Thanks for reading The Newsletter by George Chen, a part-time writing project with focus on the interplay between technology and geopolitics.
I'm a business and policy consultant, adjunct professor, and street photographer. Also a recovering journalist, I keep writing.
A bit more about myself:
I consider myself a practitioner/scholar with over two decades of expertise across media, technology, and public policy. Currently, I’m a Partner (Head of Hong Kong and Taiwan Offices) and Co-Chair of Digital Practice for The Asia Group, advising many Fortune 500 clients on geopolitics, national security, and various regulatory issues. Previously, I was Meta’s first and most senior policy leader responsible for Greater China, Mongolia, and Central Asia. As one of the “OGs” for Meta, formerly known aa Facebook, in Asia, I worked for Mark Zuckerberg’s digital empire for more than seven years.
Earlier in my career, I held various editorial and management positions for media organisations including the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and Reuters for more than a decade. Some of my SCMP readers may also remember my popular column “Mr. Shangkong”, named after the combination of the two financial centre cities, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Concurrently, I’m also a Senior Fellow of Centre for Civil Society and Governance at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). I have been on the HKU faculty since March 2023. At the HKU, I teach "Digital Governance and Society" (POLI8034 / SLGP7018, six credits) for Master students. I’ve been also appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Schwarzman College in Tsinghua University in Beijing since 2024.
I received my Master’s degree in international and public affairs (with distinction) in 2012 from the HKU where I remain a doctoral candidate for my research on misinformation. I have been named a Salzburg Global Fellow (2024), Visiting Scholar of National Chengchi University in Taipei (2023), an alumnus of U.S. State Department International Visitor Leadership Program (2015), Yale World Fellow at Yale University (2014) and an Asia 21 young leadership fellow of the Asia Society (2007). In 2022, I was awarded the “Medal of Friendship” by the President of Mongolia, one of the country's highest and most rare honours for foreigners. I have been on the Board of American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong since 2019. I’m an author of three books and I speak Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Shanghai dialect and English.
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