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.

Last Updated: January 22, 2024

Conversation

08.18.15

How Should the U.S. Conduct the Xi Jinping State Visit?

Evan A. Feigenbaum, Arthur Waldron & more
As tensions increase between China and the United States over the value of the yuan, human rights violations, alleged cyber attacks, and disputed maritime territories, among other issues, how should the Obama administration conduct the upcoming...

Viewpoint

07.07.15

U.S. Should Make More Public Statements About China’s Human Rights

Sophie Richardson
When China’s leader Xi Jinping comes to the United States for his first state visit in September, will U.S. leaders use the summit to address the country’s deteriorating human rights conditions?Not if the U.S. performance at June’s Strategic and...