Dr. Dai in NYT

As U.N. Rights Chief Visits China, Some Fear She’ll Become Part of the Spin

Vivian Wang and Austin Ramzy (May 27, 2022)

China in recent years has exercised considerable influence on the Human Rights Council, which works closely with the commissioner’s office, said Yaoyao Dai, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who studies Chinese propaganda. If the report ends up being positive, China can hail it as vindication. And if not, she continued, China can dismiss the commissioner’s office as a tool of its enemies. “Either way, state media has the strategy to respond,” she said.

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Why Are China’s Nationalists Attacking the Country’s Heroes?

Joy Dong and Vivian Wang (March 26, 2024)

“While nationalism and populism are quite useful tools, they are pretty dangerous as well,” said Yaoyao Dai, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who has studied Chinese populism. “The government needs and wants to be the one that shapes the narrative. They cannot just give everyone this power to shape the narrative of who are ‘the people’ and who is ‘the enemy.’”

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