David Dorman is the author of the Digital China Wins the Future website and a former U.S. government senior executive specializing in China strategy and national security. He served as principal advisor on China to four consecutive U.S. Pacific Command commanders (Admirals Keating, Willard, Locklear, and Harris), executive director of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, senior professional staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under Chairman Joe Biden, and foreign policy advisor to Senator Chuck Hagel. He also held senior analytic and leadership roles at the National Security Agency, where he served as a senior China program manager, peer-certified master linguist, and peer-certified master intelligence analyst.
Across these roles, his work focused on how Chinese Communist Party strategy translates into institutional design, operational capability, and long-term geopolitical risk, not merely individual policies or technologies, but systems-level transformation.
In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive for contributions to national-level strategy and policy development. In 2016, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, Jr. awarded him the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award for improving the operational effectiveness of the Joint Force.
He later served as a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, where he taught and facilitated strategic dialogue among Indo-Pacific partners and allies on China’s national security strategies and national development strategies, strengthening shared understanding of long-term regional risks, opportunities, and strategic responses.
He holds a Ph.D. in Government and Politics and an M.A. in International Security from the University of Maryland, College Park; an A.M. in East Asian Regional Studies from Harvard University; and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of New Mexico.
Published articles on Digital China
China Has a Digital Grand Strategy. Does the President Know? PacNet, March 7, 2023
Digital China: The Strategy and Its Geopolitical Implications Issues and Insights, February 21, 2023
China’s Digital Challenge: Hidden in Plain Sight, Bigger Than You Thought, and Much Harder to Solve CSIS, May 11, 2022
How China Will Dominate the Global Competition Over Data The National Interest, April 28, 2022
China’s Plan for Digital Dominance War on the Rocks, March 28, 2022
Making the Most of It, Part II: Xi Jinping Leverages Coronavirus ‘War Without Smoke’ to Spur Digital Transformation, Test National Defense Mobilization Security Nexus, April 27, 2020
Disclaimer: This independent educational website is managed by David Dorman. I receive no outside funding and charge no fees for its content. The website provides analysis of China’s three elite digital strategies—Digital China, Cyber Great Power, and Smart Society—for educational, research, and scholarly purposes. I am solely responsible for all content. The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of any past employers. No institutional endorsement should be inferred.