Writer. Editor. Strategist.
Director of Research & Communications
Kovrig Group | Global Network for Strategic Effects
I'm a veteran news reporter.
I apply my research and writing skills to convey complex meaning in accessible language for the public good.
I aim to spark dialogue between readers and leaders.
Since 1995, I've worked to explain the politics of business and culture in newspaper, magazine and book form.
I'm an enthusiastic manager able to break down tasks and motivate teams to hit deadlines with care and calm.
My work has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, The Christian Science Monitor, The Hollywood Reporter, The China Project, ChinaFile, China Film Insider, The Wire China, Agence France Presse, National Public Radio, The China Economic Quarterly, The South China Morning Post, Forbes, Wallpaper, and Billboard.
Recent work includes:
"The Last China Hand," Foreign Policy, February 14, 2025 — America's senior expert on Chinese law Jerry Cohen talks with me about his memoir and his life's work trying to understand The People's Republic.
”Ai Weiwei’s ‘Zodiac’ Is a Mystical Memory Tour,” The New York Times, February 7, 2024 — Twelve years after our first interview, one of the world's most famous activist artists delves into the ideas behind his new graphic memoir.
“Vanessa Hope on Taiwan, the Invisible Nation,” The Wire China, January 14, 2024 — An American documentarian on the rise of Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's first female, democratically elected president.
“Ya-Wen Lei on China’s Gilded Cage,” The Wire China, December 3, 2023 — The Chinese government’s use of digital technology to control the population, as picked apart by a leading Harvard sociologist from Taiwan.
“The Chinese diaspora ‘needs to rise up’ about atrocities against Uyghurs,” The China Project, October 30,2023 — Human rights lawyer Rayhan Asat lost her brother to the Chinese party-state and talks with me about the dissonance between China’s support for Palestine and its treatment of her people, the Uyghurs.
“Violence in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan might sabotage China’s plans to move Middle Eastern oil to Xinjiang,” The China Project, September 28, 2023 — A colleague in Pakistan and I report how Baloch nationalists and the Taliban are strewing rocks along China’s Belt and Road.
"Understanding Beijing’s data lockdown: Q&A with Mu Chen of Baiguan," The China Project, September 27, 2023, — At a time when Beijing has made it tough for outsiders to access official data of all kinds, I talk with the founder of a data provider who has found a way around the official blockade and aims to "power investment research on Chinese companies."
"How to read the People’s Daily: Q&A with Manoj Kewalramani," The China Project, August 11, 2023 — This Indian researcher helps the world understand how China's leaders are thinking by breaking down the official newspaper of the CCP on the daily.
"An African in China brings global sports to Africa," The China Project, June 27, 2023 — Lloyd Randall left war-torn Sierra Leone to get a masters degree in China. Working for a Chinese media company, he now calls European soccer matches live for a booming audience of sportsfans in China and across Africa.
"A rare environmental success story: The Blue Map app and its 3.8 million Chinese users," The China Project, May 2. 2023 — I catch up with Ma Jun, China's leading environmental activist, with whom I shared an office in Beijing in 1998, when we both worked as cub reporters for The South China Morning Post.
"BLACK LAND: A Story of Genocide, Exile and The Language of Resistance in Modern China," — I ghostwrote this forthcoming memoir by exiled Uyghur activist and educator Abduweli Ayup, with a foreword by Raffi Khatchadourian of The New Yorker.
"What China Wants," Management Today, August 2, 2021 — Despite Beijing’s increasingly fractious relationship with Western businesses, some British ventures are flourishing in China.
"TOXIC POLITICS," I edited and polished Council on Foreign Relations fellow Huang Yanzhong's book on the evolution of China's environmental policy.
"Covering China — International Media & Journalism," Asia Society, October 6, 2021, I moderated this panel discussion with veteran Asia correspondents Mary Kay Magistad and Alyssa MacDonald.
SERVICES & RATES
BIOGRAPHY
Director of Research & Communications
Kovrig Group | Global Network for Strategic Effects
I'm a veteran news reporter.
I apply my research and writing skills to convey complex meaning in accessible language for the public good.
I aim to spark dialogue between readers and leaders.
Since 1995, I've worked to explain the politics of business and culture in newspaper, magazine and book form.
I'm an enthusiastic manager able to break down tasks and motivate teams to hit deadlines with care and calm.
My work has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, The Christian Science Monitor, The Hollywood Reporter, The China Project, ChinaFile, China Film Insider, The Wire China, Agence France Presse, National Public Radio, The China Economic Quarterly, The South China Morning Post, Forbes, Wallpaper, and Billboard.
Recent work includes:
"The Last China Hand," Foreign Policy, February 14, 2025 — America's senior expert on Chinese law Jerry Cohen talks with me about his memoir and his life's work trying to understand The People's Republic.
”Ai Weiwei’s ‘Zodiac’ Is a Mystical Memory Tour,” The New York Times, February 7, 2024 — Twelve years after our first interview, one of the world's most famous activist artists delves into the ideas behind his new graphic memoir.
“Vanessa Hope on Taiwan, the Invisible Nation,” The Wire China, January 14, 2024 — An American documentarian on the rise of Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's first female, democratically elected president.
“Ya-Wen Lei on China’s Gilded Cage,” The Wire China, December 3, 2023 — The Chinese government’s use of digital technology to control the population, as picked apart by a leading Harvard sociologist from Taiwan.
“The Chinese diaspora ‘needs to rise up’ about atrocities against Uyghurs,” The China Project, October 30,2023 — Human rights lawyer Rayhan Asat lost her brother to the Chinese party-state and talks with me about the dissonance between China’s support for Palestine and its treatment of her people, the Uyghurs.
“Violence in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan might sabotage China’s plans to move Middle Eastern oil to Xinjiang,” The China Project, September 28, 2023 — A colleague in Pakistan and I report how Baloch nationalists and the Taliban are strewing rocks along China’s Belt and Road.
"Understanding Beijing’s data lockdown: Q&A with Mu Chen of Baiguan," The China Project, September 27, 2023, — At a time when Beijing has made it tough for outsiders to access official data of all kinds, I talk with the founder of a data provider who has found a way around the official blockade and aims to "power investment research on Chinese companies."
"How to read the People’s Daily: Q&A with Manoj Kewalramani," The China Project, August 11, 2023 — This Indian researcher helps the world understand how China's leaders are thinking by breaking down the official newspaper of the CCP on the daily.
"An African in China brings global sports to Africa," The China Project, June 27, 2023 — Lloyd Randall left war-torn Sierra Leone to get a masters degree in China. Working for a Chinese media company, he now calls European soccer matches live for a booming audience of sportsfans in China and across Africa.
"A rare environmental success story: The Blue Map app and its 3.8 million Chinese users," The China Project, May 2. 2023 — I catch up with Ma Jun, China's leading environmental activist, with whom I shared an office in Beijing in 1998, when we both worked as cub reporters for The South China Morning Post.
"BLACK LAND: A Story of Genocide, Exile and The Language of Resistance in Modern China," — I ghostwrote this forthcoming memoir by exiled Uyghur activist and educator Abduweli Ayup, with a foreword by Raffi Khatchadourian of The New Yorker.
"What China Wants," Management Today, August 2, 2021 — Despite Beijing’s increasingly fractious relationship with Western businesses, some British ventures are flourishing in China.
"TOXIC POLITICS," I edited and polished Council on Foreign Relations fellow Huang Yanzhong's book on the evolution of China's environmental policy.
"Covering China — International Media & Journalism," Asia Society, October 6, 2021, I moderated this panel discussion with veteran Asia correspondents Mary Kay Magistad and Alyssa MacDonald.
SERVICES & RATES
BIOGRAPHY