Stanford Report: The First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, spoke at SCPKU today and said study abroad allows students to realize that countries all have a stake in each other's success.  Following her remarks, she held a conversation with students on the Stanford campu via SCPKU's Highly Immersive Classroom. Read more.

Donna Lee | Cyber Policy and Security  

Gwacheon, Republic of Korea
Fun Facts: Published poet and a lover of wombats

When I was growing up, my grandfather told me stories about what it was like to be an evacuee who moved from the northern part of Korea to the south during the Korean War. His desire to live in a more democratic place changed not only his life, but also the lives of my mother and me. His experiences taught me how important democracy is, and why each citizen needs to do their part to support and protect it. My decision to work in public service comes directly from my desire to give back to the society that has given my family so much. 

Through my previous work as a diplomat in Korea, I’ve already had the opportunity to work on issues relating to human rights, culture diplomacy, Indo-Pacific strategy, and even Korea-U.S. defense cooperation. What I’ve seen is that emerging technologies are becoming core to all other aspects of international issues and policies. I want to do my best to help Korea set feasible, forward looking policies, and being here at Stanford is a rare opportunity to gain very hands-on, direct experience with these kinds of technological issues. Not only is the policy expertise here very rigorous because of how close everything is to Silicon Valley, but Stanford is also very interdisciplinary, which is an important aspect of understanding how all of these issues are connected to each other.  

With my prior experience, I am particularly interested in exploring further how AI is changing the global security landscape, and what these changes mean for the Korea-U.S. Alliance. When I worked in the Korea-U.S. Security Cooperation Division, I had the chance to learn from our military personnel about rapidly evolving defense technologies that we would not have been able to imagine even a decade ago, but are going to be a major part of future conflicts. I’m eager to take the quantitative skills and perspectives from experts that I learn here in the MIP program and apply those towards making it easier for Korea to be a stronger partner in developing, using, and coordinating with its ally and partners on these technologies and security areas.
 

Serena Nanji-Totani | Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment  

Tokyo, Japan and Nairobi, Kenya
Fun Facts: Lifelong globetrotter and international mountaineer 

Growing up, I was fortunate to live in several countries across Asia, Africa, and Europe. Everywhere we moved, I noticed similar patterns of inequality, where some regions are bloated with resources while others struggled to meet basic needs. As extreme weather and concerns about global warming became more common, I became increasingly concerned about how a changing climate will further widen these disparities. These early experiences inspired me to focus on climate mitigation and social equality, driven by an urgent question: How do we solve the climate crisis without leaving the most vulnerable behind?

My career has combined business, climate mitigation, and social impact. I spent several years in management consulting, mainly working on projects with multilateral development banks and corporate social responsibility. After that, I moved into the carbon credits market, helping to finance carbon removal projects around the world, including both engineered and nature-based solutions. Most recently, I worked at Conservation International, an NGO, where I focused on nature financing. There, I helped fund and structure forestry projects globally to sequester carbon, improve ecosystem health and biodiversity, and most importantly, prioritize local communities through payments for ecosystem services and co-benefits.

Working in the nature financing space taught me that there is a way to align financial incentives to protect and restore nature, while also benefiting people. Throughout my career, I have often wondered how we can measure the value of ecosystems and the benefits they provide in a way that encourages private sector investment. How do we get companies, investors, and policymakers to care?

But I have also grown to learn that financial tools alone are not enough without strong governance. We need well-designed policies and regulations to attract investment in solutions that help both people and the climate. That is why I came to Stanford MIP. I want to deepen my understanding of international frameworks and policies for addressing climate change fairly and inclusively. I am also eager to explore how Stanford’s innovative, entrepreneurial spirit can be applied to nature-based solutions. I believe working with nature offers a path forward for adaptation, resilience, and climate change mitigation while supporting people’s livelihoods. Nature can be just as innovative and disruptive as other climate solutions and deserves more attention. I am incredibly excited to dive into these topics more alongside my talented peers in the program! 
 

Danny Vegel | Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment  

Chagrin Falls, Ohio, U.S.A.
Fun Facts: Underwater photographer and aspiring cold-water surfer

I’m coming to MIP after nine years in the Navy as a nuclear submarine officer. Although I started my career as an engineer, I first developed an interest in international policy after receiving the opportunity to study international relations at Peking University and the London School of Economics. Being in China in particular sparked my interest in achieving a deeper understanding of international relations. From an outside perspective, it’s easy to talk about China as this monolithic competitor to the U.S., but to truly understand its role in global affairs, there is much to be appreciated about its complexities as a vast and dynamic country.

When my time in China came to an end, I left with a meaningful desire to better understand those complexities to inform policy. Moreover, during my last assignment before transitioning out of the Navy, I had the chance to work with many different governments in the East Asia region, and saw an even broader need and opportunity to work across governments to try and solve problems for the future.

When I ultimately was deciding what to do in my post-Navy career, MIP felt like the perfect place to work through that transition, build expertise, and create a new career exploring my interests in international policy. The emphasis this program has on implementation is also something that appealed to me. In the Navy, I learned that while it was always easy to come up with ideas, putting them into practice is much more difficult. With my background in nuclear engineering and international experience, I want to now learn how to implement energy policy that addresses growing energy needs in the face of climate change.

When you’re posted on a submarine, you’re privileged to work with and befriend some of the best and most driven sailors in the Navy. I already feel the same connection with this MIP cohort. Everyone here brings the strengths of their backgrounds together, and the size of the class makes it so you can really work with and learn from each other. In the next two years, I’m excited to get up to speed on international energy dynamics, embrace the policymaking framework, and get hands-on experience, so that wherever I land next, whether that’s in government or in the private sector, I'm able to work confidently and effectively to scale sustainable energy to meet global needs.
 

Mariana Rozo Paz | Cyber Policy and Security  

Bogotá, Colombia
Fun Facts: Budding musical theater actor and future Donna in Mamma Mia

I'm from Colombia. I was profoundly blessed to grow up in a very loving home, but in the broader country, there was a great deal of unrest and uncertainty. I was sixteen when there was a vote on a peace deal with the FARC armed group. I was not old enough to vote, but all of my classmates and peers were so invested and hopeful that it would be adopted. It was a shock when the agreement was rejected. That became the impetus for me to become a lawyer and work on issues around human rights and the rule of law.

It was while I was in law school that I started working with a professor who was researching the impact of algorithms. I became obsessed with understanding more about how these platforms are shaping our economies, politics, and society. During the peace negotiations, I had seen how misinformation and media had contributed to the outcome, so I understood the power data could have for division and confusion. What I want to do is unlock how we can use these capabilities to improve people’s lives and make the world more equitable and inclusive.

My family, and particularly my parents and grandparents, were always reaching out to help people. Even though they have lived through very difficult things, they have always been grounded in hope and optimism. I’m trying to bring their legacy and mindset into my work. It’s true that the world is very complex and that many of the systems we’ve had in global governance and regulation are not keeping pace with how quickly the world is changing. It’s true that much of the technology being developed right now could be extremely disruptive. But we can’t let ourselves be scared of it all or retreat from it. We have to reach out and open space for those hard conversations. We have to keep having hope and optimism like my grandparents taught me. 

As a dear mentor of mine used to say, citing Antoine de Saint Exupéry, “There is no greater mission for humans than uniting humans.” Technology and digital spaces have been dividing us. Now it’s time to find ways for digital technologies to bring us together. That’s going to require new regulations, new tools, new voices, new organizations, and a willingness from governments, companies, philanthropies, and societies to try new things together. I am convinced that we can find ways to responsibly unlock the value of these technologies in a way that benefits everyone. Having the opportunity to be a Stanford and meet people who care as deeply about these things as I do is an incredible gift I’m grateful to unwrap and use fully. 
 

Jonas Lindholm-Uzzi | Governance and Development  

Germantown, New York, U.S.A.
Fun Facts: Transatlantic sailor and devoted New York Jets fan

I grew up in a small town in upstate New York. By the time I was done with college and working my first job as a paralegal at the Department of Justice, I knew a couple of things:  I liked political science and political theory, and I definitely did not want to become a lawyer like I had initially thought. So I joined the Peace Corps to give myself some space to think and experience more of the world firsthand without filters.

I was deployed to Zambia to help lead a fish farming project in a rural village. It was a difficult but extremely eye opening two years. When my time in the Peace Corps was up, I applied for and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to go and teach English in Timor Leste in Southeast Asia. In both Zambia and Timor, what stuck with me was how bound people’s lives were by the circumstances they were born into. There were talented, gifted people in every community I lived and worked in, but the systems were not set up to help them succeed or step beyond where they already are. Whether it’s from corruption, mismanagement, or inadequate funding, there’s a shocking dearth of functional and responsive institutions in the developing world that can or will serve its citizens well.

Addressing this lack of institutional development is complex and multifaceted, and it’s not going to look the same or follow the same playbook in every single circumstance. We need to be more precise and smarter in how we plan and implement. We need to build in more accountability and feedback. We need to be much more attentive to local culture and politics and listen to the people who actually live in these communities.

I’ve been fortunate to live and work with some of those people and to be part of their lives, hard as they are. But I also had the privilege of being able to leave and go back to a country where the systems work and institutions mean something, and I’m incredibly privileged to make the choices I want about the kind of life I would like to live. I don’t take that for granted. But I also don’t want the people I’ve met and the friends I’ve made abroad to feel apathetic about their futures. The more agency we can give people, the better.

Here at Stanford, there’s such a wealth of expertise in so many areas. There’s access to technological industries, there’s amazing things happening with robotics and engineering. Some of the best scholars are here, whether that’s in history or political science, or economics. All of that is transformative, and all of it has a part to play in shaping policy and practices. I’m excited to be here and soak as much of that up as I can.
 

Scott Rozelle, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Faculty Director of the Rural Education Action Program at the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions, has spent decades studying China's rural and low-income populations. Author of Invisible China: How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China’s Rise, he examines why China's remarkable economic achievements have not translated into better opportunities for everyone, and what that means for the country's future.

1. How large is China’s low-income population, who are they, and what does economic life actually look like for them?

I think one of the things people outside China often don’t appreciate is just how many people are still struggling economically. We hear a lot about China’s growing middle class, and rightly so. But in 2020, China’s then-premier Li Keqiang pointed out that some 600 million Chinese had an average monthly income of just 1,000 yuan, or about $140. As Li himself observed, that’s barely enough to rent a room in a medium-sized Chinese city.

Who are these people? Many come from rural China. They tend to have relatively little formal education, and they work in construction, manufacturing, and increasingly, informal services. Ride-hailing drivers are one example. Many work 12-hour days or longer, amid growing competition and pressure on earnings.

The big issue is education across this workforce. One study we published shows only about 30% of China’s workforce had been to high school. Now compare that with countries that successfully moved from middle- to high-income status: on average, 72% of their workers had completed high school when they were still middle-income economies. Even countries that got stuck at middle-income levels averaged 36%. So China is starting with a less-educated workforce than many countries that never made the leap.

That’s a huge challenge for China. As the economy becomes more sophisticated, jobs increasingly require skills in math, science, computers, and language. Where are hundreds of millions of workers without those skills going to find decent jobs?

2. How have ordinary people’s views in China about opportunity and getting ahead changed?

For a long time, there was tremendous optimism in China, and for good reason. From the early 1990s through the early 2010s, the economy was growing at roughly 10% a year. Manufacturing and construction were booming, companies needed workers, and wages were rising. People could move from the countryside to the city, find work, and give their children opportunities they never had.

Here’s something interesting about inequality in China. For a long time, the gap between rich and poor was getting wider, but almost everyone was still getting ahead. Research by some of my Stanford colleagues found that between 1988 and 2018, the incomes of the poorest 10% of China’s adults increased fourfold. That’s extraordinary. Of course, people at the very top did much better—their incomes increased something like 30 times over the same period. But even people at the bottom were seeing their lives improve.

I think that helps explain why people tolerated so much inequality. If your own life is improving, you may not worry so much about how much richer someone else is getting. But what happens when that progress slows or stops?

In recent research with Martin Whyte at Harvard, we found a substantial increase in pessimism about future incomes and living standards, especially among people with less education.

Part of the explanation is what’s happened to the labor market. As wages rose, companies increasingly turned to contractors and informal workers to reduce costs. Our research found that informal employment rose from 33% of total employment in 2004 to 56% in 2017. That means fewer benefits, less job security, and more uncertainty.

Today, many less-educated workers are competing for jobs in delivery, ride-hailing, and other informal services. And when more people chase the same jobs, earnings come under pressure.

For decades, people assumed that if they worked hard, their lives would get better. Increasingly, they’re no longer so sure.

3. Are China’s high-tech successes and the struggles of its low-income population separate stories—or two sides of the same economic model?

I would say they’re both. Some of the problems facing low-income workers started long before the current push into high technology. But China’s emphasis on advanced manufacturing has intensified some of those challenges.

Think about what drove China’s growth for the first several decades of reform. China opened up to trade and foreign investment and became the world’s factory. Then came an enormous property boom, supported in part by local governments that depended on land sales for revenue and wanted to meet growth targets.

All of that created tremendous demand for relatively unskilled labor. You didn’t need a college degree to work in a factory or on a construction site. But over time, companies increasingly relied on informal labor, and wages for less-skilled workers began to stagnate.

Now add automation, robotics, and AI.

This past spring, I took a group of Stanford students to visit factories in China. We saw factories producing more than they had five years earlier, but with fewer than 20% as many workers. And nearly everyone on the factory floor had a vocational college or university degree.

We even visited a so-called dark factory. The production floor doesn’t need lights because there aren’t any workers there. Robots and AI do the manufacturing, while a handful of college graduates monitor everything from a control room.

It’s remarkable. China is becoming incredibly good at producing sophisticated goods. But these factories don’t need many workers, and the workers they do need are highly educated.

So China’s technological success is real. But it doesn’t necessarily translate into better opportunities for the hundreds of millions of people who helped build the old economy.

4. As China’s era of property-led growth ends, Beijing is betting on advanced manufacturing, green tech, pharma, and other new industries. Are they creating jobs for workers from the old economy?

The short answer is no—not nearly enough, and certainly not for the workers who need those jobs most.

China’s manufacturing output continues to grow, but manufacturing employment began declining in the mid-2010s. That’s what happens when factories become more automated: you can produce more with fewer people.

But the much bigger shock has come from the collapse of the property sector. For years, construction was an enormous source of employment for workers with relatively little education. Now that sector has contracted dramatically. Official figures indicate that roughly 10 million migrant workers left construction in 2022 and 2023 alone.

So where do these workers go?

You might think they could return to the countryside and start farming again. But nearly 80% of rural workers under 40 have never farmed. They don’t know how, and they have no intention of doing so.

Instead, many are moving into the informal economy—delivering food, driving cars, doing whatever work they can find. As more people enter these sectors, competition increases and earnings come under pressure.

Meanwhile, the new industries China is investing in—electric vehicles, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals—need relatively few workers, and many of those jobs require specialized skills.

So there’s a huge mismatch. China is investing heavily in the industries of the future, but those industries aren’t creating enough opportunities for workers displaced from the industries of the past.

And that matters enormously. If hundreds of millions of people see their incomes stagnate or decline, that’s going to affect consumption, economic growth, and potentially social stability.

5. Can China sustain its economic success without substantially improving the prospects of “the rest”?

I think this is really the central question.

China has accomplished extraordinary things. It’s a global leader in electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels, and increasingly robotics and AI. Nobody should underestimate those achievements.

But there’s a difference between having world-class industries and becoming a high-income economy.

Look at countries that successfully made that transition—South Korea, Singapore, Ireland, and others. They had relatively well-educated workforces. They weren’t just producing sophisticated goods; they were creating economies in which large shares of the population had the skills to participate in higher-productivity work.

China faces a much harder challenge because hundreds of millions of its workers have relatively little education.

And there’s another issue: China’s government does much less than governments in other countries to redistribute income. One study found that taxes and transfers reduce the income share of China’s richest 10% by only about 4%. In the United States, that reduction is closer to 20%, and in France it’s about 25%.

And redistribution isn't just about fairness. Lower-income households tend to spend a larger share of any additional income they receive, while wealthier households are more likely to save it. That means putting more money in the hands of poorer families could also help China boost household consumption

So could China do more through its tax system, social insurance, and public services, rather than relying so heavily on growth to lift people’s incomes?

If a large share of the population isn’t seeing meaningful income growth, household consumption will remain constrained. That makes it harder to sustain growth through domestic demand. And growing pessimism about the future creates social and political challenges as well.

The World Bank has shown that relatively few countries successfully escape the middle-income trap. Is China headed in that direction? Not inevitably. It has enormous strengths, including its technological capabilities, infrastructure, and manufacturing base.

But I don’t think China can simply innovate its way out of this problem. It also has to improve the education, skills, and economic opportunities of the hundreds of millions of people who aren’t participating in the high-tech boom.

China’s future won’t be determined just by how successful its best companies become. It will also depend on what happens to the rest of its population.

This article was edited for clarity and brevity with support from ChatGPT. All outputs were reviewed by humans and the final expression was produced by the authors.

“SEUS is an extraordinary opportunity for high schoolers who are curious enough to question, confident enough to share their mind, and open-minded enough to change their point of views.” —Haya Y., VA
 

Stanford e-Japan enrolls exceptional high school students from Japan to engage in an intensive study of U.S. society and culture. The Reischauer Scholars Program (RSP) enrolls exceptional high school students from the United States to engage in an intensive study of Japanese society and culture. Both courses underscore the importance of U.S.–Japan relations. The Yanai Tadashi Foundation is the current supporter of Stanford e-Japan, and the Japan Fund at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) is the current supporter of the RSP.

On August 3, 2026, the 2026 Japan Day award ceremony was held at Stanford University to honor SPICE’s Spring and Fall 2025 Stanford e-Japan student honorees and 2026 RSP student honorees. Stanford e-Japan instructors Waka Takahashi Brown (spring course) and Meiko Kotani (fall course), RSP instructor Naomi Funahashi, and the research paper review committees selected the honorees. The honorees are:

Spring 2025 Stanford e-Japan
Mahono Fuji, Seinan High School, “From White Flight to Gentrification: Rethinking Urban Spatial Inequality”

Nagi Matsuyama, Doshisha International High School, “Reconsidering U.S.–Japan Food Trade”

Jinichiro Taguchi, Kaijo High School, “U.S. Foreign Policy and the Monroe Doctrine”

Honorable Mentions:
Dion Munasingha, Yaizu Chuo High School, “Language Support for Children of Immigrants in Japan and the United States”

Natsuka Yamamoto, Keio Girls Senior High School, “Future of Natural Disaster Response Management in Japan and the United States”

Fall 2025 Stanford e-Japan
Sawa Ito, Iida High School, “Mental Health in the United States and Japan: Beyond the Numbers”

Yurino Ohara, Okayama Asahi High School, “Redesigning Japan’s OTC Policy: A Digital Strategy for Fiscal Sustainability and Patient Protection”

Amy Yanai, The British School in Tokyo, “Community Resilience and Soft Power: Disaster Recovery in the U.S. and Japan”

Honorable Mentions:
Takaki Okada, Musashi High School, “Anti-Globalism Sentiment in the United States: Its Causes and Effects”

Aiko Nakano, Shizuoka Futaba Senior High School, “A Comparison of Refugee Recognition Systems in Japan and the United States: The Role of Public Awareness”

2026 Reischauer Scholars Program
Emma Bouvard, The Nightingale-Bamford School, “The Unfinished Promise of Womenomics: Entrepreneurship and the Limits of Gender Equality in Japan”

Erin Tsutsui, Gunn High School, “Reaffirming Japan’s Commitment to the Three Non-Nuclear Principles”

Lisa Yoshida, Monta Vista High School, “The Architecture of Achievement: Structural Equity, Affect Valuation, and the Future of Education in Japan and the U.S.”

Honorable Mentions:
Anmol Singh Josan, Eastside Preparatory School, “The Digital Escape Hatch: Virtual Schools, Futon, and Japan’s Unfinished Educational Reform”

Mika Shimada, Hilton Head Prep, “From Stagnation to Adaptation: Japan and the Redefinition of Economic Success for Developed Nations”

Takahiro Uchida, The Wheeler School, “How Economic Policy Shaped the Soft Power Divide Between J-Pop and K-Pop”

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The program began with welcoming comments from the Honorable Kotaro Otsuki, Consul General of Japan in San Francisco. He commented that the Reischauer Scholars Program and Stanford e-Japan are very important for our two nations—given that both engage future leaders in both countries—and extended congratulatory comments on behalf of the Consulate to the honorees. SPICE was honored with his presence. 

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Following the welcoming and opening comments, Brown, Kotani, and Funahashi gave overviews of their courses and introduced the student honorees. The student honorees made articulate presentations based on their research papers and demonstrated so much poise while answering questions from the audience. Each honoree received a plaque from their instructor. Photo above courtesy of Jonas Edman. 

The RSP will enter its 24th year in 2027, and Stanford e-Japan is about to enter its 12th year. Many of the alumni are studying U.S.–Japan relations, engaged in various fields related to U.S.–Japan relations, and continue to give back to both programs by being guest speakers and mentors to the new students. This year, honoree Amy Yanai, who will be a freshman at Yale, has agreed to meet with the Fall 2026 Stanford e-Japan cohort.

Following the formal event, the student honorees—most having just met each other in person for the first time—had the chance to enjoy lunch and a Stanford campus tour together. It is the hope of Brown, Kotani, and Funahashi that the Japanese and American student honorees will continue to stay in touch not only during their high school and college years but also beyond, into their careers. 

SPICE is grateful to President Tadashi Yanai for his generous support of Stanford e-Japan and to the staff of the Yanai Tadashi Foundation for their regular correspondence and encouragement. SPICE is thankful to the Japan Fund committee at FSI for its generous support of the Reischauer Scholars Program. These courses and the ceremony would not be possible without them. SPICE is also grateful to SPICE Event Coordinator Sabrina Ishimatsu for meticulously planning and implementing the event.

SPICE is currently accepting applications for the 2027 Reischauer Scholars Program. The deadline to apply is October 23, 2026.

The application for the 2027 spring session of Stanford e-Japan will open on November 15, 2026.

SPICE also offers online courses to U.S. high school students on China (China Scholars Program), Korea (Sejong Korea Scholars Program), and entrepreneurship (Stanford e-Entrepreneurship U.S.), to Chinese high school students on the United States (Stanford e-China), and to Japanese high school students on entrepreneurship (Stanford e-Entrepreneurship Japan).

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