Commentary and Debate

The Persuasion: The Left, TikTok, and the World’s Biggest Police State

April 12, 2023

When Tik Tok arrived in the United States in 2017, it was framed as a harmless cultural export: a platform for dances, jokes, and viral creativity. But for anyone who had seen China’s surveillance state up close, its arrival felt ominous. Tik Tok is owned by ByteDance, a company deeply entangled with the Chinese Communist Party’s system of mass surveillance—one that has enabled the detention of up to 1.8 million Uyghurs in Xinjiang. While the West debates whether concerns about Tik Tok amount to xenophobia, the app has already played a quieter role: suppressing information about a genocide, normalizing authoritarian power, and testing how easily human rights abuses can be made invisible in plain sight.

‘The Great Successor’ Review: Pyongyang Confidential

March 9, 2020

In Kim Jong Un’s North Korea everyone seems to live in fear, even as living standards rise slightly thanks to minorreforms.

By Geoffrey Cain
The Wall Street Journal

Jun 11, 2019

The Failure to Define Fascism Today

March 9, 2020

Having only a hazy idea of what, exactly, fascism consists of makes it hard to explain why fascist rhetoric needs to be excluded from public discourse.

By Geoffrey Cain
The New Republic

Jun 3, 2019

North Korea Is Not Vietnam

March 9, 2020

Expecting the brutally repressive state to liberalize magically the way Vietnam did is a pipe dream.

By Geoffrey Cain
The New Republic

Feb 28, 2019

Fake News and the Death of Democracy in Cambodia

November 21, 2017

At half-past-midnight on September 3, more than 100 police raided the home of Cambodia’s opposition leader, Kem Sokha. The security forces hustled him away to a maximum-security prison just outside of Phnom Penh. More than two months later, he’s languishing in a cell, awaiting trial for treason.

By Geoffrey Cain
The Nation

Nov 21, 2017

How I Became an Ajumma

March 31, 2015

The Korean version of this essay appeared in the Kyunghyang Shinmun on 12 February 2015. The English version here has been published with the permission of the newspaper and the author.

By Geoffrey Cain
Kyunghyang Shinmun

Mar 31, 2015

This North Korean is getting rich off capitalism

March 26, 2015

SEOUL, South Korea — For many North Korean defectors, the escape to freedom in the South is, sadly, the start of another lifelong struggle.

By Geoffrey Cain
USA TODAY

Mar 26, 2015

Korea is pulling out all the stops to popularize its cuisine

March 22, 2015

SEOUL, South Korea — Until a few years ago, legions of food-loving Americans had never heard of bulgogi or kimchi, those Korean staples that are now available in most cities and towns across the country.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Mar 22, 2015

Activist plans to send 10,000 copies of ‘The Interview’ to North Korea by balloon

March 19, 2015

SEOUL, South Korea — If all goes according to plan, about 10,000 North Koreans will get to endure an hour of toilet humor from Seth Rogen and James Franco. And then watch a rocket-propelled grenade incinerate their supreme leader, Kim Jong Un.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Mar 19, 2015

I wanted to look like a K-Pop star. So I went to a plastic surgery clinic

March 13, 2015

SEOUL, South Korea — There is a glamorous nouveau riche neighborhood in Seoul called Gangnam. You may have heard the song. Gangnam is renowned for its culture of beauty and style. And its plastic surgery.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Mar 13, 2015

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Geoffrey Cain In The Media

How China Perfected the Surveillance State

March 25, 2025

Geoffrey Cain on Investigative Journalism, Authoritarian Power, and The Perfect Police State | In a wide-ranging conversation with Jennifer Grossman, CEO of The Atlas Society, investigative journalist Geoffrey Cain reflects on years spent reporting inside some of the world’s most restrictive regimes — and on the research behind his book The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey into China’s Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future.

Articles

Thanks to AI, Apple’s China problem is only getting worse

February 21, 2025

For years, Tim Cook insisted Apple could change China from the inside. Instead, China changed Apple.
The latest evidence? Apple spent billions developing cutting-edge electric vehicle battery technology with Chinese automaker BYD, only to watch its innovations become the cornerstone of BYD’s rise to global electric vehicle dominance. Apple walked away with nothing. China walked away with everything.
This isn’t just another story about corporate research and development gone wrong. It’s a cautionary tale about how even America’s most valuable company has become trapped in China’s web of technological control — and how that web is about to tighten even further.