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Expert Bio
Ian Johnson is Stephen A. Schwarzman senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert on Chinese politics, society, and religion, he is the author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China, and A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA, and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West. Johnson is a contributor to the CFR blog Asia Unbound and a frequent contributor to media outlets in the United States. He is currently writing a book about how history is used to legitimize and challenge Communist Party rule in China and closely follows China's efforts to bolster its soft power around the globe.
Johnson joined CFR in 2021 after a long career in journalism, during which he won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of China. He first went to China as a student in Beijing from 1984 to 1985 and then studied in Taipei from 1986 to 1988. He later worked as a newspaper correspondent in China, from 1994 to 1996 with Baltimore's the Sun and from 1997 to 2001 with the Wall Street Journal, where he covered macroeconomics, China's World Trade Organization accession, and social issues.
In 2009, Johnson returned to China, living there until 2020 as a writer for the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, and other publications. He taught undergraduates at the Beijing Center for Chinese Studies, and has served as an advisor to academic journals, such as the Journal of Asian Studies. He is currently pursuing a PhD at the Leipzig University on Chinese religious associations.
Johnson has worked in Germany twice. From 1988 to 1992 he attended graduate school in West Berlin and covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and German unification. In 2001 he moved back to Berlin, working until 2009 as the Wall Street Journal's Germany bureau chief and senior writer. He managed reporters covering European Union fiscal policy and macroeconomics and wrote about social issues such as Islamist terrorism.
Johnson has also won two awards from the Overseas Press Club, an award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Stanford University's Shorenstein Journalism Award for his body of work covering Asia. In 2019 he won the American Academy of Religion's "best in-depth newswriting" award.
Beginning in 2006, Johnson spent a year as a Nieman fellow at Harvard University and later received research and writing grants from the Open Society Foundation, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and the Alicia Patterson Foundation. In 2020, he was an inaugural grantee of the Robert B. Silvers Foundation for work-in-progress grant. He was also awarded a 2020-2021 National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars fellowship for a new book he is writing on China's unofficial history.
Johnson has published three books and contributed chapters to four others. His newest book, The Souls of China, describes China's religious revival and its implications for politics and society. His other books are on civil society and grassroots protest in China (Wild Grass, 2004) and Islamism and the Cold War in Europe (A Mosque in Munich, 2010). He has also contributed chapters to: My First Trip to China (2011), Chinese Characters (2012), the Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China (2016), and Forbidden City: The Palace at the Heart of Chinese Culture (2021).
Affiliations:
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Current Projects
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The unusual departure of Qin Gang as Chinese foreign minister is another public setback for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, a sign that his run at the top has run into serious difficulties.
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An exhibition space commemorating the June 4, 1989, massacre of protesters in Beijing and other Chinese cities opened Friday in New York, highlighting how recent changes in China have rejuvenated its overseas dissident scene.
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The recently concluded Chinese Communist Party congress reflects what may turn out to be a flawed strategy of Xi Jinping putting himself at the center of everything—making him seem strong while actually vulnerable.
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China, far from being able to act decisively on the world stage, suffers from a chronic leadership void that leaves it paralyzed to act in the face of global crises.
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The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing were supposed to be a triumph for the Chinese government. But the COVID-19 pandemic and diplomatic boycotts have hampered its plans.
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Little of substance was expected of the Monday night meeting, but Biden said the two sides had to establish “guardrails” to prevent a clash, while Xi said he was glad to see his “old friend.”
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Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
Which will matter more, a dozen more nuclear subs on the U.S. side of the ledger or a trade pact that could draw many of the world's largest economies ever-closer toward China? -
For many, a quick glance at the Olympics medals table reinforces the idea of China as a threat—a country pursuing victory at any cost.