Arts and Events Calendar

This daylong conference features top government officials, organization chiefs and scholars, who will discuss key issues in the U.S.-China relationship and how policies toward China are made. Speakers will identify who the key individual and institutional players are, what interests they seek to advance, and the tactics they use to shape policy.

In addition to these presentations and discussions, the conference will feature a screening and discussion of Election ’08 and the Challenge of China, a new documentary produced by the USC U.S.-China Institute. Attendees will receive DVD copies of the documentary.

Keynote Address

Thomas J. Christensen
“Shaping China's Choices: Some Recent Lessons for the Next U.S. Administration”
After two years as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, Thomas Christensen has just returned to his duties as professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University. His many publications include Useful Adversaries: Grand Strategy, Domestic Mobilization, and Sino-American Conflict, 1947-1958 (Princeton, 1996) and influential articles such as “China: Getting the Questions Right” (The National Interest). In the years prior to his arrival at the State Department, Prof. Christensen often served as a consultant to various U.S. government agencies. In 2002, he received the U.S. State Department’s Distinguished Public Service award.

Panelists

Richard Baum
Professor of political science Richard Baum has taught at the University of California at Los Angeles for nearly four decades. The former director of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, Baum is the author or editor of numerous books, including Burying Mao: Chinese Politics in the Age of Deng Xiaoping. His latest book, due out in 2009, is China Watcher: Confessions of a Peking Tom. He founded ChinaPol, an email discussion group of scholars, officials, journalists and other professionals, in 1995. It now has 900 members.

Jay Davis
A nuclear physicist, Jay Davis is National Security Fellow at the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (retired). From 1998 to 2001, he was the founding director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, an agency created to address the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction. For his contributions to national security during his tenure at Defense, he was twice awarded the Distinguished Public Service Medal, the department’s highest civilian award. From the early 1970s to the late 1990s, Dr. Davis was a researcher and engineering manager at Livermore, ultimately serving as associate director of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Directorate.

Banning Garrett
Banning Garrett directs the Asia Society’s initiative on U.S.-China cooperation on energy and climate. He previously headed the Atlantic Council’s Asia program. Dr. Garrett has been a U.S. government consultant for more than 20 years and has taught at George Washington University. His analyses have appeared in a wide range of publications, including International Security, The Washington Quarterly, The New York Times, Asian Wall Street Journal and Asian Survey.

Robert A. Kapp
For 10 years, Robert Kapp was president of the U.S.-China Business Council, the preeminent organization of companies involved in U.S.-China investment and trade. Since 2004, he has been principal of Robert A. Kapp and Associates, a business consulting firm. Prior to assuming the council presidency, Dr. Kapp taught Chinese history at Rice University and the University of Washington and served as editor of the Journal of Asian Studies. From 1979 to 1994, he headed two organizations: the Washington State China Relations Council and the Washington Council on International Trade. He has frequently testified before Congress and is the author of numerous newspaper and magazine articles.

Henry Levine
Henry Levine is a senior director with advisory firm Stonebridge International. He previously had a distinguished career as a Foreign Service Officer, culminating in service as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Europe (2002-2003) and for Asia (2003-2005). Prior to this, Mr. Levine completed several assignments in China, including service as Consul General in Shanghai (1999-2002) and Deputy Chief of the U.S. Embassy’s Economic Section (1989-1992). Mr. Levine has testified before Congress on China’s compliance with World Trade Organization requirements and is a frequent speaker before business and academic groups.

E. Perry Link
Chinese literature Professor Perry Link has returned to Southern California as the Chancellor Chair for Innovation in Teaching Across Disciplines at the University of California at Riverside. One of the foremost American teachers of Chinese, Link previously taught at UCLA and at Princeton. He has published several volumes of literary translations, as well as studies such as Evening Chats in Beijing: Probing China's Predicament and The Uses of Literature: Life in the Socialist Chinese Literary System. He was co-translator of The Tiananmen Papers.

Alan D. Romberg
“Cross-Strait Relations: The Road Ahead”
A prolific writer on U.S. relations with Northeast Asia, Alan Romberg is director of the East Asia Program at The Henry L. Stimson Center, where he has been since 2000. From 1964 to 1985, he was a foreign service officer, focusing on East Asia in a number of positions, including a stint on the National Security Council staff and as Deputy State Department spokesperson. For the next decade, Mr. Romberg was C.V. Starr Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He returned to government service in 1994, serving as Principal Deputy Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, Senior Adviser to the U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N., and Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy. He is author of Rein In at the Brink of the Precipice: American Policy Toward Taiwan and U.S.-PRC Relations.

Robert S. Ross
“The Rise of China and U.S. Security Policy”
A Boston College political scientist, Robert Ross is currently focused on China security policy and the implications of China’s rise for its neighbors and for the United States. Prof. Ross is the author or editor of numerous books, many of which have been translated into Chinese and other languages. Recent co-edited books include Rising China: Theoretical and Policy Perspectives, New Directions in the Study of Chinese Foreign Policy and Normalization of U.S.-China Relations: An International History. He is the author of Negotiating Cooperation: The United States and China, 1969-1989. A frequent consultant for the U.S. government, Prof. Ross has also taught at a number of Chinese institutions.

Tentative Schedule

USC Davidson Conference Center
Embassy Room

8:30 a.m. Registration (Seating is limited, and advance registration is required.)

9 a.m. Welcome and Introduction
C.L. “Max” Nikias
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost

9:15 a.m. Keynote Address
Thomas J. Christensen, Princeton University

10:15 a.m. Break

10:30 a.m. Panel 1: Security and Regional Stability
Robert S. Ross, Boston College
Alan Romberg, The Stimson Center
Jay C. Davis, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

12:15 p.m. Lunch

1:35 p.m. Screening of Election ’08 and the Challenge of China

2:35 p.m. Break

2:50 p.m. Panel 2: Economics and Trade
Henry Levine, Stonebridge International
Robert A. Kapp, Robert A. Kapp & Associates

4 p.m. Break

4:15 p.m. Panel 3: Climate Change
Eugene Huang, U.S. Department of the Treasury
Banning Garrett, Asia Society

5:25 p.m. Reception

Advance registration is required to uschina@usc.edu.

Conference parking is available for $8 in Parking Structure D (on Jefferson Boulevard, west of Figueroa Boulevard). Click here to see the USC University Park Campus interactive map.

Contact the USC U.S.-China Institute at (213) 821-4382 or uschina@usc.edu.