Hanscom Smith
Former U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong and Macau (2019-2022) Former U.S. Consul General in Shanghai (2014-2017) Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs Senior Fellow Hanscom Smith is a retired Department of State Senior Foreign Service Officer. During his 32-year career, he served as consul general in Hong Kong and Shanghai, as acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State responsible for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia, and in various positions at the United States embassies in Yaounde, Copenhagen, Phnom Penh, Bangkok, Kabul, and Beijing. He was also team leader at the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team in Muthanna Province, Iraq. In addition, Smith worked at the American Institute in Taiwan's Taipei office. Smith was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in Japan. His foreign languages are French, Danish, Khmer, and Mandarin Chinese. Smith holds a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University, a certificate in political studies from Sciences Po Paris, and master's degrees from the London School of Economics and Princeton University. |
XU Xueyuan
Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America Ms. Xu was appointed as Minister, then Deputy Chief of Mission and Minister of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America in March, 2018. Prior to taking the current post, Ms. Xu worked as Deputy Director-General of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs from 2015 to 2018 in China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2011 to 2015, she was Counselor and Chief of the Political Section of the Chinese Embassy in the United States. From 2010 to 2011, she studied in the United Kingdom with a Chevening Scholarship. She has also worked overseas in the Chinese Embassy in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Ms. Xu Xueyuan was born in Zhejiang Province and received a Master’s Degree in English Language from Fudan University in Shanghai. She is married with a son. |
Zongyuan Liu
Fellow for International Political Economy at the Council on Foreign Relations Zongyuan Zoe Liu is a fellow for international political economy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Her work focuses on international political economy, global financial markets, sovereign wealth funds, development finance, energy and climate change policy, and East Asia-Middle East relations. Dr. Liu is the author of Can BRICS De-dollarize the Global Financial System? (Cambridge University Press) and Sovereign Funds: How the Communist Party of China Finances its Global Ambitions (Harvard University Press, June 2023). Prior to joining CFR, Dr. Liu was an instructional assistant professor at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service in Washington, DC, where she taught courses on global economy, economic statecraft, and Chinese foreign policy. She joined the Bush School after post-doctoral fellowships at the Columbia-Harvard “China and the World Program” and the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Dr. Liu received her PhD in international relations from Johns Hopkins University and her MA in international relations from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Studies. |
Yaqiu Wang
Senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch Yaqiu Wang (pronounced ya-cho) is a senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, working on issues including internet censorship, freedom of expression, protection of civil society and human rights defenders, and women’s rights in China. She has also written extensively on the Chinese government’s role in undermining human rights globally and global corporations’ complicity in human rights violations in China. Wang has testified before US Congress. Her articles have appeared in Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. She has been quoted by news outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian, and has appeared on BBC, CNN, NBC and others. Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Wang was a researcher for the Committee to Protect Journalists, working on press freedom issues in China and other Asian countries. Wang was born and grew up in China, and has a MA degree in International Affairs from George Washington University. |
Jack Zhang
Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Kansas Jiakun Jack Zhang is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Kansas (KU) and Director of the KU Trade War Lab (TWL). He teaches courses on East Asian politics, International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis, and U.S.-China relations. He received his Ph.D. in political science at UC San Diego and holds a bachelor's degree in political science and a certificate in East Asian studies from Duke University. He was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University (2018-2019) and a Wilson China Fellow (2021-2022). His research explores the political economy of trade and conflict in East Asia. He is currently working on a number of projects on the U.S.-China Trade War as well as a book manuscript on the national security implications of economic interdependence with China. Dr. Zhang has been the recipient of various grants and awards, including a Fulbright U.S. Student Grant, the Charles Koch Foundation Foreign Policy Research Grant, the Minerva Research Initiative DECUR Partnership, and the Smith Richardson Foundation World Politics and Statecraft Fellowship. Prior to entering academia, Dr. Zhang worked as a China researcher for the Eurasia Group. Follow him on Twitter @HanFeiTzu. |
Asha Clark
Senior China Analyst and Subject-Matter Expert Asha Clark is a China subject-matter expert and a Senior Analyst, with a demonstrated history of working in both the public and private sectors, including the think tank industry. Asha has studied Chinese language and culture for over 15 years, is fluent in Mandarin, and has spent time both living and studying in China. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese Language and Culture, and a Master of Arts in Security Policy Studies. She is a published writer, and has written several policy papers, blogs, and intelligence reports regarding US-China relations, including strategic competition, Chinese domestic politics, cybersecurity, and Chinese foreign policy. Her timely analysis advises both public and private sector clients on current trends and topics of concern within US-China foreign policy. Asha is also the CEO of Menkou LLC-- a firm that focuses on educating the public and private sector about China, while diversifying the US-China foreign policy space. |
Tianyu Fang
Co-founder of Chaoyang Trap Tianyu Fang is a writer and researcher. He is a co-founder of Chaoyang Trap, a newsletter covering marginal subcultures on the Chinese internet. As a journalist, he has covered Chinese technology and culture, and his writing has appeared in Caixin, Foreign Policy, Kernel Magazine, Sixth Tone, South China Morning Post, SupChina, and VICE News, among other publications. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he studies political science at Stanford University and chairs the Forum for American-Chinese Exchange at Stanford (FACES). He likes urbanism, history of technology, and apps that are no longer trendy. |
Robin Visser
Associate Chair of the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Robin Visser is Associate Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research specialties are modern Chinese and Sinophone literatures, environmental studies, and urban cultural studies, and she was Chief Co-Editor of the Chinese-language Journal of East Asian Humanities 東亞人文. Her book, Cities Surround the Countryside: Urban Aesthetics in Postsocialist China (Duke UP, 2010), was recently translated into Russian (Academic Studies Press, 2022). It analyzes Chinese urban planning, fiction, cinema, art, and cultural studies at the turn of the 21st century. Her newest book, Questioning Borders: Eco-Literatures of China and Taiwan (Columbia UP, forthcoming 2023), was supported by a 2017-18 National Humanities Center Fellowship. It analyzes literature on the environment by Han Chinese and non-Han minority writers in the PRC and Taiwan. |
Jessica Liao
Associate Professor of Political Science at North Carolina State University Jessica C. Liao is associate professor of political science at North Carolina State University, 2020-2021 Wilson China Fellow, 2011 Korea Foundation Dissertation Fellow, and 2007-2009 International Fulbrighter. Prior to NC State, she taught at George Washington University and was a visit fellow at Monash University, Kuala Lumpur campus. She received her PhD in international relations from the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on China’s foreign economic policy, China–Southeast Asia relations, and the rise of China and its regional and global impact. She is the author of Developmental States and Business Activism: East Asia’s Trade Dispute Settlement (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and has published academic articles in journals including Foreign Affairs, The Pacific Review, Journal of Contemporary China, New Political Economy, Global Policy, and Global Governance. In 2022, she took sabbatical leave and served as economic development specialist at the US embassy in Beijing. |
David Rezvani
Lecturer at Dartmouth College David A. Rezvani, D.Phil. Oxford University, is a lecturer at Dartmouth College. His research interests include political integration, Asian politics, and US foreign policy. He is the author of a variety of works including, Surpassing the Sovereign State: The Wealth, Self-Determination, and Security Advantages of Partially Independent Territories (Oxford University Press, 2014). He has previously taught at Harvard University, Brown University, MIT, Oxford University, Trinity College, and Boston University. |
Jenny Lin
Associate Professor of Critical Studies at University of Southern California Dr. Jenny Lin is Director of the MA Program in Curatorial Practices and Associate Professor of Critical Studies at University of Southern California. She researches relations between culture and globalization, with a specialization in contemporary Chinese art. She is author of 'Above Sea: Contemporary Art, Urban Culture, and the Fashioning of Global Shanghai' (Manchester University Press), and is writing two new books, 'Global/Art/Fashion/Film Systems: New Silk Roads through China, Italy, and the United States' and 'Another Beautiful Country: Moving Images by Chinese American Artists,' while curating a related exhibition at USC Pacific Asia Museum. Her essays on art and culture have been published widely (e.g., in Art Margins, Shanghai Culture, Frieze, ArtReview, Fandom as Methodology, Participatory Urbanisms, Cities of Light), and she has presented her research around the world, most recently at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and University of Oxford. Dr. Lin is affiliated faculty in Art History, East Asian Studies, and the US-China Institute at USC, where she has organized intercultural conferences, exhibitions, and art events. She holds her MA and PhD in Art History from University of California, Los Angeles, and BA in Architectural Studies and Italian Studies from Brown University. |
Yintong (Victor) Ji
President of Project Nous Victor Ji is a senior from the University of Chicago majoring in philosophy. He is currently serving as the president of Project Nous, an NGO in China founded by Chinese students studying in the United States to promote equitable liberal arts education in the under-developed, rural areas of China. During the summit, Victor is excited to share his experience in running Project Nous, and how it facilitated his understanding of the meaning of education and equitability. |
Angel Hsu
Assistant Professor of Public Policy and the Environment at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Angel Hsu is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and the Environment at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and holds a PhD in Forestry and Environmental Studies from Yale University. She is the founder of the Data-Driven EnviroLab, an interdisciplinary research group that innovates and applies quantitative approaches to pressing environmental issues. Dr. Hsu previously held appointments at Yale-NUS college in Singapore as Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, and the World Resources Institute (WRI) where she led WRI’s efforts to develop corporate greenhouse gas accounting and reporting initiatives in developing countries, including China. Dr. Hsu has provided expert testimony to the US-China Economic Security and Review Commission and is a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations and a Public Intellectual Program Fellow. She was also an author of a recent report released by the National Academy of Sciences on greenhouse gas emissions information necessary for decision making, the lead author of the 2018 UNEP Emissions Gap report chapter on non-state actors and an author for the IPCC AR6. Angel holds an M Phil in Environmental Policy from the University of Cambridge, and a BS in Biology and BA in Political Science from Wake Forest University. |
Eric Harwit
Professor in the Asian Studies department at the University of Hawaii, Adjunct Senior Fellow at Honolulu’s East-West Center Eric Harwit is a Professor in the Asian Studies department at the University of Hawaii, and an Adjunct Senior Fellow at Honolulu’s East-West Center. He graduated with a college scholar B.A. from Cornell University (1984), and has M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from UC Berkeley (1985 and 1992). He also has a diploma in business Chinese studies from China’s University of International Business and Economics (1990). He has lived and conducted research in Beijing for several years, beginning in the 1980s. He has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University, Aichi University in Nagoya, and at Tokyo’s Chuo University business school. He has two single-authored books, China’s Automobile Industry (M.E. Sharpe, 1994) and China’s Telecommunications Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2008), and more than two dozen academic articles. His most recent co-edited book is China’s Globalizing Internet (Routledge, 2022). His current research focuses on China’s 5G mobile equipment production, mobile social media, and the PRC’s electric car market and vehicle production. He has appeared on CNBC and other international television news broadcasts, and been interviewed by the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Time magazine, and other national and international media. |