Events

The brutal repression of the peaceful protest on Tiananmen Square in June 1989 marked a turning point in Chinese history. Until that time the Communist Party had liberalised from Maoist orthodoxy and seemed destined to follow other Communist countries in the process of democratisation. Since then, the Chinese Communist Party had grown ever more repressive at home and more assertive abroad. At this event, Rt Hon Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP – perhaps Britain’s most vocal critic of China – is joined by Chinese dissident Wu’er Kaixi, one of the key organisers of the 1989 student protests in Tiananmen Square, Hong Kong Activist Chloe Cheung, and Professor Matt Qvortrup, author of 15 books on democracy, to discuss the dire state of affairs in China. Prepare to be depressed and shocked.

Speakers:

Wu’er Kaixi (Uerkesh Davlet in Uyghur), was born a Uyghur national in China in 1968. He was one of the founders and key organizers of the 1989 Tiananmen student movement. No. 2 on the Chinese government’s list of most-wanted student leaders after the June 4 massacre, he fled the country and started his life anew in exile. Wu’er Kaixi remains a prominent Chinese dissident, assisting in founding the Federation for a Democratic China and other democratic movement organizations. He is one of the most sought-after opinion leaders on issues regarding Chinese politics. His commentaries are published in many media outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and CNN.com. He is a frequent guest on major political talk shows such as CNN’s “Amanpour Show” and BBC’s “Hard Talk.”

He currently lives in Taiwan, where he remains a human rights and democracy activist, a political commentator, a documentary film producer, and a columnist. He addresses issues related to Chinese politics, the Uyghur genocide, the Hong Kong democratic movement, and Taiwan’s international role. In a hearing at the US Congress and a recent meeting with the US speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, his remark on the US-led Western democracies’ “appeasement” policy was widely reported and applauded within US policy circles. He serves as the General Secretary of the Taiwan Parliamentary Human Rights Commission, Emeritus Board Member of Reporters Without Borders, Chairman of the Taiwan Association for Democracy in China, Honorary President of the Ilham Tohti Institute, and Honorary Chairman of the Campaign For Uyghurs.

Chloe Cheung is a Hong Kong activist at the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation. Founded in 2022, it aims to free all of Hong Kong political prisoners. The Foundation campaigns to ensure there are international consequences for China’s broken promise to uphold the Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration in Hong Kong through ongoing international advocacy. In December 2024, Hong Kong authorities placed a HK$1 million bounty on her. Despite the threats, she bravely testified to the UK Parliament and has been featured in major media outlets such as the BBC and the Sunday Times.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP was educated at Dunchurch College of Management, the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, the Universita per Stranieri in Perugia and HMS Conway in Anglesey. As part of the Scots Guards, Iain saw active service in Northern Ireland and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and served in Canada and Germany. Iain later worked for GEC-Marconi, a defence company, and Bellwinch, a property company. He has also been on the board of Jane’s Information Group, a publishing company. Iain married Betsy in 1982 and they have four children – Harry, Edward, Rosie and Alicia.

Iain was elected Member of Parliament for Chingford in 1992, and he was re-elected in 1997 as Member of Parliament for the re-drawn constituency of Chingford and Woodford Green. Iain was promoted to William Hague’s Shadow Cabinet in 1997. As Shadow Secretary of State for Social Security, Iain exposed Labour’s hypocrisy and failure on welfare reform. When he was promoted to Shadow Defence Secretary, he exposed the Government’s failure to give British forces sufficient funding and equipment.

In 2001, Iain was elected Leader of the Conservative Party. After stepping down in 2003, he set up the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), an independent think tank committed to tackling poverty and social breakdown. Iain worked tirelessly as Chairman of the CSJ until the 2010 General Election, when he was appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. He served in this position until March 2016.

In 2020, Iain co-founded the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), with politicians from eight other leading democracies. IPAC is a cross-party group of around 250 parliamentary legislators from 35 countries working to reform the approach of democracies towards China. In 2021, Iain, alongside other parliamentarians, were sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for calling out the risk China poses to the UK. As well as chairing the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Magnitsky Sanctions, Iain is Chair for the APPG on Gambling Harm.

Iain was re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Chingford and Woodford Green in July 2024.

Professor Matt Qvortrup, an award winning writer, broadcaster, and academic, earned his doctorate in political science at Oxford University. Described by The Financial Times as “a world authority on referendums”, his work straddles politics, social neuroscience and statistics . The author of more than 15 single authored books (including, ‘I Want to Break Free: A Practical Guide to Making a New Country’ (Manchester University Press 2022), Death By A Thousand Cuts (DeGruyter 2023), and The Political Brain (CEU Press 2024), he is also a Senior Research Fellow at The Australian National University and an adjunct professor at LUISS in Rome

A frequent presenter of the BBC Radio 4’s Analysis Programme, he writes a regular column for Philosophy Now.