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Biden Administration International Affairs Personnel Tracker

Melanie Hart

Office of Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment China Policy Coordinator

Before joining the Biden administrator as the China Policy Coordinator for the Office of the Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment, Dr. Melanie Hart worked as the director of China policy at the Center for American Progress. 

She serves on the board of directors for the American Mandarin Society, is a charter member of the East Coast Advancement Committee of the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego, and a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. She has private sector experience as well, working with companies such as Qualcomm, the Albright Stonebridge Group, and the Sowcroft Group.

On China

Dr. Hart’s research areas on China typically focus on energy, climate change, and cross-border investment. Although her work has sought areas of cooperation in the U.S.-China relationship regarding these issue areas, she has also worked to address the relationship in terms of strategic competition. Although she is not active on social media, she has written countless articles and reports surrounding the U.S.-China relationship. She views China as the “greatest geopolitical challenge in the 21st century” for the United States.

In essence, she argues that the United States should position its interactions with China in three main ways:

  • Limit China’s ability to exploit our open systems through encouraging or requiring transparency from Chinese investment, propaganda, and funding.
  • Leverage China’s growing capabilities in areas that the U.S. can feasibly cooperate with China on, such as regional development, humanitarian aid, climate change, and global health.
  • Compete at full strength, by investing in American economic competitiveness, bolstering trade partnerships with allies, investing in the digital infrastructure, and ramping up an Asia-Pacific democracy network.

Page Last Updated: March 10, 2021

*None of the personnel in this tracker are associated with the Institute for China-America Studies. All images used on this page are sourced from the official Biden-Harris transition website buildbackbetter.gov or the public domain.*