Seong-hyon Lee has extensive experience in East Asia, and particularly China. He is a Senior Fellow at the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations and is a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

He has spoken at numerous prestigious institutions, including the Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard Kennedy School, the U.S. Congress, Stanford University, the RAND Corporation, the University of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the Hudson Institute, the Asia Society, the German Marshall Fund, the Stimson Center, and the National Assembly. He has also been invited to brief South Korean presidential candidates and lawmakers on China.

He spent 11 years in Beijing and holds degrees from both Tsinghua University and Harvard University.