Michael Hanscom Smith is a career member of the US Senior Foreign Service who had served as Consul General in Hong Kong and Macau from July 2019 to July 2022. Smith has also served as Consul General in Shanghai (2014–2017), Director/Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs at the Department of State. He also served as Economic Section Chief at the

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

Main Office of the

American Institute in Taiwan The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT; ) is the ''de facto'' Embassy of the United States of America in Taiwan. The AIT institution is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the federal government of the United States in Taiwan with Congressional oversi ...

(AIT), and team leader at the United States Provincial Reconstruction Team in the Iraqi Province of Muthanna.

Education

Smith earned a bachelor’s degree from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, master’s degrees from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, a certificate in political studies from Sciences Po in Paris and was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in Japan.

Academic career

Smith is a senior fellow at the Jackson School of Global Affairs at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

. When speaking about the

Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit The Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit is a financial summit to be hosted in Hong Kong by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), scheduled for 1–3 November 2022. Background The initiative was announced by Financial Secretary Paul C ...

, Smith warned companies that "It's not business as usual in Hong Kong, and those companies who do business are going to have to grapple with that uncertainty for the foreseeable future."

Personal life

While Consul in Shanghai, he and his same-sex partner Lu Ying-tsung also known as Eric Lu, who is from Taiwan, married in San Francisco. As gay marriage is illegal in China, his marriage, as well as the marriage of British Consul General Brian Davidson to his husband, has caused a “stir.” On 5 January 2022 he announced on social media the birth of their son Julian Lu Smith.https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10160074476051052&id=317451486051 In addition to English, Smith speaks Mandarin Chinese, French, Danish, and Khmer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Hanscom LGBT ambassadors of the United States American gay men Gay diplomats 21st-century American diplomats Consuls general of the United States in Hong Kong and Macau Consuls general of the United States in Shanghai People of the American Institute in Taiwan Georgetown University alumni Alumni of the London School of Economics Princeton University alumni United States Foreign Service personnel