Drew Thompson

Drew Thompson is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

From 2011 to 2018, he was the Director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense where he was responsible for supporting the Secretary and managing military-to-military relations. He was previously the Director of China Studies and Starr Senior Fellow at the Center for the National Interest in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the Center, he was the National Director of the China-MSD HIV/AIDS Partnership in Beijing, a 5 year, $30 million HIV/AIDS program established by Merck & Co. and the Chinese Ministry of Health. Mr. Thompson served previously as Assistant Director to the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He also was the president of a Washington, D.C. company that manufactured snack food in Qingdao, China. He lived in Shanghai from 1993 to 1998 where he was the General Manager of a U.S. freight forwarding and logistics firm, overseeing offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing.

Mr. Thompson studied Chinese language at Beijing University in 1990, and was a graduate student in 1992 at the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Asian Studies from Hobart College in 1992, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 2004, Mr. Thompson received an M.A. in Government, with a concentration in Homeland Security, from Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. Thompson has authored monographs and articles on Sino-U.S. relations, international security and public health in Singapore Straits Times, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, China Security, The China Business Review, The International Herald Tribune, The Financial Times, China: An International Journal, and The South China Morning Post. Mr. Thompson has conducted live television interviews for CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News, Bloomberg, the BBC, Voice of America and CNBC Asia. In addition, he has conducted interviews on National Public Radio, including appearances on the Diane Rehm show.

Research Interests

• U.S.-China Relations
• North Korea and China-North Korea Relations
• China’s Relationship with Neighbouring States
• U.S. Foreign Policy

Past Publications

• Implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy During Covid-19
• Built for Trust, Not for Conflict: ASEAN Faces the Future (with Byron Chong)
• The Rise of Xi Jinping and China’s New Era: Implications for the United States and Taiwan
• Silent Partners: Chinese Joint Ventures in North Korea
• China's Health Care Reform Redux, in China's Capacity to Manage Infectious Diseases
• China on the Edge: China's Border Provinces and Chinese Security Policy (with Carla Freeman)
• Flood Across the Border: China’s Disaster Relief Operations and Potential Response to a North Korean Refugee Crisis (with Carla Freeman)
• Think Again: China's Military
• Rumble in the Junta
• Beijing's GDP Numerology
• China Confronts HIV/AIDS