NCUSCR Events

Former World Bank Chief Economist and one of China's most influential economists, Justin Yifu Lin, discusses recent macroeconomic trends and China's long-term growth prospects at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations' annual forum on China's economy at the NYSE on January 7, 2013. 
For additional information and presentations by other leading Chinese economists, please visit: http://www.ncuscr.org/programs/forecast-chinas-economy

The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (www.ncuscr.org) is the leading nonprofit nonpartisan organization that encourages understanding of China and the United States among citizens of both countries.

China’s Economy Long Term Prospects: Justin Yifu Lin

Kevin Rudd MP, former Australian Prime Minister and architect of Australia's regional policies discusses China's new leaders, evolving issues in the Asia-Pacific region and their relevance to the U.S.-China relationship at a program hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and moderated by National Committee President Stephen Orlins in New York on December 18, 2012. 
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A fluent Mandarin speaker with an extensive history of interaction with China, Mr. Rudd has served as Australia&rsquo;s Prime Minister (2007-2010), Foreign Minister (2010-2012), Member of Parliament (1998 to present) and Labor Party Leader (2006-2010). His leadership of Australia&rsquo;s successful response during the Global Financial Crisis left Australia as the only major economy not to go into recession.&nbsp; Mr. Rudd, recognized as one of the founders of the G-20, helped bring the United States into the East Asia Summit. 
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The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (www.ncuscr.org)&nbsp; is the leading nonprofit nonpartisan organization that encourages understanding of China and the United States among citizens of both countries.

China's New Leaders and the Global Order: Kevin Rudd, MP

Dr. Richard Bush, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and director of its Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, discusses his new book Uncharted Strait: The Future of China-Taiwan Relations, including the history, new developments and prospects for the Taiwan Strait on March 18, 2013 in New York. 

Dr. Bush, who has served as the Chairman and Managing Director of the American Institute in Taiwan and as a member of the National Intelligence Council, is a leading expert on the interests of the United States, China and Taiwan in the region and the global implications of these rapidly evolving relationships. The conversation, moderated by National Committee President Stephen Orlins, includes Dr. Bush's responses to audience questions.

The Future of Cross-Strait Relations:  Richard Bush

Lee Kuan Yew, the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, is known around the world as an innovative leader and respected scholar of global strategy. Lee has been a mentor to every Chinese leader from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping, and a counselor to every U.S. president from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. In their new book, Graham Allison and Robert Blackwill distill the essence of Lee Kuan Yew's visionary thinking about critical issues including the futures of China and the United States, U.S.-China relations, India, and globalization.

Lee Kuan Yew's Insights with Graham Allison and Robert Blackwill

The Fourth Plenum of the 18th Party Congress in October 2014 focused on the rule of law. On November 3, the National Committee convened a discussion with Carl Minzner, professor at the Fordham University School of Law. In an on-the-record teleconference moderated by NCUSCR President Steve Orlins, the two reflected on the Fourth Plenum and its implications for the development of China's legal system and governance. A question and answer session followed the speakers' remarks.

Carl Minzner is an expert in Chinese law and governance. He has written extensively on these topics in both academic journals and the popular press, including op-eds appearing in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Christian Science Monitor. Recent academic works include "China's Turn Against Law", in the American Journal of Comparative Law (2011) exploring Chinese authorities' shift against legal reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, and "The Rise and Fall of Chinese Legal Education" in the Fordham International Law Journal, examining both the expansion of Chinese legal education since the late 1990s, and its impending retrenchment.

The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations is the leading nonprofit nonpartisan organization that encourages understanding of China and the United States among citizens of both countries.

China’s Fourth Plenum, October 2014: Carl Minzner

In The China Fallacy: How the U.S. Can Benefit from China's Rise and Avoid Another Cold War, Donald Gross challenges attempts to contain China and warns against protectionism. Instead, he calls for achieving a stable peace with China and negotiating free trade agreements that will bring greater American prosperity consistent with principles for good Sino-American relations advanced by presidents from Nixon onward. Mr. Gross discusses why and how the United States can improve relations with China at a National Committee program on September 18, 2013 in New York City.

Donald Gross is a specialist in U.S. security and economic policy toward East Asia with many years of experience in government, public affairs, diplomacy and international business. He is now a senior associate at Pacific Forum CSIS, a non-profit foreign policy research institute affiliated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations is the leading nonprofit nonpartisan organization that encourages understanding of China and the United States among citizens of both countries.

"The China Fallacy" author Donald Gross

Economist Stephen Roach discusses his new book Unbalanced: U.S.-China Economic Codependency with President of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Stephen Orlins on February 13, 2014 in New York. Dr. Roach highlights the conflicts at the center of current economic tensions and the potential for greater cooperation.

Dr. Roach is a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and School of Management and was formerly chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia.

Stephen Roach: "Unbalanced" U.S.-China Economic Codependency

Author Andrew Mertha discusses his latest book Brothers in Arms: Chinese Aid to the Khmer Rouge, 1975-1979 with the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations on April 29, 2014. This podcast contains audio of a public program and presentation; to view video and slides, please visit http://www.ncuscr.org/programs/brothers-in-arms

When the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia in 1975, they inherited a war-ravaged and internationally isolated country. Pol Pot's government espoused the rhetoric of self-reliance, but Democratic Kampuchea was utterly dependent on Chinese foreign aid and technical assistance to survive. Yet in a markedly asymmetrical relationship between a modernizing, nuclear power and a virtually premodern state, China was largely unable to use its power to influence Cambodian politics or policy.

Dr. Andrew Mertha is associate professor of government at Cornell University.

The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations is the leading nonprofit nonpartisan organization that encourages understanding of China and the United States among citizens of both countries.

Chinese Aid to Khmer Rouge - Andrew Mertha

The rapid development of China's wind-power sector has created a world-class industry with the promise to make low-carbon technology more affordable and available both in China and around the world. Author Joanna Lewis, assistant professor of science, technology and international affairs at Georgetown University, discusses the findings of her book, Green Innovation in China: China's Wind Power Industry and the Global Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy, and ways that China's wind power sector compliments the global quest for affordable renewable energy.

China’s Wind Power Industry: Joanna Lewis

China is undergoing the largest migration in human history: Since the mid-1980s, roughly 300 million people have moved from China's countryside into its cities; between now and 2025, its expected that another 300 million Chinese will make their ways in. Without appropriate urban planning, design, and construction focused on sustainable development, the consequences of this massive urbanization could be dire for China and the world.

Transforming China's Cities with Jiang Lin

In The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction, James Millward explores the historical background against which the silk road flourished, discusses the significance of old-world intercultural exchange, and puts the silk road into the context of world history. Professor Millward discussed the historical significance and contemporary uses of the silk road.

The Silk Road in History and Today with author James Millward

Ambassador Jeffrey Bader, John Whitehead Senior Fellow in International Diplomacy, John L. Thornton China Center, The Brookings Institution, and former National Security Council senior director for East Asian affairs, delivered the keynote address at the 2013 Barnett-Oksenberg Lecture on Sino-American Relations to an audience in Shanghai. Now in its eighth year, this annual forum affords its guests the opportunity for a frank and forthright discussion of current and potential issues between the two counties; it is the first and only ongoing lecture series on U.S.-China relations to take place on the Mainland.

Amb. Jeffrey Bader: Barnett-Oksenberg Lecture on Sino-American Relations

Despite its impressive size and population, economic vitality, and drive to upgrade its military capabilities, China remains a vulnerable nation surrounded by powerful rivals and potential foes. In China's Search for Security, authors Andrew J. Nathan and Andrew Scobell argue that the key to understanding China's foreign policy is to grasp these geostrategic challenges, which persist even as the country comes to dominate its neighbors. At a Jones Day program on Thursday, December 6, the authors discussed their new book, analyzing China's security concerns, and illuminating the issues driving Chinese policy.

China’s Search for Security

Former National Security Council Asia expert Ambassador Jeffrey Bader and former U.S. ambassador to China J. Stapleton Roy discuss the Sunnylands Summit and offer perspectives on where the U.S.-China relationship will go from here in a National Committee on U.S.-China Relations conference call on June 13, 2013, moderated by National Committee President Stephen Orlins. 

Ambassador Roy is the director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States. In addition to serving as U.S. ambassador to China (1991-95), Singapore and Indonesia, he was Ambassador, the highest rank in the Foreign Service. 

Ambassador Bader is the John C. Whitehead Senior Fellow in International Diplomacy at the Brookings Institution and previously served in the Obama administration as senior director for East Asian affairs on the National Security Council.

The Obama-Xi Sunnylands Summit: Ambassadors Jeffrey Bader and J. Stapleton Roy

China's transition to a market economy has propelled its remarkable economic growth since the late 1970s. In his book Markets Over Mao: The Rise of Private Business in China Nicholas R. Lardy, one of the world's foremost experts on the Chinese economy, traces the increasing role of market forces and refutes the widely advanced argument that Chinese economic progress rests on the government's control of the economy's "commanding heights." Markets Over Mao offers powerfully persuasive evidence that the major sources of China's growth in the future will be market-rather than state-driven, with private firms providing the major source of economic growth, the sole source of job creation, and the major contributor to China's still growing role as a global trader.

Dr. 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.

Nicholas Lardy: Markets Over Mao

China's management of urbanization is an under-appreciated factor in the regime's longevity. The Chinese Communist Party fears the emergence of unequal megacities with their attendant slums and social unrest, as has occurred in many cities around the world, because such cities might threaten the survival of the regime. To combat the threat, many regimes, including China's, adopt policies that favor cities. Cities and Stability shows this "urban bias" to be a Faustian bargain: cities may be stabilized for a time, but the massive in-migration from the countryside that results can generate the conditions for political unrest.  Dr. Jeremy Wallace discussed his new book Cities and Stability at a National Committee public program on December 17, 2014. Dr. Wallace is an assistant professor of political science at The Ohio State University. His research focuses on authoritarian regime survival and how such regimes&mdash;particularly China&rsquo;s&mdash;grapple with threats.  The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations is the leading nonprofit nonpartisan organization that encourages understanding of China and the United States among citizens of both countries.

Cities and Stability: China’s Urbanization with Author Jeremy Wallace

When President Richard M. Nixon met with Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing in February 1972, at his side was a young U.S. diplomat serving as his principal interpreter: Chas W. Freeman, Jr. had started studying Mandarin (and Taiwan's dialect, Minnan) in Taiwan three years earlier; and he spent much of his long diplomatic career specializing in China, including Taiwan. In Interesting Times, Ambassador Freeman brings a broad and well-informed historical perspective to his analysis of the issues that have confronted the world's two most powerful countries over the last four decades.

Ambassador Chas Freeman on His New Book "Interesting Times"

On Sunday, February 25, 2018, the world learned that the Chinese Constitution would be amended to allow the president and vice president to stay in office beyond two terms (ten years) – the limit established in the 1982 constitutional revision. On Thursday, March 1, President Trump announced that the United States would impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports. Although the tariffs apply to products from all over the world, many assume that they are aimed at China.

The National Committee invited the Honorable Jeffrey A. Bader to discuss the implications of these and other recent developments in China and the United States, in a teleconference moderated by NCUSCR President Steve Orlins on March 6, 2018.

Jeffrey Bader is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center and the first director of the Center (2005-2009). From 2009 until 2011, Ambassador Bader was special assistant to the president of the United States for national security affairs at the National Security Council. In that capacity, he was the principal advisor to President Obama on Asia.

During his 30-year career with the U.S. government, Amb. Bader focused primarily on U.S.-China relations at the State Department, the National Security Council, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative. In 2001, as assistant U.S. trade representative, he led the United States delegation in completing negotiations on the accession of China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization. As a foreign service officer, he served in the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Namibia, Zambia, Congo, and the United States Mission to the United Nations. During the 1990s, he was deputy assistant secretary of state responsible for China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia; director of Asian affairs at the National Security Council; and director of the State Department’s Office of Chinese Affairs. He served as U.S. ambassador to Namibia from 1999 to 2001.

Amb. Bader is the author of Obama and China’s Rise: An Insider’s Account of America’s Asia Strategy, published in 2012 by Brookings Institution Press. He is president and sole proprietor of Jeffrey Bader LLC, which provides assistance to companies with interests in Asia, and a member of the National Committee’s board of directors. He received his bachelor’s degree from Yale University and his master’s and doctoral degrees in European history from Columbia University.

Term Limits, Tariffs, and Reflections on U.S.-China Relations with Jeffrey Bader

Four decades of non-stop economic growth has encouraged the view that China’s ruling elite comprises men of supernatural technocratic ability who can successfully navigate any political, social, or economic challenge. However, according to Professor Carl Minzner, China’s glossy façade obscures mounting social pressures and the increasing brittleness of the regime’s power. In a new book, End of an Era: How China’s Authoritarian Revival is Undermining its Rise, Fordham University law professor and China expert Carl Minzner examines the historical origins and contemporary implications of Beijing’s turn to repression. From increasing debt to labor unrest, Professor Minzner details how today’s challenges to continued stability are rooted in a process of the slow jettisoning of reforms beginning in the 1990s. Professor Minzner joined us on March 14, 2018, for a discussion of his book and the future of reform in China. 

Carl Minzner is an expert in Chinese law and governance. He has written extensively on these topics in both academic journals and the popular press, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Christian Science Monitor. Professor Minzner’s academic works include “China After the Reform Era” (Journal of Democracy, 2015), “The Rise and Fall of Chinese Legal Education”(Fordham International Law Journal, 2013), and “China’s Turn Against Law” (American Journal of Comparative Law, 2011). Prior to joining Fordham in 2011, Professor Minzner was associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. He previously served as senior counsel for the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Yale-China Association legal education fellow at the Northwest Institute of Politics and Law in Xi’an. He also worked as an associate at McCutchen & Doyle (Palo Alto, CA) and clerked for Judge Raymond Clevenger of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. 

For more information on the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ events, visit us at www.ncuscr.org/events.

Carl Minzner: The End of China's Reform Era

The recent proposal to remove presidential term limits in China has prompted questions about the country’s future development, and the historical legacy of China’s past authoritarian leaders seems relevant once again. How should we understand the current direction of China’s political culture? In a newly revised and updated book, modern China historians Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Maura Cunningham review the key historical trends that have shaped China’s development in the 21st century. From Confucian thought to U.S.-China relations under Trump and Xi, China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know, third edition, provides essential knowledge for understanding the world’s emerging superpower. Dr. Cunningham and Dr. Wasserstrom discussed their book and how to understand contemporary China in historical perspective with the National Committee on March 27, 2018.

Maura Elizabeth Cunningham is a writer and historian of modern China. She is a graduate of Saint Joseph’s University (B.A.), Yale University (M.A.), the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies (graduate certificate), and the University of California, Irvine (Ph.D.), as well as of Chinese language programs in Beijing and Hangzhou. Dr. Cunningham’s dissertation was a social and cultural history of child welfare in 20th-century Shanghai; she is currently working on a book about children’s cartoonist Zhang Leping. In 2016, she moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to become the digital media manager at the Association for Asian Studies. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom is Chancellor’s Professor of History at UC Irvine, where he edits the Journal of Asian Studies; he also holds courtesy affiliations in the Law School and the Literary Journalism Program. Dr. Wasserstrom holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Cruz, a master’s from Harvard, and a doctorate from Berkeley, and has written five books and edited or coedited several others. His most recent books as author and editor include, Eight Juxtapositions: China through Imperfect Analogies from Mark Twain to Manchukuo and the Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China. He was a co-founder of The China Beat blog (2008-2012) and is now an academic editor for the LARB’s China Channel.

Jeff Wasserstrom and Maura Cunningham: Has Xi Jinping Changed the Course of Modern Chinese History?

The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations is the leading American nonprofit, nonpartisan organization devoted to promoting constructive engagement between the United States and Greater China.

Since 1966, the National Committee has served as a vital bridge between the two countries, responding to immediate crises and systemic shifts by providing a platform for frank and constructive dialogue, and by creating relevant, high-impact programs that address the changing nature of the bilateral relationship. Its ongoing exchanges, dialogues, conferences, and delegations bring together a wide range of policymakers, corporate leaders, academics, entrepreneurs, professionals, military personnel, and students from both sides of the Pacific. Through public outreach and educational events, the Committee stimulates public discussion and facilitates the exchange of ideas and viewpoints.

The National Committee’s programs draw strength from its members, who number more than 700 prominent Americans from all parts of the country, and nearly 60 corporations and professional firms. They represent many viewpoints, but share the belief that productive U.S.-China relations require ongoing public education, face-to-face contact, and the forthright exchange of ideas.