8th U.S.-China High-Level Political Party Leaders Dialogue
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delegation of U.S. Democratic and Republican Party leaders and U.S. business leaders met with senior Communist Party of China (CPC) officials and Chinese business leaders in Beijing, China, on May 6-8, 2015. This visit is part of the U.S.-China High-Level Political Party Leaders Dialogue, organized by the EastWest Institute and the International Department of the Central Committee of the CPC (IDCPC). Launched in 2010, 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. This eighth iteration of the Dialogue represented the highestlevel visit ever to China by sitting officers of both major U.S. political parties. It was also the first-ever Dialogue visit to China involving former Cabinet-level officials from both the incumbent Obama administration and the George W. Bush administration. Ronald Kirk, former United States trade representative and former mayor of Dallas, and R. James Nicholson, former chairman of the Republican National Commit-
tee and former secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, led the U.S. Democratic and Republican delegations, respectively. The Chinese 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 IDCPC. Dialogue sessions focused on rule of law and anti-corruption measures in China and the United States and the political landscape in both countries, including prospects for the upcoming 2016 U.S. presidential election. Additionally, the U.S. delegation met with
Wang Qishan, Politburo Standing Committee member and secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, at Zhongnanhai, and Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Zhang Yesui. For the first time in the Dialogue’s history, U.S. and Chinese participants also included representatives from U.S. and Chinese corporations, who spoke at an inaugural U.S.-China Entrepreneurs Roundtable. The roundtable focused on trade, investment and other economic issues in the bilateral relationship and corporate perspectives on doing crossPacific business.
Photo source: IDCPC
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