J. Stapleton Roy

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J. Stapleton Roy (Chinese: 芮效俭; Pinyin: Ruì Xiàojiăn; born 1935) was a senior United States diplomat specializing in Asian affairs. A fluent Chinese speaker, Roy spent much of his career in East Asia, where his assignments included Bangkok (twice), Hong Kong, Taipei, Beijing (twice), Singapore, and Jakarta. He also specialized in Soviet affairs and served in Moscow at the height of the Cold War. Ambassador Roy served as Assistant Secretary of State for intelligence and research from 1999 to 2000.

Ambassador Roy was born in Nanjing, China of American missionary parents. He attended Mount Hermon School (now Northfield Mount Hermon), and in 1956, graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, where he majored in history and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Roy rose to become a three-time ambassador, serving as the top U.S. envoy in Singapore (1984–86), the People's Republic of China (1991–95), and Indonesia (1996–99). In 1996, he was promoted to the rank of career ambassador, the highest rank in the United States Foreign Service.

Roy is currently Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc., Chairman of the Council for the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing Center, and a director of ConocoPhillips and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. He is also a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Roy's assessments of trends in China and U.S.-China relations are in great demand.