Two years into the Trump administration, the United States and the People’s Republic of China find their bilateral relationship at a dangerous crossroads. As more stresses and strains beset their relationship, both sides are casting about for redefinitions of their national interest and new policy directions for attaining them. 

Comprised of 17 of America's top China experts, the Task Force on U.S.-China Policy is issuing its second set of findings February 12, 2019 in its new report “Course Correction: Toward an Effective and Sustainable China Policy” which addresses the following critical question:

What is the correct balance between seeking common interest and pushing back against China’s increasingly assertive policies in:

•    Trade and Economics
•    Security
•    Global Governance
•    Human Rights
•    China’s Overseas Influence Activities

8:30 a.m. Registration and Breakfast 

9 a.m. Program 

The report will be published and available here on February 12, 2019.

Read a Q&A with Orville Schell about the report here.

Join us for a discussion of this critical topic with five members of the Task Force. 

Orville Schell  is the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society. He is a former professor and dean at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Schell is the author of 15 books, 10 of them about China, and a contributor to numerous edited volumes as well as magazines, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Nation, and The New York Review of Books. His most recent book is Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the 21st Century, with John Delury (2013). Schell worked for the Ford Foundation in Indonesia, covered the war in Indochina as a journalist, and has traveled widely in China since the mid-70s. Schell is the recipient of many prizes and fellowships, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Overseas Press Club Award, and the Harvard-Stanford Shorenstein Prize in Asian Journalism.  

Susan L. Shirk is chair of the 21st Century China Center and research professor at the University of California, San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. She previously served as deputy assistant secretary of state from 1997 to 2000, where she was responsible for U.S. policy toward China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mongolia. Shirk founded and continues to lead the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue, an unofficial forum for discussions of security issues. Her book, China: Fragile Superpower (2008), helped frame the debate on China policy in the United States and other countries. Her most recent book, Changing Media, Changing China, was published in 2010 by Oxford University Press.  

Thomas J. Christensen is professor of public and international affairs and director of the  China and the World Program at Columbia University. He arrived in 2018 from Princeton University, where he was William P. Boswell Professor of World Politics of Peace and War, director of the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program, and faculty director of the Masters of Public Policy Program and the Truman Scholars Program. From 2006 to 2008 Christensen served as deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, with responsibility for relations with China, Taiwan, and Mongolia. His research and teaching focus on China’s foreign relations, the international relations of East Asia, and international security.  His most recent book, The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power (2015), was an editors’ choice at the New York Times Book Review, a “Book of the Week” on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, and the Arthur Ross Book Award Silver Medalist for 2016 at the Council on Foreign Relations. Christensen has also taught at Cornell University and MIT. He received his M.A. in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania and Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.   

Arthur R. Kroeber is head of research at Gavekal, a financial-services firm based in Hong Kong; founder of the China-focused Gavekal Dragonomics research service; and editor of China Economic Quarterly. Before founding Dragonomics in 2002, he spent 15 years as a financial and economic journalist in China and South Asia. He is a senior non-resident fellow of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center, an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, and a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. His book, China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know, was published by Oxford University Press in 2016.

Winston Lord was U.S. ambassador to China from 1985 to 1989 under President Ronald Reagan and served as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 1993 to 1997 under President Bill Clinton. In the 1970s, he was special assistant to National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and then director of the State Department policy planning staff. During this period, he was on every China trip and attended every meeting that Presidents Nixon and Ford and Dr. Kissinger had with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping, and was one of two American drafters of the Shanghai Communiqué. In the 1960s, Lord served in the Pentagon and the Foreign Service. Outside of government, his service has included president of the Council on Foreign Relations, co-chairman of the International Rescue Committee, and chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy. He has also been a board member or advisor to many NGOs, including the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, the Trilateral Commission, and the Women’s Tennis Association. Among the honors that Ambassador Lord has received are the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award, the Defense Department’s Outstanding Performance Award, and several honorary degrees.  

Daniel H. Rosen is a founding partner of Rhodium Group and leads the firm’s work on China, India, and Asia. Rosen has twenty-six years of professional experience analyzing China’s economy, commercial sector, and external interactions. He is widely recognized for his contributions on the U.S.-China economic relationship. He is affiliated with a number of American think tanks focused on international economics, and is an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University. From 2000 to 2001, Rosen was senior advisor for international economic policy at the White House National Economic Council and National Security Council. Rosen graduated with distinction from the Graduate School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University (M.S.F.S.) and with honors in Asian studies and economics from the University of Texas, Austin (B.A.).

The Task Force on U.S.-China Policy is a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and the University of California San Diego’s 21st Century China Center in partnership with the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands. 

IN COLLABORATION WITH:

This project was made possible by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, with additional support from The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, Henry Luce Foundation, and The Janet and Arthur Ross Foundation.