Officers and Staff

Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Ph.D., Founding Executive Director. Dr. Blanchard also currently serves as the General Editor of the Routledge Series on the Political Economy of Asia as well as an editorial board member of several China- and Asia-oriented academic journals and is a member of the (USA) National Committee on United States-China Relations. He previously was the President of the Association of Chinese Political Studies (USA). A specialist in international political economy and foreign direct investment (FDI), he is a co-author of Economic Statecraft and Foreign Policy, the editor or co-editor of and a contributor to 20 edited books and special journal issues, and the author of more than 70 articles, book chapters, and other publications related to FDI in China, Chinese outward FDI (OFDI), China and the WTO, Chinese foreign economic policy, and the political economy of China’s relations with the United States (US) and Japan. A leading expert on China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative and China’s Digital Silk Road (DSR), both component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Dr. Blanchard currently is leading research projects on Chinese seaports, China’s DSR, and the effects of Chinese OFDI. Dr. Blanchard has taught for leading Business, Public Administration, Public Policy, International Relations, and Public Policy schools in China, France, Japan, Switzerland, and the US, among other locales, and earlier was the Associate Director of a China Center in San Francisco, California (USA). He received his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania and his A.B. in Economics from U.C. Berkeley. Prior to his career in academia, Dr. Blanchard worked for the U.S. Federal Savings & Loan Insurance Corporation and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the investment banking firm Kelling, Northcross, & Nobriga. He is fluent in Mandarin and English, and has a working proficiency in French.

Bas Hooijmaaijers, Ph.D., Treasurer. Dr. Hooijmaaijers also is Associate Research Professor (outgoing) with the School of Politics and International Relations at East China Normal University (Shanghai, China) and a Research Fellow at the Leuven International and European Studies Institute at KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium). In addition, he is a Senior Research Fellow at the Wong MNC Center. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2016 from Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of International and Public Affairs. His research activities include projects on the political-economic EU-China relations, including Chinese FDI in Europe and China’s Digital Silk Road. He has published in various leading journals, including the Journal of Common Market Studies, The Pacific Review, Journal of European Integration, Global Governance, Asia Europe Journal, and International Political Science Review. He has also contributed to ad hoc studies for the European Parliament. He is the author of Unpacking EU Policy-making towards China: How Member States, Bureaucracies, and Institutions Shape its China Economic Policy (Palgrave, 2021). Dr. Hooijmaaijers is fluent in English and Dutch and has functional proficiency in Mandarin (HSK4).

May Tan-Mullins, Ph.D., Corporate Secretary. Dr. Tan-Mullins also is Dean International, James Cook University (Singapore). She previously was the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning with the University of Nottingham Ningbo China and Director of multiple CEEC think tanks in China. She also worked at Durham University, UK and the National University of Singapore. Dr. Tan-Mullins is a recipient of the esteemed Camellia Friendship Award from Ningbo (China) (2018) and the Westlake Friendship Award from Zhejiang Province (2021). Her research interests include sustainability, environmental and energy justice, the political ecology of rising China, and poverty alleviation. She has served as a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme, National Bureau of Asian Research (US), Revenue Watch Institute (US), and the Chinese government. Tan-Mullins is an awardee of the prestigious global Rockefeller Bellagio writing residency in Italy. One of her current research projects includes a Research Council of Norway funded project entitled “Roads to Power? The Political Effects of Infrastructure Projects in Asia” (2022-2024). She is fluent in English, Mandarin, Malay, and Thai.