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John POMFRET

Based in San Francisco, California, USA

  • Editor-at-large at SupChina
  • Consultant and Author
  • Author of the critically-acclaimed The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present
  • Author of Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China
  • Formerly the Beijing bureau chief and editor with The Washington Post
  • Editor-at-large at SupChina
  • Consultant and Author
  • Author of the critically-acclaimed The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present
  • Author of Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China
  • Formerly the Beijing bureau chief and editor with The Washington Post

John Pomfret is an award-winning journalist and writer who has divided his time between the US, China, Europe, Africa and the Middle East since the 1980s. He was one of the first American students to study in China following the Sino-American rapprochement and he has been a correspondent in China for the Associated Press and The Washington Post, in the late 1980s the late 1990s and the early 2000s. He has won numerous journalism awards for his work in China and in Washington. For the past five years, John has devoted himself to the first narrative history of America’s relationship with China from the 18th century until the present day. The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present was published on Nov. 29, 2016 to critical acclaim. John is the author of the 2006 best-seller, Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China.

John has also spent eight years covering wars and revolutions from Afghanistan, to Bosnia, to Congo. John was most recently a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Beijing.

See All News 
  • The US and China in the Era of Donald Trump and Xi Jinping

The Chinese government generally welcomed the election of Donald Trump, seeing him as a better alternative to Hillary Clinton. Well, be careful what you wish for. Trump’s America First nationalism, his new opening to Taiwan and his plans to pivot toward Russia portend a new era of unpredictability between Washington and Beijing

  • China Wants to Be Rich and Strong: Can It Make It?

As Xi Jinping leads China into an election (or selection) year with Chinese characteristics, China is facing a slowing economy, continued challenges in carrying out SOE reform and dealing with its debt along with it calls “the most complicated internal and external factors in history.” What are the challenges to Xi’s “China Dream”?

Other Topics:

China’s foreign policy

Domestic Chinese politics

Constraints to China’s development

Chinese demographics

Chinese values

The growth of religion in China

China’s millennial generation