Policy Currents | The newsletter for policy people
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** Aug 10, 2023

What Nighttime Lighting Reveals About China's Efforts to Imprison Tibetans

As part of its nationwide "stability maintenance" strategy, the Chinese Communist Party detains, persecutes, and convicts people in Tibet for nonviolent forms of protest and other expressions of dissent. But the precise workings, nature, and scale of Beijing's repression are not well understood.

A new RAND Europe analysis uses nighttime lighting to learn more. This data, captured by satellite-based sensors, paints a picture of electricity consumption at night at specific locations over time.

Overall, the data reveal that there are currently at least 79 prisons and detention centers throughout Tibet. In fact, most towns and villages have a detention center. The data also show patterns of growth in nighttime lighting concentrated in higher-security detention facilities. This trend may suggest a shift toward longer detentions and imprisonments by the Chinese Communist Party.

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How Does 'Truth Decay' Damage National Security?

"Truth Decay," the declining role of facts in public discourse, could weaken U.S. national security. How? Two key drivers of the Truth Decay phenomenon, political polarization and misinformation, push leaders' foreign policy opinions to extremes, make it harder for intelligence analysts to collect and analyze data, and undermine America's national security and intelligence systems. Once these institutions are damaged, they are not easily rebuilt, RAND researchers say.

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Growing the Film Industry in Pittsburgh

Fences. The Dark Knight Rises. Jack Reacher. Many movies are shot in Pittsburgh. A new RAND study examines the Steel City's budding film industry: why it's an attractive location to production companies, how film production contributes to the local economy, and the significance of Pennsylvania's Film Production Tax Credit. The authors provide recommendations to help state and local decisionmakers understand what could spur more film and television production in the Pittsburgh region and beyond.

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** Events
Policy Lab: Addressing Violent Extremism in the United States
Wednesday, August 16, 2023 (Online)
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** About RAND
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis.

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