Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · 8d

My wonderful @forestry.ubc.ca PhD student Joachim Stassart has an article out in Political Geography on corruption and land grabs in Brazil!
doi.org/10.1016/j.po...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Hijacking legality: Corruption and property creation in Brazil's frontiers

Corruption undermines natural resource governance and conservation efforts, fueling deforestation and violence against land and environmental defender…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Juliet Lu (she/her/hers)

Thomas Hale @thomasnhale.bsky.social · Jul 4

China's astounding ability to build and deploy renewables, batteries, and EVs is perhaps the brightest spark in the global fight against climate change.

But @yixiansun.bsky.social and I ask what would it really take for China to lead www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/02/07/2...

What Would It Take for China to Be a Global Environmental Leader?

Thomas Hale and Yixian Sun call for serious research and dialogue to make China to a global environmental leader. What would it take for China to be an international environmental leader? The question...

www.globalpolicyjournal.com

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Reposted by Juliet Lu (she/her/hers)

Anika Patel @anikanpatel.carbonbrief.org · 20d

Read the article here: www.carbonbrief.org/qa-will-chin...

Featuring excellent insights from @katelogan.bsky.social @jamesnorman.bsky.social @yixiansun.bsky.social and others!

Q&A: Will China and the BRICS fill the ‘leadership gap’ on climate change? - Carbon Brief

Amid a rapidly fracturing geopolitical order, there have been growing calls for China to “step into [the] leadership gap” left by the US on climate change.

www.carbonbrief.org

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · 10d

Well this was hilariously written
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | Houston, JD Vance has a problem

The vice president’s strange history of the U.S. space program is out of this world.

www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Juliet Lu (she/her/hers)

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 11d

Lue Yang, a Hmong refugee and father of six, was detained by ICE due to a decades-old felony conviction. He could be sent to Laos, a communist nation he has never visited.

His family aided U.S. in Vietnam War. Now he faces deportation to Laos.

The Hmong community in northern Michigan has called the United States home since arriving as refugees during the Vietnam War. Now they are being targeted for removal and deported to a homeland few kno...

www.washingtonpost.com

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · 17d

Report by Keith Barney et al. is a great contribution to the Laos development community and we should see it also as hugely valuable for the #globalChina literature and debt trap diplomacy debates.
www.lowyinstitute.org/publications...

Trapped in debt: China’s role in Laos’ economic crisis

Laos is trapped in a severe debt crisis with no resolution in sight, threatening a decade of economic and social malaise.

www.lowyinstitute.org

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · 21d

I love the best/worst case scenario approach thank you. The resources available are a moving target but also yes one that is within my capacity to provide. And just always leading with humanity, we are humans first, academics second. ❤️✊🏼

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · 21d

monolith of a singular 'China'. That's how we should always have seen the US as a superpower and continue to see it as the facade of a united monolithic America fades.

Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · 21d

I suggest we can move beyond disproving the two polar interpretations (panda hugging vs. China hawk) and admit that China is often all of the above. A coercive force, a security threat, AND a development partner, a force for multilateralism, etc. That's what we mean when we talk about breaking the

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · 21d

reckon with the politics that are placed upon us. Today US-China politics are polarizing and that's the starting point whether we like it or not. We can't be apolitical. The tact has been to split the difference, make the picture more complex - the book authors argue really well against this.

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · 21d

studies of global China in that we need to look more at the grey area between command, coercion, and consent. To do so, we need more voices from the global South, host countries, non-China experts engaged in radical collaborative methods with Sinologists.

Meanwhile, global China scholars need to

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · 21d

in responding to African developmental impulses and labor demands.” but China is increasingly inserting its military power into other countries in different ways now - sometimes overtly sometimes covertly. I don't think this changes her argument re China as a neocolonial power but it matters for

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · 21d

My comments: in 2018 CK Lee argued "“without recourse to military force, Chinese state capital’s encompassing imperatives — for which it is often assailed as ‘colonialist’ — in reality compel it to be more open to political negotiation and concession than profit-maximizing global private capital

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · 21d

to be brave but decide on their own ways of measuring risk vs. reward, and whatever the boundaries they set or decisions they make I will fully respect and work with. But I do think it's the responsibility of educators, advisors, etc. anyone in positions of leadership to help others navigate.

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · 21d

I just struggle with how to protect those around me. e.g. right now: Should I advise students not to attend conferences in the US that I know to be wonderful hubs of intellectual inspiration and community that I've benefited from and am myself planning on attending? My approach is to tell them

Sarah Tuttle @niais.bsky.social · 21d

Let's all to take a deep breath & understand that we have reached the phase in fascism where if they want to declare you a criminal, you are a criminal. You can not magically avoid it, or do exactly the right thing to stay off the list. Fascism must always have enemies, and one day you will be one.

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Reposted by Juliet Lu (she/her/hers)

Sarah Tuttle @niais.bsky.social · 21d

Let's all to take a deep breath & understand that we have reached the phase in fascism where if they want to declare you a criminal, you are a criminal. You can not magically avoid it, or do exactly the right thing to stay off the list. Fascism must always have enemies, and one day you will be one.

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · 21d

I always try to stress that Chinese mining companies should be compared to other mining companies, that their violations are often a product of the sector as much as, if not more than, the investor country. That said, a reminder that *mining is a pretty awful sector*...
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Chinese-linked mining firms in Zambia sued by Copperbelt farmers over 'ecological catastrophe'

Million of litres of highly acidic waste spilled into rivers in a copper-mining area, farmers say.

www.bbc.com

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · 24d

I’m excited to discuss the new book “Seeing China’s Belt and Road” edited by Rachel Silvey and Ed Schatz this morning at APSA!
joined by two brilliant discussants @mariarepnikova.bsky.social and Enze Han talking about future directions 🔮🇨🇳🌏

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · Sep 3

My wonderful colleague at @sppga.ubc.ca, Tarun Khanna, is looking to hire a postdoc on community virtual power plants, ideally someone interested in community and policy engagement!

sppga.ubc.ca/news/postdoc...

UBC

sppga.ubc.ca

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · Sep 3

not for me but I'm following, it sounds likely

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Reposted by Juliet Lu (she/her/hers)

Isabelle Vagneron @isavagneron.bsky.social · Jul 21

Fantastic podcast !!!
Just listened to the two latest episodes, but if they are all the same quality, I know what I will be listening the next dew days.

www.theoutlawocean.com/the-outlaw-o...

#FoodSystem #fisheries #humanrights #extraction #slavery

The Outlaw Ocean Podcast

The Outlaw Ocean Podcast is a seven-part series that explores a gritty and lawless realm rarely seen: the high seas.

www.theoutlawocean.com

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · Aug 6

#AAG2026? I'm gonna push the envelope in how many tacos I can consume in a week, are you with me? But also following for inspiration by other bold, creative session ideas ;) ... 👀

Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · Aug 6

Thanks to Jess for pushing us both to get this done, and to Michael Epprecht and Vong Nanthavong at the Centre for Development and Environment for supporting both of our research programs. We hope this snapshot of Chinese investment in Laos will be useful to a range of folks working on the ground.

Jessica DiCarlo @jessicadicarlo.bsky.social · Aug 5

Over the past 2 decades, China has become Laos’s top investor, main creditor, and 2nd-largest trade partner. In a new report, @profjulietlu.bsky.social and I unpack Chinese investment across four land-intensive sectors: agriculture & plantations, mining, infrastructure & SEZs. tinyurl.com/kw5vteem

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Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · Aug 1

I'm not saying this was a fluke, rather that it's scary how much power customs and borders agents have vs. how hard oversight of them is.

Juliet Lu (she/her/hers) @profjulietlu.bsky.social · Aug 1

@mklaz.bsky.social Miles Kenney-Lazar's book is out!! 👏🏼
I have to say the cover is one of the coolest I've seen in awhile...

uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/social...

Socializing Land: Plantations, Dispossession, and Resistance in Laos

Since 2008, there has been tremendous public interest in the social and ecological ramifications of the global land rush, a rapid increase of capital investment into land, especially for the establ…

uhpress.hawaii.edu

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