Excited for the new publication in @TheChinaJournal w my grad student and soon incoming @Uva_EAC post-doc @WendyZhou502 on #Chinese public sentiments about #Russia's war in #Ukraine. Free copy for first 50 clicks here: journals.uchicago.edu/eprint…. Thread with our arguments below
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Maria Repnikova retweeted
NEW! If you think it's easy for China to expand its soft power in the Global South, then you need to listen to this discussion with the amazing @MariaRepnikova of Georgia State University. This conversation, which draws on her new book, Competing for Soft Power, highlights all of the ways China is TRYING to shape its image in Ethiopia, but also the very mixed results it is having. And given Ethiopia's political system, if China is having difficulty there, it means likely even greater challenges elsewhere. Listen here: csis.org/podcasts/china-fiel…
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PIP Fellow Maria Repnikova (@MariaRepnikova) joins PIP Fellow Xiaoyu Pu (@pu_xiaoyu) to discuss China's soft power strategy in Africa, focusing on Ethiopia as a case study. Repnikova identifies three mechanisms behind China's approach: material incentives, values promotion, and narrative control, finding a far messier picture on the ground than most accounts suggest. Ethiopian recipients aren't just recipients: Repnikova's fieldwork shows them negotiating and appropriating China's overtures on their own terms. Watch the full interview: ncuscr.org/video/competing-f… #USChinaRelations #SoftPower #ChinaAfrica
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Maria Repnikova retweeted
“Competing for Soft Power” by @MariaRepnikova!!! Congrats!!!! cup.org/4bkdvVK
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My new book, COMPETING FOR SOFT POWER is just out with @CambridgeUP. Through extensive fieldwork in Ethiopia and China, I decide China's "image-making," both its ambitions and inconsistencies. Please check it out: tinyurl.com/4hbxebxu
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I want to be at this party!
Genova, i have no words what just happened. I saw people dancing from all ages. Everyone smiling and dancing to the beat. Honestly, the whole thing is making me a bit emotional. These are very powerful moments. I’m beyond honored to have been able to play for you today ❤️
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Definitely
The absurd Orban claims of fraud and foreign interference are gonna be a good preview of GOP claims of fraud and foreign interference after the mid-terms.
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Sometimes one needs to remind people of the credentials.
I have a PhD in political science from Oxford, focused on US foreign policy; worked as a State Dept. official in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East; and wrote a celebrated foreign policy book taught at universities like Princeton. That's why I get geopolitical questions.
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Maria Repnikova retweeted
Replying to @MariaRepnikova
Thanks so much for this generous praise, Maria! I really appreciate it! As I said elsewhere, I hope readers will enjoy the book as much as I enjoyed reading the novels.
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Maria Repnikova retweeted
Iranians are forming human chains on bridges — standing together against threats of destruction. This is today on the White Bridge in Ahvaz, Iran. Trump and Israel’s criminal war has united all of Iranian society — every faith, every class — in defense of their homeland.
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Congratulations to @HanRongbin! It’s on my fall syllabus. Everything Rongbin writes is original, rigorous and fascinating.
Thrilled to share that my new book Make China Great Again: Online Alt-History Fiction and Popular Authoritarianism (Columbia UP) has come out. This is the first book studying China's Internet literature, esp. alt-history fiction from the perspective of authoritarian legitimation.
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On my list! Congratulations!
Time for a grand announcement Ilya Budraitskis and me wrote a book. It's out in September 2026
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My new book, Competing for Soft power: #China's Image-Making in #Africa now has a cover and endorsements and is available for pre-order: cambridge.org/core/books/com…
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Such delicate creatures!
Ladies, all those men telling you to smile—they were actually just being mega perceptive
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Maria Repnikova retweeted
I think it's best for everyone to understand that the unified class project of billionaires right now is to do to white collar workers what globalization and neoliberalism did to blue collar workers.
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.@mackenziescott you have the opportunity to do an extremely funny (and genuinely heroic) thing right now
You could launch a full-up newspaper from the 300 people laid off by the Washington Post 3 hours ago. Instantly. Business. Sports. Metro. Ukraine. China. AI & tech. They'd start writing this afternoon! A 300-person newsroom would cost about $80 million a year (running a little lean). Just saying. I hear there are some billionaires out there looking for places to invest.
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Same.
Through it all, I kept my @washingtonpost subscription, mostly to support the brave and important work that its reporters—both my friends and people I'd never bet—were still doing. After today's unconscionable firings, I've canceled my subscription. Because fuck that.
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Sigh.
Jeff Bezos wealth in 2024: $194 billion Jeff Bezos wealth in 2025: $215 billion Jeff Bezos wealth today: $249.4 billion Net increase in Bezos wealth since 2024: $55.4 billion Cost of Bezos’s 417-foot superyacht: $500 million Amazon investment in "Melania": $75 million Original Bezos purchase price of the Washington Post in 2013: $250 million Bezos net worth in 2013: $25.2 billion Net increase in Bezos wealth since buying the Post: $224.2 billion Last reported annual losses of Post: $100 million Number of years Bezos could absorb those losses with what he makes in a single week: 5 @JeffBezos
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Absolutely. Makes me think about a recent conference I went to on oligarchy, where I learned that modern billionaires have no interest in society or in public good.
always bears repeating that this is NOT ultimately a financial decision. jeff bezos is worth over 250 billion dollars. he can afford to lose many millions and never even notice it. this is, at its core, a political and personal decision by bezos to destroy the post
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Incredible and deeply troubling.
The @WashPost has now laid off its Asia editor, its New Delhi bureau chief, its Sydney bureau chief, its Cairo bureau chief, the entire Middle East reporting team, China correspondents, Iran correspondents, Turkey correspondents, and many more. The world is becoming less America-centric by the minute while the United States is becoming more America-centric than ever. It is just a depressing yet somehow perfect summation of our current moment that one of the most important newspapers in the history of the country - one that has actually shaped the history of the United States - doesn't think reporting on the world is of any use anymore. What an utterly perfect encapsulation of where we have arrived.
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