Geoffrey Cain

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Geoffrey Cain is an American journalist and author. He writes about geopolitics, national security, technology and multinational companies. [1] His reporting has been published in The Economist, Time, Wired (magazine), Foreign Policy, The New Republic and The Wall Street Journal. He is a regular commentator on Bloomberg TV, BBC, CNN, and NPR.

Contents

Cain is the author of the books, Samsung Rising [2] and the The Perfect Police State. He received the citation for the Cornelius Ryan Award for The Perfect Police State. [3]

He has been accused of spying by news media aligned with the Cambodian People's Party. This was part of a political crackdown leading up to the arrest of Kem Sokha, the former leader of the now-disbanded opposition party, on treason charges.

Education

Cain attended The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he received his BA. His studies continued in London, where he received an MA with distinction from the School of Oriental and African Studies. He was also a Fulbright scholar in Vietnam. [4]

Career

Cain began his career as a journalist in Asia, working mainly in Vietnam and Cambodia. From 2008 onwards, he worked for The Economist. [5] [6]

In 2009, Cain settled in South Korea as a writer for Time, covering politics, business and culture in North and South Korea. In 2015, he took a train across North Korea, visiting Pyongyang and remote places in the north of the country. [7] His train journey received coverage in a number of newspapers in the west, including The Telegraph. [8]

In 2012, he joined GlobalPost as the Senior Correspondent for Japan and Korea. [9]

In 2014, Cain published a series of reports on labor crackdowns in Cambodia which resulted in a dispute with the Cambodian government. [10] His work on the subject led Cain to be a finalist for the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award. [11]

In August 2017, he was accused of spying on Cambodia by news media aligned with Prime Minister Hun Sen and collaborating with the opposition party, Cambodia National Rescue Party. [12] Cain flatly denied the claims, stating he knew Samathida Kem, the opposition leader's daughter, from a university in the United States. [13] In November 2017, he wrote an article for The Nation, speaking about Kem Sokha's arrest in September of that year. [14] By this point, the opposition leader had been charged with treason by the ruling party of Cambodia. [15]

During the same period, Cain reported on the alleged growing backlash in South Korea against the power of a number of large family-owned businesses, known as the chaebol. These included corporations such as Samsung, Hyundai and LG. He regularly commented in the media and wrote a number of articles on the subject of Samsung's involvement in the 2016 South Korean political scandal. [16] After Lee Jae-yong was arrested as part of a bribery scandal linked to a controversial 2015 merger, [17] and then was released from prison in February 2018 when a court reduced but upheld his bribery conviction, Cain frequently spoke about South Korea's alleged leniency on white collar crime. [18]

In 2022, Cain interviewed Ukrainian president Zelensky discussing how technology such as drones, volunteer hackers in Ukraine’s IT Army and tools like Starlink have transformed Ukraine’s war against Russia. [19]

Cain served as an advisor to the United States House Foreign Affairs Committee, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former senior fellow for advanced critical emerging technologies at Foundation for American Innovation, a non-profit organization and a tech-policy think-tank. [20] [21]

Cain is also the Managing Partner of Alembic Partners. [22]

Books

Samsung Rising

In 2020, Cain authored the book, Samsung Rising, published by Crown. [25] [26] [27] The book is about the rise of Samsung and its influence on global technology industries and South Korea's politics and culture. [18] This became more topical following the arrest and sentencing of Lee Jae-yong at Samsung. Cain argues Samsung's alleged influence and power can be seen when Lee walked free and received a suspended sentence. [28]

According to The Financial Times, Geoffrey Cain does his material proud and marshals it around episodes and milestones. This allows for a few cliffhanger chapter endings, while also enabling the characters’ foibles to shine through. [29]

The Perfect Police State

Cain wrote and released the book, The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey into China's Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future, in 2022. [30] According to Kirkus Reviews, the book is “A prescient, alarming work on the overreach of technology and state power.” [31]

The book received the Overseas Press Club’s Cornelius Ryan Award and was also recognized as NPR’s Book of the Day in 2022. [32]

References

  1. ↑ Staff. "Geoffrey Cain profile". www.brightsightspeakers.com.
  2. ↑ "Samsung Rising by Geoffrey Cain: 9781101907252 - PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Citation Winners". OPC of America. March 18, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Geoffrey Cain bio". Public Radio International.
  5. ↑ "Hallyu, yeah!". The Economist . January 25, 2010.
  6. ↑ "Blessing or curse?". The Economist . February 26, 2009.
  7. ↑ "Episode 41: Traveling North Korea with Geoffrey Cain". Talk Travel Asia. March 16, 2016.
  8. ↑ Rajesh, Monisha (May 12, 2016). "The rail North Korea: An eye-opening train journey through the secretive state". The Daily Telegraph .
  9. ↑ "Geoffrey Cain at the GlobalPost". Public Radio International.
  10. ↑ Ponniah, Kevin (February 11, 2014). "Fears over human rights in Cambodia as crackdown on protests continues". The Guardian .
  11. ↑ "SOPA Announces 2014 Awards for Editorial Excellence Finalists". Society of Publishers in Asia. May 23, 2014. Archived from the original on April 14, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Cambodia accuses American journalist of espionage". Committee to Protect Journalists. August 31, 2017.
  13. ↑ Dunbar, Jon (September 1, 2017). "Cambodia accuses US journalist of espionage, overthrowing Park Geun-hye". The Korea Times .
  14. ↑ Cain, Geoffrey (November 21, 2017). "Fake News and the Death of Democracy in Cambodia". The Nation . Archived from the original on April 14, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
  15. ↑ Cochrane, Liam (September 6, 2017). "Australian speech the key 'treason' evidence against Cambodian opposition leader". ABC News .
  16. ↑ Kwaak, Jeyup S. (August 23, 2017). "Mastermind or Naïf? Samsung Heir's Fate Hinges on the Question". The New York Times .
  17. ↑ Mozur, Paul (January 16, 2017). "Political Crisis Engulfs Samsung, a Firm Tied to South Korea's Success". The New York Times .
  18. 1 2 "American journalist seeks to pull back the curtain on 'Samsung Empire'". The Hankyoreh . December 28, 2017.
  19. ↑ Cain, Geoffrey (June 2, 2022). "Volodymyr Zelensky on War, Technology, and the Future of Ukraine". Wired (magazine) .
  20. ↑ Staff. "Geoffrey Cain". TechCongress.
  21. ↑ "Geoffrey Cain - Foundation for American Innovation". www.thefai.org.
  22. ↑ Power, John (December 5, 2024). "South Korea's economy rattled by martial law decree". Al Jazeera.
  23. ↑ "Nonfiction Book Review: The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey into China's Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future by Geoffrey Cain. PublicAffairs, $29 (304p) ISBN 978-1-5417-5703-5".
  24. ↑ Cain, Geoffrey (March 17, 2020). Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech. Crown. ISBN   978-1-101-90726-9.
  25. ↑ Harris, Bryan (January 31, 2018). "Samsung's success fails to mask fears over its image". Financial Times .
  26. ↑ Sang-Hun, Choe (March 4, 2017). "Samsung Bribery Scandal Threatens South Korea Success Story". The New York Times .
  27. ↑ Pham, Sherisse (March 9, 2017). "What next for Samsung as chief's 'trial of the century' begins". CNN.
  28. ↑ Pham, Sherisse (February 5, 2018). "Samsung chief walks free after prison sentence suspended". CNN.
  29. ↑ Staff. "FT Business book of the year award". The Financial Times .
  30. ↑ Staff (May 20, 2022). "Understanding China's brutal treatment of Uyghur Muslims through two nonfiction books". NPR .
  31. ↑ "The Perfect Police State". Kirkus Reviews.
  32. ↑ "Understanding China's brutal treatment of Uyghur Muslims through two nonfiction books". NPR. May 20, 2022.
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