Larry Wortzel was reappointed by House Republican Leader John Boehner for a two-year term expiring December 31, 2012. Wortzel has served on the Commission since November 2001, was the Commission's chairman for the 2006 and 2008 report cycles, and served as vice chairman for the 2009 report cycle.
A leading authority on China, Asia, national security, and military strategy, Commissioner Wortzel had a distinguished career in the U.S. Armed Forces. Following three years in the Marine Corps, Commissioner Wortzel enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1970. His first assignment with the Army Security Agency took him to Thailand, where he focused on Chinese military communications in Vietnam and Laos. Within three years, he had graduated from the Infantry Officer Candidate School and the Airborne and Ranger schools. After four years as an infantry officer, Commissioner Wortzel shifted to military intelligence. Commissioner Wortzel traveled regularly throughout Asia while serving in the U.S. Pacific Command from 1978 to 1982. The following year, he attended the National University of Singapore where he studied advanced Chinese and traveled in China and Southeast Asia. He next worked for the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, developing counterintelligence programs to protect emerging defense technologies from foreign espionage. Also, the Commissioner managed programs to gather foreign intelligence for the Army Intelligence and Security Command.
From 1988 to 1990, Commissioner Wortzel was the Assistant Army Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing where he witnessed and reported on the Tiananmen Massacre. After assignments as an Army strategist and managing Army intelligence officers, he returned to China in 1995 as the Army Attaché. In December 1997, Commissioner Wortzel became a faculty member of the U.S. Army War College, service as the Director of the Strategic Studies Institute. He retired from the Army as a Colonel.
Before his appointment to the U.S.-China Commission, Commissioner Wortzel served as the Director of the Asian Studies Center and Vice President for foreign policy at The Heritage Foundation.
Commissioner Wortzel’s books include Class in China: Stratification in a Classless Society, China’s Military Modernization: International Implications, The Chinese Armed Forces in the 21st Century, and Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Military History. Commissioner Wortzel regularly publishes articles on Asian security matters.
A graduate of the Armed Forces Staff College and the U.S. Army War College, Commissioner Wortzel earned his Bachelor of Arts from Columbus College and his Master of Arts and Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii. He and his wife, Christine, live in Williamsburg, Virginia. They have two married sons and two grandchildren.