Yan Zhu is the China Program Lead at AI Safety Connect (AISC), where she works on China engagement, research on Chinese AI governance, risk assessment and strategy, and coordinates AISC's relations with Chinese media. She is also a researcher at MIT FutureTech and a core contributor to its Mapping AI Governance project.

She previously spent nearly eight years in China's internet sector, as a senior research manager at the Digital Policy Research Center at People's Daily and in public relations at major Chinese internet platforms. She led research on cyber policy and the digital transformation of China's public sector, ran national internet engagement initiatives that won national awards, and served on the editorial board of the Blue Book on China's Internet and Society.

She has consulted for organizations, including the US Department of Energy, Alameda County, WWF, California Labor Council, and several Chinese government agencies and major technology companies. She holds a master's degree from UC Berkeley focused on AI and technology policy and applied data analytics, and studied sociology at Renmin University of China. She has completed AI safety research fellowships with MARS (Cambridge AI Safety Hub) and SPAR. In her own time, she writes about AI governance for Chinese readers on Xiaohongshu (RedNote) and runs a community for discussion of AI safety and governance.