Chaoqun LIAN (PhD, Cantab, 2015) is associate professor of Arabic language and linguistics in the Department of Arabic Language and Culture at Peking University, China. He specializes in language planning and language policy (LPLP) and political and cultural semiotics in the Arabic speaking world. He is the author of Language, Ideology and Sociopolitical Change in the Arabic speaking World: A Study of the Discourse of Arabic Language Academies (Edinburgh University Press, 2020). He is currently working on a research project The Semioticization and Mediatization of Political Conflicts in the Arabic speaking World.