Distinguished Professor of Chinese Politics @UofT. Director, China Governance Lab @MunkSchool.
Toronto. 🇨🇦
Joined April 2010
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Have you heard of the "50 Cent Party" (五毛党)? It refers to internet commentators hired by the CCP -- rumored to be paid 50 cents per post -- for pro-government posts to sway public opinion and manipulate online discourse. The term became popular when the internet first emerged in China in the early 2000s.
Twenty years later, the "50 Cent Party" has evolved into a multi-million dollar profit-making industry using sophisticated technology and human skills to cater for strong Party-state's demand to surveil and censor online discourse.
Our book studies the Chinese Party-state's outsourcing of surveillance of online discourse to private firms and for-profit state entities. Drawing on government procurement data, we examine systematically the digital surveillance services that are outsourced, to whom they are outsourced and the implications for state-busines relations, and digital statecraft.
"Outsourcing Surveillance: Online Opinion Management in China" is OPEN ACCESS until June 24.
Link here: shorturl.at/lVpmw
Don’t miss your chance to read the new Cambridge element, Outsourcing Surveillance by Lynette Ong, Huihua Nie and Jesslene Lee! Free access available until 24 June at
cup.org/4ux980l
#cambridgeelements #politics
Lynette Ong retweeted
八月 #季風人文講壇 來了！翻譯、歷史記憶、民族認同、數字時代的自由——滿洲學者如何改寫二戰時間線、台灣民主的興起與未來、「民族」如何想像出「國家」、網絡監控的市場化、以及小說裡的2019香港——語言、歷史、國家、技術交織之下,我們如何理解和想像另一種可能。
在線報名 jfbooks.org/pages/jfsalon-20…
Lynette Ong retweeted
Beijing knows digital surveillance of the world’s most populous nation is technologically demanding. So the Party has hired corporations to occupy the “public-opinion battlefield” and spot the trouble before it spreads.
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/9…
Lynette Ong retweeted
Huge congratulations to Professor Jacob Tsimerman of the University of Toronto on receiving the Fields Medal — one of the highest honours in mathematics.
Nearly a century after Canadian mathematician J.C. Fields established this award in Toronto, it comes home.
ALT Screenshot of an article from CBC News. The headline reads: University of Toronto mathematician Jacob Tsimerman wins Fields Medal.
The other things Emily and Vivian have in common are — their gender and ethnicity. Elephant in the room. I’m sure these exits also incur invisible costs, even unspoken, despite the attention they have garnered.
Lynette Ong retweeted
So much of what Vivian writes here resonates. Most of my reporting was about the daily lives of ordinary people and culture. Of course I also had to report on shortcomings as well. But I will never know precisely why I wasn’t allowed to return to China.
.@vwang3: “The Chinese government is opaque. We don’t know exactly why it chose to cancel my visa. But what became clear throughout my time in China is that the old assumptions about what is ‘sensitive’ no longer apply.”
nytimes.com/2026/07/14/world…
Lynette Ong retweeted
Protests have taken place in Madison, Wisconsin, after a man was shot and killed by a police officer on Wednesday as a bystander captured graphic video of the incident, which was widely shared on social media and is fueling tensions in the city. wapo.st/3RQLcHV
Lynette Ong retweeted
Zohran Mamdani says New York City can't arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits for the U.N. General Assembly, but he says the federal government should.
Lynette Ong retweeted
In 2016, Taiwan's economy was reliant on China. The former Asian Tiger's GDP grew by 2%.
A decade later, Taiwan has pivoted away from China to a more diversified trade portfolio, with the US as its top trade partner. It is projecting 10% growth this year.
thewirechina.com/2026/07/19/…
Lynette Ong retweeted
In roughly a week, three people have been killed related to encounters with ICE. This is what we know so far about the cases.
Lynette Ong retweeted
"So long as businesses are willing to collaborate with the state, it will be hard for society to find a counterweight against market-enhanced digital repression."
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/9…
Lynette Ong retweeted
I would encourage all Zimbabweans 🇿🇼 to read this:
Bulldozers, Violent Thugs, and Nonviolent Brokers | Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Contemporary China.
You will understand why gifts are being showered like confetti by the Emmerson Mnangagwa regime.
Lynette Ong retweeted
open.substack.com/pub/ongab/…
Zimbabwe’s 282 traditional chiefs constitute the ruling party’s oldest and most durable outsourced-repression channel — a rural governance layer built by colonial administrators, inherited intact by ZANU-PF, and sustained today through a standing patronage economy of vehicles, allowances, fuel, and infrastructure rather than one-off payment.
Applying Lynette Ong’s Outsourcing Repression framework, chiefs function as social brokers: nonstate actors who mobilize compliance through embedded community standing rather than coercion, giving the state a persuasive channel that reads as legitimate authority rather than force.
This book looks interesting! @DubstepInDPRK
REDS, REVOLUTIONS, AND REBELLIONS by Benjamin R. Young investigates how insurgent strategies from three revolutionary states—Mao's #China, Guevara's #Cuba, and Ho Chi Minh's #Vietnam—shaped the tactics of armed movements across the Global South. #ColdWar #History #Global
Learn more here:
ow.ly/lZga50YrFS6
Lynette Ong retweeted
Textbook example of outsourcing transnational repression.
7月1日，纽约中领馆外。
一束投影出现后，一名多次出现在现场的 Epic Security 保安开始推搡、出拳、抢夺设备。
两名行动成员腹部多次受击，一人被打到跪地。
一台全新 GoPro 被从胸前扯下，扔出约十米。
行动成员全程没有还手。
他们以为出拳是在阻止我们。
但在自由世界里，拳头不会让人们畏惧，因为他们打出的每一拳，都会遭到法律的反击。
验伤报告、刑事报案、执照投诉，正在进行中。
#光覆之路运动
#《来抓我呀》7月全球系列行动
Man Killed by Federal Agent in Houston Was Not the Target of ICE Search nytimes.com/2026/07/09/us/wi… via @NYTimes
Lynette Ong retweeted
"The CCP, aware of social media's potential to amplify extreme public sentiment, continues to keep close tabs on online discourse. Despite the party-state's best efforts, however, heated online discourse can still ignite public grievances..."
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/9…
I'm pleased to speak to @bbcchinese at length on this analytical piece about new rules in the Petition System.
中國實施信訪新規：有學者指「最終目的是減少進北京上訪者」bbc.com/zhongwen/articles/cl…
English translation here:
open.substack.com/pub/onglyn…
The Chinese are not into the Scandinavian model. But, if forced, nothing can be ruled out.
#时报专栏 想要安全感、医疗保障以及美国梦？不妨把目光投向斯堪的纳维亚。北欧人比美国人更长寿，也更幸福。“事实上，我们才生活在美国梦之中，”曾任挪威首相的延斯·斯托尔滕贝格说。“美国梦在北欧国家比在美国本土更接近现实。”cn.nytimes.com/opinion/20260…
Lynette Ong retweeted
“For the first round she has a crushing lead.” Marine Le Pen says she will run in next year’s French presidential election. @PedderSophie analyses her prospects—and her dynasty economist.com/podcasts/2026/…
