Rick Waters

Rick Waters is the managing director of Eurasia Group’s China practice. His research interests include China’s global and regional diplomacy, U.S.-China relations and China’s domestic political economy. Waters joined Eurasia Group after a 27-year career as the U.S. State Department’s top China policy official, where he oversaw the creation of the Office of China Coordination (informally known as the China House) and concurrently served as deputy assistant secretary of state for China and Taiwan. He also held multiple roles at the U.S. embassy in Beijing — including during the period between the U.S.’s accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and the Hainan Island incident in 2001. Waters, who is fluent in Mandarin and Spanish, also worked for more than a decade on Middle East issues, including as director for Israel, Palestine, Egypt and Jordan at the National Security Council under President George W. Bush, and as political counselor in Jerusalem and Islamabad.