Sophie Richardson Joins Chinese Human Rights Defenders Network
Specialist on Human Rights in China Named Co-Executive Director
(January 2, 2025) – Sophie Richardson, a veteran human rights advocate and a leading scholar of Chinese politics, human rights, and foreign policy, has been named the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders’ Co-Executive Director, the organization said today. Dr. Richardson assumes the position on January 2, 2025.
The Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) is a coalition of Chinese and international human rights non-governmental organizations. The network is dedicated to the promotion of human rights through peaceful efforts to push for democratic and rule of law reforms and to strengthen grassroots activism in China. Founded in 2005, CHRD is recognized globally by civil society, governments, United Nations bodies, and journalists as a key source of expertise, support and information.
“Dr. Richardson brings decades of research expertise, rigorous analytic skills, and a bold vision for a strategic rights-based approach to addressing systemic human rights challenges in China,” said Renee Xia, CHRD’s founding director, who will share the co-executive directorship.
In 2024, Dr. Richardson was a Visiting Scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University, where her research focused on democracies’ capacity to challenge the Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party’s increasingly global human rights violations. Her forthcoming book is titled Great Changes Unseen in a Century: How to Save Democracy and Human Rights from Xi Jinping.
From 2006 to 2023, Dr. Richardson served as the China Director at Human Rights Watch, overseeing the organization’s research and advocacy. She has published extensively on human rights and testified to the Canadian Parliament, European Parliament, and the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Dr. Richardson is the author of China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (Columbia University Press, Dec. 2009).
Dr. Richardson earned her doctorate from the University of Virginia, a certificate from the Hopkins-Nanjing Program, and her BA from Oberlin College. She first went to China in August 1989, living in or traveling frequently to Beijing, Hong Kong, Kunming, and Nanjing over the subsequent years until being sanctioned by the Chinese government in July 2021.
Dr. Richardson will co-direct CHRD’s programmatic, operational, legal and policy, and development work, with specific focus on research, advocacy, and communications. She brings to the role decades working with activists, building strong teams and broad coalitions, and pressing those in power to prioritize the views and protection of human rights defenders from China.
“Human rights defenders across and from China are essential on every crucial issue, from women’s rights to free speech, from the climate crisis to crimes against humanity—yet they face unprecedented threats from Xi’s government,” Richardson said. “I am humbled to work with CHRD’s extraordinary team in service of this community.”
For more information, please contact:
Renee Xia, Co-Executive Director, CHRD
