Jonathan Fritz is a senior fellow for China policy at American Progress. Fritz retired from the State Department in April 2026 after a 32-year career as a U.S. diplomat. He most recently served as the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, the chief of staff to the undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy, and the environment, and the deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs covering China, Mongolia, and Taiwan.
Before that, he had been the director for bilateral and regional affairs in the Economic and Business Affairs Bureau’s Office of International Communications and Information Policy. Prior to returning to Washington D.C., Fritz had been posted at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, where he served alternately as minister-counselor for economic affairs, chief of staff to the ambassador, acting deputy chief of mission, and chargé d’affaires. From 2010 to 2014, Fritz headed the economic sections of U.S. Embassies in Canberra, Australia, and Kabul, Afghanistan. Before that, he worked on trade, investment, and intellectual property rights (IPR) issues in Beijing, Mexico City, and Hong Kong. He also served in Washington, D.C., as a special assistant to the deputy secretary, as a trade negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and as a desk officer in the State Department’s Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs. He began his foreign service career with consular tours in China and Ecuador. He spent two years at the U.S. Air Force Academy and graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s and a master’s in East Asian studies.