Melissa Chen

Melissa Chen, Ph.D. is the Managing Director of the nonprofit organization Ideas Beyond Borders and the New York Editor of Spectator USA — the American edition of the oldest English language magazine in publication. She is a human rights activist and classical liberal who regularly talks on various podcasts, TV news, and at conferences. Melissa is a critic of the People’s Republic of China’s weak human rights record, with free speech and foreign relations restrictions. She is also a critic of her native Singapore’s similar restrictions on free speech. In 2017 Melissa cofounded Ideas Beyond Borders with Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, an Iraqi advocate for free speech. The foundation focuses on translating works written in English into Arabic; most of the translated works are books that are considered controversial in the Arabic world, such as George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and works by Thomas Paine.