Anthony (Tony) Saich is an Honorary Senior Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis and Director of the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia and Daewoo Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University, teaching courses on comparative political institutions and transitional economies with a focus on China. In his capacity as institute director, Saich also serves as the faculty chair of the China Program, the Asia Energy Leaders Program, the Unseen Legacies of the Vietnam War Project, and the Global Vietnam Wars Studies Initiative.

Saich first visited China as a student in 1976 and continues to visit regularly. Currently, he is a guest professor at the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University, China. He also advises a wide range of government, private, and nonprofit organizations on work in China and elsewhere in Asia. Before joining Harvard, he was the representative for the Ford Foundation’s China Office from 1994 to 1999. Prior to this, he was director of the Sinological Institute at Leiden University, the Netherlands.

His current research focuses on politics and governance in post-Mao China and philanthropy in China. His most recent books include Governance and Politics of China (2025, fifth edition); Institutional Change and Adaptive Efficiency: A Study of China’s Hukou System Evolution (2024) with Kunling Zhang; From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party (2021); and Finding Allies and Making Revolution: The Early Years of the Chinese Communist Party (2020). He has also edited books, including Political Governance in China (2015) and Philanthropy for Health in China (2014), the latter with Jennifer Ryan and Lincoln Chen.

He holds a PhD from the Faculty of Letters, University of Leiden, the Netherlands. He received his master’s degree in politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, and his bachelor’s degree in politics and geography from the University of Newcastle, United Kingdom. Away from the office, he enjoys time with his family, movies, and soccer.