Kin W. Moy

Kin Wah Moy (born 1966) is an American diplomat and holds the diplomatic rank of Minister. He is the first Chinese-American to hold the post as Director of the American Institute in Taiwan. He is a third-generation Chinese American with ancestry from Taishan in Guangdong Province. Having served in the Department of State and several diplomatic outposts, he began his tenure as the director of the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto embassy of the United States in Taiwan, in June 2015.

Moy was born in 1966 in British Hong Kong to parents from Taishan, Guangdong. A third-generation Chinese-Americanwhose grandfather lived in Chicago early in the 20th century before returning to China, Moy moved to New York shortly after his birth and grew up in Minnesota.

Moy graduated from both Columbia University and the University of Minnesota.

Moy started working for theUS State Department in 1992. He served under three US Secretaries of State, working as Special Assistant in the Executive Secretariat for Madeleine Albright, Director of the Executive Secretariat Staff for Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy Executive Secretary for Hillary Clinton. He was Deputy Director of the Office of Maritime Southeast Asia and Desk Officer in the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs.

In 2011 he was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

He was at the Department of State in Washington, where he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, with responsibility for China, Mongolia, and Taiwan. In addition to his Washington assignments, Moy has served in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, and the U.S. Consulate in Busan.

Moy was considered a key proponent of US President Barack Obama's "Asian Pivot" strategy. In 2015 he was appointed Director of the American Institute in Taiwan and so became the de facto American ambassador to Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic relations. In his inaugural press conference he stressed that the United States is Taiwan's closest ally. Shortly before leaving the AIT in 2018, Moy was awarded the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon. After leaving Taiwan, he serves as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR). On 21 April 2020, he was confirmed by the Senate to be Career Minister.

He graduated from Columbia University and the University of Minnesota and is a Mandarin speaker. Moy is married to Kathy Chen, a journalist who previously worked for the Wall Street Journal. Taiwanese media note that she lived in Taiwan for a few years in the late 1980s, first as a student then subsequently as an editor for The China Post, so will be somewhat familiar with the country. They have four children: (from eldest to youngest) Andrew, Claire, Olivia and Amanda.; and a Great Dane.