Shannon Van Sant

Shannon Van Sant is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS). Shannon’s open source research and analysis focuses on technology and national security, and she advises government and private clients on foreign malign influence and political interference from the Kremlin and Chinese Communist Party. Her research has included Beijing’s military-civil fusion policy, intellectual property theft, and U.S.-China competition in artificial intelligence.

Previously Shannon worked as a journalist and analyst for nearly 20 years, and lived for 11 of those years in Beijing and Hong Kong. Shannon reported on the ground across 20 provinces and autonomous regions in mainland China, on Chinese investment in Sub-Saharan and East Africa, and filmed documentaries on human rights and humanitarian issues, including the migration routes of North Korean refugees. Shannon’s work has been honored with a Human Rights Press Award from Amnesty International and the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong, and in 2014 she reported on Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement. She is also a volunteer for World Central Kitchen, and in 2022 traveled to Prezmysl, Poland, to feed thousands of displaced Ukrainians fleeing Putin’s brutal war.