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 advi ...…

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 p ...…

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.- ...…

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 Thor ...…

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, don ...…

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, bu ...…

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. W ...…

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 grow ...…

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 onl ...…

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 ...…

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, investme ...…

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. ...…

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 Na ...…

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 ...…

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 ...…

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 ...…

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. Howev ...…

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 ...…

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 Unit ...…

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 ...…

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 w ...…

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 a ...…

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 ...…

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 outwa ...…

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 Hum ...…

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 H ...…

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, howev ...…

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 a ...…

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 w ...…

Revolutionary activity in Mao’s China was a public affair: through mass meetings, trials, and self-criticism, China’s communist leaders made class struggle a public, participatory experience. The mass line, however, extended far beyond Red Guard units parading through Beijing. In a new book, Curating Revolution: Politics on Display in Mao’s Chi ...…

In 2014, China announced the creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), an ambitious multilateral project aimed at fostering economic development throughout Asia. The AIIB, to be led by China, raised concerns for policymakers in Washington: would AIIB undermine the existing global financial infrastructure and lead to a lowerin ...…

Gary Liu, CEO of the South China Morning Post since January 2017, discussed the challenges in leading what has been the foremost English-language publication in Hong Kong for over a century. Gary Liu became CEO of the South China Morning Post in January 2017. Headquartered in Hong Kong, SCMP is Asia’s leading magazine publisher, with a portfoli ...…

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 h ...…

With the Sunflower Movement of 2014, Taiwanese youth became a significant factor in Taiwan’s politics. In the aftermath of the protests, some assume that young Taiwanese uniformly believe that Taiwan should keep its distance from the Chinese mainland. In fact, however, many have moved to mainland metropolises seeking employment. What does Taiwa ...…

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 brittl ...…

What is the size of China’s gender imbalance? Equal to the combined populations of New York State and Pennsylvania combined (approximately 34 million)! The one-child policy is widely seen as the cause of the skewed gender ratio; less studied than the men who are unable to find spouses are the millions of urban, educated women who may also go un ...…

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 tari ...…

Much has been written about the dynamics that have traditionally defined U.S.-China relations. But as China adopts a more activist foreign policy and increasingly seeks investment opportunities around the world, new theatres of cooperation and contention are coming into play. In a series of three edited volumes, David Denoon explores the intere ...…

Between ballooning debt to GDP ratios, overinvestment in the property market, and industrial overcapacity, the uneven structure of China’s economic growth provides plenty of reasons for concern. Yet so far, China’s unique blend of state-led and laissez-faire capitalism has proved remarkably strong, defying numerous predictions of imminent econo ...…

On May 12, 2008, a massive earthquake rocked central Sichuan, killing 87,000 people and leaving five million homeless in the second worst natural disaster in China’s modern history (the first was the Tangshan earthquake of 1976). As news of the event spread, hundreds of thousands of volunteers poured into Sichuan from all over China to help whe ...…

After the United States and China established diplomatic relations in 1979, those who had left China around 1949 were able to visit family members who had remained in China. Three decades of separation gave rise to many unanswered questions on both sides. One such question inspired young journalist Jennifer Lin: “Do you have any idea what happe ...…

China’s rapid economic growth that has accompanied its “Reform and Opening” over the last four decades is the subject of millions of pages of discussion and analysis. Yet it is rarely contextualized within the long arc of China’s quest for modernity stretching back at least to the mid-19th century. Long before Deng Xiaoping’s reforms, enterpris ...…

Over the last three and a half decades, China’s rise has largely been underpinned by two great transitions: from socialism to capitalism, and from agriculture to industry. The workplace and the institutions that govern it have served as the critical link that enabled these transitions to take place. As these processes continue, the interests of ...…

In his third book on China, acclaimed reporter and travel writer Michael Meyer provides an account of his 22 years of engagement with the country. Beginning with his arrival as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Sichuan in 1995, The Road to Sleeping Dragon: Learning China from the Ground Up recounts how he came to understand the country that loom ...…

For nearly 200 years, China has looked to the west as the source of the most modern and cutting-edge technologies. From the Self-Strengthening Movement in the 19th century to the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) and Made in China 2025, Chinese leaders have consistently sought to foster homegrown technologies and scientific discovery that can com ...…

The Communist Party of China has long had an uneasy relationship with religion. Its antipathy reached a crescendo during the Cultural Revolution when religion was attacked as part of the “Four Olds” campaign; public worship and ceremony were banned, members of the clergy were imprisoned or sent to forced labor, and religious buildings and texts ...…

As tensions continue to grow between Washington and Pyongyang, understanding China’s role in enabling or constraining its neighbor is more important than ever. In the lead-up to President Trump’s first trip to China, Isaac Stone Fish provided an overview of China’s relationship with North Korea, examining its interests there and outlining what ...…

In recent years, China has taken an increasingly active role in global affairs. From the managers of state owned enterprises to political and military leaders, Chinese have looked abroad, including to the resource rich Middle East. What does Chinese engagement mean for the region? What opportunities and challenges does the Belt and Road Initiat ...…

Over the past four decades, global cities have emerged in both the United States and China, including Hong Kong. In the process, they have absorbed their local environments and expanded their commercial networks around the world. As the urban landscapes and global reach of Chinese and American cities have grown, so have their environmental foot ...…

Popular images of Chinese media generally cast it as an agent of state propaganda. This is hardly surprising given the history of Chinese official media, and the swift suppression of those who openly criticize the regime. Yet the dichotomy between media and the party, with the former perpetually dominated by the latter, is complicated by the em ...…