- Susan Shirk
Chair, 21st Century China Center, UCSD;
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, USA
Scholars
Susan Shirk is the Chair of the 21st Century China Center and Research
Professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of
California - San Diego. She is also director emeritus of the University of
California’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC). Susan Shirk
first visited China in 1971 and has been teaching, researching and engaging
China diplomatically ever since.
From 1997-2000, Shirk 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.
Shirk's publications include her books, China: Fragile Superpower; How China
Opened Its Door: The Political Success of the PRC's Foreign Trade and Investment
Reforms; The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China; Competitive Comrades:
Career Incentives and Student Strategies in China; and her edited book, Changing
Media, Changing China.
She co-chairs a task force of China experts, “US Policy Toward China:
Recommendations for a New Administration,” that issued its first report in
February 2017
(http://china.ucsd.edu/_files/02072017_US_China_task-force_report.pdf). She also
presently leads a project on the review and regulation of Chinese high-tech
investment in the U.S.
Dr. Shirk received her BA in Political Science from Mount Holyoke College,
her MA in Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and her PhD
in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
