I write on a variety of topics related to culture and politics in East Asia and the U.S. My writing has been featured online and in print by a variety of publications.

Outside of my writing, my research on human rights and US-China relations has been published through the Hong Kong Democracy Council. I also occasionally present works-in-progress at academic conferences and comment on political issues through interviews, panel remarks, & public testimony.

A selection of my recent publications & public appearances are listed below. Please email mlw9751 (at) nyu (dot) edu for a full list of my writing, research, and media appearances.

Public Scholarship, Essays, & Op-eds

“The Microchip Titans.” Review essay (of Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska, The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, Crown Currency, 2025; Chris Miller, Chip War: The Fight For The World's Most Critical Technology, Scribner, 2022; and Honghong Tinn, Island Tinkerers: Innovation and Transformation in the Making of Taiwan’s Computing Industry, MIT Press, 2025), Los Angeles Review of Books, August 2025.

“American Far-Right Views Are Welcome in China.” Op-ed (co-authored with Maya Wang), Foreign Policy, June 2025.

Republished in Chinese as “美国极右派观点在中国广受欢迎” by Human Rights Watch, July 2025.

“See Me Like a State.” Review essay (of Minxin Pei, The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China, Harvard University Press, 2024), Public Books, November 2024.

“Chineseness and Other Fictions.” Long-form personal essay, Protean, August 2023 (published online June 2024).

“Confucius Envy.” Long-form essay, Commonweal, October 2022.

“On Belters, Beijingers, and Rat-Catchers.” Long-form literary criticism, Strange Horizons, September 2022.

“In the Mood for Loss.” Essay, The New Inquiry, August 2022.

Policy Research

The S.A.R. Network: Uncovering the Hong Kong Government’s Subnational Foreign-Influence Campaign in America. Policy report, Hong Kong Democracy Council, October 2024.

“Transnational Repression and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices,” written testimony solicited by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, September 2023.

The Counter-Lobby Confidential: How Beltway Insiders Do the Hong Kong Government’s Bidding. Policy report, Hong Kong Democracy Council, July 2023.

Business Not as Usual: International Companies in the New Authoritarian Hong Kong (with Brian Kern). Policy report, Hong Kong Democracy Council, October 2022.

Public Talks, Panels, & Conference Activity

“Translation by Law: On the Literary Lives of Enforced Misreadings," paper forthcoming at the ASAP/16: Worldmaking/Worldbreaking conference, October 2025.

Moderator, “Hong Kong: The Financial and Tech Gateway of China's Global Statecraft,” panel hosted by the Hong Kong Democracy Council and the Special Competitive Studies Project at the AI+ Expo, June 2025.

“Reading Legal and Literary Ambiguity in Taiwan,” paper presented at the Society of Sinophone Studies 3rd Biennial Conference: Engendering the Sinophone, May 2025.

Moderator, “Translingual Cartographies,” panel at Translation/Transnation at 25 (conference hosted by La Maison Française & the Remarque Institute at NYU), May 2025.

“Neoliberal Worldmaking, Literary Thinking, and the ‘Postcolonial’ Settlement in Hong Kong,” paper presented at the Modern Language Association annual conference, January 2025.

Speaker, “中共跨境鎮壓與國際滲透,” panel hosted by 如水 Flow HK, February 2024.

Speaker, “全球港人政治能量與去路,” panel hosted by 如水 Flow HK, January 2024.

Speaker, “An Introduction to Hong Kong Legislative Efforts in the U.S.,” panel at the 2023 Hong Kong Summit, July 2023.

Media Appearances

“Hong Kong ‘running local political influence campaign’ on US soil,” quoted in Radio Free Asia article, October 2024.

“报告揭港府驻外机构渗透美国政商界,” quoted in Radio Free Asia article, October 2024.

“報告指港經貿辦利用民間組織滲透美國　為中共與港府做宣傳,” quoted in Radio Free Asia article, October 2024.

“Hong Kong trade offices, academic exchange targeted in bills passed by US House,” quoted in South China Morning Post article, September 2024.

“Matthew Trickett 曾當港官保安揭露經貿辦真實性質,” quoted in Radio Free Asia article, May 2024.

“梵蒂岡希望升級與中國關係 被批「與惡人擊掌」|粵語新聞報 (05-23-2024), interviewed on television by RFA Cantonese, May 2024

“跨境鎮壓與國際滲透——《如水》論壇探討我們與惡的距離,” quoted in 如水 Flow HK article, April 2024.

“亚马逊新剧重现"雨伞运动" 香港看不了,” quoted in Radio Free Asia article, January 2024.

“港人海外倡議挑戰：中共跨境鎮壓、融入當地政治、臺灣國際處境,” quoted in 如水 Flow HK article, January 2024.

“The best-connected people the Hong Kong government can buy are lobbying the U.S. government,” interviewed by The China Project, July 2023.

“Hong Kong spent millions lobbying in U.S.: report,” quoted in Nikkei Asia article, July 2023.

“港府自「反送中」大灑逾 萬在美遊說 與官員互動過千次,” quoted in Radio Free Asia article, July 2023

Distributed by Radio Taiwan International as “2019「反送中」以來 港府大灑逾 億在美遊說.”

“Hong Kong government ‘spends millions’ to advance Beijing’s interests,” quoted in Radio Free Asia article, July 2023.