Xin Liu

Career

Xin Liu was born and raised in China. She graduated from the Renmin University of China in June 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She then studied in America, earning a master’s degree in visual communication at Ohio University in 1996. ¹

Liu became a journalist at China Youth Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, from June 1990 until September 1993. She then became a visual journalist at the Palm Beach Post, a daily newspaper in Palm Beach, Florida, from 1996 until she left to work at Time as a freelance journalist in July 1998, a position she held until she left in January 2002. ¹

Liu founded the Enlight Foundation alongside her ex-husband, Chinese billionaire Yongping Duan, in 2004. Duan stepped away from the foundation after he and Liu divorced in 2012. Xin Liu is the president of the foundation as of July 2026. ^{1 2 4}

Liu is also the founder and director of the Xinhe Foundation, as of July 2026. Founded in 2008 in China, the Xinhe Foundation supports education programs for children and focuses on supporting research that improves early childhood development and rural reading programs in schools. ^{1 2 5}

Liu has volunteered as an advisor to the Earthrise Alliance, a left-of-center environmentalist climate advocacy group, since March 2018, a position she still holds as of July 2026. ⁶

Philanthropy

Xin Liu signed the Giving Pledge in 2025. The Giving Pledge was originally conceived by Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft; his then-wife, Melinda French Gates; and Warren Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, as a campaign to persuade billionaires to pledge at least half of their wealth to charity, either during their lifetime or in their wills. ^{3 7 8}