Shirley Martey Hargis is a nonresident Fellow at the Atlantic Council Global China Hub, Digital Forensic Research Lab, and Taiwan NextGen Foundation.

Hargis has over a decade of experience in the domestic politics and foreign affairs of China and Taiwan. Her domestic and foreign policy expertise spans defense and security, political economy, and technology in consulting, intelligence, and policy research. She focuses on technology, economy/finance, and cross-Strait tensions, including China’s affairs in Russia, the Indo-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America.

Prior to her current work, Hargis led and managed CRDF Global’s Countering PRC and Acquisition and Misuse of Weaponizable Technology and Talent team for the U.S. Department of State, with the mandate to provide solutions to international governmental, research, private, and academic sector stakeholders about Chinese military civil-fusion, emerging technologies, dual-use technologies, and improving cyber defenses. Additionally, she was a contributor and guest-hosted the POLITICO China Watcher newsletter, including as a guest host, and was the Senior Policy Advisor, China, for the University of Oxford’s Oxford Diplomatic Society. Early in her career, she supported the IC, DoD, and federal law enforcement communities as a China analyst on Dr. James Mulvenon’s China team at SOSi. Also, Hargis co-authored a journal article about former President Barack Obama’s China policy, edited a book, and provided consultation services, including risk assessments, geopolitical trends in the Indo-Pacific, and insight into U.S. foreign policymaking for U.S. entities and Taipei-based financial investment firms at E Larus Consulting, LLC.

She sits on Truman National Security Project’s Board of Directors, the George H.W. Bush Foundation for US-China Relations’ Board of Advisors, and CJPA Global Advisors’ Global Advisory Board. She is a Council on Foreign Relations term member, nonresident fellow at Taiwan NextGen Foundation, and a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations, American Association for Chinese Studies, and Pacific Council on International Policy.

Hargis’ writings and commentary appear in Al Jazeera, POLITICO China Watcher, American Purpose, Taiwan Insight, the Carter Center’s “Finding Firmer Ground” series on high technology in US-China competition, TEKA Commission of Political Science and International Affairs, and the Politics and Society in Contemporary China Edition 2.

She serves on the Truman National Security Project’s Board of Directors and the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations’ Board of Advisors. Shirley is a Council on Foreign Relations term member and a National Committee on U.S.-China Relations member. She earned her Bachelor’s from the University of Mary Washington and a certificate from the University of California Berkeley on China Law, trade, and intellectual property. Also, she received professional Chinese language training from Middlebury Chinese language school in Vermont, National Taiwan Normal University and National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, and Suzhou Institute and CET Harbin in China.

Shirley is a first-generation American, born to parents from Ghana who emigrated to the U.S. 40 years ago, thus speaking native Twi, Ga, and Fante. She is proficient, maintains Mandarin Chinese, and has lived and worked in both mainland China and Taiwan.