JOHN J. TKACIK, JR.

A 23-year veteran of the U.S. State Department, John Tkacik joined the Asian Studies Center of The Heritage Foundation in 2001. As a research fellow in the foundation’s Asian Studies Center, Tkacik (pronounced TASS-ick) analyzes policies and events concerning China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao.

Tkacik’s long career in the Department of State began in 1971. After stints in Taiwan and Hong Kong, he came stateside in 1986 to direct junior officer training at the department’s Foreign Service Institute in Washington, D.C., where he also taught diplomatic history, trade and analysis.

He returned to the Orient in 1989 as Deputy U.S. Consul General in Guangzhou, China. While stationed there, he oversaw all U.S. governmental reporting on economic, commercial and political developments throughout the four provinces of South China.

In 1992 he went back to Washington to serve as the State Department’s Chief of China Analysis. In this post he supervised the analysis, preparation and distribution of intelligence reports addressing economic, commercial, military, political and strategic developments within China.

Tkacik left the Department in 1994 to become president of China Business Intelligence, an Alexandria, Virginia, research firm providing intelligence support to U.S. companies doing business with China and Taiwan. Additionally, he served as publisher of Taiwan Weekly Business Bulletin, a newsletter produced for China Online and the U.S.-ROC (Taiwan) Business Council.

Tkacik received his bachelor's degree in international relations from Georgetown University in 1971, and a master's degree in public administration from Harvard in 1983. He lives in Alexandria, Va., with his wife, Mollie, and has three children.