Dr. Tai Ming Cheung
Scientist, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation
Tai Ming Cheung is an associate research scientist at the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. He is in charge of the institute’s Minerva project "The Evolving Relationship Between Technology and National Security in China: Innovation, Defense Transformation, and China’s Place in the Global Technology Order." This five-year research and training program examining China’s efforts to become a world-class science and technology power is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Cheung is a long-time analyst of Chinese and East Asian defense and national security affairs. He was based in Asia from the mid-1980s to 2002 covering political, economic and strategic developments in greater China. He was also a journalist and political and business risk consultant in northeast Asia. He received his Ph.D. from the War Studies Department at King's College, London University in 2006. His latest book, Fortifying China: The Struggle to Build a Modern Defense Economy, was published by Cornell University Press in 2009. He is an associate adjunct professor at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) at UC San Diego, where he teaches courses on Asian security, Chinese security and technology, and Chinese politics.