Seeking Truth Through Facts 2021: Matt Turpin on Tech Policy

On Tuesday, September 28, Asia Society Northern California hosted an in-person off-the-record Executive Roundtable program on Tech Policy with former National Security Council Director and Hoover Visiting Fellow, Matt Turpin.  This was our third event in our eight-part Seeking Truth Through Facts U.S.-China program series.  Topics discussed included the Chinese government's stance and factions in the party, short to medium term plans of President Xi Jinping's governance system, innovation policies since Made in China 2025 , decoupling, and the economic interdependence between the U.S. and China. Richard Dasher, Director of the U.S-Asia Technology Management Center at Stanford University moderated the discussion. 

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Matt Turpin

Matt Turpin is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution specializing in U.S. policy towards the People’s Republic of China, economic statecraft and technology innovation.  He is also a senior advisor at Palantir Technologies. From 2018 to 2019, Turpin served as the U.S. National Security Council’s Director for China and the Senior Advisor on China to the Secretary of Commerce.  In those roles, he was responsible for managing the interagency effort to develop and implement U.S. Government policies on the People’s Republic of China. 

Before entering the White House, Turpin served over 22 years in the U.S. Army in a variety of combat units in the United States, Europe and the Middle East and as an assistant professor of history at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  He retired from the Army in 2017. From 2013 to 2017, he served as an advisor on the People’s Republic of China to the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon and was assigned to assist the Deputy Secretary of Defense with the Defense Innovation Initiative, a program to examine the implications of great power competition on the Department of Defense and the role of innovation in U.S. defense policy.

From 2010 to 2013, Turpin was the Chief of Crisis Planning at the United States Pacific Command in Honolulu.  There he assisted in the planning and implementation of policies and operations for America’s largest Combatant Command. Turpin has a MA in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BS from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Richard Dasher (moderator)

Richard Dasher has been Director of the US-Asia Technology Management Center at Stanford University since 1994. He served concurrently as the Executive Director of the Center for Integrated Systems in Stanford's School of Engineering from 1998 - 2015. His research and teaching focus on the flow of people, knowledge, and capital in innovation systems, on the impact of new technologies on industry value chains, and on open innovation management. Dr. Dasher serves on the advisory boards for national universities and research institutions in Japan and Thailand. He is on the selection and review committees of major government funding programs for science, technology, and innovation and in Canada and Japan. He is an advisor to start-up companies, business accelerators, venture capital firms, and nonprofits in Silicon Valley, China, Japan, and S. Korea. Dr. Dasher was the first non-Japanese person ever asked to join the governance of a Japanese national university, serving as a Board Director and member of the Management Council of Tohoku University from 2004 - 2010. Dr. Dasher received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Linguistics from Stanford University. From 1986 – 90, he was Director of the U.S. State Department’s Advanced Language and Area Training Centers in Japan and Korea that provide full-time curricula to U.S. and Commonwealth Country diplomats assigned to those countries.