translate your emotions" is quite the metaphor. Political filtering processes on Chinese perspectives help keep debates on China in the UK superficial and fantastical.
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Tomorrow!
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Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️ @chenchenzhang.net · 11/05/2026
Just published! My book, Easting the West: Theorizing the Postliberal Conjuncture from China, is now available online for institutional users with subscription to Oxford Scholarship Online! academic.oup.com/book/62722 The print version will come out next month.
a poster says: online access available now. QR code for the link in post.
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
INCCS is hosting an online seminar on May 13th regarding "Academic Freedom and China". I hope to see some of you there. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/academic-f...
eventbrite.co.uk
Academic Freedom and China
Experts will reflect on recent developments in Chinese universities considering implications for research, teaching, and collaboration.
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
This will happen again and again if the left and right continue to project their ethnocentric geopolitical fantasies on an ignored people who ask for recognition on their own terms.
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
I think many scholars in this area have been quiet because the ethnic unity law is primarily a culmination of existing practices that have already been documented.
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east-ulb.bsky.social @east-ulb.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
NEW PUBLICATION *Just out!* Vanessa Frangville and Sonya Imin explore visual art in the Uyghur diaspora and how artists respond to China's cultural engineering in the Uyghur region. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Decolonizing Uyghur visual art: Uyghur diasporic responses to China’s cultural engineering
Visual art has become a prominent form of artistic expression in the Uyghur diasporic communities since the Chinese state has intensified its campaign of intrusive surveillance and mass internment ...
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Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️ @chenchenzhang.net · 05/12/2025
when you thought you'd seen the wildest racial discourse online and there's always something more. saw this on X and FB today. so it's saying - racism depends on perceived attractiveness or lack thereof - physiognomy of imaginary subgroups of Han Chinese,
A collage of five illustrated side-profile portraits of East Asian men labeled by Chinese regions: "Northwest," "Southwest," "Northeast," "Southeast (Greater Guang)," and "Xinjiang." Each portrait depicts subtle differences in facial features. Above the collage, a caption reads: “The Han’s reputation got ruined in the West because most of the earliest Chinese movements to the US and the west in general were Cantonese like the guy at the bottom right. Had whites initially interacted with northern Han, the opinions may have been drastically different.”
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David Stroup @davidstroup.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Excited for the launch of @drdavidtobin.bsky.social’s International Network for Critical China Studies (INCCS)! Now more than ever there’s a need for rigorous, reflective, critically-informed research on China. INCCS’s mission to avoid clunky, knee-jerk commentary is refreshing & desperately needed
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
sheffield.ac.uk/las/news/new...
sheffield.ac.uk
New website launched for the International Network for Critical China Studies (INCCS)
The International Network for Critical China Studies (INCCS), led by Dr David Tobin, has launched its website, bringing together researchers from around the world to share critical, policy-relevant wo...
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Policymakers and the media need rigorous research by independently minded scholars to make sense of Chinese politics and society. INCCS will tackle the big and difficult questions about "China's rise".
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
张海洋 (2006) 简论中国化与和谐社会 Zhang Haiyang (2006) 'On Sinicisation and Harmonious Society' 但由于旧的发展观对多元民族文化采用双重标准:一方面提倡和推广个别民族(西方发达国家)的文化价值,说那是人类的必由之路和必然归宿;一方面又期待另一些民族(往往是国内少数民族)的文化(特别是其语言,宗教和认同意识)谈化或消亡,说那都是发展的拦路虎,绊脚石或紧箍咒,要尽早摆脱才能实现发展。
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
The status and rights of Uyghur communities in Turkiye are deeply precarious, and overlooked by researchers and civil society organisations since 2017. It's now being more fully documented. www.hrw.org/report/2025/...
hrw.org
Protected No More
The 51-page report, “Protected No More: Uyghurs in Türkiye,” finds that Uyghurs’ previous access to international protection status, and indeed preferential treatment under the Turkish immigration sys...
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Sam Crane @uselesstree.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
Joe Fewsmith RIP For me, this was one of his most significant contributions:
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
Are nations ancient or modern? "从80年代初开始,在中国古代文献中搜检“民族”一词的努力一直在进行..." "Since the early 1980s, efforts to search for the term "nation" in ancient Chinese texts have been ongoing..." Hao Shiyuan (2004) 中文“民族“一词源流考辨 ('An Examination of the Origin of the Chinese Term, minzu')
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
This is not a party political issue. No government has adequately addressed the intent or methods in play here. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
China spy case witness removed 'enemy' from evidence under Tories
Security adviser Matthew Collins says the term
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William A. Callahan 柯嵐安 @billcallahan.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
Amazing news! "The Nose Knows: Foreignness and Fortune in China" was just selected by Little Venice Film Festival (London 22-28 October) via FilmFreeway.com!
"The Nose Knows" film poster shows a facial side-view with nose, on top of a collage about Chinese noses
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, I was asked to write an essay on Russia's relations with China. I did and I argued that this would happen. The essay was subsequently withdrawn by the publisher on the grounds that it was "off topic". edition.cnn.com/2025/09/01/c...
edition.cnn.com
Xi and Putin stand shoulder to shoulder as China casts itself as an alternative global leader | CNN
Chinese leader Xi Jinping made a veiled swipe at the United States on Monday as he criticized “bullying practices” and cast his country as a new leader of world governance, at a time when President Do...
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Obviously British universities are underfunded but political interference by China's party-state is also very real. www.scmp.com/opinion/worl...
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
🚨 New research report 🚨 “Preventing Transnational Repression: the case of the Uyghur diaspora” By David Tobin and @nyrolaelima.bsky.social sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...
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David Stroup @davidstroup.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
21 years later and this reads almost like prophecy.
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
2004. "The dynamics of penetration and resistance between the centre and what still remains an indigenous periphery can be expected to generate at the same time both increased sinicization and increased ethno-national unrest." www.jstor.org/stable/20192...
jstor.org
Staged Development in Xinjiang on JSTOR
Nicolas Becquelin, Staged Development in Xinjiang, The China Quarterly, No. 178, China's Campaign to "Open Up the West": National, Provincial and Local Perspectives (Jun., 2004), pp. 358-378
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
The discussion on Chinese political interference in British academia is long overdue. But it will all be hot air if practical resources, support, and legal protections are not provided to those who are actually doing the work. www.spectator.co.uk/article/can-...
spectator.co.uk
Can 'China Studies' still be trusted?
It is generally agreed that Britain needs to improve its China capabilities. But what happens when institutions responsible for building those capabilities are compromised by the Chinese Communist Par...
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
Following the illegal deportation of 40 Uyghurs to China, artists are being censored in Thailand to avoid telling their stories of persecution and survival. www.reuters.com/world/china/...
reuters.com
Exclusive: Thai gallery removes China-focused artworks after 'pressure' from Beijing
In what artists called the latest attempt by Beijing to silence critics overseas, the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre changed multiple works by artists in exile in the exhibit on authoritarian governments collaborating across borders.
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
The survey demonstrates that there are sharply differentiated experiences in Chinese Studies depending what you research and how. I would like to hear more answers about how to enable those who do have those experiences to speak safely and less from those who have not engaged with those experiences.
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利大英 @gblee.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
#China #UK ukctransparency.org/wp-content/u...
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Niao Collective @niaocollective.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
lol
A Chinese embassy spokesperson said: “The relevant report is completely groundless and absurd. China has always adhered to the principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, and respects freedom of speech and academic freedom in the UK and other countries. China consistently requires its citizens, including overseas students, to abide by local laws and regulations.
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
It is tragic that the Joint Committee on Human Rights did not mention Uyghurs. They are a key target for transnational repression and receive almost no support. news.sky.com/story/author...
news.sky.com
Authoritarian states operating with impunity to silence dissidents in UK, report finds
China, Russia and Iran were the biggest perpetrators of transnational repression but several other countries are trying to silence dissidents.
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
In June 2025, academics and civil society organisations met in London for an International Network for Critical China Studies workshop to analyse how to prevent transnational repression. Governments & NGOs have not paid enough attention to TNR and need to do much more to protect people's rights.
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
In my undergraduate classes, you have to do the reading before commenting. You also have to analyse evidence by asking, why is this person saying this? Who is their intended audience? What verifiable evidence do they have for their statements? Repeating what people say is not analysis.
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Xinjiang Victims Database @shahit.biz · 07/11/2024
We've added a fundamental new feature/direction today, in which we'll be sharing, translating, and automatically validating various internal documents: shahit.biz/eng/#internal
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Princeton University Press has yet to apologise for using politicised language and state narratives (e.g., 多元一体) that justify the elimination of group identities that the CCP does not approve. thediplomat.com/2025/07/prin...
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
A generous interpretation is that the CCP/CPC 'debate' used to be a squabble over whether to emphasise socialism in one country or an international movement. Now it's a manufactured distraction to attract people who can't read Chinese.
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
Xi Jinping's "people's war on terror" differed significantly. CCP docs outline how it uses mass mobilisation, more intense surveillance, and detention for pre-crimes 👇 sheffield.ac.uk/las/research...
sheffield.ac.uk
The “Xinjiang Papers”: How Xi Jinping commands policy in the People’s Republic of China
This report shows how “the Xinjiang papers” reveal the centralised decision-making processes behind mass mobilisation, mass detention, and dispersal of Uyghur and other Turkic-speaking Muslim communit...
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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
CDT is hands-down one of the most important public resources available for trying to understand China
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
After a Chinese government sponsored tour, Princeton University Press uses explicitly political language to celebrate party-state policies that removed the Uyghur language from the education system. If you are interested in what 多元一体 means in practice, chapter 2 of my book covers this 👇
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David Stroup @davidstroup.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
🧵: It’s worth unpacking how the lines that PUP draws almost verbatim from party-state propaganda— most notably about “telling the story” of Xinjiang, which echoes Xi’s call to “tell the China story well” — have very specific applications to task the denial of abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslims
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David Tobin @drdavidtobin.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
So much has changed since 1989 六四 chinaheritage.net/journal/iron...
chinaheritage.net
‘Ironic Points of Light’ — acts of redemption on the blank pages of history
Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix XXV 贖   '... it’s like a child at the beach. You give them a shovel. They'll make a hole and a hill and work at it all day.
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Xinjiang Victims Database @shahit.biz · 01/06/2025
We've published a short listicle of eyewitness points about camps and factories in 2018-2019, as delivered by an anonymous camp employee to a journalist during that period: blog.shahit.biz/2025/06/01/1... Very short read, but insightful.
blog.shahit.biz
10 small insights into Xinjiang camps and factories (2018-2019)
A brief summary of takeaway points from a conversation between a former camp employee and a journalist, originally held off the record but now reproduced here in a very basic form.
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David Stroup @davidstroup.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Was really privileged to see a screening of @drdavidtobin.bsky.social and Mirshad Ghalip’s “Echoes of Home” at this year’s AAS. Really excited to see that the trailer for it is getting a wide release. An excellent, funny, touching and thought provoking film.
youtu.be
Echoes of Home Extended Preview
YouTube video by Mirshad Ghalip & David Tobin
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