NCUSCR Events

Former World Bank SVP and chief economist Justin Yifu Lin discusses China’s mid- and long-term growth prospects at “China’s Economy 2015,” a program of the National Committee on U.S.-China relations in cooperation with Peking University’s China Center for Economic Research, held at the New York Stock Exchange, January 7, 2015. 

For program videos and presentations, visit: https://www.ncuscr.org/content/china%E2%80%99s-economy-2015-forecasts-leading-chinese-economists

Professor Lin argued optimistically that China’s current decelerating GDP growth rate has been a symptom of external and cyclical factors and compared its growth rate to the sharper drop he observed in other high performing economies, both developing and developed. His analysis, calibrated by an assessment of China’s challenges, showed how the export, investment, and consumption environment had changed, but remained comparatively positive. This he followed with an assessment of where China should focus its growth strategy.

Dr. Lin is professor and honorary dean at the National School of Development, Peking University; his remarks are moderated by Yao Yang, Dean, National School of Development, Peking University.

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.

In China 1945 Richard Bernstein tells the incredible story of that year’s sea change, analyzing its many components, from ferocious infighting among U.S. diplomats, military leaders, and opinion makers to the complex relations between Mao and his patron, Stalin. Bernstein examines the first time that American power and good intentions came face-to-face with a powerful Asian revolutionary movement, and challenges familiar assumptions about the origins of modern Sino-American relations.

Richard Bernstein studied Chinese history with the legendary John K. Fairbank at Harvard University before becoming one of the first American journalists to be stationed in the People’s Republic of China, opening the Time bureau in Beijing in 1980. He then spent twenty-five years as a staff correspondent for the New York Times for which he reported from more than two dozen countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa. His postings included the United Nations, Paris, and Berlin; he was also a national cultural correspondent and daily book critic.

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 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—particularly China’s—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.

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.

On November 11, 2014, Presidents Obama and Xi announced the importance of strengthening bilateral cooperation on climate change during the APEC meetings in Beijing, representing the first time, China and the United States have committed to specific targets for reducing greenhouse emissions.

In this podcast program, professors Joanna Lewis and Alex Wang join an on-the-record teleconference moderated by NCUSCR President Steve Orlins, as they discuss the significance of the announcement. Q&A follows the speakers' remarks. The teleconference took place on November 25, 2014.

Joanna Lewis is an associate professor in the Science, Technology and International Affairs (STIA) Program at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Her research focuses on energy, environment and innovation in China, including renewable energy industry development and climate change policy. Dr. Lewis has been a visiting scholar at Tsinghua University, the Wilson Center and the East West Center.

Alex Wang is an assistant professor at the UCLA School of Law.  His primary research and teaching interests are in environmental law, Chinese law, comparative law, and torts.

Prior to 2011, Mr. Wang was a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) based in Beijing, and the founding director of NRDC's China Environmental Law & Governance Project for nearly six years. Professor Wang was a Fulbright Fellow to China from 2004-05. Prior to that, Mr. Wang was an attorney at the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York City.

Both Dr. Lewis and Mr. Wang are fellows in the National Committee's Public Intellectuals Program.

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 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.

Author and New Yorker writer Evan Osnos introduces his newest book Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China in a conversation with National Committee on U.S.-China Relations President Stephen Orlins on June 3, 2014 in New York.

From abroad, we often encounter conflicting characterizations of China: a nation of pragmatic plutocrats and ruthlessly dedicated students destined to rule the global economy—or an addled Goliath, riddled with corruption and on the edge of stagnation. What we don’t see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes. As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control.

Evan Osnos joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2008. He is a correspondent in Washington, D.C. who writes about politics and foreign affairs.

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.

Author James Carter discusses China’s 20th century history through the remarkable figure at the center of his new book Heart of Buddha, Heart of China: The Life of Tanxu, a Twentieth Century Monk with the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations on May 7, 2014.

The Buddhist monk Tanxu surmounted extraordinary obstacles and foreign occupation to become one of the most prominent religious figures in China. Mingling bold nationalism with his own belief in China’s cultural and social traditions, Tanxu experienced the fall of China’s last empire, descent into occupation and civil war, and its eventual birth as a modern nation. Dr. Carter’s book gives first-person immediacy to one of the most turbulent periods in Chinese history.

James Carter is professor of history at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, and holds a Ph.D. in modern Chinese history from Yale 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.

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.

National Committee President Stephen Orlins discusses public service at an event of the China Entrepreneurs Forum before an audience of 1,200 at Harvard University, April 18, 2014.

Stephen Orlins bio: http://www.ncuscr.org/stephen-orlins-president

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.