Description Mr. Zhou Fengsuo, one of the leading organizers of the Tiananmen Square protests, discusses Activism, Digital Totalitarianism, and the Future of China. Today China stands at odds with the United States more than ever. This is far from the enthusiastic welcome China received into the world order in 2001. Globalization of trade did not result in the liberalization in China many had assumed was inevitable. Before the Western world attempted to liberalize China from the outside, there were efforts from within. Mr. Zhou Fengsuo, is one such voice of dissent. In 1989, he was a physics student at Tsinghua University when he became one of the leading organizers of the Tiananmen Square protests. Zhou Fengsuo (born 1967 in Xi'an, China) was a physics student at Tsinghua University when he became one of the leading organizers of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. He served on the Standing Committee of the Beijing Students’ Autonomous Union, founded the protests’ official radio station “The Voice of the Student Movement,” and coordinated medical assistance for hunger-striking protesters. After the crackdown, he was listed number five on the government's most-wanted list and was forced into exile in the United States. He has spent the decades since as a tireless advocate for democracy in China. He currently serves as Executive Director of Human Rights in China, and his recent work focuses on combating the Chinese Communist Party's use of AI and digital surveillance tools to suppress dissent. Made possible by the Davidson Institute for Global Security at Dartmouth and the Alexander Hamilton Society Dartmouth College, October 12, 2026