6th U.S.-China High-Level Political Party Leaders Dialogue As part of the ongoing U.S.-China High-Level Political Party Leaders Dialogue, organized by the EastWest Institute (EWI) in partnership with the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC), a delegation of U.S. Democratic and Republican Party leaders met with CPC senior officials in Beijing and Nanjing, China from November 18-21, 2013. The delegation, participating in the sixth U.S.-China High-Level Political Party Leaders Dialogue, was headed by Howard Berman, former U.S. Representative (DCA) and chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Anthony Parker, treasurer of the Republican National Committee. In a breakthrough for the U.S.-China High-Level Political Party Leaders Dialogue process, this delegation was the first to include sitting party officers as well as staff from both U.S. parties. The CPC delegation was led by Wang Jiarui, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the minister of the International Department of the CPC’s Central Committee (IDCPC). The dialogue was the highest level of engagement between the three parties ever convened. This visit occurred a week after the 18th Central Committee of the CPC concluded its Third Plenum, at which a series of planned reforms were announced. Dialogue sessions placed special emphasis on the outcomes of the plenum and their implications for economic and political reform in China. The discussions also addressed the current political landscape in the United States, the 16-day U.S. government shutdown in October and the debt and deficit debate in Washington. In addition, delegates explored ways to build mutual trust between the United States and China as part of the concept of a “new type of major-power relationship” and relations between the two countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The delegation also met with the vice president of the People’s Republic of China, Li Yuanchao, for two hours at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The U.S.-China High-Level Political Party Leaders Dialogue seeks to build understanding and trust between political elites from the United States and China through an exchange of views on governance and foreign policy issues. Five previous rounds of dialogue have been held since its launch in 2010. EWI expects to host the next round in the U.S. in 2014.
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Communist Party of China Delegates
Wang Jiarui
Yu Hongjun
Gao Yongzhong
Deng Hongbo
Wang Jiarui is a vice chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC and also leads the International Department of the Central Committee of the CPC. With a career in the CPC spanning over four decades, he has held various posts across a number of government and party agencies. He was appointed vice minister of the IDCPC in 2000 and was promoted to minister in 2003.
Yu Hongjun is the vice minister of the IDCPC. He joined the IDCPC in 1989 and has since held various positions within the IDCPC, including deputy division director and director general of the Research Office. His Foreign Service duties included positions as first secretary of the Chinese Embassy in the Republic of Kazakhstan and ambassador to the Republic of Uzbekistan. He assumed his current position as vice minister of the IDCPC in 2010.
Gao Yongzhong is the vice minister of the Party History Research Center of the CPC Central Committee. He worked in the Gansu Provincial Government and Provincial Party Committee before joining the Central Organization Department. He held various posts at the department, including chairman of the institute and secretary general of the National Association of Party Building Research, before assuming his current post in 2011.
Deng Hongbo is the director general of the CPC Central Foreign Affairs Office. He held various posts at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including deputy director general in the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs, ambassador to Kenya and deputy chief of mission and minister of the Chinese Embassy in the United States.
U.S. Democratic and Republican Party Delegates
Howard Berman
Andrew Tobias
Joel H. Cowan
Former U.S. Representative Howard Berman (D-CA) served in Congress for 30 years and was the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2008 to 2011. He now serves as senior advisor for the Public Policy and Government Affairs Practice Group at Covington & Burling LLP. He is also on the board of trustees of the Asia Foundation and the board of the National Democratic Institute.
Andrew Tobias has served as the treasurer of the Democratic National Committee since 1999. An accomplished writer, Tobias has written a number of New York Times best-sellers. He has received the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, Harvard Magazine’s 1998 Smith-Weld Prize and the Consumer Federation of America Media Service Award.
Joel Cowan is a professor of the Practice for the Scheller College of Business and the Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He founded Georgia’s Peachtree City, serving as its first mayor from 1959 to 1963 and also served as the treasurer of the Democratic Party of Georgia from 1982 to 1986. Cowan is currently a director of the EastWest Institute.
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Participant Testimonials Despite all the difficulties in the relationship between the two U.S. parties, I think it’s fair to say that the strong majority and the leaderships of both parties think that a strong U.S.-China relationship is important for the benefit of stability and progress in the world and the people of our two countries. This is not a partisan issue. With the right kind of leadership working together, I think our two countries can attain great things. Xiang Dong Xiang Dong is an inspector of the Department of Information Research. He is also an executive member of the council of the China Enterprise Confederation and adjunct professor at several universities. He previously served as deputy director general in the Department of Macroeconomic Research at the State Council Research Office. He holds a doctoral degree in law.
— Howard Berman Head of the U.S. Democratic Delegation We discussed many themes in the course of our discussions, but the overlying one has been trust. The one thing I can assure you of is that you do not have trust if you don’t talk to each other, and I’m delighted that this party-to-party dialogue is occurring. I hope this is the beginning of an even broader dialogue that the Democratic and Republican parties will have with their counterparts here in China. — Anthony W. Parker Head of the U.S. Republican Delegation I found many of the presentations by our American friends to be very enlightening and useful. Chinese leaders will pay much attention to the content and outcome of this dialogue. I think we should give full play to the in-depth nature of these exchanges so that their impact will be taken into consideration in the foreign policy decision-making of both countries. — Wang Jiarui Head of the Communist Party of China Delegation
Anthony W. Parker
Timothy P. Stratford
Christopher N. Cox
Tony Parker is the treasurer of the Republican National Committee. He was also the treasurer for the 2012 Republican National Convention and served on President George W. Bush’s national finance team. Parker is the founder and CEO of Parker Tide Corporation, a government contracting company, and also serves on the board of directors of four NASDAQ companies.
Tim Stratford is the managing partner in Covington & Burling LLP’s Beijing office and a member of the International Trade, Corporate and Government Affairs Practice Groups. As a former assistant U.S. trade representative, Stratford is the most senior former U.S. trade official working in the U.S. business community in China. Stratford has also served at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and with the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
Christopher Cox is a managing partner at OC Global Partners, LLC, a New York City investment bank. He is a frequent guest on Fox News, the BBC, the Today Show and WABC radio commenting on politics and public policy. He is the grandson of President Richard M. Nixon.
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U.S. Delegation Activities Meeting with Li Shulei, vice president of the Central Party School
Day-long dialogue with senior Communist Party of China officials, led by Wang Jiarui
Washington, D.C.
Meeting with Cui Tiankai, Chinese Ambassador to the United States
Meeting with Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao
Beijing
Meeting with Cui Tiankai, Chinese ambassador to the United States
Nanjing
Meeting with Chen Yuanfeng, vice minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council
Special Thanks
Meeting with Shi Taifeng, deputy secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee
Visit to the Jiangning HighTech Zone and meeting with senior management of GenScript’s Nanjing facility
Visit to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall
Roundtable discussion with students at the HopkinsNanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies
Host and Partner Organization International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Dialogue Sponsors China-United States Exchange Foundation Ross Perot, Jr. Kathryn W. Davis www.ewi.info