Experts

Aynne Kokas

Fast Facts

  • Director, UVA East Asia Center
  • Non-resident scholar, Rice University’s Baker Institute of Public Policy
  • Member, Council on Foreign Relations
  • Fellow in the National Committee on United States-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program
  • Expertise on U.S.-China relations, cybersecurity, media industry

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • Asia
  • Domestic Affairs
  • Media and the Press
  • Science and Technology

Aynne Kokas is the C.K. Yen Professor at the Miller Center, director of UVA's East Asia Center, and a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. Kokas’ research examines Sino-U.S. media and technology relations. Her award-winning book Trafficking Data: How China Is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty (Oxford University Press, October 2022) argues that exploitative Silicon Valley data governance practices help China build infrastructures for global control. Her award-winning first book Hollywood Made in China (University of California Press, 2017) argues that Chinese investment and regulations have transformed the U.S. commercial media industry, most prominently in the case of media conglomerates’ leverage of global commercial brands. 

Kokas is a non-resident scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute of Public Policy, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a fellow in the National Committee on United States-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program.

She was a Fulbright Scholar at East China Normal University and has received fellowships from the Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Humanities, Mellon Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Japan’s Abe Fellowship, and other international organizations. Her writing and commentary have appeared globally in more than 50 countries and 15 languages. In the United States, her research and writing appear regularly in media outlets including CNBC, NPR’s MarketplaceThe Washington Post, and Wired. She has testified before the Senate Finance Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Aynne Kokas News Feed

Especially with most movie theaters in America shut down indefinitely. Aynne Kokas, author of “Hollywood Made in China,” said the tables have turned dramatically. “In March, it looked like the U.S. was actually poised to dramatically overtake the Chinese film market for 2020,” Kokas said. “Now it looks like we’re seeing the reverse.”
Aynne Kokas Marketplace
At this exercise on June 15, 2020, CNAS challenged the audience to spot the difference between real and synthetic media (digital forgeries). How will artificial intelligence (AI) enable media manipulation and advance illiberal uses of technology?
Aynne Kokas Center for a New American Security
And the issue of AMC Theatres’ foreign ownership — the country’s largest theater chain is owned by China-based Wanda Group — could present several issues, says Aynne Kokas, an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and the author of “Hollywood Made in China.” “First of all, it could be viewed as subsidizing a Chinese-owned media firm in an environment where there are serious questions about how Chinese media disinformation is functioning within the U.S. context,’ she says. The second issue is whether the movie distribution industry merits a government subsidy when other sectors, like health care and education, are also in need.
Aynne Kokas Variety
Aynne Kokas, assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, warned that Zoom is “allowing for local censorship to take precedence over academic freedom.” Now she’s considering that some of her online classes could put Chinese students in a “risky situation,” by assigning or discussing a reading “that might deal, for example, with a period of Chinese history that is perfectly fine to talk about in a US classroom, but might be a very profoundly difficult thing for a Chinese student in China.”
Aynne Kokas Quartz
Aynne Kokas, senior faculty fellow with the University of Virginia's Miller Center for Public Affairs, says that both the US and China are contending with a high level of domestic instability triggered by the global coronavirus pandemic and political events.
Aynne Kokas BBC
It has been one year since we started this show, and this is the 50th episode. It's a big moment, and comes at a big moment in history. So in this episode, we go back to the guests of our most popular episodes and take a look back and a look forward. Matt Rojansky joins me to talk about Russia, Aynne Kokas and Robert Daly discuss China, and Mike Sfraga talks about the Arctic. Fun for everyone!
Aynne Kokas Wilson Center Podcast