Content from the Brookings-Tsinghua Public Policy Center is now archived. Since October 1, 2020, Brookings has maintained a limited partnership with Tsinghua University School of Public Policy and Management that is intended to facilitate jointly organized dialogues, meetings, and/or events.
This November, after focusing on foreign policy concerns around the globe and congressional midterm elections at home, President Barack Obama will travel to Beijing to attend the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in hopes of preserving and enhancing one of his key foreign policy achievements—the rebalance to Asia. Obama’s trip to China will be his first since 2009, and in those intervening five years the bilateral relationship has become increasingly complicated, with tensions spanning a wide range of issues from maritime disputes to cybersecurity to the pace of China’s economic reforms. While both countries agree that a “New Type of Great Power Relations” is needed, it is still not clear what such a relationship entails. President Obama’s trip to China will offer a critical opportunity to shape the U.S.-China relationship and seize on the cooperative spirit of the APEC meeting to strengthen the rebalance to Asia.
On Novemver 5, the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution hosted a full-day conference with two keynote addresses and four panels about the economic, environmental, political, and security implications of President Obama’s trip to China for the 2014 APEC summit and his interactions with President Xi Jinping.
Obama in China: Preserving the Rebalance
The State of China’s Economy and Free Trade in the Asia-Pacific
U.S.-China Cooperation on Climate Change and the Environment
Obama in China: Afternoon Keynote Address
The Domestic Issues and Politics Influencing Obama-Xi Relations
The Evolving Security Climate in Asia
Agenda
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November 5
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Afternoon Keynote
1:15 pm
Cheng Li Director - John L. Thornton China Center, Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, John L. Thornton China CenterCaroline Atkinson Head of Global Policy - Google, Former Deputy National Security Advisor - White House -
Lunch Break
12:40 pm
Cheng Li Director - John L. Thornton China Center, Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, John L. Thornton China CenterCaroline Atkinson Head of Global Policy - Google, Former Deputy National Security Advisor - White House -
Introductory Remarks
9:00 am
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Morning Keynote
9:05 am
Thomas E. Donilon Former U.S. National Security Adviser, Senior Partner - O’Melveny and Myers, Trustee - The Brookings Institution -
The State of China’s Economy and Free Trade in the Asia-Pacific
10:00 am
Charles W. Freeman III Former Brookings Expert, Senior Vice President for Asia - U.S. Chamber of Commerce -
U.S.-China Cooperation on Climate Change and the Environment
11:20 am
Kelly Sims Gallagher Director, Center for International Environment and Resource Policy - Tufts University Fletcher SchoolYe QI Director, The Climate Policy Initiative, Former Brookings ExpertJake Schmidt Director, International Program - Natural Resources Defense CouncilDaniel B. Wright Former Brookings Expert, Founder, President, and CEO - GreenPoint Group -
The Domestic Issues and Politics Influencing Obama-Xi Relations
2:15 pm
Susan Lawrence Specialist in Asian Affairs - Congressional Research ServiceCheng Li Director - John L. Thornton China Center, Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, John L. Thornton China Center -
The Evolving Security Climate in Asia
3:35 pm
Jonathan D. Pollack Nonresident Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for Asia Policy Studies, John L. Thornton China CenterRichard C. Bush Nonresident Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for Asia Policy Studies, John L. Thornton China Center
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