Robert Daly鈥檚 resume is an eclectic one. He is currently director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., and is recognized internationally as a leading authority on U.S.-China relations.
He has also been a Foreign Service officer and cultural exchange officer at the U.S. embassy in Beijing; American director of Johns Hopkins University鈥檚 Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies; commentator on China for CNN, the Voice of America and Chinese radio and television stations; director of the U.S.-China Housing Initiative; interpreter for Chinese and American political figures including Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Jiang Zemin, and Li Yuanchao; and host, actor and writer on television and theater projects in China and a producer of the Chinese Sesame Street. He is apparently still recognized on the street in China for his role in a TV drama called 鈥淏eijinger in New York鈥� that aired in China in 1994.
He has also taught Chinese at Cornell University; served as director of the China Initiative at the University of Maryland; testified before Congress; and lectured at scores of Chinese and American institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution, the East-West Center, the Asia Society, and the National Committee on U.S.鈥揅hina Relations 鈥� and at Seminars at Steamboat in 2019.
In August 2013, when he was named director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Wilson Center CEO Jane Harman said 鈥淩obert is an exceptional choice to lead our Kissinger Institute and programming on China. He recently joined me on a trip to China and impressed me with his knowledge of political and academic leaders, business and cultural issues, and command of the language.鈥�