Charles Freeman holds the Freeman Chair in China Studies at CSIS. Previous to CSIS, he served as managing director of the China Alliance, a collaboration of law firms that help clients devise trade, investment, and government relations strategies in the United States and China. Prior to the China Alliance, he was assistant U.S. trade representative (USTR) for China affairs, the United States’ chief China trade negotiator, and played a primary role in shaping overall trade policy with respect to China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, and Mongolia. During his tenure as assistant USTR, he oversaw U.S. efforts to integrate China into the global trading architecture of the World Trade Organization. He also negotiated and solved trade problems across a wide range of issues, including intellectual property rights protection; financial and nonfinancial services; tax, industrial standards, and technology policies; and agricultural market access. His career-long experience with China and other parts of Asia spans tours of duty in government, business, and the nonprofit sectors. Prior to joining the Office of the USTR, Freeman served as international affairs counsel to Senator Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), where he advised on trade, foreign relations, and international energy matters, with particular focus on East Asia. In addition to his time with the China Alliance, his private-sector experience includes stints as a Hong Kong–based executive with the International Herald Tribune and as a Boston-based securities lawyer and venture capitalist concentrating on developing markets in Asia and Eastern Europe. In the nonprofit world, he was based in Hong Kong as director of economic reform programs in China and Taiwan for the Asia Foundation.

Freeman received his J.D. from Boston University School of Law, where he was an editor of the Law Review and graduated with honors. He earned a B.A. from Tufts University in Asian studies, concentrating in economics, also with honors. He also studied at Fudan University in Shanghai and at the Taipei Language Institute. A second-generation “China hand,” he grew up between Asia and the United States and speaks Mandarin Chinese.