James Chau

Why organisations work with James Chau

• He runs the room when the speakers are Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau, Jack Ma or Bill Gates. Very few moderators on the circuit have repeated reps at that level of principal.
• As President of the China-United States Exchange Foundation, he sits inside the working architecture of US-China dialogue rather than commenting on it from the sidelines.
• His credential stack on global health is institutional, not rhetorical: WHO Goodwill Ambassador for the SDGs, and China’s first UNAIDS National Goodwill Ambassador.
• The China Current gives him a live interview record with Kofi Annan, Muhammad Yunus, Jimmy Carter, Christine Lagarde, Ban Ki-moon and Jane Goodall. The editorial muscle is current, not historic.
• He reads a room built from heads of state, Nobel laureates and corporate chiefs the way a senior editor reads copy. The diplomatic temperature of a session is managed in real time.

Biography highlights

• President, China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), Hong Kong.
• World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development Goals and Health (appointed 2016).
• First UNAIDS National Goodwill Ambassador for China (appointed 2009).
• Host of The China Current, a global-affairs interview and storytelling platform.
• Former main English-language news anchor at China Central Television; guest presenter, BBC World News.
• World Economic Forum Young Global Leader; U.S. National Press Foundation Fellow; Harvard Kennedy School executive education.

Biography

The room was Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau, Jack Ma, Laura Bush. James Chau was chairing. That is the kind of session he has been asked to run for more than a decade, and the reason organisations book him is not broadcast gloss. It is the ability to keep a hard conversation productive when the participants are principals with careful positions.

Chau is President of the China-United States Exchange Foundation, a Hong Kong-based NGO that convenes official-track and track-two dialogue between the two countries. The role places him inside the working machinery of one of the most consequential bilateral relationships in the world, not adjacent to it. That access shapes how he chairs: he knows where the lines are, and when to press.

Before CUSEF, he spent years as the main English-language news anchor at China Central Television and a guest presenter on BBC World News. The interview record from The China Current, his own platform, runs through Kofi Annan, Muhammad Yunus, Jimmy Carter, Bill Gates, Christine Lagarde, Jane Goodall and Ban Ki-moon. His work on global health is formal: WHO Goodwill Ambassador for the Sustainable Development Goals and Health since 2016, and China’s first UNAIDS National Goodwill Ambassador from 2009.

He was educated at Cambridge, King’s College London and the Royal Academy of Music, with executive education at Harvard Kennedy School. For a corporate summit, a multilateral plenary, an awards evening or a closed-room dialogue where the speakers are sensitive and the questions matter, Chau is a moderator whose standing is set by the company he keeps on stage.

Key speaking topics

• US-China relations
• Global health and the Sustainable Development Goals
• China and the global economy
• International development and multilateralism
• Media, storytelling and public diplomacy
• High-level event hosting and moderation

Ideal for

• Global summits and multilateral convenings where the principals on stage are heads of state, Nobel laureates or Fortune 100 chief executives
• CEO and board dialogues on China strategy, US-China risk and global health policy
• Awards ceremonies and flagship corporate events where a broadcast-grade host is required
• Foundations, NGOs and policy institutes working on the SDGs, HIV/AIDS and global public health

Audience outcomes

• A sharper read of where the US-China relationship actually sits, from someone inside the dialogue
• A working framing of how global health policy, the SDGs and corporate strategy intersect
• A session that keeps pace and holds weight when the speakers are senior and the brief is sensitive
• A clearer view of how China is reported, mis-reported, and understood in international media