On Wednesday, March 10, 2021 Asia Society Northern California hosted an Executive Roundtable with non-executive Chairman of Fangda Partners Zili Shao and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair and Director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing Paul Haenle on Chinese Perspectives of U.S.-China trade, investment, and economic policy. Some of the topics addressed included the effectiveness of the past four years of U.S. trade policy towards China from the Chinese perspective, views on the underlying factors driving the downturn in U.S.-China relations and the outlook going forward, as well as cross-border business strategies for Chinese, U.S. and multi-national companies in what is expected to be a dynamic change in the trade relationship between the G2 countries. The conversation was moderated by Melissa Ma, Asia Society Northern California Board Member and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Asia Alternatives.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Zili Shao

Zili Shao is an accomplished lawyer and investment banker with extensive experience in financial and legal industries. Zili is the non-executive Chairman of Fangda Partners, a leading PRC law firm. He also serves as independent directors and advisors of a number of multinational companies. From 2010 to 2015, Zili was the Chairman and CEO of J.P. Morgan China as well as Vice Chairman of J.P. Morgan Asia Pacific. Prior to his time in J.P. Morgan, Zili served as Asia Pacific managing partner of Linklaters LLP, a leading international law firm.

Paul Haenle

Paul Haenle (韩磊) is the Maurice R. Greenberg Chair and Director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing. He is also a Senior Advisor at Teneo Strategy and RiceHadleyGates LLC. Haenle served in the White House under U.S. Presidents Bush and Obama from 2007 to 2009 as China director on the National Security Council, and was the White House Representative to the Six-Party Talks nuclear negotiations with North Korea. Haenle also served for 3 years in the West Wing as executive assistant to the National Security Advisor from 2004 to 2007. Haenle was trained as a China foreign area officer in the U.S. Army, has been assigned twice to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, served as a U.S. Army company commander during a two-year tour to the Republic of Korea, and worked in the Pentagon as a China adviser on the staff of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Haenle serves on the Board of Directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and in 2002 was an inaugural fellow in its US-China Young Leaders Program. He earned his master’s degree in Asian Studies from Harvard University and a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from Clarkson University.

Melissa Ma (moderator)

Melissa J. Ma is an Asia Society Northern California Board Member and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Asia Alternatives. She splits her time between Asia Alternatives' Hong Kong and San Francisco offices. Melissa is on the Firm's Investment Committee and co-leads Asia Alternatives' investments in buyout, direct co-investments and special situations. In addition, she oversees investor relations, asset allocation and investment strategy and process. Melissa received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and holds an A.B. in Economics and East Asian Studies, magna cum laude, from Harvard College. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English.