Ports of Power
From Transformers to Data Trafficking
to Digital Supply Chains

featuring
Aynne Kokas
Director, University of Virginia East Asia Center
C.K. Yen Professor, Miller Center for Public Affairs
Professor, Media Studies, University of Virginia

Speaker’s summary:
Globally, China has developed key oversight over ports and supply chains. Logink, the Chinese-owned dominant global supply chain logistics provider, has become the dominant global logistics platform. COSCO, China’s state-owned shipping and port management firm, has become a leader in ownership of key ports globally. The United States Congress has found China’s ZPMC cranes to share undisclosed media and communications. The development of AI systems in port and supply chain management shapes the potential for Chinese government oversight over global shipping, which accounts for over 90% of international trade. For my new project, Ports of Power, I argue that China’s oversight of AI-driven shipping and supply chain infrastructure is crucial to understand in an era of “contested logistics” where dual-use commercial technologies shape global trade and access to key commodities for media, communication, and beyond.

Aynne Kokas is the C.K. Yen Professor at the Miller Center, Director of the East Asia Center and professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. Kokas’ research examines Sino-U.S. media and technology relations. 

Her award-winning second book Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty (Oxford University Press, October 2022) argues that exploitative Silicon Valley data governance practices help China build infrastructures for global control. Her award-winning first book Hollywood Made in China (University of California Press, 2017) argues that Chinese investment and regulations have transformed the U.S. commercial media industry, most prominently in the case of media conglomerates’ leverage of global commercial brands. 

Kokas is a non-resident scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute of Public Policy, a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a fellow in the National Committee on United States-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program. She has received fellowships from the Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Humanities, Mellon Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Japan’s Abe Fellowship, and other international organizations. Her writing and commentary have appeared globally in more than 50 countries and 15 languages. In the United States, her research and writing appear regularly in media outlets including CNBC, NPR’s Marketplace, The Washington Post, and Wired. She has testified before the Senate Finance Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the U.S. International Trade Commission.

The views expressed are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect East-West Center policies or positions.

The China Seminar was founded by Dr. Daniel W.Y. Kwok in 1977. Under his guidance, it became a signature program of the Friends of the East-West Center (FEWC) in 2009. The program provides an informal venue for China experts, such as scholars, diplomats, and journalists, to present talks on aspects of China that interest the community and members of the Friends. Topics include politics, economics, social issues, history, culture, food, arts, and many other subjects.