{{Short description|Filipino sinologist (1959–2020)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2020}} {{Infobox academic | name = Aileen Baviera | image = Aileen Baviera.jpg | caption = Baviera speaks at the Maritime Security Symposium of the Development Academy of the Philippines, July 4, 2016 | birth_name = Aileen San Pablo | birth_date = {{Birth date|1959|8|26}} | birth_place = Manila, Philippines | death_date = {{Death date and age|2020|3|21|1959|8|26}} | death_place = Manila, Philippines | alma_mater = University of the Philippines Diliman <small>(BS, MA, PhD)</small> | occupation = | spouse = Jorge Villegas Baviera <small>(d. 2018)</small> | children = 3 | signature = | module = {{Infobox scientist | child=yes | thesis_year = 2003 | thesis_title = Post-Cold War China-ASEAN Relations: Exploring Worldview Convergence and its Security Implications | thesis_url = | doctoral_advisor = }} }}
'''Aileen San Pablo-Baviera''' (August 26, 1959 – March 21, 2020) was a Filipino political scientist and sinologist. She was one of the leading China experts in her country.<ref name="rapp2020">Rappler: [https://www.rappler.com/philippines/255339-university-of-the-philippines-professor-aileen-baviera-dies-coronavirus/ ''U.P. professor, China expert Aileen Baviera dies of coronavirus'', 21 March 2020], retrieved 21 March 2020.</ref><ref name="Rappler2020-2">Rappler: [https://www.rappler.com/philippines/255384-china-expert-aileen-baviera-obituary/ ''Aileen Baviera, 60: Her eyes were on China, her heart stayed with PH'', 21 March 2020], retrieved 21 March 2020.</ref>
== Career == In October 1979, Baviera received her Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Service, ''cum laude'' at the University of the Philippines{{Which|date=August 2025}}. As a student of modern Chinese history at the University of Beijing, she was allowed to do research in China for the first time from 1981 to 1983. She learned the Chinese language, received a diploma from the Beijing Language Institute and traveled to the north and west of the country. In 1987, Baviera received a Master of Arts in Asian studies, specializing in China and East Asia. The doctorate in political science followed in 2003.<ref name="UP">University of the Philippines: [http://up-diliman.academia.edu/AileenBaviera/CurriculumVitae ''Aileen Baviera''], retrieved 21 March 2020.</ref> Before living in China, she was a leftist, but during her time there she "learned to recognize and shun the shallowness of political propaganda when I saw it, Mao's as much as Marcos's".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Paddock |first1=Richard C. |title=Aileen Baviera, Leading Philippines Scholar of China, Dies at 60 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/obituaries/aileen-baviera-dead-coronavirus.html |accessdate=10 April 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=9 April 2020}}</ref>
From 1980 to 1986, she worked as a researcher and trainer at the Foreign Service Institute of the State Department. Until 1990, she taught at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of the Philippines and then until 1993 as a research coordinator at the Philippine-China Development Resource Center. From June 1993 to May 1998, Baviera was head of the Center for International Relations and Strategic Studies of the Foreign Service Institute and taught parallel from 1996 to 1997 at the Faculty of Political Science of the Ateneo de Manila University.<ref name="UP" />
From June 1998 to December 2001, Baviera was executive director of the Philippine-China Development Resource Center and at the same time until June 2005 Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines Asian Center. From September 2003 to October 2009, she was also Dean of the Asian Center. From July 2005, she was full professor and from July 2010 chief editor for Asian Politics & Policy of the Policy Studies Organization in Washington, D.C.<ref name="UP" /> Most recently,{{when|date=March 2020}} she was president and CEO of the Asia Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation.<ref name="rapp2020" />
==Death== On the morning of March 21, 2020, Baviera died of pneumonia caused by the COVID-19 at the San Lazaro Hospital, Manila.<ref name="rapp2020" /> She contracted the disease on March 12, when she returned after participating in a security conference in Paris, France.<ref name="Rappler2020-2" /> She was one of two Filipino delegates – the other being Alan T. Ortiz – who were exposed to the disease at the conference and later died from it.<ref name="HowieSeverino20200504">{{Cite news |last=Severino |first=Howie |date=2020-05-04 |title=Howie Severino: Remembering four friends, victims of COVID-19 |language=en-US |work=GMA News and Public Affairs |url=https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/specials/content/147/howie-severino-remembering-four-friends-victims-of-covid-19/ |access-date=2020-05-12}}</ref>
She is the widow of Jorge Villegas Baviera, who died in 2018,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/730715/dr-aileen-baviera-clear-eyed-china-watcher-succumbs-to-covid-19/story/|title=Dr. Aileen Baviera: Clear-eyed China watcher succumbs to COVID-19|website=GMA News Online|date=March 21, 2020 |accessdate=March 22, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1246276/esteemed-up-prof-and-china-watcher-succumbs-to-covid-19|title=Esteemed UP prof and 'China watcher' succumbs to COVID-19|first=Mariejo S.|last=Ramos|website=newsinfo.inquirer.net|date=March 22, 2020 |accessdate=March 22, 2020}}</ref> and had three children.
== Publications (selection) == * ''Contemporary Political Attitudes and Behavior of the Chinese in Metro Manila'', 1994. * ''Regional Security in East Asia: Challenges to Cooperation and Community Building'', 2008.
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}} {{COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baviera, Aileen}} Category:1959 births Category:2020 deaths Category:Filipino political scientists Category:Filipino sinologists Category:Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines Category:University of the Philippines alumni Category:Academic staff of the University of the Philippines Category:Women political scientists Category:Women orientalists