Bonnie Girard

Bonnie Girard has lived and worked in China for half of her adult life, beginning in 1987 when she studied at the Foreign Affairs College in Beijing. In 1996, after nine years in China and having worked for European multinational telecommunications companies in their China sales and operations throughout the country, she founded China Channel, the first independent consultancy providing due diligence for foreign companies coming into the Chinese market. In the years since, Bonnie, British husband and partner Roland Evans, and her colleagues in China have handled China issues for clients as diverse as Lloyd’s of London, IBM, the Commonwealth of Virginia, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. Bonnie has been key in the negotiation and implementation of over US$1 billion worth of sales and investment contracts in China.

Bonnie is also known as a speaker, writer, and advocate for a fairer trade relationship with China. Her work is currently found weekly in The Diplomat. She has been quoted and republished by a large variety of international news outlets.

Bonnie challenged a sitting U.S. Congressman to a primary election in 2012, focusing on the issue of increasing security and economic challenges coming out of China.

Bonnie is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She grew up in Washington, D.C. and Virginia, in a family long active in government, foreign service, academics, and journalism. She handles all of her personal and professional business in China in Mandarin Chinese.