Carla P. Freeman is a senior expert for the China program at USIP. She specializes in China's foreign policy, China and nontraditional security issues, and U.S.-China relations.

For more than a decade, she was a member of the China studies faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she directed the School’s Foreign Policy Institute. In 2020, she held the appointment of Library of Congress Chair in U.S.-China relations at the Library's Kluge Center. While at SAIS, she also served as American director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in Nanjing, China and held various research fellowships, including at Harvard’s Fairbank Center.

Before joining SAIS, she worked on international civil society and sustainable development for The Johnson Foundation and as a political risk consultant focused on Northeast and Southeast Asia. Her career on China began with a summer job in the Science and Technology Office at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Freeman is the author of numerous monographs, edited volumes and articles.

Freeman is a graduate of Yale University, Sciences Po in Paris and Johns Hopkins University, where she completed her doctorate in international relations and China at SAIS. She was the recipient of a Randolph Jennings Peace Scholar Fellowship from USIP for research on her doctoral dissertation.

Publications By Carla

Two Years Later, What Has the Indo-Pacific Strategy Achieved?

Two Years Later, What Has the Indo-Pacific Strategy Achieved?

Thursday, February 15, 2024

By: Carla Freeman, Ph.D.;  Mirna Galic;  Daniel Markey, Ph.D.;  Vikram J. Singh

This month marks the second anniversary of the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS). USIP experts Carla Freeman, Mirna Galic, Daniel Markey, and Vikram Singh assess what the strategy has accomplished in the past two years, how it has navigated global shocks and its impact on partnerships in the region.

Type: AnalysisQuestion and Answer

Global Policy

Biden and Xi at APEC: Averting Further Crisis in U.S.-China Relations

Biden and Xi at APEC: Averting Further Crisis in U.S.-China Relations

Thursday, November 16, 2023

By: Carla Freeman, Ph.D.;  Rosie Levine;  Ryan Sung;  Lyndi Tsering

President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke for several hours on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit this week in San Francisco. After several years of deteriorating relations — and frozen communication — between Washington and Beijing, Biden characterized the talks as the “most constructive and productive” since he came to office. But the increasing strategic competition between the two powers leaves major issues still to be addressed, such as China’s aggression in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, BRICS expansion, nuclear security, and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

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