Sigur Center for Asian Studies

China Policy Program

China Policy Program Director Professor David Shambaugh meets with State Councillor and Director of the Central Committee Foreign Affairs Office, Dai Bingguo, 2008.

Overview

The China Policy Program was established in 1998 as one of several constituent programs in the Elliott School of International Affairs, and it is affiliated with the Sigur Center for Asian Studies. The founding Director is David Shambaugh, Professor of Political Science & International Affairs, who is a leading international authority on contemporary China and Asian affairs. The China Policy Program was created to build upon the Elliott School's longstanding expertise and involvement in U.S.-China relations and contemporary Chinese affairs and to serve primarily as an outreach program to the policy community in Washington, officials and China specialists around the world, the media, and the public.

Specifically, the China Policy Program is involved in the following types of activities:

Sponsoring occasional public lectures and panel discussions open to the public and GW community.

• Sponsoring private scholarly and policy-related meetings of China specialists and government officials
• Sponsoring the publication of scholarly books related to Chinese affairs.
• Sponsoring discussion meetings of Washington's leading China experts drawn from academia, think tanks, the U.S. intelligence community, Congressional staff, and executive branch officials.
• Sponsoring "policy dialogues" of a reasonably high-level, with participants from China, Europe, and Asia.
• Receiving and briefing visiting delegations from Asia, Europe, and the United States on issues related to China.
• Hosting in residence individual officials, scholars, and China specialists from around the world.
• Sponsoring media briefings, pegged to current and medium-term events in China and U.S.-China relations.
• Sponsoring tailored briefings for Executive Branch officials, Congressional staff, and Members of Congress related to China and U.S.-China relations.
• Sponsoring tailored briefings for members of the corporate community related to China.
• Convening "study groups" to assist authors in revising book and article manuscripts.

In recent years the China Policy Program has sponsored activities in all of these areas. For further information please contact the Director, Professor David Shambaugh, at 202-994-5887 or shambaug@gwu.edu.

Recent Events

• "Tangled Titans: The New Context of Sino-American Relations" (December 2011). This international scholarly conference brought together twenty-six leading experts on U.S.-China relations from the United States, China, and Europe, to assess the current and future state of the relationship. Sixteen scholarly papers were presented and will be published in a book by the same title to be edited by Professor David Shambaugh. The conference was convened at the Elliott School in Washington, D.C.
• The Seventh American-European Dialogue on China (November 2011). The seventh in the premier series of transatlantic dialogues about China. Convened at the Track 1.5 level (government officials together with non-governmental experts), the delegates discussed several aspects of contemporary China: domestic politics and governance; China's growing global economic footprint; China's military modernization; China's role in global order and governance; US-China relations; EU-China relations; and policies for dealing with a transitional China. The dialogue was co-sponsored with the Asia Centre at Sciences Po and convened in Paris, France. American participants included David Shambaugh (George Washington University), Pieter Bottelier (Johns Hopkins University SAIS), Gregory Chin (York University), Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Kissinger Institute), Douglas Paal (Carnegie Endowment), Aubrey Carlson (Department of State).

• International Symposium on "The State of the Communist Party of China" (June 2011). This unprecedented international conference was the first ever convened between a number of leading international experts on the Communist Party of China and leading scholars and officials of the CPC, to discuss and assess recent reforms and the state of the CPC on the eve of its 90th anniversary. International participants included Professors David Shambaugh and Bruce Dickson (George Washington University), Kjeld-Erik Brodsgaard (Copenhagen Business School), Zheng Yongnian (East Asia Institute, National University of Singapore), Dr. Cheng Li (The Brookings Institution), and Dr. Kerry Brown (Royal Institute of International Affairs/Chatham House). The symposium was co-sponsored by the International Department and Institute on the Contemporary World of the CPC, and was convened in Beijing. The foreign delegation visited and met with a number of CPC Central Committee organs, including Politburo member and Publicity (Propaganda) Department Director Liu Yunshan in the Great Hall of the People. See: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90785/7403168.html.

• Fifth Symposium on "U.S.-China Relations in Global Context" (June 2011). The fifth in a series of Track 1.5 Sino-American dialogues concerning US-China mutual interests and cooperation in world affairs. This round discussed Sino-American interests and interactions in Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Southwest and Central Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The U.S. delegation was led by Professor David Shambaugh and included: former ambassador to the United Nations, Afghanistan, and Iraq Dr. Zalmay Khalilzad; Professor Michael Green (Georgetown University and CSIS); Professor Robert Sutter (George Washington University); Ambassador David H. Shinn (George Washington University); and Professor R. Evan Ellis (National Defense University). The symposium was co-sponsored by the China Institute of International Studies and was convened in Beijing. The U.S. delegation also met with a number of other research institutes and ministries concerned with international relations, including with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and other Foreign Ministry officials. See: http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/zxxx/t828728.htm.
• "Charting China's Future: Domestic and International Challenges" (December 2009). This international conference drew together a number of leading European and American China scholars to assess several different dimensions of China's current and future domestic and international trajectory. The conference was co-sponsored with and convened at Jesus College, Cambridge University, England. The conference resulted in a book publication in 2011: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415619554/.
• "Sixth American-European Dialogue on China" (June 2009). The sixth in an ongoing series of Track 1.5 transatlantic dialogues concerning American and European relations with the People's Republic of China. Co-sponsored with the Asia Centre at Sciences Po in Paris, France.
• "Fourth Dialogue on U.S.-China Relations in a Global Context" (May 2009). The fourth in a series of Track 1.5 Sino-American dialogues concerning US-China mutual interests and cooperation in world affairs. Co-sponsored with the China Institute of International Studies. Papers can be found here.
• "Third U.S. Think Tank China Specialists" Delegation to China (May 2009). For the third consecutive year, at the invitation of the invitation of the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, Professor David Shambaugh lead a delegation of leading Washington and New York-based China experts to Beijing for a week of intensive consultations with a wide range of institutions in the State Council, People's Liberation Army, Communist Party of China (CPC). This year's delegation included former Ambassador to China Stapleton S. Roy (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars), Dr. Orville Schell (Asia Society), Dr. Nicholas Lardy (Peterson Institute of International Economics), Dr. Michael Swaine (Carnegie Endowment of International Peace), and Dr. Evan Feigenbaum (Council on Foreign Relations).
• "The Role of China in Transatlantic Relations" (February 2008). A Track 2 conference on the role of China in US-European relations and respective American and European approaches to and relations with China. See the conference report "American and European Relations with China: Advancing Common Agendas."
• "The New Asia International Relations of Asia" (June 2007). A scholarly conference that convened leading international experts from three continents to assess the changing dynamics and structure of international relations across the Asian region. A state-of-the-art textbook was published as a result.

Selected Publications

The China Policy Program supports occasional scholarly and policy-related publications. Recent publications include:

• David Shambaugh (ed.), Charting China's Future: Domestic & International Challenges (London: Routledge, 2011)
• David Shambaugh and Michael Yahuda (eds), International Relations in Asia (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008).
• David Shambaugh and Gudrun Wacker (eds.)) Transatlantic Relations and China: Deepening the Cooperation (Berlin: German Institute of International and Security Affairs, 2008).
• David Shambaugh, Eberhard Sandschneider, and Zhou Hong (eds.), China-Europe Relations: Perceptions, Policies & Prospects (London: Routledge Press, 2007).
• Robert F. Ash, David Shambaugh, and Seiichiro Takagi (eds.), China Watching: Perspectives from Europe, Japan & the United States (London: Routledge Press, 2007).
• David Shambaugh (ed.), Power Shift: China & Asia's New Dynamics, (Berkeley and London: University of California Press, 2005).

• David Shambaugh, European and American Approaches Toward China: Different Beds, Same Dreams? (Washington, D.C.: George Washington University Sigur Center for Asian Studies Asia Paper No. 15, 2002).
• Ramon Myers, Michel Oksenberg, and David Shambaugh (eds.), Making China Policy: Lessons from the Bush and Clinton Administrations (Lanham, MD: Roman & Littlefield, 2001).
• David Shambaugh (ed.), Is China Unstable? (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000).
• David Shambaugh (ed.), The Modern Chinese State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Recent Grants

• The Ford Foundation, "Integrating China Globally" (2011)
• The German Marshall Fund of the United States, "Transatlantic Relations and China: Deepening the Cooperation" (2008).
• The China Policy Program gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of Elliott School International Council member and alumnus Christopher Fussner.