From the Situation Room to the boardroom
Julian Gewirtz, Ph.D. spent four years inside the Biden administration coordinating U.S. policy on China. He led the White House team as Senior Director for China and Taiwan Affairs at the National Security Council and managed a global team of diplomats as Deputy China Coordinator at the State Department. Now a senior research scholar at Columbia University's Institute of Global Politics and a nonresident fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, he gives boards and leadership teams what they cannot get from a consultant: a grounded read on what Xi Jinping wants, how decisions get made in Beijing, and what intensifying competition means for supply chains, technology policy, and trade.
Gewirtz has moved from written analysis to tier-one broadcast in a single cycle. He appeared on CNN's Amanpour on August 28, arguing that Beijing sees an America that speaks loudly but does not carry a big stick. He has continued publishing at near-daily cadence on the Xi state visit and U.S.-China alliance dynamics, writing that appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, TIME, and the Financial Times. The Washington Post named him one of "50 people shaping our society in 2025."
The historian's advantage
Gewirtz holds a doctorate in modern Chinese history from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. His books have shaped how a generation of policymakers understands China. Never Turn Back (2022) recovers the suppressed history of China's 1980s, the decade of debate and experimentation the Communist Party would rather the world forget. Nicholas Kristof called it "outstanding" and "brilliantly researched." Unlikely Partners (2017) tells the story of the Chinese reformers and Western economists who together made global China.
For business audiences, Gewirtz combines insider knowledge of American policymaking with a historian's long lens on Beijing. He decodes how ideology, insecurity, and ambition shape decisions coming out of Beijing; how China is working to catch up and surpass the United States in semiconductors, AI, green energy, and advanced robotics; and what intensifying competition means for companies navigating tariffs, export controls, and technology restrictions.
What leaders get
Gewirtz offers scenarios for where U.S.-China relations are heading, analysis of Xi Jinping's strategic thinking, and practical guidance on geopolitical risk assessment and scenario planning. Heads of strategy with China exposure are planning around these questions now, not in six months. Leaders leave his sessions with grounded scenarios for what could come next and a framework for thinking through decisions that sit at the intersection of policy, technology, and trade.
He is also a poet. His collection Your Face My Flag was published in 2022, and the Post praised him for speaking "with fluency and grace."
Julian Gewirtz is exclusively represented by Stellant Group for keynotes, board sessions, and confidential advisory work with leadership teams navigating U.S.-China competition, geopolitical risk, and trade policy in a more volatile world.
