Jessica Chen Weiss, Michael J. Zak Professor for China and Asia-Pacific Studies at Cornell University and Director of the Cornell Levinson China and Asia-Pacific Studies (CAPS) program, is named one of Prospect Magazine's 25 "Top Thinkers for a World on the Brink for 2024."
Prospect Magazine writes: "In recent years, an idea that had been the preserve of Washington’s right-wing voices became widespread: that China could only ever be a threat to the US. Jessica Chen Weiss, an American author and political scientist who worked in the Biden administration in 2021 and 2022 as senior adviser to the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, has proved to be a compelling, moderate voice.
Weiss is a Senior Fellow in Chinese Politics, Foreign Policy, and National Security at Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. She has argued that the US government should avoid an “overly confrontational” approach to China.
After she left the State Department, in a 2022 Foreign Affairs article titled “The China Trap”, she detailed her worries that US foreign policy has an unhealthy focus on China as a threat and that every interaction with China is now seen as a zero-sum game.
In both her academic and government roles, she has attempted to bridge the gap between academic understanding of China and US policy engagement with it.
At a time of great polarisation between the two countries, when cooperation on issues including climate change and Russia could be hugely transformative, Weiss has been one of the few voices challenging the Washington consensus on China, gaining supporters equally skeptical of the US position."
Every year, Prospect puts together a list of Top Thinkers - a curated list of people who, through their ideas, are making an impact in the world right now - and asks the readers to vote for a winner.
This year the Prospect editorial team, together with some regular writers and contributors, have chosen 25 people whose work informs the world about issues of critical global importance: climate, economics, freedom, geopolitics, and technology.
Huge congratulations to Professor Weiss on this well-deserved recognition! Please visit the website to vote for Professor Weiss!
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/63099/25-thinkers-for-a-world-on-the-brink
