Sophie Richardson

Sophie Richardson is currently researching democracies’ support for human rights in China. She served as the China Director at Human Rights Watch, overseeing the organization’s research and advocacy on China from 2006 to 2023. She has published extensively on human rights and political reform in the country and across Southeast Asia. She has testified to the Canadian Parliament, European Parliament, and the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Richardson is the author of China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (Columbia University Press, 2009), an in-depth examination of China’s foreign policy since the 1954 Geneva Conference, including rare interviews with Chinese policymakers. She speaks Mandarin, and received her Doctorate from the University of Virginia and her B.A. from Oberlin College.