David Stilwell
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
David R. Stilwell earned a B.S. in history from the U.S. Air Force Academy, and a Master’s Degree in Asian Studies and Chinese Language from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is a graduate of the Executive Leadership program at the Dresden School, University of Virginia. He speaks Korean, Chinese and limited Japanese.
He served in the Air Force for 35 years, beginning as an enlisted Korean linguist, and retiring with the rank of Brigadier General as the Asia advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chefs. He served a number of tours of duty in Japan and Korea as a linguist, a fighter pilot, and a commander.
Stilwell served as the Defense Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and was Director of the China Strategic Focus Group at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii. He was an adjunct senior fellow at the East West Center in Honolulu.
He was appointed as the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs in June 2019.
In the News…
Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell summoned Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai after China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian distorted comments made by a U.S. health official as evidence to support a conspiracy theory that COVID-19 is part of an American plot.
Last week Lijian tweeted out several accusatory questions about the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the numbers of U.S. citizens infected, demanding an explanation and suggesting the U.S. military started the Chinese epidemic.
Stilwell gave a “stern representation” of the facts about the coronavirus to Cui. The Chinese ambassador was “very defensive” during the meeting, reports said. Zhao’s comments are a part of a general Chinese strategy to deflect from “starting a global pandemic and not telling the world.”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Assistant Secretary Stilwell today? You can let him know at:
The Honorable David R. Stilwell, Assistant Secretary
Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs
U.S. State Department
2201 C St NW
Washington, DC 20520
