Is It Ethical to Cooperate with Chinese State Institutions to Secure Incremental Change?

Debate streaming on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

Topics: World, Politics

As democratic governments, universities, and civil society organizations grapple with how to engage China, a central ethical question persists: should cooperation with Chinese state institutions, which tightly control everything from education to commerce, be pursued as a pathway to incremental change, or does such engagement ultimately legitimize repression and undermine fundamental freedoms? This debate, hosted in partnership with Open to Debate, brings together leading voices to examine the moral and strategic tradeoffs of engagement versus principled distance. Can working within constrained systems create meaningful progress, or are some compromises too costly to justify?

This debate is produced in partnership with the Human Rights Foundation and was recorded at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Oslo, Norway, on June 1, 2026.

ARGUING YES:

• Joanna Chiu: Managing Partner of Nüora Global Advisors

ARGUING NO:

• Isaac Stone Fish: CEO and Founder of Strategy Risks

MODERATOR-IN-CHIEF:

• John Donvan: Emmy award-winning journalist

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH