Chinese Politics and Foreign Policy Seminar
In this series, experts from academia and government offer unique perspectives on contemporary trends in Chinese politics and society and in foreign policy.


Monday, September 28, 2009  12:15 pm

US-China Relations and President Obama's First Visit to Beijing
Dennis Wilder, Brookings Institution

In November, President Obama is expected to visit China as part of his first visit to East Asia. He will attend the APEC summit in Singapore. This is a good time to take stock of the state of play in the bilateral relationship and the challenges ahead for US and PRC policy makers. In order to do this, it is important to reflect on some of the lessons learned during the Bush Administration. The Bush era saw a remarkable transformation of bilateral ties from the EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft crisis of April 2001 to President Bush attendance at the Beijing Olympics and the bilateral cooperation during the opening days of the international financial crisis.    

Dennis C. Wilder is a visiting fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.  Mr. Wilder served on the National Security Council first as China director and then as special assistant to the president and senior director for East Asian Affairs from August 2004 until January 2009.  During his NSC tenure, Mr. Wilder organized President Bush's visits to Asia in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, including the President's visit to Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics.  He came to the NSC from the Central Intelligence Agency where, from 1995 to 2005, he served as the chief of China analytic studies. 

Location: CGIS South, Room S010 (Tsai Auditorium)
1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA
Contact: lkluz@fas.harvard.edu