On the Ground in China: Perspectives from the Former State Department Spokesperson in Beijing
On Thursday, October 17, the Strauss Center hosted Michael Turner, nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, for a fireside chat with Strauss distinguished scholar Michael Mosser about lessons learned “On the Ground in China: Perspectives from the Former State Department Spokesperson in Beijing.”
Mr. Turner was joined by Strauss Center Cyber Fellow and LBJ School of Public Affairs Ph.D. student Liz Wong.
In this discussion and subsequent Q&A, Mr. Turner discussed his experiences in his most recent post as spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, particularly regarding lessons he learned in managing strategic crisis communications and effectively conveying U.S. messaging priorities within an information environment ripe with disinformation.
Ms. Wong shared her expertise and understanding of influence tactics and information structure in China as part of the discussion.
This event was co-sponsored by the Strauss-Clements Asia Policy Program and the LBJ School of Public Affairs and was part of the Brumley Speaker Series. Lunch was provided. This talk was given under Chatham House rules and registration was required.
For more information about this event, please contact Brittany Horton at brittany.horton@austin.utexas.edu.
Biographies
Michael Turner is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub and a former US diplomat and US Navy JAG Corps officer with nearly twenty-five years of experience on national-security issues with a focus on Asia. He is the founder of Turner Global Solutions, consulting on a variety of issues with a focus on China and the Asia-Pacific.
Most recently, Turner served as spokesperson for the US embassy in Beijing, leading on strategic and crisis press and social media campaigns and managing high-profile social media platforms to advance US policy interests and counter disinformation.
Turner previously served in the Office of the Secretary of State, was senior advisor to the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, wrote all-source analysis for the president’s daily brief, and planned the 20th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations with Vietnam. The Navy’s sole prosecutor during 9/11, he deployed to Afghanistan in December 2001, to support the case against American Taliban John Walker Lindh.
Turner is the recipient of several Department of State and Department of Defense awards. A Harvard Business School alumnus, he holds a law degree from the University of Baltimore and a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University.
Liz Wong is a second-year PhD student and Clements Graduate Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. She researches Chinese digital authoritarianism and influence campaigns. Her research is influenced by her experience working as a digital marketer in both the United States and the People’s Republic of China. She uses her search engine optimization, Mandarin, and digital ecosystem knowledge to investigate global CCP influence patterns and digital repression techniques. She has led research teams at the Global Disinformation Lab in computational propaganda projects like trans-linguistic inauthentic actor detection and in local initiatives like building a bilingual digital library of election disinformation resources for Texans. She holds a B.A. from the University of Mississippi where she double majored in International Studies and Chinese. She earned her Masters of Global Policy Studies with a certificate in Security Studies as a Cyber Fellow from the University of Texas at Austin.
