Ambassador Harvey Feldman Senior Fellow in China Policy, Asian Studies Center

Now Senior Fellow for Asian studies at the Heritage Foundation, Ambassador Feldman retired from the American Foreign Service after a career spanning more than three decades and four continents. An East Asian specialist for most of his career, Ambassador Feldman also served with distinction in Eastern Europe and at the United Nations. Mr. Feldman served in Hong Kong for eight years, Taiwan for six, and Japan for four years. As a member of the Policy Planning Staff of the State Department, he helped plan President Richard Nixon’s epoch-making first visit to China, and continued involvement with the process of relations with China as Director of the Office of Republic of China Affairs. In that capacity, he created the American Institute in Taiwan which replaced our embassy in Taipei after relations were shifted to Peking. Though nominally an unofficial foundation, the Institute carries our all the essential functions of our former embassy. He also was one of the drafters of the Taiwan Relations Act-landmark legislation that defines our relationship with the Republic of China in Taiwan. After serving as American Ambassador to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, he was asked by Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick to join her staff as Alternate US Representative to the United Nations, with the rank of Ambassador. HE was a delegate to six UN General Assemblies, representing the United States in both Third and Fourth Committees. Feldman also served as U.S. Representative on the Trusteeship Council, led American delegations to the Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific, and also represented the United States on the Commission on Human Rights, and the Commission on the Status of Women. After retiring from the Foreign Service, Ambassador Feldman spent a year as Vice President of the Institute for East-West Security Studies, a think tank specializing on arms control and disarmament issues. Thereafter he taught graduate seminars in international relations at New York University, with emphasis on techniques of mulitlateral negotiation. After moving to Washington D.C., he became a partner in Global Business Access, Ltd., a consulting firm formed by retired senior diplomats. He joined The Heritage Foundation in 1996. Ambassador Feldman’s languages are Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Bulgarian. His op-ed essays have appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Journal of Commerce, and other papers. Longer articles have appeared in Asian Survey, The National Interest, and the Strategic Studies Series of The Claremont Institute’s Asian Studies Center. He is also the editor of two books, Taiwan in a Time of Transition, and Constitutional Reform and the Future of the Republic of China.