Asia Society Northern California is pleased to co-sponsor with the Japan Policy Research Institute a discussion on terriorial disputes in the China Seas and its implications on cross-Taiwan strait and U.S. relations with experts from Asia and the United States

What is driving the rising tensions in the East and South China Seas? How close have we actually come to witnessing the maritime territorial disputes spin out of control? Will increasing economic interdependence ultimately diffuse tensions and prevent war? Do the leadership transitions in China, Japan, and other parts of the Asia Pacific raise hopes for peaceful resolution? And how are these disputes impacting US-China and cross-Strait relations?

The event opens the Fourth Annual Strait Talk Bay Area Peace Symposium, a week of workshops and public events to promote peaceful relations across the Taiwan Strait and throughout the Pacific Rim. Strait Talk is a student-centered, non-partisan dialogue program that seeks to transform Cross-Strait and broader Asia-Pacific relations by connecting young people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and from the United States, and by empowering them through conflict resolution training to become the next generation of peacemakers.

Speakers:

Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Ph.D., Professor and Assistant Dean for International Cooperation and Exchange in the School of International and Public Affairs at Shanghai Jiaotong University. 

John Ciorciari, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and Asia Society Associate Fellow. 

Promotional Co-sponsors: Institute for East Asian Studies, University of California Berkeley, Strait Talk Berkeley Chapter