Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian of AXIOS on China’s rising influence and the threat to human rights

In recent years, the Chinese government has escalated its persecution of religious minorities. The communist regime is using totalitarian tactics of forced labor, mass sterilization, and pervasive surveillance targeting Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Since 2017, China has detained more than one million Uyghurs in concentration camps. Countering China morally for these atrocities is a key part of the ERLC’s international engagement. To continue that work, Jeff Pickering and Chelsea Patterson Sobolik welcomed Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian of Axios to share her reporting on China.

“China is committing a cultural genocide against an ethnic minority and the world is basically, hardly even blinking. And that matters because this shows the kind of government, and the kind of ideology, that is driving what will be the most powerful country later in the 21st century.”– Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, Axios China

Guest Biography

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian is the China reporter at Axios, where she covers China’s influence in the United States and abroad. Before joining Axios, she served as the lead reporter for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ China Cables project, a major leak of classified Chinese government documents revealing the inner workings of mass internment camps in Xinjiang. She also previously worked as a national security reporter for The Daily Beast and as an editor and reporter for Foreign Policy magazine. Allen-Ebrahimian holds a Masters in East Asian studies from Yale University. She is the author of the weekly Axios China newsletter. 

Resources from the Conversation

• Connect with Bethany on Twitter | @BethanyAllenEbr
• Sign up for Bethany’s newsletter | Axios China
• Read Bethany’s reporting on China’s human rights abuses | U.S. sanctions Chinese officials over Uighur hhuman rights abuses + Disney’s Mulan was filmed in Xinjiang amid cultural genocide + China is censoring Hollywood’s imagination 
• The U.S. should oppose China’s forced labor practices by Chelsea Patterson Sobolik
• How the Chinese Communist Party is persecuting Uyghur Muslims by Chelsea Patterson Sobolik and Michael Sobolik
• Download the Courage and Civility Church Kit
• Subscribe to ERLC’s Policy Newsletter