James Stapleton Roy (; born June 16, 1935) is a former senior

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

specializing in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

n affairs. A fluent Chinese speaker, Roy spent much of his career in

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

, where his assignments included twice in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

, and

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, once in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, and

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

. He also specialize in

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

affairs, and had served in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

at the height of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. Roy also served as Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research from 1999 to 2000.

Early life and education

Roy was born in Nanking, China, where his father, Andrew Tod Roy, was a Presbyterian missionary and teacher who stayed on in China until he was denounced by the new government and expelled in 1951. His brother was

David Tod Roy David Tod Roy (; 1933 – May 31, 2016) was an American sinologist and scholar of Chinese literature who was Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago from 1967 until he took early retirement in 1999. Roy is m ...

, a noted scholar, and translator of Chinese literature. While in Shanghai, Roy attended

Shanghai American School Shanghai American School (SAS; ) is a non-profit, independent international school located in Shanghai, China. Founded in 1912, SAS has two campuses serving a diverse student body of over 2,900 students from more than 40 nationalities, ranging f ...

, but left China when the school was closed in 1949 following the

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

takeover of Shanghai. He attended Mount Hermon School (now Northfield Mount Hermon) and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he was elected to

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

and graduated

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in history in 1956 after completing a senior thesis titled "The Revisionists and the Coming of the War to America."

Career

Roy rose to become a three-time

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

, serving as the top U.S. envoy in Singapore (1984–1986), the People's Republic of China (1991–1995), and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

(1996–1999). In 1996, he was promoted to the rank of career ambassador, the highest rank in the

United States Foreign Service The United States Foreign Service is the primary personnel system used by the diplomatic service of the United States federal government, under the aegis of the United States Department of State. It consists of over 13,000 professionals carr ...

. Roy was Vice Chairman of

Kissinger Associates Kissinger Associates, Inc. is a New York Citybased international geopolitical consulting firm, founded and run by Henry Kissinger from 1982 until his death in 2023. The firm assists its clients in identifying strategic partners and investment opp ...

, Inc., Chairman of the Hopkins-Nanjing Advisory Council established to assist Hopkins in its partnership with

Nanjing University Nanjing University (NJU) is a public university in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. It is affiliated and sponsored by the Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. The univers ...

that jointly manage the

Hopkins–Nanjing Center The Hopkins–Nanjing Center (HNC; zh, s=中美中心, p=), formally the Johns Hopkins University–Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies ( zh, s=南京大学—约翰斯·霍普金斯大学中美文化研究中心, p=, c=, t ...

, and a director of

ConocoPhillips ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas. The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in t ...

and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Inc. He is also a trustee of the

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with operations in Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the United States. Foun ...

and Co-Chair of The United States – Indonesia Society ( USINDO). In August 2008, Roy was named director of the Kissinger Institute for Chinese-U.S. Studies at the

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS) or Wilson Center is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topi ...

. He sits on the advisory board for Washington, D.C.–based non-profit

America Abroad Media ''America Abroad'' was a monthly documentary radio program produced by America Abroad Media (AAM), a Washington D.C.–based non-profit organization. The program was distributed by Public Radio International (PRI) and broadcast on public radio s ...

. In July 2022, Roy helped found a group of U.S. business and policy leaders who share the goal of constructively engaging with China in order to improve U.S.-China relations.

References

External links

*
Video and text of an April 2007 lecture by J. Stapleton Roy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roy, J. Stapleton 1935 births Ambassadors of the United States to Indonesia Living people ConocoPhillips people Ambassadors of the United States to China United States career ambassadors United States assistant secretaries of state Princeton University alumni American expatriates in China Assistant secretaries of state for intelligence and research Children of American missionaries in China Northfield Mount Hermon School alumni United States Foreign Service personnel

Early life and education

Career

See also

References

External links