Mr. Chou has had a distinguished career as an attorney and an advisor, and he had already established himself as a celebrated columnist, teacher and thought leader prior to focusing on geopolitical and geo-economic strategies. Mr. Chou has extensive real-world experience across Taiwan, the United States, Hong Kong, and China in the spaces of international corporate finance, media, government affairs and investment matters.

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His geopolitical focus certainly includes the impact of American politics. During the cycle of the United States general election of 2024, Dr. Chou published on Wealth Magazine an election prediction one week before the ballot. As it turned out, every major prediction he made was accurate, including a Trump victory specifically having 312 electoral votes, the Republican control of the Senate as well as the likely control of the Congress.

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In addition, Dr. Chou is highly regarded in both academia and journalism communities for his keen and penetrating insights into Eastern and Western cultures and traditions insofar as jurisprudence, political science and strategy are concerned. Scholars and journalists have described his work as being able to bring historical perspectives into a contemporary strategic analysis. His work is rigorous, precise, persuasive, grounded in deep scholarship as well as practice experiences, and is always marked with originality in his approach. 

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Over the course of his professional career, Dr. Chou has assisted clients in transactions totaling more than US $2.5 billion, serving both Fortune 500 and middle-market companies across industries, including healthcare, high-tech, real estate, media and entertainment, energy, and matters involving high-net-worth individuals and family offices. 

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Dr. Chou earned his bachelor’s degree in economics and pursued on East Asian studies at National Chengchi University in Taiwan. He later received his Juris Doctor degree from the UCLA School of Law after further advanced studies in both economics and law.  He is admitted to the California Bar, but is not acting as an attorney in his non-legal advisory matters.

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Professional Career

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• California attorney, being established as a former partner and a practice group chair at top-tier international law firms headquartered in New York.

• Represented four leading Taiwanese banks in obtaining U.S. Federal Reserve System approval to establish Los Angeles branches.

• Participated in founding the Hong Kong office of a major Wall Street law firm.

• Worked at the same international law firm as Barack Obama and J.D. Vance at different times.

• Approved by the Hong Kong Bar Association as a resident foreign lawyer in Hong Kong.

• Assisted the first Taiwanese corporation in completing the IPO registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

• Engaged in the first convertible bond issuance by a Taiwanese semiconductor company in Europe.

• Approved by the PRC Ministry of Justice as a resident representative of an international law firm in its Beijing Representative Office.

• Served as a managing director and the chair of Asia strategy at a Boston-based biomedical investment fund.

• Founded SouthRock Group in Los Angeles, specializing in geopolitical and geo-economic strategy, forecasting, and solutions.

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Teaching

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• Fudan University School of Law (course on law and economics).

• Peking University Guanghua School of Management (course on international capital markets).

• UCLA-affiliated institutions (course on forecasting the world and business).

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Publications

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As a prolific writer and public intellectual, Mr. Chou authored An Ideal State of Law: A Virtual Dialogue between Socrates and Mencius (Taipei: Commonwealth, 1998; Beijing: Commercial Press, 1999), a critically acclaimed comparative legal theory work cited in law textbooks and legal research across Taiwan, Hong Kong and China as well as Sinological studies in other parts of the world.

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Dr. Chou has also published papers in the legal profession, including CFIUS: A Unique Challenge for Chinese Energy Investors (Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, 2011). 

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He was the editor of Financial Market English-Chinese and Chinese-English Dictionary (Beijing: San Lian 2003).

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Columns

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For over two decades in aggregate, Dr. Chou has published columns for leading publications throughout Asia, including Global Views Leaders Forum, Wealth Magazine, Yazhou Zhoukan, China Youth Daily, ETtoday and Lianhe Zaobao.

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His work has earned recognition by various media, think tanks, and academic institutions, including RAND Corporation, Monte Jade Science and Technology Association, Chinese American Professionals Association, Los Angeles Times, Wealth Magazine, and Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.

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Dr. Chou has also engaged in a series of dialogues on civilization and hegemony, including those with distinguished thinkers such as Professors Tu Weiming, Lin Yu-sheng, and Chen Guying. ​

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As a hobby, he authors the column entitled Film & Music Madness, in which he reviews films, television series, and classical music (such as on the panel of Los Angeles Philharmonic and Taiwan Philharmonic) with distinctive cultural and political depth.

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Social Engagement

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In his early years, Mr. Chou joined the Taipei Century Symphony Orchestra, becoming its first trombonist which brought him to tour Taipei, Tokyo, Osaka, and Seoul. He subsequently joined the R.O.C. Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, performing on a tour around Taiwan. 

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In 1989, he started and served as the president of the Asia Philharmonic orchestra, producing the Southern California debut of the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto. In 2003, he was a milestone donor for the construction of the Los Angeles Disney Concert Hall. In 2004, he assisted Tzu Chi Philanthropic Foundation USA in forming the Tzu Chi Chamber Orchestra and acted as its conductor for performances at UC Irvine. In 2010, he joined the Los Angeles Philanthropic Committee for the Arts as a committee member. From 2012 to 2014, he was an advisor to the MusicFest in Perugia, Italy. Between 2013 and 2017, he started and ran the Music Heritage Global to support young talents.

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He has also served in advisory roles at multiple universities, including as a mentor for the UCLA School of Law for years, an advisor for the China Finance and Business Research Center at the California State University, Northridge, and the Chair of the Advisory Board for the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies from 2017 to 2019.​​

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While still studying at UCLA School of Law, Cedric as a student led and organized community outreach events that brought together USCIS amnesty officials, media, and community service organizations in the Asian American community to promote the Reagan amnesty program. Through this broad and exploring outreach, he assisted many immigrants and helped resolve longstanding legal status difficulties for numerous families.