On August 20th, the US-Asia Institute celebrated its 40th anniversary at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing. It sponsored a forum with four congressional delegations hosted by the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs and the National People’s Congress. 

The forum opened with a keynote and armchair discussion on Sino-US Relations: Rebuilding Trust,with Madam Fu Ying,Vice-Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress, former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs in charge of European and then Asian Affairs, and former Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines, Australia and the United Kingdom. Congresswoman Dina Titus and Wilfred Wong, President and COO, Sands China Ltd,  contributed to the conversation.

A panel discussion directly followed on the theme of Rebuilding Trust through Cooperation, featuring Susan Lawrence, Specialist in Asian Affairs at the Congressional Research Service, and Dr. Shao Yuqun, Director of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS), moderated by Timothy Stratford, Chairman, American Chamber of Commerce, China.

Later that evening the four USAI delegations joined with key partners and six Congressional staff delegations hosted by other exchange groups for a banquet in celebration of 40 years of US-China relations.