China Town Hall

CHINA Town Hall connects leading China experts with Americans around the country for a national conversation on the implications of China’s rise on U.S.-China relations and its impact on our towns, states, and nation.

The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR) will present its 16th annual CHINA Town Hall on November 16, 2022 at 4:00 PM Pacific time. The two-part event features a national webcast keynote as well as an local virtual discussion, and is sponsored by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, the Washington State China Relations Council (WSCRC), and the University of Washington’s China Studies Program, and East Asia Center.

The national webcast on November 16th is scheduled from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM (Eastern) / 4:00-5:00 PM (Pacific). It will feature Former Ambassador to China, Russia, and Singapore Jon M. Huntsman Jr..

The local virtual discussion is scheduled from 5:00-6:00 PM Pacific Time, right after the national webcast. A panel of local China experts will discuss the implications of China’s 20th Party Congress on the Chinese political economy and the U.S.-China relationship.

We encourage you to participate in both sessions.

Click here to Register for National Webcast

Click here to Register for Local Virtual Program

We encourage you to participate in both sessions.

LOCAL VIRTUAL DISCUSSION

PANELISTS

Dr. David Bachman is the Henry M. Jackson Professor of International Studies in the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He is also the Associate Director at the Jackson School. Dr. Bachman has been a faculty member at UW since 1991, and taught at Stanford University and Princeton University prior to coming to the University of Washington. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. He is the author/editor of three books and more than 50 articles on Chinese politics, foreign policy, political economy, and US-China relations. At the UW he teaches courses on Chinese Foreign Policy, US-China Relations, The Rise of Asia and the Making of the 21st Century.

Dr. Bachman is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. He was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and President of the Washington State China Relations Council in 2005. He has chaired the Fulbright Committee on Academic Exchanges with the PRC.

Dr. Susan Whiting is Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she also holds adjunct appointments in the Jackson School of International Studies and the School of Law. She specializes in Chinese and comparative politics, with an emphasis on the political economy of development. She has published articles and chapters on authoritarianism, “rule of law,” property rights, fiscal reform, and rural development in volumes and journals such as Comparative Political Studies and China Quarterly. Her first book, Power and Wealth in Rural China: The Political Economy of Institutional Change, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2001.

Dr. Whiting has contributed to studies of governance, fiscal reform, and non-governmental organizations under the auspices of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the Ford Foundation, respectively. Her current research interests include property rights in land, the role of law in authoritarian regimes, as well as the politics of fiscal reform. She teaches courses on comparative politics, Chinese politics, property rights, and authoritarian regimes.

Dr, Whiting has a PhD in political science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a BA in East Asia Studies from Yale University. She was in the first cohort (2005 – 2007) of the Public Intellectuals Program with the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

MODERATOR

Dr. Spencer Cohen is the Principal and Founder of High Peak Strategy LLC, an international trade and economics research consulting firm based in Seattle, WA. Dr. Cohen consults and writes extensively on international trade, China’s economy, leading industries, and regional economic analysis. He has written opinion pieces in the South China Morning Post, The Daily Guardian (India), Puget Sound Business Journal, and Seattle Business Magazine. He works with ports, international trade associations, corporations, and economic development organizations across the U.S. and abroad. Prior to forming High Peak Strategy, he served as senior economist with a Seattle-based economics consulting firm. He has also held policy and research roles with the State of Washington.

Spencer is a 2021-2023 Public Intellectuals Program fellow (seventh cohort) with the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. He is also an affiliate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Washington. Dr. Cohen has a PhD in geography from the University of Washington, an MA in China Studies, also from the University of Washington, and BA in mathematics and history from the University of Connecticut.