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U.S.-China Relations in the Twenty-First Century: Preface
American Assembly at Columbia University
November 1996
On November 14, 1996, sixty-one men and women representing government, business, academia, nongovernmental organizations, law, labor, religion, and media gathered at Arden House, Harriman, New York, for the Eighty-ninth American Assembly entitled "China-U.S. Relations in the Twenty-First Century: Fostering Cooperation, Preventing Conflict." For three days the participants identified long-term national interests and recommended specific policies for the incoming second Clinton administration and private sector institutions.
The project was co-chaired by Sam Nunn, U.S. Senator, and John Whitehead, Chair, AEA Investors, Inc. and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and former Deputy Secretary of State. It was directed by Ezra F. Vogel, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences and Director of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University. The background papers prepared for the participants will appear as chapters in a book entitled Living with China: U.S./China Relations in the Twenty-First Century, to be published by W.W. Norton & Company in 1997. The chapters are:
| Ezra F. Vogel | Introduction: How Can the United States and China Pursue Common Interests and Manage Differences? |
| Michel Oksenberg | Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong in Sino-American Relations |
| Douglas Paal | China and the East Asian Security Environment: Complementarity and Competition |
| David Michael Lampton | A Growing China in a Shrinking World: Beijing and the Global Order |
| Dwight H. Perkins | How China's Economic Transformation Shapes its Future |
| Harry Harding | Breaking the Impasse over Human Rights |
| Julia Chang Bloch | Commercial Diplomacy |
| Michael B. McElroy and Chris P. Nielsen | Energy, Agriculture, and the Environment: Prospects for Sino-American Coorperation |
| Kenneth Lieberthal | Domestic Forces and Sino-U.S. Relations |
| Sam Nunn | A Long Term China Strategy |
During the Assembly, participants heard formal addresses by the projects co-chairs, Senator Nunn and John Whitehead, and Brent Scowcroft, former Assistant to President Bush for National Security. There was also a panel discussion, moderated Ezra F. Vogel, which included Ambassador Arthur W. Hummel; Anne F. Thurston, Independent Scholar and board member of HumanRights in China; John Young, Executive Director, Committee of 100 and Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Seton Hall University and Madeleine H. Zelin, Director, Columbia University East Asian Institute, as panelists.
Following their discussions, the participants issued this report on November 17, 1996. It contains both their findings and recommendations.
This program at Arden House is Phase II of a four-phase American Assembly project. Phase I involved a visit at the highest level to China and its six principal neighbors by the project leadership and authors, and the president of The American Assembly. The photograph on the preceding page was taken during that visit. A report of what was heard on that trip is available from The American Assembly. It is also posted on this site.
This report is the culmination of Phase II. Phase III will be a bilateral program in 1997 in which half of the participants will be Americans and the other half will be Chinese. It will focus on the China/U.S. relations in the same spirit as this Assembly, that is, to foster cooperation and prevent conflict, and to advance the national interests of both countries to the extent that they are compatible. Phase III is being developed in cooperation with the Pacific Council on International Policy and the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs.
In Phase IV of this project, programs similar to this Arden House gathering will take place throughout the United States and possibly also in Asia. Programs are presently planned in Seattle (coordinated by the Washington State China Relations Council and The Boeing Company, among others), San Francisco (coordinated by The Asia Foundation, World Affairs Council of Northern California, and Bank America), in Texas (organized by the Asia Society in Houston), Atlanta (organized by the Carter Center), at theU.S. Air Force Academy, and, quite likely, also in the Midwest and Hawaii. Negotiations are also underway for a regional Assembly on the island of Taiwan and on the mainland of China.
We gratefully acknowledge funding support for this overall four-phase project by:
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The American Assembly takes no position on any subjects presented here for public discussion. In additional, it should be noted that the participants took part in this meeting as private individuals and spoke for themselves rather than for the organizations and institutions with which they are affiliated.
We would like to express special appreciation for the fine work of the discussion leaders and rapporteurs in helping to prepare the first draft of this report: Michael H. Armacost, Marcus Brauchli, Jerome A. Cohen, William P. Fuller, John Kamm, Stanley Roth, and Paul Wolfowitz.
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