Speakers: The China Forum 2021

Ambassador Andrew Bremberg is the President and CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Previously Ambassador Bremberg served as the Representative of the United States to the Office of the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva. Ambassador Bremberg has a long history of public service. Prior to his work at the UN, he served as Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council for the Executive Office of the President. He previously served as Policy Advisor and Counsel on Nominations for the Office of Senate Majority Leader. He also worked for the non-profit MITRE Corporation as a senior health policy-analyst and department manager, and for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Ambassador Bremberg earned a B.A. from Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio and a J.D. from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He and his wife Maria have four children and live in Virginia.

William Browder was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005, when he was denied entry to the country and declared “a threat to national security” for exposing corruption in Russian state-owned companies. In 2008, Mr. Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, uncovered a massive fraud committed by Russian government officials that involved the theft of US $230 million of state taxes. Sergei testified against state officials involved in this fraud and was subsequently arrested, imprisoned without trial and systematically tortured. He spent a year in prison under horrific detention conditions, was repeatedly denied medical treatment, and died in prison on November 16, 2009, leaving behind a wife and two children. Since then, Mr. Browder has sought justice outside of Russia and started a global campaign for governments around the world to impose targeted visa bans and asset freezes on human rights abusers and highly corrupt officials. The United States was the first to impose these targeted sanctions with the passage of the Sergei Magnitsky Accountability Act in 2012, followed by the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act in 2016. Since then, Canada, United Kingdom and the European Union have passed their own versions of the Magnitsky Act. Mr. Browder is currently working to have similar legislation passed in other countries worldwide.

Emily de La Bruyere is a co-founder of Horizon Advisory, a geopolitical consultancy, and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Her work focuses on China’s digital ambitions, industrial policy, and platform geopolitics, as well as their implications for global security and the economic order. Her analysis has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. She holds a BA summa cum laude from Princeton University and an MA summa cum laude from Sciences Po, Paris, where she was the Michel David-Weill fellow.

Ian Easton is a senior director at the Project 2049 Institute and author of The Chinese Invasion Threat: Taiwan's Defense and American Strategy in Asia. He previously served as a visiting fellow at the Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA) in Tokyo and a China analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses in Virginia. He has testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and given talks at the U.S. Naval War College, Japan’s National Defense Academy, and Taiwan’s National Defense University. Ian holds an M.A. in China Studies from National Chengchi University in Taiwan and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He studied Chinese at Fudan University in Shanghai and National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei.

Olivia Enos, senior policy analyst in the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation, focuses on human rights and national security challenges in Asia. Her research spans a wide range of subjects, including democracy and governance challenges, human trafficking and human smuggling, religious freedom, refugee issues, and other social challenges in the region. Enos, who joined Heritage in 2013, has published numerous papers on human rights in North Korea and China, threats to democracy in Southeast Asia, human trafficking in Asia, and reforming the U.S. refugee program, among other subjects. Enos has a bi-monthly column in Forbes where she writes on the intersection between human rights challenges and national security concerns. Enos traveled to Singapore and Hanoi for the summits with North Korea. Her commentary has been featured on CNN, the BBC, and Fox News, among other news outlets. She has also been quoted in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Atlantic, among other publications. Enos has published op-eds widely, including for The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Hill, in addition to other outlets. She has also written for scholarly publications, including Georgetown Journal of International Affairs and Providence: A Journal of Christianity and Foreign Policy. In addition to her writing, Enos testified before the Asia subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives. She has also briefed members of the executive branch at the State Department and the National Security Council, as well as members of Congress and their staff, on various issues in Asia. In 2014, she cofounded the Council on Asian Affairs, a group for young Asia policy professionals in Washington, D.C. Enos received a bachelor’s degree in government from Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va., and received a master of arts degree in Asian studies at the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University..

Dr. Edwin J. Feulner is the Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and recipient of the Foundation’s Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom in 2006. He is also Founder and former President of The Heritage Foundation. Over the course of his career, Feulner has served as an analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies (now the Center for Strategic and International Studies) and Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, an aide to Representative Melvin Laird (R-WI) and Chief of Staff to Congressman Phil Crane (R-IL), and as the Executive Director of the Republican Study Committee. Feulner took over the presidency of The Heritage Foundation in 1977, transforming it from a small think tank with nine employees to a highly influential research and policy institution of over two hundred and fifty. Feulner has also held leadership positions in a wide array of academic, political, and economic non-profits organizations and universities, and served on the Gingrich-Mitchell Congressional UN Reform Task Force and the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, of which he was Chairman. He served as the Public Member (Ambassador) of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament. Feulner has written eight books, including The American Spirit. He holds a B.A. from Regis University, an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, and a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh.

Allison Gill is the Forced Labor Program Director at Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum. where she works to eliminate forced labor in supply chains through accountability and policy. She is a co-founder and co-chair of the End Uyghur Forced Labor Coalition. She also leads strategy for the Cotton Campaign, a multi-stakeholder coalition to eliminate forced and child labor in cotton production in Central Asia, and to open space for organizing and workers’ rights. Allison is a human rights lawyer, investigator, and advocate with more than 20 years’ experience working in Central Asia and the countries of the former Soviet Union. In additional to forced and child labor, Allison has researched and advocated on torture and ill-treatment, rule of law, religious persecution, arbitrary detention, migrant labor, freedoms of speech and association, and national security laws. Before joining GLJ-ILRF, she was Senior Research and Policy Advisor to the Uzbek Forum, where she authored numerous reports and submissions to international bodies on forced labor in the cotton sector in Uzbekistan among other issues, developed research methodology and trained field monitors, oversaw independent monitoring of cotton farms participating in a sustainable cotton pilot program, and served on the steering committee of the Cotton Campaign. Previously, Allison has consulted for numerous human rights organizations, was the Russia director for Human Rights Watch, based in Moscow and the Uzbekistan researcher for Human Rights Watch, based in Tashkent.

Ethan Gutmann, China analyst and human-rights investigator, is a Senior Research Fellow in China Studies for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and co-founder of the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC). He has written for publications such as the Wall Street Journal Asia, The Weekly Standard, National Review, and Investor’s Business Daily, and has provided briefings for the United States Congress, the Central Intelligence Agency, the European Parliament, and the United Nations. He has also testified in London, Ottawa, Canberra, Dublin, Edinburgh, Prague, and Jerusalem. A former foreign-policy analyst at the Brookings Institution, Gutmann has appeared on PBS, CNN, BBC, and CNBC. In 2017, Gutmann was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Gutmann’s research into Chinese Internet surveillance, the Laogai System, and the intersection of Western business with Chinese security objectives began to receive sustained attention following the publication of his first book, Losing the New China in 2004. His next book The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China’s Secret Solution to its Dissident Problem was released in 2014. He also co-authored the influential 2016 investigative report, Bloody Harvest/The Slaughter: An Update. The report meticulously examines the transplant programs of hundreds of hospitals in China, drawing on media reports, official propaganda, medical journals, hospital websites and a vast number of deleted websites found in archives. He is currently working on a new book based on his personal interviews with Uyghur and Kazakh refugees across Central Asia titled The Xinjiang Procedure.

Peter Mattis is a Director of Research and Analysis at the Special Competitive Studies Project and an International Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Mr. Mattis was the Senate-appointed staff director at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC). In addition to his duties with the CECC, he also served as an advisor to Senator Marco Rubio and was a part of the legislative team that passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, and the Tibetan Policy and Support Act. Mr. Mattis has written and spoken widely about the Chinese Communist Party and PRC politics, foreign policy, internal security, intelligence, and political influence activities. He is the author of Analyzing the Chinese Military: A Review Essay and Resource Guide on the People’s Liberation Army (2015) and co-author of Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer (Naval Institute Press, 2019). His writing has appeared in Foreign Policy, Sydney Morning Herald, The Hill, China Brief, War on the Rocks, Jane’s Intelligence Review, The Diplomat, Texas National Security Review, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, and Studies in Intelligence. Mattis received his M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University and Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Washington in Political Science and Asian Studies.

Jillian Kay Melchior is an editorial page writer at The Wall Street Journal, where she covers American politics, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, activism, higher education, among other subjects. She has also worked as an investigative reporter for Heat Street and National Review and a senior fellow for the Independent Women’s Forum, a Tony Blankley fellow for the Steamboat Institute and a Robert Novak fellow. She has reported in Iraq, Ukraine, the Balkans, China, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. Jillian is a native of Cheyenne, Wyoming, and an alumna of Hillsdale College.

Dr. James A. Millward 米華健 is a Professor of Intersocietal History at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, teaching Chinese, Central Asian and world history. His specialties include the Qing empire; the silk road; Eurasian lutes and music in history; and historical and contemporary Xinjiang. He follows and comments on current issues regarding Xinjiang, the Uyghurs and other Xinjiang indigenous peoples, and PRC ethnicity policy. Millward is the author of Eurasian Crossroads: a history of Xinjiang (2021; 2007), The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction (2013), New Qing Imperial History: The Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde (2004), and Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity and Empire in Qing Central Asia (1998). His articles and op-eds on contemporary China appear in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The New York Review of Books, and other media.

Jeffrey C. H. Ngo is an activist historian of and from Hong Kong. Based in Washington, he’s pursuing his Ph.D. in History at Georgetown University. He has broad scholarly interests in Chinese territorial and maritime frontiers, the Qing Empire, modern Vietnam, as well as U.S. foreign relations. His essays have been published in Time, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Hong Kong Free Press, Dissent, and Slate. After graduating with his M.A. and B.A. from New York University, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Toronto in 2017–18. He was a longtime member of Demosistō, the former youth political group for which he served as chief researcher and a standing-committee member. He worked for the Legislative Council election campaigns of Au Nok-Hin in 2018 and Nathan Law in 2016. He has also co-organized numerous solidarity rallies in both Washington and New York to support Hong Kong’s ongoing fight for freedom.

Nathan Picarsic is a co-founder of Horizon Advisory, a geopolitical consultancy, and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). His work focuses on the development of competitive strategies that help businesses, investors, and governmental actors navigate economic, technological, and political change. His team's research on topics ranging from geopolitical competition to human rights abuses have been profiled in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, among other leading international outlets. His expertise has been cited by outlets ranging from Vice to Barron's and he has testified before the US-China Economic Security and Review Commission on US-China relations and the strategic role of capital markets. He serves as a mentor and advisor to technology startups at Carnegie Mellon University’s Project Olympus. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College and has completed executive education programs through Harvard Business School and the Defense Acquisition University.

Dr. Michael Pillsbury is senior fellow and director for Chinese strategy at Hudson Institute. He is a distinguished defense policy adviser, former high-ranking government official, and author of numerous books and reports on China. In 1969-1970 he was the Assistant Political Affairs Officer at the United Nations. From 1971-72, he was a doctoral dissertation Fellow for the National Science Foundation in Taiwan, and in 1973-1977, he was an analyst at the Social Science Department at RAND. In 1978, Dr. Pillsbury was a research fellow at the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. During the Reagan administration, he was the Assistant Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning and responsible for implementation of the program of covert aid known as the Reagan Doctrine. In 1975-76, while an analyst at the RAND Corporation, he published articles in Foreign Policy and International Security recommending that the United States establish intelligence and military ties with China. The proposal, publicly commended by Ronald Reagan, Henry Kissinger, and James Schlesinger, later became US policy during the Carter and Reagan administrations. He served on the staff of four US Senate Committees from 1978-1984 and 1986-1991. As a staff member, he drafted the Senate Labor Committee version of the legislation that enacted the US Institute of Peace in 1984. He also assisted in drafting the legislation to create the National Endowment for Democracy and the annual requirement for a DOD report on Chinese military power. In 1992, under President George H. W. Bush, Dr. Pillsbury was Special Assistant for Asian Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Dexter Roberts is a senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Asia Security Initiative, housed within Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Roberts is an award-winning journalist and a regular commentator on U.S.-China relations. He is also a Fellow at the University of Montana’s Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center. Previously, he was China bureau chief and Asia News Editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, based in Beijing for more than two decades. His recent reporting has focused on how legacy policies from China’s past, including its household registration system, are leading to growing inequality and social tension, and are holding back the country’s development. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and studied at National Taiwan Normal University’s Mandarin Training Center in Taipei, Taiwan. Roberts has won numerous journalism honors, including Overseas Press Club awards, the Sidney Hillman Foundation prize, Human Rights Press awards, and Society of Publishers in Asia editorial excellence awards. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford University, where he was a National Merit Scholar, and a master of international affairs focusing on China and journalism from Columbia University, where he was a recipient of the New York Financial Writers Association Scholarship. Roberts’ first book, The Myth of Chinese Capitalism: The Worker, The Factory, and The Future of the World, (St. Martin’s Press) was chosen as one of The Economist “best books of the year” for 2020. He is represented by Macmillan Speakers Bureau and has launched a China trade newsletter titled Trade War.

Roger Robinson is the president and CEO of the RWR Advisory Group, a position which he has held since 1985. Prior to this, he was the Senior Director of International Economic Affairs at the National Security Council. Robinson has also served as president and CEO of Conflict Securities Advisory Group, Inc., Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the congressionally-mandated U.S.-China Economic and Security Review, and Commission Chairman of the Prague Security Studies Institute in the Czech Republic. Robinson has also published works on security-related risk in the global capital markets and East-West economic and financial relations. Robinson holds an M.A. from George Washington University and a B.A. from Duke University.

Michael Sobolik joined the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) as a Fellow in Indo-Pacific Studies in September 2019. His work covers American and Chinese grand strategy, regional economic and security trends, America’s alliance architecture in Asia, and human rights. Michael also serves as editor of AFPC’s Indo-Pacific Monitor e-bulletin, AFPC’s review of developments in the region. His analysis has appeared in The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, The Hill, Jane's Defence Weekly, The National Interest, National Review, Newsweek, Providence, and RealClearDefense. He has also testified before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia, and Nonproliferation about U.S. policy in Southeast Asia. Prior to joining AFPC, Michael served as a Legislative Assistant in the United States Senate from 2014 to 2019. While in the Senate, Michael drafted legislation on China, Russia, India, Taiwan, North Korea, and Cambodia, as well as strategic systems and missile defense. Michael is a graduate of Texas A&M University, where he studied political philosophy as an undergraduate. He also earned his Master of International Affairs degree in American grand strategy and U.S.-China relations at the Bush School of Government and Public Service.

Bhuchung Tsering joined the International Campaign for Tibet in Washington, D.C. in 1995 and is currently its interim President. Prior to joining ICT, he had served in the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala, India, and also worked as a journalist with the New Delhi newspaper, Indian Express. He was a member of the Task Force set up by the Tibetan leadership to work on issues relating to the dialogue process with China. He was also a member of the team led by the envoys of H.H. the Dalai Lama in the discussions that they had with the Chinese leadership between 2002 and 2010. He has testified in the United States Congress on behalf of the International Campaign for Tibet and spoken on Tibet-related issues at UN meetings.

Dr. Miles Yu served as the principal China policy and planning adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He is a Professor of East Asian and Military History at the United States Naval Academy. He is also a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, the Project 2049 Institute and the Robert Alexander Mercer Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Among his academic specialties are military and intelligence history of World War II and the Cold War and political analysis of modern China. Mr. Yu is the author of several full-length books, including OSS in China: Prelude to Cold War and The Dragon’s War: Allied Operations and the Fate of China, 1937-1947. In addition, he is a contributor to an edited volume entitled If China Attacks Taiwan: Military Strategy, Politics and Economics and has published multiple articles in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. Yu holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, an M.A. from Swarthmore College, and a B.A. from Nankai University.

Dr. Adrian Zenz is the Director and Senior Fellow of China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington, D.C. (non-resident), and supervises Ph.D. students at the European School of Culture and Theology, Korntal, Germany. His research focus is on China’s ethnic policy, public recruitment in Tibet and Xinjiang, Beijing’s internment campaign in Xinjiang, and China’s domestic security budgets. Dr. Zenz is the author of Tibetanness under Threat and co-editor of Mapping Amdo: Dynamics of Change. He has played a leading role in the analysis of leaked Chinese government documents, including the “China Cables” and the “Karakax List.” Dr. Zenz is an advisor to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, and a frequent contributor to the international media.