Exploring ways of productively contributing to Sino-Western AI safety (control/responsible use) efforts. Move 78 (第78手棋) was an unsuccessful proposal for funding from FTX Future Fund. I'm now exploring a U.S.-China AI safety doctoral exchange program between MIT and Tsinghua.

Initiated conversations with Xue Lan, David Keith, Janos Pasztor, John Moore, Frank Keutsch, Josh Horton, among others to explore ways of expanding the scope and scale of U.S.-China collaboration on solar radiation management (SRM) stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI). SRM-SAI recreates the global cooling effects of some stratovolcanic eruptions (e.g., Pinatubo, Krakatoa, Tambora) using high-altitude tanker aircraft. Also assessing the viability of an OpenAI-inspired entity for the development of SAI capability.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) is at once the most important organization in the world and the least understood. The West and China cannot coordinate to mutually address existential risks to humanity if the West does not have a clear understanding of "who's who" in China. Exploring ways of building the largest organizational chart of the CPC. Previously built 3D social networks that visualized the 205-person Central Committee (中国共产党中央委员会) and Chinese ambassadors. Brainstorming with Kwok-leong Tang at the Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

Information asymmetries in technology between China and the U.S.—left alone—will lead to (a) races to the bottom, (b) paranoia-fuelled risky decision-making, and (c) missed opportunities for complementary Sino-Western problem-solving. While in Beijing, I want to start a podcast for unscripted, unedited, long-form conversations with China's technology leaders modelled after the Lex Fridman Podcast. Brainstorming with Yasheng Huang.

May 2022

A final paper on the manufacturing of specialized AI chips and implications for U.S.-China A(G)I competition. For EASTD98K Economic Governance of East Asia.

May 2022

U.S.-China Astro-Geopolitics on the Moon and Mars

A final paper making the case that the U.S. and China will likely experience more competitive dynamics on the Moon and more cooperative dynamics on Mars. For EAS196 Political Geography of China
Mar 2022

The Three-Body Problem: U.S.-China Technology Relations in the Age of Mitigating Climate Change, Making Life Multiplanetary, and Managing Artificial Intelligence

Harvard Undergraduate Senior Honors Thesis in Government advised by the Founding Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Dr. Graham Allison.

What is the significance of U.S.-China technology collaboration in addressing existential risk? This thesis visualizes data showing scientists who conduct research transnationally with American and Chinese organizations produce the most impactful research. It then considers two policy implications: scientific immunity and co-opetition/cooperation which could help address the three-body problem of (a) mitigating risk from climate change and (b) making humans a multiplanetary species, while (c) managing the unpredictability of artificial intelligence. This fills a gap in the literature about U.S.-China superpower technology relations in the context of existential risk.
Dec 2021

Changing Chinese Foreign Policy in the Era of Xi Jinping

Studied the travel patterns of China's top diplomats—Yang Jiechi (杨洁篪) and Wang Yi (王毅). Completed for GOV1982 Chinese Foreign Policy 1949-2022
Sept 2021

Project Terra: U.S.-China-led Global Energy Diplomacy for Climate Change

Harvard Graduate Thesis (Capstone) in Regional Studies—East Asia advised by incumbent U.S. Ambassador to China Nick Burns: "John is the most impressive student I have taught in his understanding of China."

A U.S.-China-led techno-diplomatic proposal for transitioning the world to sustainable energy based on Sino-Western technological complementarity.

Master of Ceremonies (主持人)

2022 Ivy League Chinese Spring Festival Gala

2019 Ivy League Chinese Spring Festival Gala

Stanford Center at Peking University

Harvard Undergraduate Foreign Policy Initiative

I'm a co-founder and former president of www.harvardforeignpolicy.org, where I built a team of 29 to lead the creation of the following.


Harvard Foreign Policy Research Program. Created Harvard’s largest undergraduate-led research program (several hundred Harvard undergraduates each semester), expanding from zero to hundreds of Harvard undergraduate researchers on 51 total projects for the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Mission to NATO, Belfer Center, House Intel, House Foreign, USTR, White House National Security Council, Facebook, USAID, UN, Space Force, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, USCYBERCOM; foreign governments of Sudan, South Korea, Afghanistan, Peru, Ukraine, Pakistan, Sweden, Egypt, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, and many more.

Speaker Series. Hosted among others:
  • David Petraeus (CIA Director)
  • John Bolton (U.S. National Security Advisor)
  • Robert Gates (CIA Director/U.S. Secretary of Defense)
  • Wendy Sherman (U.S. Deputy Secretary of State)
  • H. R. McMaster (U.S. National Security Advisor)
  • Nicholas Burns (U.S. Ambassador to China)
  • Steve Hadley (U.S. National Security Advisor)
  • William McRaven (Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command)
  • Jared Cohen (CEO, Jigsaw, Alphabet)
  • Kent Walker (SVP, Global Affairs, Google)
  • Ben Rhodes (Deputy U.S. National Security Advisor)

Harvard Undergraduate International Relations Scholars Program. Led the creation of the largest program of its kind in the world for students interested in foreign policy. Inaugural class of 615 scholars from 62 countries; more than 150 speakers contributing across 4 days. Moderated keynote conversations with Dr. Henry Kissinger (U.S. Secretary of State), Eric Schmidt (Google/Alphabet), Graham Allison (Harvard Kennedy School), Steve Schwarzman (Blackstone), Joshua Cooper Ramo (Kissinger Associates), John Brennan (CIA Director), Robert O'Brien (U.S. National Security Advisor), and Tamir Pardo (Mossad Director). Other guests included Leon Panetta (SecDef/CIA Director), Michèle Flournoy (Under Secretary of Defense for Policy), and Gen. John Allen (Brookings). Full guest list and coverage by Harvard

Harvard Kennedy School Founding Dean Graham Allison (top left); Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (bottom)

Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman (top right); Kissinger Associates CEO Joshua Cooper Ramo (bottom)

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt (top)

Eric Schmidt: "I really admire what you are trying to do here. This is exactly the kind of effort that I think is going to make the world a better place, and I could not say more supportive things about, collectively, the audience and the people you have assembled."
May 2021

CATL: China’s Battery King

Completed for GENED1068 The United States and China.
May 2021

The Fifth World Order: Friedrich Nietzsche and Henry Kissinger

This paper will attempt to—through the lens of Dr. Henry Kissinger’s own philosophy of history and practice of statecraft—illuminate and suggest new interpretations of Nietzsche’s ideas of the Übermensch, the eternal return, and transvaluation of all values in the context of humanity’s attempt to build a new world order. Completed for GOV1061 History of Modern Philosophy.
Mar 2021

Niccolò Machiavelli and the Governance of the People’s Republic of China

This paper illuminates tensions and potential reconciliations in Machiavelli’s philosophy using examples from attempts by Chinese leadership to balance Machiavelli’s competing advice between three core dichotomies—fear and love, liberty and security, flexibility and continuity. Completed for GOV1061 History of Modern Philosophy.
Dec 2020

Kissinger: A Case Study from the Chinese Perspective

“... you are the very first to use technology to render me a great kindness. My staff has walked me through the remarkable interface you have assembled on my travels as Secretary of State. It is a delightful resource for students and scholars of American foreign policy. I am amazed and grateful.” - Henry A. Kissinger
Aug 2020

Visualizing China's Ambassadors

Chinese and American diplomats all around the world, no matter their rank, need to be appropriately informed about the other to have effective dialogues and negotiations to repair the bilateral relationship where and when possible. This project was an attempt to build a resource for the U.S. side to better understand their Chinese counterparts (Chinese ambassadors)—who they are, their career histories, and their diplomatic networks. Funded by a grant from the Worley-Drankowski Fund for Undergraduate Research through the Harvard College Research Program and advised by Ambassador Nicholas Burns.