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

Aynne Kokas, a Kluge fellow at the Library of Congress who specializes in Chinese media, says propaganda depicting America in a state of chaos actually works.
Aynne Kokas NPR All Things Considered
Aynne Kokas, a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia who has long been concerned about the development of China's film and television industry, and the author of "Hollywood Made in China," told Radio Free Asia that the outbreak caused the Chinese government to review the film and television industry Control is further intensified.
Aynne Kokas Radio Free Asia
Aynne Kokas, Chinese film researcher and media studies professor at the University of Virginia, likewise sees fan activities -- including the attack on AO3 -- as an means of expression when other options are limited. "I think people are reaching out to try to find some way to express [themselves]. ... It's a prevailing overall frustration that emerges through the media landscape," she said. "Fandom has been one form of agency... People feel that they want to reach out and demand things from their government."
Aynne Kokas Nikkei Asian Review
Join us for a virtual edition of the Ambassador William C. Battle Symposium on American Diplomacy as we take an in-depth look at U.S.–Chinese relations during a time of global upheaval. You can join us for all of the presentations, or just some of them. Feel free to come and go as needed.
Aynne Kokas Miller Center Presents
Aynne Kokas is a Kluge Fellow and an Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. Dr. Kokas testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in March 2018, and was scheduled to testify before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on Chinese censorship of American industry on March 26. That testimony has been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. For this blog, I spoke with her about her research on relations between China and the United States in regard to data gathering technologies.
Aynne Kokas Library of Congress
China appears to be returning to work after making progress in containing COVID-19. At the same time, reports suggest that the nation has concealed the true extent of the outbreak. And Sino-American relations appear to be in flux, with President Trump calling the novel coronavirus a "Chinese virus" at the same time he says the two nations are in "constant communication" about the pandemic. Miller Center China experts Brantly Womack and Aynne Kokas will discuss the geopolitics of COVID-19 and take your questions in a discussion moderated by Miller Center director William Antholis.
Aynne Kokas Miller Center Presents