Former U.S. Ambassador to China to present public lecture at Chapman

Top Asia expert J. Stapleton Roy, former United States Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, will visit Chapman University on Thursday, Feb. 9, to present a free public lecture, “Dealing with a Rising China.”

The talk will take place at 5 p.m. in the university’s Sandhu Conference Center, preceded by a reception at 4 p.m.   The event is part of the Dr. Richard Watson Distinguished Speaker Series presented by the Asian Studies program of Chapman’s Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and is made possible by the generous support of the Kay Family Foundation.

J. Stapleton Roy currently serves as director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.   Born in Nanjing, China to American missionary parents, he graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University and embarked on a career spanning 45 years with the U.S. Department of State.  He spent much of his foreign service career in East Asia, but he also specialized in Soviet affairs and served in Moscow at the height of the Cold War.  Roy rose to become a three-time ambassador, serving as the top U.S. envoy in Singapore (1984-1986), the People’s Republic of China (1991-1995) and Indonesia (1996-1999).  In 1996, he was promoted to the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest rank in the Foreign Service.

Ambassador Roy’s final post with the State Department was as assistant secretary for intelligence and research.  In addition to his current post at the Kissinger Institute, he also serves as chairman of the United States Asia Pacific Council, vice chairman of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, trustee emeritus of The Asia Foundation, a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and serves on the boards of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, the American Academy of Diplomacy and the U.S.-China Policy Foundation.   He is a distinguished senior advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. and a distinguished graduate and member of the Hall of Fame of the National War College.

Ambassador Roy’s many publications include, recently, “The Internal Logic of China’s Political Development,” The Globalist, June 3, 2011; and a review of Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China by Ezra Vogel in The Wilson Quarterly, autumn 2011.

Although the event is free, advance registration by email is recommend and may be done by contacting tritch@chapman.edu.