Kin Wah Moy (born 1966) is an American

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

and holds the diplomatic rank of career minister. He is the first Chinese-American to hold the post as director of the American Institute in Taiwan. Having served in the

Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

and several diplomatic outposts, he began his tenure as the director of the American Institute in Taiwan, the ''de facto'' embassy of the United States in Taiwan, in June 2015.

Early life

Moy was born in 1966 in

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the Briti ...

. His grandfather was from

Taishan __NOTOC__ Taishan may refer to: *Mount Tai or Taishan (), Shandong, China *Taishan District, Tai'an (), named after the Mount Tai, a district in Tai'an, Shandong, China *Taishan, Guangdong (), a county-level city of Jiangmen, Guangdong, China **Gre ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

and lived in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

early in the twentieth century before returning to China. Moy moved to New York shortly after his birth and grew up in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

Education

Moy graduated from both

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

Career

Moy began working for the

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

in 1992. He served under six US secretaries of state, working as special assistant in the executive secretariat for

Madeleine Albright Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic ...

, director of the executive secretariat staff for

Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist who is the current director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th Uni ...

, and deputy executive secretary for

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

. He was deputy director of the Office of Maritime Southeast Asia and desk officer in the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs. In 2011, he was appointed deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, with responsibility for China, Mongolia, and Taiwan. In addition to his Washington assignments, Moy has served in the

U.S. Embassy in Beijing The Embassy of the United States in Beijing is the diplomatic mission of the United States in China. It serves as the administrative office of the United States Ambassador to China. The embassy complex is in Chaoyang District, Beijing, Chaoyang ...

, the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, and the

U.S. Consulate The United States has the second most Diplomatic mission, diplomatic missions of any country in the world List of diplomatic missions of China, after Mainland China, including 166 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, as well as obse ...

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

. Moy was considered one of the executors of President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

's "Asian Pivot" strategy. In 2015 he was appointed director of the American Institute in Taiwan and so became the ''de'' ''facto'' American ambassador to Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic relations. In his inaugural press conference, he stressed that the United States is Taiwan's closest ally. Shortly before leaving the AIT in 2018, Moy was awarded the

Order of Brilliant Star Order of Brilliant Star () is a civilian order of the Republic of China (Taiwan) recognizing outstanding contributions to the development of the nation. The order is instituted in 1941 and can be awarded to both domestic and foreign nationals. ...

with Grand Cordon. He currently serves as the principal deputy assistant secretary in the

Bureau of Intelligence and Research The Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) is an intelligence agency in the United States Department of State. Its central mission is to provide all-source intelligence and analysis in support of U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy. INR is t ...

(INR). On 21 April 2020, Moy was confirmed by the Senate to be career minister. On 20 January 2021, he was appointed as the acting assistant secretary of INR, a post he served until June 15, when he was appointed as the senior bureau official for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Personal life

He graduated from Columbia University and the University of Minnesota and is a Mandarin speaker. Moy is married to Kathy Chen, a journalist who previously worked for the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''. They have four children—Andrew, Claire, Olivia and Amanda —and a Great Dane.

Honors

with Grand Cordon (2018) Republic of China *Grand Medal of Diplomacy (2018) Republic of China

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moy, Kin W. 1966 births Living people Columbia University alumni University of Minnesota alumni United States Department of State officials Directors of the United States intelligence agencies American diplomats American people of Chinese descent Directors of the American Institute in Taiwan Hong Kong emigrants to the United States Recipients of the Order of Brilliant Star