Mike Chinoy

Mr. Mike Chinoy is a Senior Fellow at the USC US-China Institute. He is also a former CNN Bureau Chief. He was the 2019-2020 Joanna Nichols Visiting Scholar.

We are also excited to welcome Mr. Mike Chinoy back to TAS as the 2019-2020 Joanna Nichols Visiting Scholar. 

Mr. Chinoy was the school's first ever Visiting Scholar during the 2011-2012 school year. A long-time foreign correspondent and CNN's first Beijing bureau chief, Mr. Chinoy is currently a Senior Fellow at the USC US-China Institute. He has also published several books on his time as a foreign correspondent. 

During his most recent residency at TAS in January 2020, Mr. Chinoy worked with a wide range of classes including TAS's award-winning journalism and film programs, Model U.N. and international relations class. In journalism class, Mr. Chinoy has been working to extend our student journalists' repertoire of techniques, including advanced interviewing techniques and helping to improve the student newspaper's current story brainstorm process. Mr. Chinoy will continue to share his unique insights and skillset with all students through workshops, documentary film viewings and discussions, and student body lecture. 

Mr. Chinoy took many of his students off-campus for hands-on journalistic learning. He took three different groups of student journalists on field trips to gain real-world experience as political reporters to cover the Taiwan election, which was held during his residency. Along with faculty members, Mrs. Darby Benedict Sinclair and Mr. Tobie Openshaw, Mr. Chinoy chaperoned students as they learned how to cover the two major political rallies held by the KMT and DPP parties leading up to the presidential election on Saturday, January 11. 

Mr. Chinoy also hosted a panel discussion with two senior political correspondents from the Council on Foreign Affairs as they analyzed the results of Taiwan's presidential election. 

Mr. Chinoy spent over thirty years as a foreign correspondent traveling and reporting from all over the world. “Television is a fantastic median because you share the experience wherever you go,” he said. Although there are many challenges that occur, Mr. Chinoy enjoys broadcasting’s opportunity to allow people to consume news almost instantly.

Mr. Chinoy was even temporarily based in Taiwan in the early 2000s, when he and his wife decided to send their older son Dan (‘05) and his younger son Ben, to Taipei American School. As part of this program, Mr. Chinoy was able to come back and visit TAS as a visiting scholar for the second time. “TAS is still pleasant as it was back then,” he said.

Mr. Chinoy's stay at TAS represents the ninth installment of the Joanna Nichols Visiting Scholar program, which is the result of the continuing, extraordinary generosity and vision of former TAS parent Mr. Kenny Cheng. The program brings relevant, distinguished, and stimulating figures to TAS each year to share singular insights and experiences with students. Past Visiting Scholars include:

  • Dr. Aaron Kyle, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University
  • Dr. Jacob Soll, Professor of History and Accounting at the University of Southern California;
  • Dr. Nancy Steinhardt, Department Chair and Professor of East Asian Art at the University of Pennsylvania;
  • Dr. Michael Littman, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University;
  • Dr. David Spergel, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University;
  •  Dr. Benjamin Elman, Professor of East Asian Studies Department at Princeton University; and
  • Dr. Arthur Benjamin, Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd University