Associate Professor, Dept of Politics and Public Administration, The University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Joined November 2012
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Why does China need this Ethnic Unity Law? @ThinkChinaSG thinkchina.sg/politics/sovie…
Enze Han retweeted
Where resistance persists, as in parts of Xinjiang and Tibet, the law’s success will depend on empirical evidence of whether those benefits are felt widely and fairly on the ground, and on whether integration can proceed without forcing communities to give up what they value.
tinyurl.com/4vchxjvy
My take on the controversial Ethnic Unity Law in China: From Soviet autonomy to a Chinese melting pot: Why China wants ethnic unity now | ThinkChina thinkchina.sg/politics/sovie…
Enze Han retweeted
More than half of Americans support “friendly cooperation and engagement” with China.
For Democrats, it’s 2/3.
From a new Chicago Council survey: globalaffairs.org/research/p…
Enze Han retweeted
All this anguish over the reception that Trump is extending to Xi has me fondly recalling the memoirs of every American diplomat.
The Chinese, they say, are obsessed with diplomatic protocol. We practical Americans couldn’t care less about form, we just focus on the substance.
Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker ripped the decision to invite Xi for a state dinner.
"Had the White House asked me for advice, I would have suggested the president not invite Xi Jinping to Washington for such a lavish welcome," he said. politico.com/live-updates/20…
Funny enough on this case, the one needs petitioning is US government in terms of who is it willing to trade.
On June 3, 2026, Min Zin, the Executive Director of the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar), was wrongfully detained while traveling to Kunming, China, for an academic conference. The detention of Min Zin, an independent scholar, raises serious concerns for academic freedom and the safety of scholars, independent researchers, and civil society organizations. Moreover, the continued detention of an independent scholar risks undermining the People’s Republic of China’s long-term efforts to foster people-to-people relations and mutual understanding between China and Myanmar. Such actions may also contribute to growing public mistrust toward authorities and institutions. ISP-Myanmar respectfully urges the Chinese authorities to facilitate Min Zin's safe and immediate release and hopes that he will be able to reunite with his family, colleagues and friends soon.
#FreeMinZin
Enze Han retweeted
“Thailand routinely recognises Beijing as the sole legal government of China and Taiwan as an inalienable part of it. But this statement went further, adding that Thailand ‘firmly supported peaceful reunification and will not support any call for the independence of Taiwan’ and that Thailand ‘supported China’s one country, two systems policy’.”
Thai attitudes to the Taiwan Strait track their views on democracy at home, turning a distant dispute into a domestic dividing line, writes Enze Han.
eastasiaforum.org/2026/08/27…
Enze Han retweeted
Thai attitudes to the Taiwan Strait track their views on democracy at home, turning a distant dispute into a domestic dividing line, writes Enze Han.
eastasiaforum.org/2026/08/27…
My piece on the entanglement of cross strait #taiwan #china relations in domestic politics of Southeast Asia #thailand eastasiaforum.org/2026/08/27…
Enze Han retweeted
Han Enze: “Southeast Asian people’s perceptions of China are…based on…the PRC’s economic conditions. When more people realize…China is becoming a much more developed economy and that its living standards are actually very high…appreciation will grow.”
uscnpm.substack.com/p/chinas…
Enze Han retweeted
Takeaway: Empathy is no substitute for policy. But a low-cost prompt asking people to see displacement from the inside may create space for more humane refugee protection (9/9).
Read the open-access paper:
doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.202…
Enze Han retweeted
Two months later, respondents who had received the exercise showed no erosion in support, while those newly exposed became significantly more supportive.
Ths is encouraging but the smaller follow-up samples mean durability remains provisional (8/9).
Enze Han retweeted
Why did it work? Mediation analysis suggests perspective-taking strengthened the belief that accepting refugees is morally right and could improve Thailand’s international reputation—not perceptions of economic, security, or health risks (7/9).
Enze Han retweeted
What did not consistently move opinion?
Information about UN cost-sharing, other ASEAN countries’ responses, or humanitarian suffering.
In this setting, actively imagining displacement mattered more than receiving additional information (6/9).
Enze Han retweeted
The main result: Perspective-taking increased support for accepting Myanmar refugees by 7.4 percentage points—and for Thailand joining the Refugee Convention by 8.4 points. The effects survived corrections for multiple testing (5/9).
Enze Han retweeted
The perspective-taking exercise was simple:
Imagine you are fleeing persecution. What could you carry? Where would you go? What would be the greatest challenge?
This brief exercise moved attitudes more than any of the information-based treatments (4/9).