Susan Shirk

Susan Shirk is a research professor at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy and director emeritus of its 21st Century China Center. She is considered one of the most influential experts working on U.S.-China relations and Chinese politics. She is also director emeritus of the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Shirk first visited China in 1971 and has been teaching, researching and engaging China diplomatically ever since. Shirk previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, with responsibility for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia. She is the author of “Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise” and “China: Fragile Superpower” and her other publications include “The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China” and “How China Opened its Door.” Her articles have appeared in leading academic publications in the fields of political science, international relations and China studies. Shirk co-chairs a task force of China experts that issued its second report “Course Correction: Toward an Effective and Sustainable China Policy,” in February 2019. She is also co-chair of the UC San Diego Forum on U.S.-China Relations, the first ongoing high-level forum focused entirely on the U.S.-China relationship.