Jessica C. Liao is associate professor of political science at North Carolina State University (NC State), 2020-2021 Wilson China Fellow, 2011 Korea Foundation Dissertation Fellow, and 2007-2009 International Fulbrighter. Prior to NC State, she taught at George Washington University and was a visiting fellow at Monash University, Kuala Lumpur campus. She received her PhD in international relations from the University of Southern California and her MA in Asia-Pacific and China Studies from National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan. Her current research addresses China and Japan’s economic statecraft competition and infrastructure development in Southeast Asia, and their social environmental implications to the region. She is the author of Developmental States and Business Activism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and her publications appear in journals including Foreign Affairs, The Pacific Review, Journal of Contemporary China, New Political Economy, Global Policy, and Global Governance. In 2022, she took sabbatical leave and served as economic development specialist at the US embassy in Beijing.
