Talk at UCLA School of Law.
Friday, November 13, 2026
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
UCLA School of Law, Room 1457
U.S. – China tensions are shaping domestic policy far beyond traditional diplomacy and national security. This conversation will examine how initiatives that came to the fore during the China Initiative (2018–2022) continue to shape debates in the United States about research security, state laws limiting property ownership, and restrictions on international students and scholarly collaboration.
Maggie Lewis, professor at Seton Hall Law School, and Cindy Tsai, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Committee of 100, will explore the legal and human consequences of these developments for researchers, students, and Asian American communities. Drawing on their work in criminal justice, civil-rights advocacy, and U.S.–China relations, they will consider how policymakers and universities can address genuine security concerns without reinforcing racialized suspicion or undermining the exchange of ideas and people across borders.
Margaret (Maggie) Lewis is a professor at Seton Hall Law School whose work examines legal dynamics in the U.S. – Asia relationship, with a focus on China and Taiwan and an emphasis on criminal justice and human rights. She previously served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Institutional Operations. She has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar at National Taiwan University, a visiting researcher at Melbourne Law School’s Asian Law Centre, and a visiting professor at Academia Sinica. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, as well as on the advisory board of the National Science Foundation’s SECURE Center. She is also a nonresident affiliated scholar of New York University School of Law’s U.S.-Asia Law Institute.
Cindy Tsai is a civil rights attorney and nonprofit executive whose career bridges courtroom advocacy and institutional leadership on some of today's most complex justice issues. As Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Committee of 100, a national organization advancing the full participation of Chinese Americans in U.S. civic life, Cindy leads legal strategy spanning civil rights, anti-Asian hate, and the increasingly fraught terrain of U.S.-China relations. Her path into this work began in the courtroom: over 13 years as a civil rights trial attorney at Loevy & Loevy, where she helped secure justice for the wrongfully convicted and advance policy reforms to improve detention conditions. Cindy holds a degree in Marketing and Advertising from Syracuse University and a JD/MBA from Loyola University Chicago, where she was actively involved in Loyola's Law Journal and moot court team. She brings a combination of litigation rigor, cross-cultural fluency, and coalition-building to work that increasingly crosses borders as much as courtrooms.
Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies, UCLA Law