Melanie Hart

Melanie Hart is senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. Hart previously served as senior adviser for China in the Office of the Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment. At the State Department, Hart was instrumental in crafting strategies to reduce nation-state vulnerabilities to Chinese pressure. She developed the department’s playbook for responding to Chinese economic coercion and led an internal unit that provided coercion-response support to multiple nations. She also developed the department’s semiconductor strategy for the CHIPS Act’s International Technology Security and Innovation Fund, and she served as policy lead for the U.S.-Taiwan Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue. Before joining the State Department, Hart served as senior fellow and director for China policy at the Center for American Progress. She has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California San Diego and a B.A. from Texas A&M University.