American · b. 1945
Michael Pillsbury is an American China policy analyst and author. He earned a PhD in political science from Columbia University and spent decades in Washington as an adviser on China and defense. He worked in the Pentagon as an official and consultant, served as a Senate staffer, and advised several administrations, including during the Reagan years, when he helped shape US support for the Afghan resistance. He later became a senior fellow and director of the Center on Chinese Strategy at the Hudson Institute. Pillsbury wrote several works on Chinese military thinking, including Chinese Views of Future Warfare, before publishing The Hundred-Year Marathon in 2015. The book argues that China has pursued a long-term plan to surpass the United States as the leading world power by 2049, and that American officials long misread Beijing's intentions. It became a bestseller and influenced debate in Washington, especially during the Trump administration, where Pillsbury served as an informal adviser. Critics dispute his claims about the strategy's coherence.