Forecast 2026

Yuen Yuen Ang is the Alfred Chandler Chair Professor of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University. Ang’s work opens new ways of thinking for a disrupted, multipolar world—marrying deep China expertise with big-picture insights on global transformation and thought. Her cross-disciplinary research has received multiple awards across political science, sociology, and economics. Named among the world’s 100 Most Influential Academics in Government by Apolitical, her scholarship reaches audiences in business, media, and public policy.

Rejecting the paralysis of polycrisis, Ang launched polytunity as a counter-narrative, reframing disruption as a generational opening for deep transformation. She offers a new paradigm for the polytunity: AIM (Adaptive, Inclusive, Moral) Political Economy. AIM views political economies as complex adaptive systems (Adaptive), amplifies diverse indigenous solutions (Inclusive), and recognizes the power inequities that shape global institutions and thought (Moral).

AIM is a living intellectual forest that Ang continuously cultivates with new concepts, theories, and projects. Her award-winning books—How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (2016) and China’s Gilded Age (2020)—have long demonstrated applications of AIM in the context of China’s capitalist revolution. Both are recommended by The Economist and featured in a video lecture series produced by INET. Her latest projects expand the canopy of AIM through collaborations spanning high-tech industrial policies and adaptive policy communication using LLMs. Today, Ang invites changemakers worldwide to carry AIM forward across regions and sectors.

At Johns Hopkins, Ang directs both The Polytunity Project and The Multipolar World & US-China Roundtables. The latter convenes experts across backgrounds in Washington D.C. to explore U.S.-China relations in an age of multipolarity and disruptive technology. She also serves as a Trustee of Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company, a multinational board overseeing the Trust Principles of journalistic integrity at Reuters, the world’s largest multimedia news provider.

Known for translating complex debates into accessible insights for global audiences, Ang has been profiled by media across regions, including CGTN Visionaries (China), Die Zeit (Germany), Economy Chosun (South Korea), Ezra Klein Show, Freakonomics Radio (USA), South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), among others. Her insights are sought by international organizations, civil society, companies, and governments worldwide, with about 100 invitations each year.

Born and raised in Singapore, Ang received her B.A. from Colorado College and her Ph.D. from Stanford University. Her cross-cultural background grounds her global lens, inspiring her to translate across differences and shape a more creative, inclusive future.

Jude Blanchette is the Distinguished Tang Chair in China Research, and the inaugural director of the RAND China Research Center. He is a leading expert on China’s political landscape and focuses on expanding RAND’s focus on China’s domestic issues, including social, economic, demographic, and environmental challenges, as well as nonmilitary aspects of competition.

Previously, Blanchette held the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and served as engagement director at the Conference Board’s China Center for Economics and Business in Beijing. He is a prolific writer featured in prominent publications and authored China’s New Red Guards: The Return of Radicalism and the Rebirth of Mao Zedong. Blanchette holds a master’s degree in modern Chinese studies from the University of Oxford and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Loyola University Maryland.

Joyce Chang is the Chair of Global Research for J.P. Morgan’s Commercial and Investment Bank, with 36 years of experience in Global Research. Her expertise spans Macro, Cross-Asset, Fixed Income, Emerging Markets, Geopolitical, and Strategic Research. She has held numerous leadership positions in research since joining JPMorgan in 1999, including Global Head of Research, Global Head of Fixed Income Research and Global Head of Emerging Markets Research. Joyce began her career as an Emerging Markets Strategist in 1989 and held top rankings in Institutional Investor surveys for Emerging Markets Research, earning 25 #1 individual rankings, and was inducted into the Fixed Income Analyst Society Hall of Fame in 2014. Before joining J.P. Morgan Chase in 1999, she was a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch and Salomon Brothers.

Joyce is the Executive Sponsor for J.P. Morgan Chase’s AsPIRE network for employees of Asian heritage. She serves on the Board of Directors for the German Marshall Fund, Fixed Income Analyst Society, Asian American Business Development Center, and Trickle Up. Additionally, she serves on numerous Board of Visitors and External Advisory Councils for major universities, including Columbia, Princeton, Georgetown, and UC Berkeley. Joyce is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Inter-American Dialogue, Economic Club of New York and Committee of 100. She has been included in Barron’s 100 Most Influential Women in Finance and in American Banker’s Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance. Joyce holds an M.P.A. from Princeton and a B.A. from Columbia, where she received the John Jay Award for professional achievement.

AJ Cortese is a senior manager of business advisory services at the US-China Business Council, where he focuses on technology member companies.

Prior to USCBC, AJ led technology research at MacroPolo, the Paulson Institute’s think tank, concentrating on US-China competition in strategic and emerging technologies. His analysis focused on China’s strategic priorities for innovation in deep tech and developing self-reliance by examining industrial policy, evolving supply chains, and human capital. He is also a fellow at the Penn Project on the Future of US-China Relations.

Previously, AJ worked in Beijing as an analyst for 36Kr Global and ICR Inc., researching technology companies and investment trends in China. He holds a BA in economics from Fordham University and is pursuing an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is proficient in Mandarin.

Rachel is a manager of business advisory services at USCBC in Washington, DC.

Prior to joining the Council, she worked as a project consultant at APCO Worldwide in Beijing. She holds a master’s degree in Chinese politics and foreign policy from Tsinghua University and a bachelor’s degree in global studies and Asian studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is proficient in Mandarin and lived in China for many years.

Samm Sacks is a senior fellow at Yale Law School Paul Tsai China Center and New America.

Her research examines China’s information and communications technology (ICT) policies, focusing on China’s domestic regulatory landscape, U.S. tech policy toward China, and the geopolitics of AI and data. Previously, Sacks launched the industrial cyber business for Siemens in China, Japan, and South Korea.

Prior to this, she led China technology sector analysis at the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group and worked as an analyst and Chinese linguist with the national security community. She has testified multiple times before Congress on China’s technology and data policies and appears frequently as commentator on MSNBC.

She has lived and traveled to China extensively over the last twenty-five years, including as a Fulbright Scholar in Beijing. She also advises corporate clients navigating the U.S.-China technology relationship.

Kendra Schaefer is a partner at Beijing-based policy consultancy Trivium China, where she heads the company’s Tech Policy Division.

She leads a team of analysts keeping investors, companies, and governments briefed on Chinese tech policy and regulation, and she has served as a key expert for heads of state and Fortune 500 companies on China tech issues. Her personal areas of research interest include AI, the data economy, and Chinese government digital infrastructure systems. She is a non-resident fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research.

Kendra was based primarily in China from 2002-2022. She began her career as a developer and user researcher in the early days of China’s internet boom.

Kyle Sullivan is vice president of business advisory services at the US-China Business Council based in Washington, DC, where he oversees USCBC’s research and analysis for member companies.

Prior to joining USCBC, Kyle served as a vice president in the Albright Stonebridge Group’s China practice in Washington, where he advised corporates and portfolio investors on domestic policy and market trends in China and developments in the US-China relationship. Previously, he held roles at the Martin+Crumpton Group and APCO Worldwide. Earlier in his career, Kyle worked as manager of business advisory services at USCBC’s Shanghai office, where he led policy research projects for US companies in a wide range of sectors.

Kyle earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Washington in Seattle. He is fluent in Mandarin and lived in China for over 12 years. He is a native of Grand Rapids, Michigan.