Two New Senior Fellows Join the Center for China Analysis

NEW YORK; January 19, 2022 — The Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis (CCA) announced today the appointment of two new Senior Fellows to its growing team of experts: Dr. Jessica Chen Weiss and Ms. Susan Jakes.

Dr. Weiss is the Michael J. Zak Professor for China and Asia-Pacific Studies at Cornell University focusing on Chinese politics and foreign policy, nationalism and public opinion. From August 2021 to July 2022, she served as a senior advisor to the policy planning staff at the U.S. Department of State. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego. Her forthcoming book with Oxford University Press, A World Safe for Autocracy: The Domestic Politics of China’s Foreign Policy, examines how domestic politics and regime insecurity affect the country’s foreign relations. In her work as a Senior Fellow in Domestic Politics, Foreign Policy, and National Security with the CCA, she will contribute her research and expertise at CCA events and through a series of policy briefs, op-eds, and media appearances. 

Ms. Susan Jakes is Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director of ChinaFile, the online platform for original reporting and analysis on China whose editorial operations she has led since its launch in 2013. From 2000 to 2007 she reported from Hong Kong and Beijing for Time magazine. For her reporting work, she was awarded the Society of Publishers in Asia’s Young Journalist of the Year Award and a Henry Luce Public Service Award. Her writing has also appeared in The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications. Jakes speaks Mandarin and holds a B.A. and M.A. from Yale in history. As a senior fellow with CCA, she will provide advice on editorial and research strategy, support our fellows’ writing and publications, and develop a new initiative aimed at supporting a sustainable future for inquiry on China. Learn more about Ms. Jakes here. 

“We are absolutely delighted to have two such prominent and deeply-experienced China experts join our team,” said CCA Executive Director Bates Gill. “Having them on board will further enhance the CCA’s role in analyzing and understanding the challenges and opportunities ahead in relations with China.”

The Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis serves as a leading global center for policy-relevant, objective analysis of China’s politics, economy and society, and its impact in Asia and around the world. Find out more about the CCA here.

Members of the press, content creators, and others with a focus on Asia can connect with Dr. Weiss and Ms. Jakes by reaching out to pr@asiasociety.org.