- Economics
- China
- History
- Education
- Higher Education
- Confronting and Competing with China
Dr. Elizabeth Economy sits down with Dr. Rowena He to explore her journey from participating in pro-democracy demonstrations during the 1989 Tiananmen protests to becoming a leading scholar on Chinese human rights. She recounts how the June 4th crackdown shattered her generation's hopes, forcing survivors to publicly conform while doing their best to keep the memory of the movement alive. The two then turn to He’s experience teaching at the Chinese University of Hong Kong during the 2019 protests, where she supported students while drawing connections to 1989, before being forced to flee Hong Kong in 2022 under threatening circumstances. He emphasizes that international support and pressure on human rights remain crucial, not just morally but practically, since human rights violations in China ultimately impact the entire world, and insists that despite decades of setbacks, history will ultimately favor those fighting for truth and justice.
Recorded on January 12, 2026.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Rowena He is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a historian of modern China. A specialist of the 1989 Tiananmen Movement and its subsequent massacre, she is interested in the nexus of history, memory, and power. Her writing, teaching, and public speaking focus on the history of politics and the politics of history and their implications on public opinion, human rights, nationalism, democratization, and war and peace.
Her first book, Tiananmen Exiles: Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China, was named in the Top Five China Books of 2014 by the Asia Society’s ChinaFile. Dr. He’s teaching has been featured by the Harvard Magazine, The Wellesley News, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. She received the Harvard University Certificate of Teaching Excellence for three consecutive years.
- Follow Rowena He on Linkedin: Rowena He
Elizabeth Economy is the Hargrove Senior Fellow and co-director of the Program on the US, China, and the World at the Hoover Institution. From 2021-2023, she took leave from Hoover to serve as the senior advisor for China to the US Secretary of Commerce. Before joining Hoover, she was the C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and director, Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the author of four books on China, including most recently The World According to China (Polity, 2021), and the co-editor of two volumes. She serves on the boards of the National Endowment for Democracy and the National Committee on US-China Relations. She is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group and Council on Foreign Relations and serves as a book reviewer for Foreign Affairs.
ABOUT THE SERIES
China Considered with Elizabeth Economy is a Hoover Institution podcast series that features in-depth conversations with leading political figures, scholars, and activists from around the world. The series explores the ideas, events, and forces shaping China’s future and its global relationships, offering high-level expertise, clear-eyed analysis, and valuable insights to demystify China’s evolving dynamics and what they may mean for ordinary citizens and key decision makers across societies, governments, and the private sector.
