Diana Fu

Co-lead, Changing World Order area of focus, Munk School

Director, East Asia Seminar Series

Associate Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science

diana.fu@utoronto.ca

www.dianafu.ca/

@dianafutweets

Areas of interest

China
Civil society
Social movements & contentious politics
Authoritarian citizenship
Diaspora politics
Indoctrination and Youth

Biography

Main Bio

Diana Fu is associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto and a fellow at Brookings Institution, the Wilson Center, and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Her research examines popular contention, repression, civil society, and authoritarian citizenship in contemporary China. She is currently co-authoring a second book examining how the Chinese state governs the global diaspora (under contract, Cambridge). She is the author of “Mobilizing Without the Masses: Control and Contention in China” (Cambridge, 2018), which won best book awards from the American Political Science Association, the American Sociological Association, and the International Studies Association. Her research and commentary have appeared BBC, Bloomberg, CBC, CNN, NPR, the Economist, and The New York Times, among others. She was host of the TVO documentary series “China Here and Now” and of POLITICO China Watcher. Prof. Fu received her doctorate in Politics from Oxford University, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar and has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College. She regularly gives public lectures and participates in track 1.5 dialogues on Canada-China and U.S.-China relations.

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Books

Fu, D. (2018). Mobilizing Without the Masses: Control and Contention in China. New York: Cambridge University Press. Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics; Columbia University Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.
E. Dirks and Fu, D. In Progress. Governing Global China’s Diaspora. Under contract with Cambridge University Press Global China Elements Series.

Articles

Fu, D. and C. Göbel. (2024). “Exposing State Repression: Digital Discursive Contention by Chinese Protestors.” Studies in Comparative International Development. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-024-09428-0 [open access]
Hou, R. and D. Fu. (2024). “Sorting Citizens: Governing via China’s Social Credit System.”Governance. 37 (1). P.59-78.
Fu, D. (2023). “The Indoctrination Dimension of Repression: Televised Confessions Scripts in China.”Mobilization. Vol.28 (3), p.323-342
- Runner-up for the 2020 best paper award from the International Studies Association’s human rights section.
E. Dirks and D. Fu. (2022). “Governing Untrustworthy Civil Society in China.” The China Journal. 89 (Jan), p.24-44.
Fu, D. and E. Simmons. (2021). “Ethnographic Approaches to Contentious Politics: The What, How, and Why.” Lead article of the special issue, “Studying Contentions Politics: From Afar or Up-Close? Fu, D. (ed). Comparative Political Studies. Vol. 54 (10). 1695-1721.
- *Guest editor of the special issue, “Studying Contentions Politics: From Afar or Up-Close?” Comparative Political Studies. Vol. 54 (10).
Fu, D. and Distelhorst, G. (2020). “Political Participation and China’s Leadership Transition.” In Citizens & The State in Authoritarian Regimes. Bunce, V., Koesel, C. and J. Weiss, (eds). Oxford University Press. Ch.3, 59-86.
Distelhorst, G. and Fu, D. (2019). “Performing Authoritarian Citizenship: Public Transcripts in China.” Perspectives on Politics. Vol. 17(1). 106-121.
Media: “Chinese Officials Use Hotlines to Take Public’s Pulse.” The Economist. (Feb. 4, 2017).
Fu, D. and Distelhorst, G. (2018). “Grassroots Participation and Repression under Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping.” The China Journal, Vol. 79, (January). 100-122.
Media: “In China’s 'democracy village', no one wants to talk anymore.” Reuters. (Nov. 10, 2017).
- *Most read article in 2020-21.
Fu, D. (2017). “Disguised Collective Action in China.” Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 50, No. 4. 499-527. Qualitative methods appendix published online, (Oct. 2016).
- Co-winner of the 2018 editorial board’s best article award published in Comparative Political Studies.
Fu, D. (2017). “Fragmented Control: Governing Contentious Civil Society in China.” Governance. Vol. 30(3). 445-462.
- Winner of the 2019 American Sociological Association’s distinguished scholarly article award from the Labor and Labor Movements section.

Policy Reports

Dirks, E. and Fu, D. (2024). Policy brief. “China’s Overseas Police Stations: An Imminent Security Threat? Brookings Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors (INAA) and Illegal Economies.
Fu, D. (2022). Policy report. “Is Rights Advocacy Civil Society in China Dead? How the United States Should Navigate People-to-People Exchange in a New Era.” The Woodrow Wilson Center.
Fu, D. and E. Dirks. (2021). Policy report. “Xi Jinping-Style Control and Civil Society Responses.” China Leadership Monitor, The Hoover Institution. Sept. Issue.
Dirks, E. and D. Fu. (2021). Policy report. “Disaggregating Xi Jinping’s China.” in Behind the Headlines Series. Canadian International Council. Mar. 2.

Please see her website for more information: https://www.dianafu.ca/

Awards & recognition

2018 American Political Science Association Gregory Luebbert Award for best book in comparative politics published in the previous two years
2018 Editorial board’s best article award published in Comparative Political Studies.
2019 International Studies Association Best Book award from the International Political Sociology section
2019 American Sociological Association Charles Tilly Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship book award
2019 American Sociological Association’s distinguished scholarly article award from the Labor and Labor Movements section