US-China Engagement: Past Achievements & Future Adjustments

Craig Allen is the sixth President of the United States-China Business Council (USCBC), a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization representing over 200 American companies doing business with China. Prior to joining USCBC, Craig had a long, distinguished career in US public service. Craig began his government career in 1985 at the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA). He entered government as a Presidential Management Intern, rotating through the four branches of ITA. From 1986 to 1988, he was an international economist in ITA’s China Office. In 1988, Craig transferred to the American Institute in Taiwan, where he served as Director of the American Trade Center in Taipei. He held this position until 1992, when he returned to the Department of Commerce for a three-year posting at the US Embassy in Beijing as Commercial Attaché. In 1995, Craig was assigned to the US Embassy in Tokyo, where he served as a Commercial Attaché. From 2000, Craig served a two-year tour at the National Center for APEC in Seattle. While there, he worked on the APEC Summits in Brunei, China, and Mexico. In 2002, it was back to Beijing, where Craig served as the Senior Commercial Officer. In Beijing, Craig was promoted to the Minister Counselor rank of the Senior Foreign Service. After a four-year tour in South Africa, Craig became Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia at the US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration. He later became Deputy Assistant Secretary for China. Craig was sworn in as the United States ambassador to Brunei Darussalam in 2014. Craig received a B.A. from the University of Michigan in Political Science and Asian Studies in 1979. He received a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in 1985.

Max Baucus is a former United States senator and ambassador to China, active today in business, public policy, and international affairs. Baucus began in the legal profession and by 1973 held his first public office, as a Montana state representative. The following year, he was elected to the first of two terms as congressman from Montana’s first district, serving in the House during the post-Watergate years of the Ford and Carter presidencies. First elected to the Senate in 1978, Baucus went on to be his state’s longest-serving senator. During his fifth term, Senator Baucus rose to the chairmanship of the Committee on Finance. A longtime supporter of a broader, rule-based trading system, the Senator was instrumental in opening permanent normal trade relations with China, and in promoting that country’s 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization. In 2014, President Obama nominated him to be America’s ambassador to China–he represented the United States in that post until January 2017. Following his diplomatic assignment, Senator Baucus and his wife Melodee Hanes formed the Baucus Group LLC. He currently serves on the board of directors of Ingram Micro and previously served on the board of advisors to Alibaba Group until May of 2019, and the External Advisory Board to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency until July of 2019. He earned a B.A. in economics from Stanford University, and later attended Stanford Law School, graduating with a Juris Doctor in 1967.

Cui Tiankai has been the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. since 2013. Previously, he served as the Chinese Ambassador to Japan and the Vice Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cui Tiankai has also held positions in the Department of Asian Affairs, the Policy Research Office, the Information Department, and the Department of International Organizations and Conferences. From 1997 to 1999, Cui Tiankai was the Minister Counselor for the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations. Finally, he served as an interpreter for the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management with the United Nations Secretariat. Cui went to Shanghai Foreign Language School and graduated from the School of Foreign Languages of East China Normal University. Following his graduation from East China Normal University, he studied interpretation at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. After working in the UN for five years, Cui returned to academia to pursue a postgraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.

David M. Lampton is Senior Fellow at the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute and Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins–SAIS.  Immediately prior to his current post he was Oksenberg-Rohlen Fellow at Stanford University’s Asia-Pacific Research Center from 2019-2020.  For more than two decades prior to that he was Hyman Professor and Director of China Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Lampton is former Chairman of the The Asia Foundation, former President of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, and former Dean of Faculty at SAIS. Among many written works, academic and popular is his most recent book (with Selina Ho and Cheng-Chwee Kuik), Rivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia (University of California Press, 2020). He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University in political science where, as an undergraduate student, he was a firefighter. Lampton has an honorary doctorate from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Far Eastern Studies. He served for many years on the Board of Trustees of Colorado College and was in the US Army Reserve in the enlisted and commissioned ranks.

Long Yongtu (龙永图) is the former Secretary-General of the Boao Forum for Asia, and the former Chief Negotiator of China’s Customs Rehabilitation and WTO Accession Negotiations. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) in 1965 and served as a diplomat in the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations in New York from 1978 to 1980. From 1980 to 1986, he worked in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), first in New York headquarters and then in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as the Deputy Resident Representative of the UNDP Office. Long then returned to China in 1986 and became Deputy Director-general of China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE). In January 1992, Mr. Long was appointed Director-general of the Department of International Relations, MOFTEC, and Assistant Minister of the Ministry. In February 1997, he was appointed Vice Minister and the Chief Representative for Trade Negotiations of MOFTEC. As the Chief Negotiator for China’s resumption of GATT contracting party status and its accession to the World Trade Organization, Mr. Long dedicated over 10 years for this prolonged trade negotiation to bring China into the global trading system. Apart from his official duties, Long was the Dean of School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University. He is visiting professor of many renowned Chinese Academic Institutions, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Renmin University. Long received a special award by the United Nations Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan in 2004, for his outstanding contribution to the UN partnership in China and in promoting the values of the UN. Long received his B.A. in British and American Literature from Guizhou University in 1965 and studied as a postgraduate student in economics at the London School of Economics from 1973 to 1974.

Barbara Smith is the Vice President for Peace Programs at the Carter Center. Previously, at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, she was a senior associate (non-resident) for the Human Rights Initiative, conducting field work and research on civil society. Her wide-ranging career also includes assignments at the United States Agency for International Development and with the National Security Council in the White House. At USAID, she held a number of positions, most recently as deputy assistant to the administrator in the Bureau of Policy, Planning, and Learning. She also co-led the team that created the seminal USAID 2013 Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance Strategy, which is applied across the approximately 100 countries where USAID works. Smith served on the National Security Council as a director for Afghanistan and Pakistan affairs and as senior director for governance and law at the Asia Foundation. She has also held senior positions overseas. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, she was a spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. And in Afghanistan, she was assistant country representative for the Asia Foundation, where she also directed the Foundation’s efforts to assist Afghanistan in holding its first post-Taliban elections. Smith earned a B.A. in government from the University of Texas and a master’s degree in political science from Texas State University。

Dr. Tao Tao (陶涛) has been the Deputy Secretary General of the Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament since November, 2012. Prior to that, he served as the Deputy Mayor of Yiwu city and member of the Standing Committee of the Yiwu Municipal Committee of CPC. Other positions have included Director of the General Office at the Chinese Association for International Understanding, First Secretary at the Chinese Embassy in the Republic of South Africa, and Deputy Division Chief of the Research Office of the International Department of the Central Committee of CPC. Dr. Tao has long been focusing his studies on International Situation, Political Trend of Thought, Political Parties and Chinese Diplomacy. In 2001, he published his book, On Western European Socialist Parties and European Integration. Dr. Tao holds degrees from East China Normal University, Tianjin Normal University and Peking University. In July, 1998, he graduated with a PhD from Peking University.

Daniel B. Wright is the founder, President, and CEO of GreenPoint Group. Dr. Wright assists clients through his nearly four decades of experience building bridges between people, resources, and public policy, eight of those years in China. Dr. Wright was formerly Senior Vice President and China practice head of the Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm based in Washington, D.C. Previously, Dr. Wright served at the U.S. Treasury Department as Managing Director for China and the Strategic and Economic Dialogue (SED), where he provided strategic counsel to the Secretary of the Treasury. Dr. Wright worked exclusively on China policy issues, developing and coordinating interagency strategies to achieve prioritized objectives with Cabinet-level Chinese agencies. Prior to his appointment in March 2007, Dr. Wright was Vice President and Washington D.C. Office Director of the National Bureau of Asian Research. At NBR, he led the organization’s external relations with the U.S. Congress, media, and think-tanks, and advised members of Congress and staff on Asia-related matters. From 2000 to 2004, Dr. Wright served as the Executive Director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Program of Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), the premier educational joint-venture program between the United States and China. From 1997 to 1999, Dr. Wright held a fellowship with the Institute of Current World Affairs, during which he lived in southwest China’s Guizhou Province and wrote monthly reports from the perspective of grassroots societies in the country’s hinterland. Dr. Wright has published two books: The Promise of the Revolution: Stories of Fulfillment and Struggle in China’s Hinterland and Wo Kan Zhongguo (China Through My Eyes). He studied Chinese and Chinese Literature at Beijing University, the Beijing Foreign Language Institute, and the Beijing Languages Institute. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. from Johns Hopkins University SAIS, his M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary, and his B.A. from Vanderbilt University.

Zhu Feng (朱锋) is the Executive Director of China Center for Collaborative Studies of the South China Sea at Nanjing University. He is also the Director of the Institute of International Studies at Nanjing University. He writes extensively on regional security in East Asia, the nuclear issue in North Korea, China-US military and diplomatic relations. As a leading Chinese security expert, Professor Zhu’s recent book includes International Relations Theory and East Asian Security (2007), China’s Ascent: Power, Security, and Future of International politics (co-edited with Professor Robert S. Ross, Cornell University Press 2008), China-Japan Security Cooperation and Defense Communication: the Past, Present, and Future (Co-edited with Prof. Akiyama Asahiro, Tokyo: Aiji Press, 2011), and America, China and the Struggle for the World Order (co-edited with Prof. G. John Ikenbery and Prof. Wang jisi, MacMillan, 2015). He sits on a couple of editorial boards of scholarly journals, consults independently for the Chinese government and the private sector, and comments frequently on television and radio and in the print media on Chinese foreign affairs and security policy. Professor Zhu earned his B.A. in the Department of International Politics from Peking University in 1981 and received his Ph.D. from Peking University in 1991.

Zhou Wenzhong (周文重) is currently the Vice President of the China-U.S. People’s Friendship Association and a Member of the Council of Advisors at the Boao Forum for Asia. He has held leading posts at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he served as Deputy Director of the American Affairs Department until 1994. In 2001 he was promoted to Assistant Minister and in 2003 he became Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1990, Zhou Wenzhong served as ambassador of the Chinese Embassy to Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda. In 1998, he became the ambassador to the Chinese Embassy to Australia. Finally, in 2005, Zhou Wenzhong served as ambassador of the Chinese Embassy to the United States. In 2010, he became the Secretary-General of the Boao Forum for Asia and the Vice President of the China-U.S. People’s Friendship Association. He attended the University of Bath and the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom.

Elizabeth Knup is the regional director in China for the Ford Foundation, overseeing all grant-making in the country from the Beijing office. Prior to joining Ford in 2013, she served simultaneously as chief representative of Pearson PLC, one of the world’s foremost education and publishing companies, and as president of Pearson Education in China. Having dedicated her career to developing stronger ties between China and the rest of the world in the education, nonprofit, and business sectors, Elizabeth started out at the National Committee on US-China Relations. From 1988 to 1998, she focused on expanding educational opportunities and strengthening social institutions in Beijing. In 1998, she moved to Nanjing and served as the American co-director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, overseeing the establishment of the center’s Institute for International Relations and a summer immersion Chinese language program. Later, she joined Kamsky Associates, a business strategy and investment advisory firm in Beijing. Elizabeth is on the board of the National Committee on US-China Relations. She has served on the boards of numerous nonprofits, including the Institute for Sustainable Communities, the Capacity Building and Assessment Center, and the Global Environment Institute. Elizabeth has a master’s degree from the University of Michigan’s Center for Chinese Studies and a B.A. in political science from Middlebury College.

Su Xiaohui (苏晓晖) serves as Deputy Director of the Department for American Studies at the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS). She has been associated with CIIS since 2004. Su Xiaohui is a frequent commentator on public affairs and diplomacy on Chinese media outlets, including China Central Television (CCTV) and China Global Television Network (CGTN). She has published on China-US relations and Asia-Pacific security. Su Xiaohui received her B.A. from the School of International Studies at Peking University in 2004, and her M.A. from China Foreign Affairs University in 2009.