NCUSCR Events

On March 9, 2021, the National Committee hosted a virtual program with Mr. Winston Ma, where he explored how China’s innovation ecosystem drives next generation unicorns and its young netizens participate in the evolving digital economy, and what emerging markets can learn from China as they dive headlong into the mobile-first economy.

Winston Ma, most recently managing director and head of the North America office of China Investment Corporation (CIC), is the author of, The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain, and Cyberspace.

The National Committee held a virtual program on February 24, 2021 with Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown and Mr. Ben Westhoff, moderated by Ms. Emily Feng, who discussed the current status of the opioid epidemic, bilateral efforts to curb the supply of fentanyl in the United States, and the prospects for progress moving forward.

In a belated celebration of his 90th birthday and his extraordinary contributions to the development of law in China and U.S.-China relations, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations hosted a virtual discussion with America’s leading expert on Chinese law, Jerome A. Cohen, on February 16, 2021. Professor Cohen conversed with his former student, Steve Orlins, who is now president of the National Committee, about his experiences over the last sixty years of studying Chinese law, government, and society. Topics included living in China, prospects for the future of law in China, and directions in Sino-American relations.

The National Committee held a virtual program on February 10, 2021 with Dr. Graham Allison, Dr. Thomas Gold, Ms. Melinda Liu, and Dr. Michael Szonyi to celebrate and remember teacher/mentor/public servant/friend Professor Ezra Vogel.

The National Committee, in partnership with Peking University’s National School of Development (NSD), held a virtual program on February 2, 2021 with Dr. Hu Yifan, Dr. Huang Yiping, and Dr. Yao Yang to forecast China’s economy in the coming year. The panel was moderated by NCUSCR President Stephen Orlins. Topics included: China’s growth trajectory in 2021 and beyond, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Chinese and global markets, progress and challenges in structural reform, expected reforms in China in 2021, developments and challenges in the private sector, cross-border capital flows, and U.S.-China trade frictions.

The National Committee held a virtual event on January 26, 2021 where Rhodium Group’s Daniel Rosen and Adam Lysenko rolled out the latest addition to the Two-Way Street report series to increase the transparency of this portfolio investment discussion. In a conversation moderated by National Committee President Stephen Orlins, Rosen and Lysenko were joined by KPMG Chief Economist Constance Hunter and BlackRock Senior Managing Director Mark Wiedman to discuss the report's implications.

Environmental degradation in China has not only brought about a wider range of diseases and other health consequences than previously understood, but has also taken a heavy toll on China’s society, economy, and the legitimacy of the party-state. In Toxic Politics: China’s Environmental Health Crisis and Its Challenge to the Chinese State, Yanzhong Huang presents evidence of China's deepening health crisis and challenges the widespread view that China is winning its war on pollution. Although there has been some progress, policy enforcement measures have not substantially reduced pollution or improved public health. Dr. Huang argues that the failures lie in the institutional structure of the Chinese party-state, with conflicting incentives for officials and limited capacity of the state to deliver public goods. Toxic Politics describes a political system that is remarkably resilient but fundamentally flawed, and the implications for China's future, domestically and internationally.

On January 11, 2021, the National Committee held a virtual program with Dr. Yanzhong Huang to discuss the capacity of the Chinese party state to address its serious environmental and public health challenges.

China’s President Xi Jinping is committed to two primary military ambitions: he wants China to become a great maritime power by 2035 and a world-class armed force by 2050. In China as a Twenty First Century Naval Power, retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Michael McDevitt focuses on China's navy and its recent and continuing transformation into a formidable force.

Mr. McDevitt begins the book by exploring the strategic rationale behind President Xi's objectives. He then examines the PLA Navy's role in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, and concludes with a forecast of what President Xi's vision of a "world-class navy" might look like in the next fifteen years as the 2035 deadline approaches.

On December 22, 2020, the National Committee held a virtual program with Rear Admiral Michael McDevitt, USN (retired), where he described the development of China’s navy, implications for the U.S. military and policy-makers more broadly.

In mid-November 2020, China’s National People’s Congress passed a resolution allowing Hong Kong authorities to expel legislators deemed a threat to national security or failing to pledge allegiance to Hong Kong without having to go through the judicial system. Shortly thereafter, the Hong Kong government disqualified four pro-democracy legislators. Reaction within and outside of Hong Kong was swift: fellow pan-democrat Legislative Council (LegCo) members resigned in protest; the U.S. national security advisor said that the Chinese Communist Party had “flagrantly violated its international commitments” while the British foreign minister saw the expulsions as an assault on Hong Kong’s freedoms. By contrast, Chief Executive Carrie Lam proclaimed the dismissals both necessary and legal. In early December, protesters were sentenced to prison for activities during the 2019 demonstrations.  What do the most recent developments tell us about “One Country, Two Systems”? About the strength of Hong Kong’s judiciary? What changes in U.S. policy may emerge from the new Biden administration when it takes over next month?

On December 17, 2020, the National Committee held a virtual program with Ambassador Kurt Tong and Ms. Christine Loh to discuss the latest developments in Hong Kong and implications for U.S.-Hong Kong and U.S.-China relations.

In China’s Fintech Explosion, Sara Hsu and Jianjun Li explore the transformative potential of China’s fintech industry, describing the risks and rewards for participants as well as the impact on consumers. They cover many subsectors of the industry: digital payment systems, peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding, credit card issuance, internet banks, blockchain finance and virtual currencies, and online insurance. Offering analysis of market potential, risks, and competition, the authors describe major companies including Alipay and Tencent, and other leading fintech firms.

National politics have grabbed the headlines over the last few months; less publicized are the challenges taking place at the local levels. Nine former Governors gathered this fall to discuss the toll a deteriorating U.S.-China relationship has had on their states.

 On December 7, 2020, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the U.S. Heartland China Association (USHCA) invited former governor and current chairman and CEO of USHCA Bob Holden (Missouri, D, 2001-2005), along with former governors Jon Huntsman, Jr. (Utah, R, 2005-2011), Gary Locke (Washington, D, 1997-2005), and Rick Snyder (Michigan, R, 2011-2019) to discuss the consequences of bilateral tensions in each of their respective states and how revitalizing subnational relationships and cooperation can help pave a path forward.

Renowned China scholar David Shambaugh describes the broad-gauged and global competition for power, especially in Asia, underway between the United States and China in his new book, Where Great Powers Meet. Concentrating on Southeast Asia, Professor Shambaugh notes that the two countries constantly vie for position and influence across this highly significant area; the outcome of the contest may determine whether Asia leaves the American orbit after seventy years and falls into a Chinese sphere of influence. 

On December 1, 2020, the National Committee held a virtual program with Professor David Shambaugh as he looks at the geopolitical future of Southeast Asia amidst the possibility of renewed great power competition in the region.

About CHINA Town Hall: ncuscr.org/CTH. 

 Confronting the global challenges of climate change and communicable disease cannot be achieved by any single country, but must be met by constructive cooperation among nations. Although the United States and China will compete in many areas, it is imperative they join forces to face these universal problems that affect global stability and endanger the world's most vulnerable people. 

 On November 18, 2020, the National Committee held a discussion with Margaret Hamburg (National Academy of Medicine), Ryan Hass (Brookings Institution), and Angel Hsu (Yale-NUS) to consider the roles of the United States and China in addressing these two major transnational issues. The conversation was moderated by Merit Janow (Columbia School of International and Public Affairs).

About CHINA Town Hall: www.ncuscr.org/CTH. 

 Robust bilateral economic and trade ties have been the greatest source of strength and foundation for engagement in the U.S.-China relationship for decades. Yet in recent years those ties have been frayed by an ongoing trade war, the threat of decoupling, and a global economic and public health crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 The National Committee held a conversation on November 17, 2020 with Amy Celico (Albright Stonebridge Group), Huang Yiping (Peking University), and Andy Rothman (Matthews Asia), moderated by NCUSCR President Stephen Orlins, to discuss the current trade tensions, prospects for economic growth during and after COVID-19, and the future of U.S.-China economic ties.

Learn more at ncuscr.org/CTH. 

 Starting with ping-pong diplomacy in 1971, cultural diplomacy has played a pivotal role in facilitating mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and China. This event will gather leading cultural figures to discuss how, despite sometimes turbulent political and economic relations, food and film continue to reveal our shared humanity and connect us through culture. 

 On November 12, 2020, the National Committee held a discussion with Raymond Chang (Major League Baseball China), Lucas Sin (Junzi Kitchen), and Janet Yang (Janet Yang Productions) on the importance, challenges, and future of cross-cultural learning between the United States and China. NCUSCR Public Intellectuals Program fellow Alison Friedman (Performing Arts of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority) moderated the event.

Sign up for more CHINA Town Hall 2020 events: http://www.ncuscr.org/CTH  

Renowned investor, philanthropist, and best-selling author Ray Dalio discusses today's most important issues, and the critical roles the United States and China play in an era of rapid global change, at the 14th annual CHINA Town Hall Keynote on Tuesday, November 10, 2020. Ray Dalio and his family have been deeply involved in business and philanthropic efforts in China for 35 years. He is the author of the best-selling "Principles: Life and Work" and "The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail," which will be released this winter.

As its glittering urban skylines attest, China has apparently quickly transformed itself from a place of stark poverty into a modern, urban, technologically savvy economic powerhouse. Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell show in Invisible China, however, that the truth is much more complicated and perhaps deeply concerning.

China’s growth has relied heavily on unskilled labor. Most of the workers who have fueled the country’s rise come from rural villages and have never attended high school. The unskilled wage rate has been rising for more than a decade, inducing companies inside China to automate at an unprecedented rate and triggering an exodus of those seeking cheaper labor elsewhere.

Drawing on extensive surveys on the ground in China, Dr. Rozelle and Ms. Hell demonstrate that its labor force has one of the lowest levels of education of any country with a similarly large economy. The limited education of so many workers may leave them unable to find work in the formal workplace as China’s economy changes and manufacturing jobs move elsewhere. In Invisible China, the authors speak not only to an urgent humanitarian concern but also to a potential economic crisis that could upend economies and foreign relations around the globe.

On November 2, the National Committee hosted a virtual program with Professor Scott Rozelle and commentator Dr. Qin Gao.

In August 2020, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II visited Taiwan, the highest level American cabinet officer to do so since the establishment of diplomatic relations with the PRC. A month later Under Secretary of State Keith Krach followed, representing the U.S. government at former President Lee Teng-hui’s funeral. What do these high-level visits suggest about the Trump administration’s policies toward Taiwan and the PRC, and about cross-strait relations?

The National Committee held a virtual program with Professors Margaret K. Lewis and Shelley Rigger on October 27.

How does the rise of China alter the context in which U.S. policy should be assessed? In China from a U.S. Policy Perspective, Professor Eric Heikkila divides policy into three broad areas: economics, sustainability, and geopolitics. In each one, he analyzes key policy issues, demonstrating how a growing China exerts pressure on American policy, not explicitly through lobbying or negotiation, but implicitly through the reality it creates. Dr. Heikkila argues that at a time of increasing bilateral tensions, it is critical for American policymakers to focus on the many policy questions affected by China’s rise.

The National Committee held a virtual program on October 26, 2020 with Professor Eric Heikkila.

At a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum in 2010, the Chinese foreign minister, angered by a question about the South China Sea dispute, declared: “China is a big country and other countries are small countries, and that is just a fact.” The authors whose essays are collected in The Deer and the Dragon examine the nature, dynamics, and implications of that fact – and the inequality that has resulted between China and the countries of Southeast Asia.

What does the history of Sino-Southeast Asian relations tell us about future possibilities? Do economic relations already suggest dependence? How do the countries of Southeast Asia view China and its intentions, and how does China see the region? What is the role of ASEAN?  How does U.S. policy affect the relative influence of China and the United States in Southeast Asia? 

The National Committee held a virtual program with Dr. Donald Emmerson featuring commentary from Dr. Ann Marie Murphy on October 22, 2020. Stanford University’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the New York Southeast Asia Network co-sponsored the event.

Tensions between the United States and China regarding the South China Sea are rising along with the recent broader breakdown of bilateral relations. The legitimacy of historical rights claims, entitlements and rights of other claimant states such as the Philippines and Vietnam, and the boundaries of freedom of navigation operations are among the central issues. Despite their differences, both the United States and China wish to avoid conflict and uphold professionalism at sea.

Is there any significant space for cooperation in South China Sea interactions beyond military engagement, including biodiversity protection and Coast Guard activities? What role do maritime and international law play in the rapidly evolving bilateral relationship? How is China likely to respond to the upcoming U.S. election in its maneuvers in the South China Sea?

On October 20, 2020, the National Committee hosted a virtual program featuring Peter Dutton, M. Taylor Fravel, Tabitha Mallory, Wu Shicun, and Zhu Feng. The five experts discussed the challenging bilateral issues, and provided their assessments of South China Sea development including maritime engagement of China and other claimants and its impact on South China Sea development, mechanisms for U.S.-China maritime military conflict management, and the role of the United States and China in rulemaking and building security protocols.

In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the One Belt One Road policy, later known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global development strategy involving infrastructure projects and associated financing around the world. While the Chinese government frames the plan as one promoting transnational connectivity, critics see it as part of a strategy to achieve global dominance. 

Rivers of Iron examines one aspect of the BRI: China’s effort to create an inter-country railway system connecting China and its seven Southeast Asian neighbors (Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam). The book explores the political strengths and weaknesses of the plan, as well as the capacity of the countries involved to resist, shape, and perhaps take advantage of China’s actions. The authors seek to explain how domestic politics in the eight Asian nations shape their varying responses and behaviors. How does China wield power using infrastructure? Do smaller states have agency? How should we understand the role of infrastructure in broader development? Does industrial policy work? How should other global powers respond? 

The National Committee held a virtual program on October 14, 2020 with Professor David M. Lampton.

Recent border disputes between China and India began in April, escalating to a deadly clash on June 15. Indian authorities reported that 20 troops died in the hand-to-hand combat using clubs and rocks; the Chinese side has not released casualty information. In August, India accused China of provoking military tensions; China claimed that the stand-off was entirely India’s fault. The following month, China accused India of firing shots at its troops; India in turn accused China of firing shots in the air. If the allegations are true, it would be the first time that shots had been fired in 45 years.

There have been 17 rounds of talks since June, including a meeting of the two countries’ defense and foreign ministers on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Moscow in September. What is behind the tensions along the 2,100-mile border some 21,000 feet above sea level in the rugged Himalayas? How likely is a resolution before the harsh winter arrives in a few weeks? What are the implications for China, India, and the United States?

On October 9, 2020, the National Committee held a virtual program with Ambassador Nirupana Rao, Dr. Arunabh Ghosh, and Dr. Shen Dingli.

China and the United States are the world powers of the 21st century. With many differences in political philosophy and diplomatic methods, they approach each other warily and communicate poorly. In Has China Won?: The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy, Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani, a former Singaporean diplomat and prolific scholar with access to policymakers in Beijing and Washington, has written a guide to the deep fault lines in the relationship, an assessment of the risks of confrontation, and an appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses, and superpower eccentricities, of the United States and China.

The National Committee held a virtual program on October 5, 2020 with Professor Kishore Mahbubani.

How has China grown so fast for so long despite extensive corruption? In China's Gilded Age, Yuen Yuen Ang argues that although all corruption is harmful, it does not always hurt growth. Different forms of corruption have disparate impact; certain types actually stimulate investment and development while simultaneously posing serious risks for economic and political systems. Using a range of sources, Dr. Ang explains the evolution of Chinese corruption, how it differs from that of the West and other developing countries, and how President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign could affect growth and governance.

On September 30, 2020, the National Committee hosted a virtual program with Professor Yuen Yuen Ang.

Dori Jones Yang was among the first American correspondents to cover China at the beginning of the reform era. Her memoir, When the Red Gates Opened, follows her rise from rookie reporter to experienced journalist. Her cross-cultural romance gave her deeper insights into how Deng Xiaoping’s reforms led to hopes for better lives. This sense of possibility reached its peak in 1989, when peaceful protesters filled Tiananmen Square, demanding democracy, among other things. On the ground in Beijing, Ms. Yang shared that hope, as well as the despair that followed. After Tiananmen, she returned to the United States, continuing to watch closely as China’s growth resumed.

The National Committee held a virtual program with author Ms. Dori Jones Yang on September 23, 2020 to discuss her book.

At a time when prominent voices in the U.S. foreign policy community – from both sides of the aisle – are calling upon the United States to take a new approach towards China, many are putting forward new ideas to define what a "new era" would look like. An increasingly timely discussion has revolved around making more direct connections between gender equality and national security – a "Feminist Foreign Policy."

On September 18, 2020, the National Committee held a virtual Congressional staff briefing with Stephenie Foster, Sarah Kemp, and Wenchi Yu, about feminist foreign policy and what its implementation could mean for the evolving U.S.-China relationship.

On September 17, 2020, Rhodium Group’s founding partner Daniel Rosen and its "Two-Way Street" report authors Thilo Hanemann and Adam Lysenko joined National Committee President Stephen Orlins to discuss their latest report, a mid-year review of the latest trends in U.S.-China investment and an analysis of the political dynamics and market developments behind them.

Read the new mid-year report on ncuscr.org

Starting with Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson, and concluding with Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, and James Baker, with comments on the foreign policies of Presidents Trump and Obama, in /America in the World/ Robert Zoellick tells the story of U.S. diplomacy.

The National Committee held a virtual program on September 15, 2020 with Ambassador Robert Zoellick in conversation with Financial Times editor and correspondent Lionel Barber. The event was hosted by National Committee Vice Chair Evan Greenberg and National Committee President Stephen Orlins.

Just as world maps look different depending on where they are produced, so narratives of world history vary according to who is telling the story. In /Superpower Interrupted/, Michael Schuman describes how the Chinese view their own and world history and how those perceptions shape China's economic policy, attitudes toward the world, relations with its neighbors, positions on democracy and human rights, and notions of good governance. The National Committee held a virtual program with author Michael Schuman on September 10, 2020.

China faces major demographic, economic, social, political, and foreign policy challenges. The experts whose analyses make up Fateful Decisions examine the choices facing China’s leaders. President Xi Jinping has laid out ambitious goals with little in the way of detailed policy to explain how they will be achieved. A s China’s economy slows and population ages, the demand for and costs of health care, elder care, education, and other social benefits are increasing. At the same time, global ambitions and an increasingly assertive military compete for funding and attention. The contributors to the volume examine what is at stake, possible options, and resulting outcomes. The National Committee held a virtual program with Dr. Thomas Fingar and Dr. Jean Oi on August 20, 2020 to discuss their edited volume, Fateful Decisions: Choices that Will Shape China’s Future.

On August 17, 2020, the National Committee hosted a virtual program with retired American diplomats Susan Thornton and Beatrice Camp to discuss the place of diplomacy in U.S. policy toward China and beyond.

Paul Pickowicz, long a professor of Chinese history at the University of California, San Diego, was among the first Americans to go to China after the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949. He kept a detailed journal and took nearly a thousand photographs during his four-week stay, some of which are collected in A Sensational Encounter with High Socialist China, a recollection of the historic visit. Professor Pickowicz uses the five senses to draw the reader into his experiences.

The National Committee hosted a virtual program on August 11, 2020 with Dr. Paul Pickowicz to discuss his book and the very different China and era in U.S.-China relations that it portrays.

As U.S.-China relations continue to deteriorate, two components of the relationship that have been successful in the past are increasingly coming under attack: higher education and scientific collaboration.

On August 6, 2020, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, and Michigan-China Innovation Center held the final in a series of “Bilateral Breakdown” webinars exploring U.S.-China relations through the lens of disengagement. Speakers Philip Bucksbaum, who holds several positions at Stanford University and its SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and is also the current president of the American Physical Society, and Bradley Farnsworth, vice president of the American Council on Education, discussed the effects the downturn in U.S.-China relations is having on American innovation and competitiveness, international students and universities, and research and development. Mary Gallagher, director of the University of Michigan’s International Institute and the Amy and Alan Lowenstein Professor in Democracy, Democratization, and Human Rights, moderated the discussion.

Recent Executive Orders banning transactions with ByteDance and Tencent in 45 days have left the future of Tiktok and WeChat in the United States in question. What do they mean for U.S.-China technology decoupling and two-way venture capital investing? What are the implications for U.S.-China relations?

The National Committee held an urgent discussion with cybersecurity expert Ms. Melissa Hathaway and tech investor Mr. Gary Rieschel on August 13, 2020 to discuss the reasons for the Executive Orders and the potential outcomes.

On August 5, 2020, the National Committee hosted a virtual program with - Anla Cheng, founder & CEO of SupChina - Erika Lee, Regents Professor of American History and director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota - Nancy Yao Maasbach, president of the Museum of Chinese in America - Jerry Yang, National Committee board member and co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! The speakers discussed discrimination, generational divides, the model minority myth, and Sino-American relations.

In September 2011, sheriff’s deputies noticed three ethnic Chinese men near an Iowa cornfield. What started as a trespassing inquiry turned into a two-year FBI operation in which investigators bugged the men’s rental cars, used a warrant intended for foreign terrorists and spies, and flew surveillance planes over corn country – all to protecting Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer trade secrets. In The Scientist and the Spy, Mara Hvistendahl describes the unusually far-reaching investigation, which pitted a veteran FBI special agent assigned to fight a national-security priority against Florida resident Robert Mo, who after his academic career faltered took a questionable job with a Chinese agricultural company as a way to support his family.

Industrial espionage by Chinese companies, a real issue, is among the reasons that the Trump administration gives when explaining the genesis of the U.S.-China trade war, and a top counterintelligence target of the FBI. Have efforts to address the problem been successful?  With what collateral damage?

Author Mara Hvistendahl joined the National Committee on July 30, 2020 for a virtual program to discuss her book and the issues it raises for the United States, Sino-American collaboration in the sciences, and U.S.-China relations. The event was moderated by National Committee board member and Dorsey & Whitney attorney, Mr. Nelson Dong.

In mid-July 2020, the National Committee convened a virtual session of its U.S.-China Track II Dialogue on Healthcare.  Coming in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the participants focused on how our two nations can work together on global health crises in such areas as public health reforms, containment strategies, and healthcare delivery.

On July 30, 2020, the National Committee hosted a virtual public event to hear takeaways and lessons learned from the Healthcare Dialogue discussions. National Committee President Stephen Orlins led a conversation with George Gao, Director, China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention; Margaret Hamburg, Foreign Secretary, National Academy of Medicine and former Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration; Gordon Liu, PKU BOYA Professor of Economics, Ministry of Education Yangtze River Scholar Professor of Economics, National School of Development, Peking University; former FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan, Director, Robert J Margolis Center for Health Policy and Margolis Professor of Business, Medicine and Health Policy, Duke University; and Julia Spencer, Associate Vice President, Global Vaccine Public Policy, Partnerships and Government Affairs, Merck.

In October 2015, during the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, the Party committed to eliminating rural poverty by 2020. The goal was reiterated at the 19th National Party Congress in 2017. Now that we are halfway through 2020, what is the state of poverty elimination in rural China? What has been the impact of COVID-19? How are “left behind” children doing, especially now that some migrant laborers have been unable to return to their urban jobs because of the coronavirus? How do environmental issues, cultural preservation, and ethnic tourism fit in?      

On July 23, 2020, the National Committee held a virtual program with Ms. Mei Lan, born and raised in a Chinese village, and Mr. Matthew Chitwood, an American who lived in the Chinese countryside until late last year, to discuss the current situation in rural China.

The past few months have seen drastic restrictions on American journalists in China and Chinese journalists in the United States. On July 16, 2020, The National Committee’s Young China Professionals (YCP) held an event to go behind the byline and hear candid reflections from two journalists who have been at the front lines of reporting in the United States and China. Olivia Zhang is the chief U.S. correspondent for Caixin Media and Amy Qin is a China correspondent for The New York Times. They reflected on how they have navigated a tightening media landscape, shed light on the costs of politicizing journalism, and predicted potential impacts on international reporting.

In April 2020, reports about the poor treatment of African residents in Guangzhou were published around the world, including in the United States. COVID-19 had exacerbated the sometimes tense relationship between Africans and Chinese in China. China has invested in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors across Africa in recent decades, as well as in infrastructure development through loans, export credits, and official development assistance. What is the nature of the financing, and of the relationships between China and African nations? What does Chinese policy toward Africa mean for the United States, its bilateral relationship with China, and its relationships with the countries of Africa?

On June 24, 2020, the National Committee held a virtual program with Professor Deborah Bräutigam, one of the world’s foremost experts on China and Africa and a National Committee board member, and Ambassador Jendayi Frazer, former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, to discuss China, Africa, and U.S. policy.

About the speakers: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/china-africa-american-policy

On June 18, 2020, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations hosted a webinar with Frank H. Wu, President of Queens College and former President of the Committee of 100. In a moderated conversation with NCUSCR President Steve Orlins, Mr. Wu discussed the impact that coronavirus and the U.S. Department of Justice's China Initiative will have on higher education and the future of Chinese students in the United States. He also elaborated on the continuing importance of educational exchange.  

This program was originally held exclusively for participants from the National Committee’s next generation leadership initiatives, including alumni of the U.S. Foreign Policy Colloquium, the Student Leaders Exchange, and the Schwarzman Scholars Program. The event was designed not only as a unique opportunity to hear from Mr. Wu, but also for the Committee's network of program participants and alumni to connect across the United States and China.  

About Frank H. Wu: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_H._Wu

In her new book, "Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese Undergraduates Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education," based on research conducted both in the United States and in China, Yingyi Ma argues that Chinese college student experiences of American education spring from the enormous social changes in China of the last few decades, creating both ambition and anxiety. She offers some policy suggestions to American educators and administrators, starting with the recruitment process, running through classroom practices, and concluding with career services. On June 23, 2020, the National Committee held a virtual program with Dr. Ma where she discussed her book. Speaker bio: ncuscr.org/event/ambitious-and-anxious

What were some of the forces roiling Shanghai, and by extension, China as a whole, in the early 1940’s? In Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai, Dr. James Carter describes the many worlds of Shanghai on the eve of World War II, focusing on the city’s famed race track a few weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  

In capturing the confluence of these three disparate, coexisting worlds on November 12, 1941, Professor Carter explores the multi-faceted history of old Shanghai and the various international influences, characters, and events that shaped the city’s evolution and its profound schisms. He joined the National Committee on June 16, 2020 for a virtual program to discuss his new book.  

Speaker bio: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/carter-champions-day

The Department of Justice launched the China Initiative in November 2018 to counter national security threats emanating from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In February 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it had launched about a thousand active investigations under the Initiative; the China Initiative is gaining momentum.   

In a forthcoming article, Seton Hall University Law Professor Margaret K. Lewis argues that using “China” as the glue connecting cases under the Initiative’s umbrella creates an overly inclusive conception of the threat, and attaches a criminal taint to entities that have an even tangential connection to China. A better path would be to discard the “China Initiative” framing, focus on cases’ individual characteristics, and broaden the Department of Justice’s interactions with non-governmental experts.   

On June 9, 2020, the National Committee hosted a virtual program with Margaret Lewis where she discussed her article.

With the spread of COVID-19 in the United States, reports of racism against Asian-Americans have risen sharply, drawing renewed attention to issues of bias, immigration, and the place of Asian-Americans in society. The current surge of anti-Asian incidents highlights a troubling history, and reinforces the urgent need to examine, understand, and confront these issues that affect the lives of Asian-Americans, influence American perceptions of China, and ultimately affect Sino-American relations on the global stage.  On June 2, 2020, the National Committee hosted a virtual discussion with Jennifer Ho, professor of ethnic studies at University of Colorado and president of the Association for Asian American Studies, and John Pomfret, former Washington Post correspondent and author of The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present, on the history of anti-Chinese/Asian racism in the United States, the impact of coronavirus-related racism, and the importance of uniting across our communities to stand up against all forms of discrimination. For more on the coronavirus and its social impacts on the people of the United States and China, please visit ncuscr.org/coronavirus.

The 2020 annual meetings of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), known as the “Two Sessions” or “Lianghui,” were originally scheduled to begin in Beijing on March 5. The meetings were postponed due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, and new dates were announced in late April: the CPPCC meeting began instead on May 21 and the NPC on May 22. 

At past Two Sessions, the leadership unveiled its target for GDP growth for the year, presented a road map for the year ahead, and closed with a news conference during which the premier took vetted questions from Chinese and foreign journalists. Given the impact of COVID-19, objectives, formats, and announcements were very different this year. 

On May 29, 2020, the National Committee held a virtual program with Mr. Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair of China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Ms. Sun Yun, senior fellow and co-director of the East Asia Program and director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, both members of the Committee’s Public Intellectuals Program, to reflect on key takeaways from the 2020 Two Sessions.

As the COVID-19 pandemic presents unprecedented challenges to every level of the global economy, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations is bringing together leading American and Chinese experts on economics and trade to share analysis and projections on the issues. We invite you to join us for a series of virtual programs, Coronavirus Crisis: What it means for U.S.-China Economic & Trade Relations, over the next month. 

The final program in the series, Coronavirus Crisis: Prospects for U.S.-China Cooperation in Combatting the Global Economic Downturn, was held on May 27, 2020. The speakers included: Nicholas R. Lardy, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; Robert E. Rubin, Former U.S. Treasury Secretary; Lu Feng, Director, China Macroeconomic Research Center, Peking University; Yao Yang, Boya Chair Professor and Dean, National School of Development, Peking University.  

For more information on the potential economic, social, and political impacts of the coronavirus outbreak, and its long-term implications for U.S.-China relations, please visit https://www.ncuscr.org/coronavirus 

The Pew Research Center has been polling American adults on their perceptions of China since 2005. The latest report, based on interviews conducted in March 2020, shows that growing numbers of Americans have become increasingly negative about China. For the first time, more than half of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 held unfavorable views of China.

The National Committee held a virtual program on May 14, 2020, with Pew Research Center Senior Researcher Dr. Laura Silver to discuss the study’s findings.

The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations was pleased to host a virtual conversation on May 19, 2020, with Ambassador Robert Zoellick, former U.S. Trade Representative and president of the World Bank, among other positions in and outside of government. Fifteen years have passed since his “responsible stakeholder” speech at the National Committee’s 2005 Gala dinner. Ambassador Zoellick offered reflections on his 2005 speech and the policy implications of his approach for the United States when considering the current Sino-U.S. relationship. National Committee Chair Ambassador Carla A. Hills provided introductions and President Stephen Orlins moderated the event.

This speech is an excerpt from the National Committee 2020 Members Program. To hear NCUSCR Chair Ambassador Carla Hills introduction, as well as the extensive q&a with NCUSCR President Stephen Orlins, please listen to the next episode, "Amb. Robert Zoellick | 2020 Annual Members Program FULL EVENT." 

The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations was pleased to host a virtual conversation on May 19, 2020, with Ambassador Robert Zoellick, former U.S. Trade Representative and president of the World Bank, among other positions in and outside of government. Fifteen years have passed since his “responsible stakeholder” speech at the National Committee’s 2005 Gala dinner. Ambassador Zoellick offered reflections on his 2005 speech and the policy implications of his approach for the United States when considering the current Sino-U.S. relationship.

As the COVID-19 pandemic presents unprecedented challenges to every level of the global economy, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations is bringing together leading American and Chinese experts on economics and trade to share analysis and projections on the issues. We invite you to join us for a series of virtual programs, Coronavirus Crisis: What it means for U.S.-China Economic & Trade Relations, over the next month. 

The second program in the series, Coronavirus Crisis: Prospects for U.S.-China Economic and Trade Relations, was held on May 13, 2020. The speakers included: Tu Xinquan, Dean, China Institute for WTO Studies, University of International Business and Economics; Xu Gao, Chief Economist, Bank of China International Co. Ltd; Barry Naughton, So Kwanlok Chair of Chinese International Affairs, University of California, San Diego; and Daniel Rosen, Founder and China Practice Leader, Rhodium Group. 

For more information on the potential economic, social, and political impacts of the coronavirus outbreak, and its long-term implications for U.S.-China relations, please visit https://www.ncuscr.org/coronavirus 

A deteriorating bilateral relationship and growing regulatory scrutiny have changed the trajectory of capital flows between the United States and China over the past three years. The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to further disrupt two-way investment, as weak Chinese consumption and supply chain risks make U.S. companies re-think their China footprint, and Chinese investors face continued headwinds from domestic restrictions on outbound capital flows and U.S. regulators wary of opportunistic foreign buyers.

The National Committee held a virtual event with report authors Thilo Hanemann and Daniel Rosen, both of Rhodium Group; Ker Gibbs, president, AmCham Shanghai; Rebecca Fannin, founder/editor, Silicon Dragon Ventures; and National Committee President Stephen Orlins to launch our new Two-Way Street: 2020 Update report and discuss the latest two-way investment data and analysis on May 11, 2020.

As the impact of technology gains increasing strategic importance in the U.S.-China relationship, the National Committee hosted the second session of Navigating China's Technological Rise, a series of virtual programs on the critical issues and policies affecting the technology industry and its impact on Sino-American ties. 

  The second program of the series, Critical Technology Regulation and its Industry Impact, which took place on May 8, 2020, featuring discussion and Q&A with NCUSCR Director Anja Manuel, co-founder and principal of Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC, and Paul Triolo, head of the geo-technology practice at Eurasia Group. 

  Ms. Manuel and Mr. Triolo discussed the policies that contributed to China’s technological rise, the geopolitical implications of this rise, how U.S. firms should approach this new order, and how recent developments, such as the Phase I trade agreement and COVID-19 pandemic, have affected technological collaboration.

As the COVID-19 pandemic presents unprecedented challenges to every level of the global economy, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations is bringing together leading American and Chinese experts on economics and trade to share analysis and projections on the issues. We invite you to join us for a series of virtual programs, Coronavirus Crisis: What it means for U.S.-China Economic & Trade Relations, over the next month.

The first program in the series, Coronavirus Crisis: The Short and Long-Term Economic Impact in China and the United States, was held on April 29, 2020, and featured: Gao Shanwen, Chief Economist, Essence Securities Co., Ltd.; Huang Yiping, Professor of Economics and Deputy Dean, National School of Development, Peking University; Catherine Mann, Global Chief Economist, Citi; Mark Zandi, Chief Economist, Moody's Analytics.

The arrival of the coronavirus in both China and the United States has further strained an already frayed bilateral relationship. Yet, if the world is to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future health crises, the two nations must work together to confront the immediate issues of medical treatment and equipment, and the longer-term need to develop and produce necessary vaccines.

On April 28, 2020, the National Committee hosted a virtual program where Joan Kaufman of Schwarzman Scholars moderated a conversation with two leading medical experts: Margaret Hamburg of the National Academy of Medicine and Winnie Yip of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, during which they discussed the potential for collaboration between the United States and China on global health strategies.

For more information on the coronavirus's impact on U.S.-China relations, visit www.ncuscr.org/coronavirus.

As the impact of technology gains increasing strategic importance in the U.S.-China relationship, we launched Navigating China's Technological Rise, a series of virtual programs featuring conversations with leading experts on the critical issues and policies affecting the technology industry and its impact on Sino-American ties.

Former National Intelligence Director and Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Command Admiral Dennis Blair was the featured speaker for the first event in the series, “Charting a Course from Competition to Collaboration,” on April 23, 2020. Admiral Blair, also a National Committee director, discussed the rise of China's technological capabilities, the related strategic challenges, and how a U.S. approach can best balance regulation and collaboration. The discussion and Q&A was moderated by NCUSCR President Stephen Orlins. 

In its fight against the coronavirus, should the United States consider China an enemy or a partner? “Viruses carry no passports, have no ideology, and respect no borders,” write Dr. Graham Allison and Mr. Christopher Li of Harvard University in a March essay in The National Interest, but our response to the pandemic will affect domestic and global economic growth, confidence in governments, and national standing around the world. Despite great differences between the United States and China, there are potential areas of collaboration in the battle against the coronavirus including in data collection and sharing, diagnostics and public health measures, and biomedical research.

On April 22, 2020, the National Committee hosted a virtual program with Graham Allison where he discussed prospects for cooperation in the fight against the coronavirus. 

Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, China’s leaders have devised nine different military strategies, also known as ‘strategic guidelines.’ In "Active Defense: China’s Military Strategy since 1949," M. Taylor Fravel explores the range and intensity of threats faced by the country, illuminating China’s past and present military goals and how it has sought to achieve them.

Dr. Fravel shows why transformations in military strategy were pursued at some times and not others. He focuses on the military strategies adopted in 1956, 1980, and 1993—all moments during which the PLA was attempting to wage war in a new way—to show that China has pursued major change in its strategic guidelines when there has been a significant shift in the conduct of warfare in the international system and when China’s Communist Party has been united.

On October 10, 2019, Dr. Taylor Fravel presented his findings and discussed the implications for China’s current military behavior.

As the novel coronavirus and resulting illness, COVID-19, spread across China and now the United States and much of the world, national governments have had to scramble to address this unprecedented health threat. At the same time, the pandemic has caused an enormous strain in U.S.-China relations at a time when the two countries are contending with an on-going trade war and other sources of friction.

On April 14, 2020, the National Committee hosted a virtual program with three experts: Yuen Yuen Ang of the University of Michigan, Amy Celico of the Albright Stonebridge Group, and Elizabeth Knup of the Ford Foundation. Committee president Steve Orlins moderated the conversation as they considered how the rampant spread of the virus is affecting the U.S.-China relationship, and what the long-term impact may be in the political, economic, and social realms.

According to an assessment prepared for Congress as mandated by the FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act, the United States and China are “locked in a strategic competition over the future of the Indo-Pacific.” The authors of the report, including Ely Ratner, executive vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security, describe competing visions for the rules, norms, and institutions that will govern international relations in the future and make more than 100 policy recommendations.

The United States is free and open; by contrast, China has, in recent years, turned in an increasingly closed and illiberal direction. If China should succeed in its efforts in the Indo-Pacific, the result would be less regional security and prosperity, and the United States would be less able to exert power and influence in the world.

The National Committee hosted a virtual event on March 31, 2020, with Ely Ratner to discuss these issues. He presented recommendations to address the critical areas of U.S. policy toward China that could be more consistent, coordinated, and productive.

How have the views of Chinese people who may in the past have been attracted to the United States changed over the last 20 years? How have American perspectives on China shifted during the same period? National Public Radio (NPR) correspondent Frank Langfitt gained insights on many aspects of a changing China as he talked with passengers during taxi rides he provided for free in Shanghai. The NPR radio series that resulted inspired his first book, The Shanghai Free Taxi: Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China.

On March 24, the National Committee hosted a webinar with Frank Langfitt where he discussed what he learned from his passengers in Shanghai and beyond.

In recent years China has been appealing to scholars who went overseas to study and remained abroad to return to China. Among its “reverse migration” policies is the Thousand Talents Plan, initiated in 2008 to encourage “strategic scientists or leading talents who can make breakthroughs in key technologies or can enhance China’s high-tech industries and emerging disciplines” to accept positions at leading Chinese universities (Recruitment Program of Global Experts). The U.S. government has taken exception to the program, claiming that it encourages economic espionage and intellectual property theft.

On January 27, 2020, the National Committee hosted a program to discuss China’s "reverse migration" efforts, presenting the Thousand Talents Plan as a case study. Dr. David Zweig, professor of political science emeritus at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, shared his research findings.

In this podcast, Ambassador Robert Blackwill sits down with NCUSCR President Steve Orlins to discuss his recent report, "Implementing Grand Strategy Toward China: Twenty-Two U.S. Policy Prescriptions," published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in January 2020. Ambassador Blackwill shares how his report has been received by both critics and proponents of engagement with China, and expands on his analysis of China's increasingly assertive international presence.  

On February 13, 2020, Ambassador Blackwill presented his report during a program at the National Committee. The full video can be found at www.ncuscr.video/ambblackwill.  

Ambassador Blackwill is the Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at CFR and the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation Distinguished Scholar at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.  

Ambassador Blackwill was deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for strategic planning under President George W. Bush; he also served as presidential envoy to Iraq. Dr. Blackwill joined the National Security Council after serving as the U.S. ambassador to India from 2001 to 2003.

Over the past few years, China has lost some of the key constituents that have supported constructive U.S.-China relations in recent decades, from the business sector to the academic field. As China has grown stronger economically, politically, and militarily, its increasingly muscular foreign policy has given many Americans pause.

On February 13, the National Committee held a program with Ambassador Robert Blackwill during which he discussed how the United States should respond, as per the twenty-two policy prescriptions that form his proposed "Grand Strategy Toward China." The program was based on Blackwill's report of the same name, published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in January 2020.

Robert Blackwill is the Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at CFR and the Diller–von Furstenberg Family Foundation Distinguished Scholar at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Ambassador Blackwill was deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for strategic planning under President George W. Bush; he also served as presidential envoy to Iraq. Dr. Blackwill joined to the National Security Council (NSC) after serving as the U.S. ambassador to India from 2001 to 2003.

Leading Chinese and American economists convened in New York City on January 9 at the Forecast of China's Economy for 2020, hosted by the National Committee and the China Center for Economic Research.

During the Forecast’s first panel, Daniel Rosen presented a preliminary analysis of the phase-one trade deal in light of China’s ongoing negotiation between statism and industrial policy, capitalism and the free market. Daniel Rosen is a founding partner of Rhodium Group.

Leading Chinese and American economists convened in New York on January 9 at the Forecast of China's Economy for 2020, hosted by the National Committee and the China Center for Economic Research.

During the Forecast’s first panel, Dr. Nicholas Lardy presented an overview of his research on China’s economic slowdown. Dr. Lardy is the Anthony M. Solomon Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and a Vice Chair on the National Committee’s board of directors.

What do patterns of political contention look like? Over the course of the twentieth century, protests and social movements in Shanghai and Bombay changed with the commodification of urban land. In his new book, The Power of Place: Contentious Politics in Twentieth-Century Shanghai and Bombay, Mark Frazier examines changes in political geographies and patterns of popular protest in the two cities, analyzing debates over ideology, citizenship, and political representation, and comparing clashes over housing, jobs, policing, and public space.

On October 3, 2019, Dr. Mark Frazier presented his analysis, updating his findings with comparison to the recent protests in Hong Kong.

In his recent book, China’s New Red Guards: The Return of Radicalism and the Rebirth of Mao Zedong, Jude D. Blanchette argues that China’s growing authoritarianism draws directly from the Mao era.

Under President Xi Jinping, state control over the economy is increasing, civil society is shrinking, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is expanding its reach in new ways. As Mr. Blanchette describes, nationalist intellectuals and activists have fed a populism that rejects Western notions of political pluralism, the rule of law, and a market economy. They draw on Mao’s writings and policies in support of a powerful CCP overseeing every aspect of Chinese society and politics.

On September 18, 2019, the National Committee hosted a conversation with Jude Blanchette about his new book and Mao’s influence on contemporary Chinese politics and society. Watch event video.

Jude D. Blanchette is the Freeman Chair of China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is also a senior advisor at Crumpton Group, a geo-political risk advisory in Arlington, VA. He serves as an adjunct fellow of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, and is a National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Public Intellectuals Program fellow. Read full bio. 

Entrepreneurs, students, local politicians, and others in California and China are forging connections across a wide array of fields. Who are these people? What do their activities mean for the bilateral relationship and the world in the 21^st century? Journalist Matt Sheehan tells the stories of some of the individuals tying our two countries together in his new book, The Transpacific Experiment: How China and California Collaborate and Compete for Our Future. Mr. Sheehan selects a few people in the real estate, film, AI, and electric vehicle industries to illustrate the relationship’s complexity.

On September 10, 2019, Matt Sheehan discussed his new book, and offered his analysis of how individuals on both sides of the Pacific compete as well as cooperate.

Matt Sheehan is a fellow at the Paulson Institute’s think tank, MacroPolo, where he leads the team’s work on U.S.-China technology issues, specializing in artificial intelligence. Based in Oakland, he was formerly the China correspondent for The WorldPost. From 2010 to 2016, Mr. Sheehan lived and worked in Xi’an and Beijing. He then moved back to the Bay Area to work as an analyst, consultant, and writer on topics connecting China and California. In 2018, he was selected as a finalist for the Young China Watcher of the Year award.

His work has been published in The Atlantic, Vice News, Foreign Policy, The WorldPost, The Huffington Post, MIT Technology Review, and elsewhere. He has been quoted or cited in numerous media outlets, including Reuters, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Diplomat, Dagens Nyheter, and The South China Morning Post, among others.

Professor Ezra F. Vogel begins his new book on China and Japan in the sixth century when the Japanese adopted basic elements of Chinese civilization. Throughout the ensuing centuries, China generally took the leading role. Tables turned by the end of the 19th century, when Japan’s modernization efforts surpassed those of China, leading to Japanese victory in the 1895 Sino-Japanese war. Despite recent efforts to promote trade and even tourism, the bitter legacy of World War II has made cooperation difficult.

In China and Japan: Facing History, Dr. Vogel argues that the two nations must forge a new relationship as the world confronts transnational issues including climate change, disaster relief, global economic development, and scientific research. Without acknowledging and ultimately transcending the frictions of the past and present, tense relations between China and Japan jeopardize global stability.

On September 4, 2019, Dr. Ezra Vogel presented his findings on how the history of Sino-Japanese relations informs the present, and on the need for a reset for the future.

Professor Ezra F. Vogel is the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard University. He has had a long association with Harvard, receiving his Ph.D. in sociology there in 1958, and then teaching at the university from 1967 to 2000.

In 1973, Dr. Vogel succeeded John Fairbank to become the second director of Harvard’s East Asian Research Center. He also served as director of the U.S.-Japan Program, director of the Fairbank Center, and founding director of the Asia Center. He was also director of the undergraduate concentration in East Asian Studies from its inception in 1972 until 1991. He taught courses on Chinese society, Japanese society, and industrial East Asia.

From 1993 to 1995, Dr. Vogel took a two-year leave of absence from Harvard to serve as the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the national intelligence council in Washington. In 1996 he chaired the American Assembly on China and edited the resulting volume, Living With China. The following year, Dr. Vogel began serving on the board of directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. He rotated off in 2002 after serving two terms.

His book Japan As Number One (1979), in Japanese translation, became a bestseller in Japan, and his book Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China (2011), in Chinese translation, became a bestseller in China. Among his other works are Japan's New Middle Class (1963), Canton Under Communism (1969), Comeback (1988), One Step Ahead in China: Guangdong Under Reform (1989), and The Four Little Dragons: The Spread of Industrialization in East Asia (1991).

Professor Vogel has spent a total of more than five years in Asia conducting research. He lectures frequently in Asia, in both Chinese and Japanese as well as English. He directs a weekly speaker series for the Fairbank Center on “Critical Issues Confronting China.” He has received numerous honors, including eleven honorary degrees.

In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon’s national security advisor, Dr. Henry Kissinger, steered U.S. foreign policy through challenging times, reshaping the country’s policies on China, Vietnam, the Soviet Union, and the Middle East. Working by his side throughout was Ambassador Winston Lord, then special assistant to the national security advisor and director of the State Department’s policy planning staff. In a new collection of interviews, Kissinger on Kissinger: Reflections on Diplomacy, Grand Strategy, and Leadership, Ambassador Lord chronicles Dr. Kissinger’s diplomatic adventures. Understanding Dr. Kissinger’s thoughts on leadership and strategy provides a timely lens through which to view today’s challenging geopolitical landscape.

Winston Lord has had a long and varied career in and out of government, serving as special assistant to the national security advisor (1970-73) and director of the State Department policy planning staff under President Nixon (1973-77), ambassador to China for Presidents Reagan and the first President Bush (1985-89), and assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs under President Clinton (1993-97). Earlier in his career he held many positions in the State Department as a foreign service officer, and served on the policy planning staff of the Defense Department.
Between government postings Ambassador Lord was a board member of many non-partisan, non-government organizations related to global issues. These include his service as president of the Council on Foreign Relations, co-chair of the International Rescue Committee, chair of the National Endowment for Democracy, and chair of the Carnegie Endowment National Commission on America and the New World. He is a member and former director of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

Ambassador Lord earned a B.A. from Yale (magna cum laude) and an M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (first in his class). He has received several honorary degrees, the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award, and the Defense Department’s Outstanding Performance Award. Ambassador Lord has appeared on all major U.S. media networks, and his writings include articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, and Foreign Affairs.

In his keynote speech at the U.S. Foreign Policy Colloquium on May 30, 2019, Ambassador Thomas Pickering explains the shift towards multi-polarity in the current world order and highlights seven key issues, from growth and development to weapons of mass destruction, confronting U.S. foreign policy. He discusses how some of these issues can be potential areas for collaboration between the U.S. and China, including climate change and cyberspace.

The annual U.S. Foreign Policy Colloquium (FPC) is an exclusive four-day program designed to provide 75 Chinese graduate students from universities across the United States with a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the complex forces that shape American foreign policy and inform the U.S.-China relationship. The program is run annually by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and gives participants rare access into some of the capital's most important foreign policy-making institutions, such as the Department of State and the National Security Council, where they meet with individuals responsible for crafting and influencing policy.

Ambassador Thomas Pickering is vice chair of Hills and Company, an international consulting firm providing advice to U.S. businesses on
investment, trade, and risk assessment issues abroad. Ambassador Pickering served as the U.S. ambassador and representative to the United Nations under President George H.W. Bush, where he led the U.S. effort to build a global coalition during and after the first Gulf War. He also served as the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs under President Bill Clinton.

Susan A. Thornton delivered the 2019 Barnett-Oksenberg Lecture on Sino-American Relations in Shanghai on Wednesday, May 15. Now in its twelfth year, this annual lecture affords the opportunity for a frank and forthright discussion of current and potential issues between the two countries; it is the first and only ongoing lecture series on U.S.-China relations that takes place on the Mainland.

Susan A. Thornton is a retired senior U.S. diplomat with almost 30 years of experience with the U.S. State Department in Eurasia and East Asia. She is currently a senior fellow and research scholar at Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center.

Until July 2018, Thornton was acting assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State and led East Asia policy making amid crises with North Korea, escalating trade tensions with China, and a fast-changing international environment. In previous State Department roles, she worked on China and Korea policy and served in leadership positions at U.S. embassies in Central Asia, Russia, the Caucasus, and China. She speaks Russian and Mandarin Chinese.

View more information on the Barnett-Oksenberg Lecture here: https://ncuscr.news/barnett-oksenberg

The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR) hosted a conversation with four former White House officials who have served under Republican and Democratic administrations as the senior director for Asian Affairs on the National Security Council (NSC) – Kenneth Lieberthal, Evan Medeiros, Douglas Paal, and Daniel Russel – and Susan Thornton, the former acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. NCUSCR Chair Carla Hills provided the introductions and President Stephen Orlins moderated. The discussion focused on how the two countries have moved from strategic cooperation to strategic competition, and what can be done to help ease bilateral tensions.

View speaker bios: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/2019-annual-members-program

As the twentieth century drew to a close, Hong Kong, recently transformed into a Special Administrative Region of the PRC, seemed a city totally unlike any of its neighbors. Many observers were surprised by how light a touch Beijing seemed to be exerting in the wake of the 1997 handover, and the striking contrast between what could be said, done, and published in Hong Kong, compared to mainland metropolitan cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen. Since the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule in 2017, controls have tightened dramatically amid fears of tighter political censorship and enhanced self-censorship. However, with the anniversary of the June 4th Massacre approaching, Hong Kong is still the only place on PRC soil where it can be discussed and marked in public. In 2019, what was once a chasm between civic life in Hong Kong and cities such as Guangzhou and Beijing is rapidly closing.

What does the future hold for Hong Kong? Will it become just another Chinese city that makes up the Greater Bay Area? The speakers, who have been tracking issues relating to higher education, journalism, protest, and the arts, address Hong Kong's future under Chinese rule.

Denise Y. Ho is assistant professor of twentieth-century Chinese history at Yale University. She is an historian of modern China, with a particular focus on the social and cultural history of the Mao period (1949-1976). Her first book, Curating Revolution: Politics on Display in Mao’s China, appeared with Cambridge University Press in 2018. She is also co-editing a volume with Jennifer Altehenger of King’s College London on the material culture of the Mao period. Dr. Ho is currently at work on a new research project on Hong Kong and China, entitled Cross-Border Relations.

Louisa Lim is an award-winning journalist who grew up in Hong Kong and reported from China for a decade for NPR and the BBC. She is a senior lecturer in audiovisual journalism at the University of Melbourne, and is currently a visiting fellow at the University of Hong Kong. She also co-hosts The Little Red Podcast, a podcast about China beyond the Beijing beltway, which won the News & Current Affairs award at the 2018 Australian Podcast Awards. Her writing about Hong Kong has appeared in the anthology Hong Kong 20/20: Reflections from a Borrowed Place, as well as The New York Times and The New Yorker, and she is the author of The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited (Oxford University Press, 2014), which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and the Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom is Chancellor’s Professor of History at UC Irvine. His most recent book is the third edition of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford, 2018), which he coauthored with Maura Cunningham. In addition to contributing to academic venues, he has written many reviews and commentaries for newspapers, magazines, and journals of opinion, including pieces on Hong Kong that have appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. He is on the editorial board of Dissent magazine, serves as an academic editor for the China Channel of the Los Angeles Review of Books, and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

Recent policy changes and a deteriorating bilateral relationship have greatly impacted cross-border investment flows between the United States and China. Chinese FDI in the United States has dropped to the lowest level seen in seven years, and was even negative if divestitures are taken into account. American FDI in China has held up better, but recent Chinese liberalization has not yet sparked a big rush by U.S. companies. Two-way flows of venture capital, on the other hand, have reached new record levels in both directions.

At this release event for a new report detailing two-way investment flows between the United States and China, report authors Thilo Hanemann and Daniel Rosen, both of Rhodium Group, present their findings, followed by a discussion with Constance Hunter (KPMG), Stephen Orlins (NCUSCR), and Catherine Pan-Giordiano (Dorsey & Whitney LLP).

Learn more at https://ncuscr.news/inv19

Amid the ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China, David P. Willard, founder and CEO of 52 Capital Partners, explores the primary issues now affecting the U.S.-China economic relationship, including national security risks, heightened regulatory scrutiny, and legal barriers for cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

David P. Willard is the founder, chief executive officer & managing partner of 52 Capital Partners, LLC., responsible for all major aspects of the firm’s executive management, strategy, client development, investment process and thought leadership. Throughout his career, Mr. Willard has executed and participated in major M&A transactions and other corporate matters at firms in the United States, Europe, and Asia, including Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, closing 53 transactions totaling over $150 billion in aggregate value.

A recognized expert on China, Mr. Willard speaks regularly on U.S.-China mergers and acquisitions, as well as other investment topics. He received his B.A. in East Asian Studies from Princeton, and his J.D. from the New York University School of Law. Mr. Willard is a member of the National Committee on United States-China Relations.

In a new book, NCUSCR Vice Chair Nicholas R. Lardy of the Peterson Institute for International Economics draws upon new data to trace how Chinese President Xi Jinping's support of state-owned enterprises has begun to diminish the role of the market and private firms in China's economy. Dr. Lardy argues that China has the potential to match growth rates from previous decades, but only if it returns to a path of market-oriented reforms. At a National Committee corporate member luncheon on March 8, 2019, Dr. Lardy discussed the impact of revived state control over China's economy, and prospects for future growth.

Nicholas R. Lardy is the Anthony M. Solomon Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He joined the Institute in March 2003 from the Brookings Institution, where he was a senior fellow from 1995 until 2003. Before Brookings, he served at the University of Washington, where he was the director of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies from 1991 to 1995. From 1997 through the spring of 2000, he was also the Frederick Frank Adjunct Professor of International Trade and Finance at the Yale University School of Management. He is an expert on the Chinese economy.

Dr. Lardy's most recent books are The State Strikes Back: The End of Economic Reform in China? (2019), Markets over Mao: The Rise of Private Business in China (2014), Sustaining China's Economic Growth after the Global Financial Crisis (2012), The Future of China's Exchange Rate Policy (2009), and China's Rise: Challenges and Opportunities (2008). In 2006, he contributed chapters on China's domestic economy and China in the world economy to China: The Balance Sheet (Public Affairs, 2006). In 2004, he coauthored Prospects for a US-Taiwan Free Trade Agreement with NCUSCR director Daniel Rosen. His previous book, Integrating China into the Global Economy, published in January 2002, explores whether reforms of China's economy and its foreign trade and exchange rate systems following China's WTO entry will integrate it much more deeply into the world economy.

Dr. Lardy is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the editorial boards of Asia Policy and the China Review.

He received his BA from the University of Wisconsin and his PhD from the University of Michigan, both in economics.

As the chaos of the Cultural Revolution engulfed China, Weijian Shan, age 15, endured years of manual labor in the remote Gobi Desert. Passionate about his education, Shan lost a decade of schooling. Yet, as he describes in his remarkable new autobiography, Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America, he never gave up on studying.

Having only completed elementary school, Dr. Shan attended prestigious academic institutions in the United States beginning in the early 1980’s. Dr. Shan shared his amazing story with the National Committee on January 28. 

Dr. Weijian Shan is chairman and CEO of PAG, one of the largest private equity firms in Asia. Before joining PAG, he was a partner of TPG, a private equity firm based in San Francisco, and co-managing partner of TPG Asia (formerly known as Newbridge Capital). At TPG, Dr. Shan led a number of landmark transactions including the acquisitions of Korea First Bank and China’s Shenzhen Development Bank, both of which made his investors billions of dollars in profits and were made into case studies of Harvard Business School. Previously, Dr. Shan was a managing director of JP Morgan, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and laborer in Inner Mongolia.

Despite not attending secondary school, Dr. Shan received an M.A. and Ph.D., both in economics, from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from the Univer­sity of San Francisco. He studied English at the Beijing Institute of Foreign Trade (now the Beijing University of International Business and Economics), where he also taught.

The United States and China appear to be moving in opposite directions in their approaches to climate change with the United States withdrawing from the Paris Agreement while China vows to make itself a global leader in new, green technology. In a new book, Titans of the Climate: Explaining Policy Process in the United States and China, climate policy experts Kelly Sims Gallagher and Xiaowei Xuan examine the structural differences in how the two countries approach climate policy, and outline the political and economic challenges that prompt, or restrict, environmental cooperation.

On January 24, Kelly Sims Gallagher discussed her new book, and offered her analysis of the future of climate and environmental policy in the two largest carbon emitters. 

Kelly Sims Gallagher is professor of energy and environmental policy at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy where she is also the director of the Climate Policy Lab and the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy. From June 2014 to September 2015, she served in the Obama Administration as a senior policy advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and as senior China advisor in the Special Envoy for Climate Change office at the U.S. State Department. Dr. Gallagher is a member of the board of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. She is also a faculty affiliate with the Harvard University Center for the Environment, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the executive committee of the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, and serves on the board of the Energy Foundation.

An expert panel discusses the shift in Chinese economic policy toward economic stabilization, as the Central Economic Work Conference pledged to develop a stronger home market to offset external uncertainties. Will China keep following the path of “reform and opening”? How will the Chinese leadership stabilize economic, finance, trade, investment, employment, and market expectations? Recorded at the annual Forecast of China’s Economy for 2019, hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and Peking University’s China Center for Economic Research, at the Citigroup Center on January 10, 2019.

Panelists:

Daniel H. Rosen, Founding Partner and China Practice Leader, Rhodium Group

Huang Haizhou, Managing Director, China International Capital Corporation (CICC)

Huang Yiping, Professor and Deputy Dean, National School of Development, Peking University

Liang Hong, Chief Economist, CICC

Xu Gao, Chief Economist, China Everbright Investment and Assets Management Co., Ltd.

Moderator: Stephen A. Orlins, President, NCUSCR

Former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at the World Bank Justin Yifu Lin presents his view of the Chinese economy's future at the annual Forecast of China’s Economy for 2019, hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and Peking University’s China Center for Economic Research, at the Citigroup Center on January 10, 2019.

Justin Yifu Lin, Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago, is director of Center for New Structural Economics, dean of Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, and professor and honorary dean of the National School of Development at Peking University. He was the senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank, 2008-2012.

An expert panel discusses the impact of the U.S.-China trade war on China’s economy and financial markets, the effect of China’s structural economic reform on the global economy, and the recent slowdown and challenges in China’s economy and relevant economic policies. Recorded at the annual Forecast of China’s Economy for 2019, hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and Peking University’s China Center for Economic Research, at the Citigroup Center on January 10, 2019.

Panelists:

Nicholas R. Lardy, Anthony M. Solomon Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics

Catherine Mann, Chief Global Economist, Citi

Lu Feng, Professor, National School of Development (NSD), Peking University (PKU); Director, China Macroeconomic Research Center, PKU

Yao Yang, Dean, NSD, PKU
Zha Daojiong, Professor, School of International Studies, PKU

Moderator: Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, Contributor, CNBC

Former Chairman of China Merchants Group and China Merchants Bank Qin Xiao presents his research on the new paradigm that the U.S.-China trade war represents and possible solutions to the conflict at the annual Forecast of China’s Economy for 2019, hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and Peking University’s China Center for Economic Research, at the Citigroup Center on January 10, 2019.

Qin Xiao, who received his Ph.D. in economics from Cambridge University, is a council member of the FSDC (Financial Services Development Council, HK) and guest professor at Tsinghua University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He served as chairman of China Merchants Group and China Merchants Bank; president and vice chairman of China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC); and chairman of CITIC Industrial Bank. He was a deputy to the Ninth National People’s Congress, a member of the 10th and 11th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and an advisor on the Foreign Currency Policy of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. He also served as chairman of APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) for 2001. His papers and books in economics, management, and social transformation have been published in China and abroad.

Following decades of enmity, on December 15, 1978, the United States and China announced the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries as of January 1, 1979. Diplomatic rapprochement offered hope that the countries would be able to look beyond their differences to cooperate on the global stage.

On December 18, the National Committee convened a panel representing the diverse fields of business, diplomacy, arts and culture, and academic exchange to reflect on where the bilateral relationship was 40 years ago, is today, and may be headed in the future.

Speaker Bios:

Cathy Barbash is a specialist in cultural diplomacy and creative industry development and an independent producer, working primarily with the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Cuba. Barbash has spent over 35 years managing and consulting to organizations including The Philadelphia Orchestra, the United States Department of State, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, Arts Midwest, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Juilliard School, Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, China Shanghai International Arts Festival, and the China National Centre for the Performing Arts. She was the lead architect of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s current China tour/residency project. Since normalization of United States-Cuba relations, she has worked with La Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba, Casa de las Américas, and the Festival Jazz Plaza Havana.

Chas W. Freeman, Jr. is a senior fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. He is the former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs (1993–1994), ambassador to Saudi Arabia (1989–1992), principal deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs (1986–1989), and chargé d'affaires in Bangkok (1984–1986) and Beijing (1981–1984). He served as vice chair of the Atlantic Council (1996-2008), co-chair of the United States China Policy Foundation (1996–2009), and president of the Middle East Policy Council (1997–2009).

Mr. Maurice R. Greenberg is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Starr Insurance Companies. Mr. Greenberg retired as Chairman and CEO of American International Group (AIG) in March 2005. He formed the American International Group, Inc. (AIG) as a Starr subsidiary, and served as that company’s chairman and CEO until March 2005. Under his nearly 40 years of leadership, AIG grew from an initial market value of $300 million to $180 billion, becoming the largest insurance company in the world.

David M. Lampton is Hyman Professor and director of China Studies Emeritus at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where he currently is senior fellow at SAIS’ Foreign Policy Institute. He will be an Oksenberg-Rohlen fellow and research scholar at Stanford University’s Asia Pacific Research Center beginning in January 2019. Having started his academic career at the Ohio State University, Dr. Lampton is chairman of the Asia Foundation, former president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and former Dean of Faculty at SAIS. He now serves as a director of the National Committee. He is the author of Same Bed, Different Dreams: Managing U.S.-China Relations, 1989-2000 (2001); The Three Faces of Chinese Power: Might, Money, and Minds (2008); and, The Making of Chinese Foreign and Security Policy (editor, Stanford University Press, 2001).

Last Saturday, voters in Taiwan went to the polls in an election widely seen as a referendum on President Tsai Ing-wen. Her party, the Democratic Progressive Party, suffered numerous electoral defeats in crucial local races. The opposition party, the Kuomintang, capitalized on voter frustration with a stagnant economy, rocky relations with the Mainland, and a conservative base that was energized by a referendum on the legalization of same-sex marriage.

The National Committee convened a teleconference call on November 30 with Taiwan experts Jacques deLisle and Margaret Lewis to discuss the ramifications of the election results for Taiwan, cross-Strait ties, and U.S.-Taiwan relations. Professor deLisle called in from Taipei, and Professor Lewis has recently returned from a year in Taiwan. 

During President Obama’s second term in office, the United States and China reached several agreements aimed at curbing each country’s greenhouse emissions, a major factor in climate change. Following years of stalemate, the partnership between the world’s two largest economies and emitters paved way for the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement. However, much of this progress remains in question following President Trump’s decision in 2017 to withdraw the United States from the multinational accord.

As the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide per capita, the full withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement has cast doubt on the ability of the international community to combat climate change successfully, and was seen by many as a full retreat of American leadership. However, in a new book, Will China Save the Planet? author Barbara Finamore explains that under Xi Jinping, China has emerged as the leader in environmental governance, and has the potential to fill the void left by the United States.

On November 28, Ms. Finamore discussed her book, and explored how China overcame internal obstacles to transform itself into a pioneer in the clean energy revolution.

Barbara Finamore is a senior attorney and Asia director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Ms. Finamore founded NRDC’s China Program, which promotes innovative policy development, capacity building and market transformation in China with a focus on climate, clean energy, environmental protection and urban solutions. Ms. Finamore has had 35 years of experience in environmental law and energy policy, focusing on China for over two decades. She has also worked in NRDC's nuclear nonproliferation program, at the U.S. Departments of Justice and the Interior, and as a consultant to the United Nations Development Programme and the Center for International Environmental Law.

The events of the Arab Spring in 2011 demonstrated the potential effect that social media can have when used as a catalyst for social change. In the wake of the uprisings, rumors spread across the Chinese internet of a so-called ‘Jasmine Revolution’ aimed at overthrowing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), prompting a swift government crackdown across both the physical and digital worlds.

Since then, as Chinese social media outlets such as Weibo and Weixin have exploded in popularity, the Chinese government has relied upon an expansive censorship apparatus to monitor and suppress potential unrest of Chinese netizens.

In a new book, Contesting Cyberspace in China: Online Expression and Authoritarian Resilience, Professor Rongbin Han explores the restrictions imposed on Chinese netizens, and analyzes the activity of hired trolls, including the “fifty-cent army,” who flood Chinese social media platforms with nationalistic messages. 

On November 26, as Professor Han discussed his book, and outlined how the state, along with individual netizens, curtail online expression and allow for the Chinese government to withstand internal pressures.

Rongbin Han is an assistant professor in the department of international affairs at the University of Georgia. He received MA and PhD degrees in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, a master’s degree in social sciences from the National University of Singapore, and a bachelor’s degree in international politics from Peking University.

Some of the central arguments of the 2016 presidential campaign emphasized growing American fear and distrust of globalization. Then-candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump energized large portions of the electorate against existing free trade agreements, particularly the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the trade relationship between the United States and China was held up for particular attack. Since he was elected, President Donald Trump has lambasted Chinese trade policies, and has argued that the trade imbalance between the two largest economies was part of a Chinese effort to undermine the United States.

In a new book, Blaming China: It Might Feel Good but it Won’t Fix America’s Economy, author Benjamin Shobert explains how many of the issues raised during the campaign, and general U.S. anxiety about a rising China, is misplaced. According to Mr. Shobert, China has become an easy target for Americans to project their frustrations with the overall political dysfunction, economic difficulties, and foreign policy blunders since 9/11, much of which actually has nothing to do with China.

On November 1, Mr. Shobert offered an alternative view of China, and how Americans should approach the most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century.

Benjamin Shobert is senior associate for international health at NBR, where his work has emphasized market access issues and innovation policies specific to the life science sector in China. He is the director of Healthcare NExT Strategy and Business Development at the Microsoft Artificial Intelligence and Research group and a lecturer in the Michael G. Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. He founded the Seattle-based Rubicon Strategy Group, a consulting firm that specialized in China and Southeast Asia's healthcare, life science, and senior care industries. 

Since the gruesome terrorist attack in the Kunming train station in 2014 carried out by members of a Xinjiang separatist group, and a spate of attacks in Xinjiang since the Urumqi clashes in 2009, the Chinese authorities have grown increasingly concerned about domestic and international Islamist terrorism. The number of arrests in Xinjiang has skyrocketed recently, accounting for 13% of the total number of indictments in China in 2017, even though the population of Xinjiang makes up only 1.5% of the country’s total. The government has banned ‘extremist’ behavior in Xinjiang such as fasting during Ramadan, avoiding alcohol, and wearing veils and growing beards, all practices associated with Islam.

Events in Xinjiang took a disturbing turn earlier this year as allegations grew of the systematic detention of Uyghurs by Chinese authorities in camps throughout the autonomous region. A United Nations report alleged that as many as one million people, or roughly 7% of the Muslim population of Xinjiang, had been sent to these detention facilities. The Chinese government has insisted that the camps are for ‘re-education’ purposes, a claim rejected by the United States government and many others.

China has also been navigating a shifting international context, from concerns over Uyghur fighters in Syria, ISIS propaganda material targeting China, fears over safe havens in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the spillover implications of new trafficking routes for Uyghurs fleeing China through Southeast Asia.

The National Committee hosted a conversation with Andrew Small of the German Marshall Fund, an expert on Chinese counterterrorism policy, on October 25, to analyze the reports of the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghurs in the context of international terrorism.

Andrew Small is a senior transatlantic fellow with the German Marshall Fund's (GMF) Asia Program, which he established in 2006. His research focuses on U.S.–China relations, Europe–China relations, Chinese policy in South Asia, and broader developments in China's foreign and economic policy. 

In a recent Washington Post editorial, western China scholars were taken to task for engaging in self-censorship:

When it comes to China, Americans are victims of an insidious kind of censorship that stunts the debate they hear and read about in nearly invisible ways…  The upshot [of fear of visa denials, concern that university administrators will be upset, and worry that Chinese colleagues will be harmed] is that America’s… leading experts on China often remain silent as its regime becomes ever more repressive. (Washington Post, September 23. 2018)

Where is the evidence?  Professors Rory Truex and Sheena Greitens, fellows in the National Committee’s Public Intellectuals Program (PIP), conducted a study to assess the extent of repression in the China field. On October 22, Professor Truex presented their findings, and Columbia Law School Professor Benjamin Liebman, also a PIP fellow, served as commentator.

Rory Truex is an assistant professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University. He studies comparative politics, focusing on Chinese politics and non-democratic regimes. His book, Making Autocracy Work, explores the nature of policymaking and representation in China’s legislative system. His current research looks at the nature of repression and human rights abuses in contemporary China. He recently received the Stanley Kelley, Jr. Award for distinguished teaching. 

Benjamin L. Liebman is the Robert L. Lieff Professor of Law and director of the Center for Chinese Legal Studies at Columbia Law School. He is also the director of the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law. His current research focuses on the use of computational tools to study Chinese court judgments, the roles of artificial intelligence and big data in the Chinese legal system, Chinese tort law amd criminal procedure, and the evolution of China’s courts. His recent publications include Regulating the Visible Hand: The Institutional Implications of Chinese State Capitalism (with Curtis J. Milhaupt), Oxford University Press, 2015, and “Leniency in Chinese Criminal Law: Everyday Justice in Henan,” Berkeley Journal of International Law, 2015.

With a GDP now rivaling that of the United States, a thriving middle class, and a large global economic network fueled by policies like the Belt and Road Initiative, it is difficult to overstate the extent to which the Chinese economy has changed since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Since 1978, ideological shifts have allowed for the expansive economic reforms and liberalization that propelled the Chinese economy to the superpower status it enjoys today. However, politics has always been a factor in determining economic policy. As a result, the role that economists have played in the story of the “China miracle” has not always been clear. In a new book, Economic Policy Making in China (1949-2016): The Role of Economists, China economics scholar and former World Bank official Pieter Bottelier analyzes the contributions made by numerous Chinese economists, and outlines how they adapted to an often shifting political landscape.

Mr. Bottelier drew upon his research and years of experience in China to identify the contributions made by China’s economists in transforming China’s economy, and what the recent renewed emphasis on ideology may mean for China’s future economic direction.  

Pieter Bottelier is a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies where he previously served as a senior adjunct professor from 1999 to 2015. He has been a senior advisor to China to The Conference Board (2006-2010), a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (2009-2012), an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (2001-2003), and a consultant to the Freeman Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (1999). 

In the 1990s, as the dotcom era began to unfold, artificial intelligence (AI) expert and developer Kai-Fu Lee was busy at Apple streamlining many of the company’s early R&D projects. Those initial days, or the era of development, as Dr. Lee has since come describe it, were dominated by American technological innovation. Corporations like Apple and Microsoft paved the way for Silicon Valley companies to become global leaders. However, as Dr. Lee details in a new book, AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, we have moved to the era of AI implementation, and Silicon Valley is no longer the center of gravity it once was.

While American tech giants remain formidable players, the most prominent companies in areas of speech synthesis, computer vision, and machine translation are all Chinese. Moreover, Chinese consumers are significantly more comfortable than their American counterparts in embracing the growing role of AI in their daily lives. For instance, unlike in the United States, the overwhelming majority of Chinese transactions now occur on platforms such as Weibo, allowing companies to gather data at an unprecedented rate.

With the increasing industrial application of AI, the potential for huge numbers of American and Chinese jobs to be replaced by technology has enormous economic and political implications. On October 2, Dr. Kai-Fu Lee shared his views on the future of AI in both countries, as well as possible risks with the National Committee.

Dr. Kai-Fu Lee is the chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures and president of Sinovation Venture’s Artificial Intelligence Institute. Sinovation Ventures, is a leading technology investment firm focusing on developing the next generation of Chinese high-tech companies. Prior to founding Sinovation in 2009, Dr. Lee was the president of Google China. Previously, he held executive positions at Microsoft, SGI, and Apple. Dr. Lee received his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University, Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University both in computer science, as well as honorary doctorate degrees from both Carnegie Mellon and the City University of Hong Kong. He is also a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

With a trade war brewing between Washington and Beijing, mounting public scrutiny, and repeated warnings by U.S. officials that Chinese investment in certain industries constitutes a national security threat, Chinese investment and commercial activity in the United States face many challenges, which cast doubt on the trajectory of Chinese outward direct investment in the United States.

As these issues flare up, Chinese companies in the United States face another hurdle that has not garnered the same attention: U.S. corporate law and regulation. As Chinese firms expand around the United States, their presence in American courts grows. Chinese companies, including state owned enterprises, must adapt to adhere to American corporate governance standards and legal requirements that are not prevalent in China.

These Chinese companies face a steep learning curve as they navigate the legal and regulatory complexities of a market-based economy. In a new book, The Clash of Capitalisms? Chinese Companies in the United States, Rutgers University Law School Professor Ji Li analyzes the adaptation of these firms to U.S. tax, non-discrimination, and employment law, as well as CFIUS compliance.

Professor Li shared his research, and discussed the future of Chinese investment in the United States and other free market economies, on September 20, in New York City.

Dr. Ji Li is professor of law at Rutgers University and a member of the associate faculty of the division of global affairs. Professor Li received his Ph.D. in political science from Northwestern University and J.D. from Yale Law School where he was an Olin Fellow in Law, Economics and Public Policy. Before joining the Rutgers faculty, he practiced corporate and tax law for several years in the New York office of Sullivan & Cromwell. Professor Li’s teaching and scholarship explore a broad range of topics including international business transactions, taxation, contracts, comparative law, Chinese law and politics, and empirical legal studies.

During the 2018-2019 academic year, Professor Li will be in residence at Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Study working on his second book, a unified theory of Chinese judicial behavior.

In the waning days of the Qing Dynasty, China, beset by political dysfunction and domestic tumult, struggled to defend against the imperialist intentions of Western powers. Following years of tensions, war between China and Great Britain eventually broke out, the result of which would propel China into the chaos of the so-called “Century of Humiliation.”

In a new book, Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age, author Stephen R. Platt traces the complex origins of the conflict, and reveals how a once profitable and peaceful relationship descended into war.

Dr. Platt discussed his book with the National Committee on July 12th, 2018.  

Stephen R. Platt is a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and holds a PhD from Yale University, where his dissertation won the Theron Rockwell Field Prize. He was a member of the 2008-2010 cohort of the National Committee's Public Intellectuals Program. His previous book, a history of the Taiping Rebellion in global context, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom (Knopf 2012), was a Washington Post notable book and won the Cundill History Prize.

Hong Kong is a vibrant financial and trade center, but it must confront a variety of issues ranging from skyrocketing real estate prices to questions about its status under the “One Country, Two Systems” framework. Kurt W. Tong, Consul General of the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong and Macau, discussed many of the pressing issues Hong Kong facing Hong Kong, and implications for U.S.-Hong Kong and U.S.-China relations with the National Committee on June 26, 2018.

Kurt W. Tong became the Consul General representing the United States to Hong Kong and Macau in August 2016. As chief of mission, Mr. Tong leads a large interagency team that cooperates with the governments of Hong Kong and Macau in a variety of areas including expansion of trade and bilateral investment; combatting transnational crime; protection of the environment; and educational and cultural exchanges.

Prior to his service in Hong Kong, Consul General Tong was the principal deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs at the Department of State, the most senior career diplomat handling economic affairs for the State Department. Before that, Mr. Tong served as the deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Earlier, he was the U.S. ambassador for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), managing all aspects of U.S. participation in APEC, while concurrently serving as economic coordinator for the Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Mr. Tong has been a diplomat since 1990, including service as director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council from 2006 to 2008 and as economic minister-counselor in Seoul from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he served as counselor for environment, science and health at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, deputy treasury attaché in Tokyo, and economic officer in Manila. Consul General Tong was a visiting scholar at the Tokyo University faculty of economics from 1995 to 1996. Before joining the Foreign Service, he was an associate with the Boston Consulting Group in Tokyo.

Consul General Tong holds a B.A. from Princeton University, and studied economics at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute. He has also studied at the Beijing Institute of Education, Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies in Taipei, Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo, and International Christian University in Tokyo.

Hailed as the “architect of victory” over the Axis Powers in the Second World War by Winston Churchill, and widely credited with devising the program to spur European recovery and limit Soviet expansion at the start of the Cold War, George Marshall’s impact on geopolitics was enormous, shaping U.S. foreign policy even today. Often missed, however, is another challenge he was asked to take on: to broker a peace deal between the Chinese Nationalists and Communists, build a democratic state in China, and prevent a communist victory.

In his new book, The China Mission: George Marshall’s Unfinished War, author Daniel Kurtz-Phelan describes in detail the complicated negotiations and colorful cast of characters Marshall encountered during his 13-month mission. Mr. Kurtz-Phelan discussed his book, and the impact Marshall’s experience in China would have on domestic U.S. politics and American foreign policy for decades to come, with the National Committee on June 21, 2018.

Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, who became executive editor of Foreign Affairs in October 2017, was previously a fellow with New America’s international security program. Before that, he was a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi and a senior advisor to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. From 2010 to 2012, Mr. Kurtz-Phelan advised Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a member of her policy planning staff. He was also a speechwriter for Secretary Clinton, and a foreign policy advisor during her 2008 presidential campaign. His writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker. He is a graduate of Yale University.

According to the most recent Open Doors Report, published by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in late 2017, China remains the number one sending country of international students to the United States. Approximately 350,000 Chinese currently attend American colleges and universities at the undergraduate and graduate levels. There are also growing numbers of Chinese students at American high schools.

On June 4 the National Committee hosted a program to discuss the impact of Chinese students on American academic institutions (in February 2018 FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats suggested that Chinese students and scholars conduct espionage on American campuses), and what happens when (if?) the students return to China. The first topic was addressed by Ms. Peggy Blumenthal, senior counselor to the president of IIE; while Dr. David Zweig, professor of political science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, shared his research findings on returnees.

Peggy Blumenthal, Senior Counselor to the President, Institute of International Education (IIE). After 20 years of service at the Institute of International Education, Ms. Blumenthal became its chief operating officer in 2005, shifting to the role of senior counselor in 2011.

Selected publications include International Students and Global Mobility in Higher Education: National Trends and New Directions (Palgrave MacMillan, 2011), co-edited with Dr. Rajika Bhandari of IIE, and a recent article, “Welcoming the New Wave of Chinese Students on US Campuses: Changing Needs and Challenges”, in the summer 2017 edition of New Directions in Student Services, coauthored with Sonny Lim of Rice University.

David Zweig is Chair Professor, Division of Social Science, and Director, Center on China’s Transnational Relations (www.cctr.ust.hk), at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is an adjunct professor, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, Hunan, and Vice-President of the Center on China’s Globalization (Beijing).

He is the author of four books, including Internationalizing China: Domestic Interests and Global Linkages (Cornell Univ. Press, 2002) and a new edited volume, Sino-U.S. Energy Triangles: Resource Diplomacy under Hegemony, with Hao Yufan (Routledge, 2016).

Washington D.C. had never seen anything quite like it: in January, 1919, three foreign diplomats, with no known enemies, assassinated in the city's Kalorama neighborhood. Without any leads or clear motive, the police were baffled until they zeroed in on a suspect, Ziang Sung Wan, a Chinese student living in New York. He was held incommunicado without formal arrest for more than a week until he was browbeaten into a confession.

In The Third Degree: The Triple Murder that Shook Washington and Changed American Criminal Justice, part murder mystery, part courtroom drama and part landmark legal case, author Scott D. Seligman tells the forgotten story of a young man’s abuse by the police and his arduous, seven-year journey through the legal system that drew in Warren G. Harding, William Howard Taft, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John W. Davis and even J. Edgar Hoover. It culminated in a landmark Supreme Court ruling written by Justice Louis Brandeis that set the stage for Miranda v. Arizona many years later. The National Committee will partner with the Museum of Chinese in America for the launch of Mr. Seligman’s new book on May 17 in New York City.

Speaker Bio:

Scott D. Seligman is a writer, historian, genealogist, retired corporate executive and career "China hand." He holds an undergraduate degree in history from Princeton University with high honors in American civilization, and a master's degree from Harvard University. Fluent in Mandarin and conversant in Cantonese, he lived in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China for eight years and reads and writes Chinese. He has worked as a legislative assistant in Congress, a businessman in China, and a communications director of a Fortune 50 company.

He is the author of Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice, Money and Murder in New York's Chinatown (Viking Books, 2016), The First Chinese American: The Remarkable Life of Wong Chin Foo (Hong Kong University Press, 2013), Three Tough Chinamen (Earnshaw Books, 2012), the best-selling Chinese Business Etiquette (Hachette, 1999) and Dealing with the Chinese (Warner Books, 1989). He is also co-author of the best-selling Cultural Revolution Cookbook (Earnshaw, 2011) and Now You're Talking Mandarin Chinese (Barron's, 2006).

He has published articles in the Washington Post, the Seattle Times, the Asian Wall Street Journal, the China Business Review, Bucknell Magazine, Howard Magazine, the Jewish Daily Forward, China Heritage Quarterly, The Cleaver Quarterly, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center blog, the New York History blog, the Granite Studio blog and Traces, the Journal of the Indiana Historical Society. He has also created several websites on historical and genealogical topics. He lives in Washington, D.C.