ChinaFile: What Future for International NGOs in China? by USALI Executive Director Katherine Wilhelm

USALI Executive Director Katherine Wilhelm recently published a commentary as part of a ChinaFile Conversation titled “What Future for International NGOs in China?” Wilhelm wrote:

No organization should compromise its mission in order to keep a China program active. And virtually no one would consciously do that: It could alienate staff and key stakeholders and court public controversy. Staying in China is not an end in itself. At the same time, it is difficult for large organizations to completely ignore China given its impact on the planet. The real dilemma, therefore, is figuring out how to achieve the organizational mission as it applies to China.

Read “What Future for International NGOs in China?”

USALI Affiliate News: Aaron Halegua named litigator of the year

The Human Trafficking Legal Center has named USALI affiliated scholar Aaron Halegua the On My Side 2021 Litigator of the Year for his “enormously impactful civil trafficking case on behalf of Chinese construction workers trafficked to Saipan to build casinos.” Mr. Halegua assisted more than 2,400 Chinese construction workers trafficked to Saipan to recover $14 million in back pay through the U.S. Department of Labor, and in May 2021 obtained a $5.9 million judgment from the U.S. district court in Saipan for the forced labor claims of seven of those workers. The Center said: “The case is the largest construction worker civil trafficking case ever seen in the federal courts. Aaron is a skilled and courageous leader in the anti-trafficking civil litigation field.” Register here to attend the Sept. 22 award ceremony.

USALI Affiliate News: Michael Davis to Testify Before Congressional Commission

Institute affiliated scholar Michael C. Davis, a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, will give testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on September 8, 2021 on the subject of “Beijing’s Assertion of ‘Complete Jurisdiction’ over Hong Kong. He will be part of an all-day hearing titled: “U.S.-China Relations in 2021: Emerging Risks.” Other topics to be discussed include markets, data, and export controls. A link to a livestream of the hearing is provided here. Mr. Davis’ written testimony can be found here.

Jerome A. Cohen receives lifetime achievement award from AFLA

The American Foreign Law Association (AFLA) gave its 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award in International Law to Jerome A. Cohen, founding director emeritus of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute.

The association presented the award on June 16 at its annual meeting. Its announcement said the honor recognized Professor Cohen’s “decades of major contributions to a better understanding of Trans-Pacific, international, and human rights law.”

Professor Cohen pioneered research and teaching about China’s contemporary legal system in American law schools in the 1960s. He taught at Harvard Law School from 1964 to 1979 and at New York University Law School beginning in 1990. He also is Of Counsel at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where he long represented foreign companies in contract negotiations and dispute resolution in China, Vietnam, and other countries in East Asia. Professor Cohen served for several years as C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and director of Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he currently is an adjunct senior fellow.