Debate on Presidential Candidates' U.S. Policy Toward China

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The Committee of 100 and George Mason University sponsored a debate between advisors to the Obama and McCain campaigns on "A Framework for U.S. Policy toward China: Positions of the Presidential Candidates." The forum was held on Thursday, October 16, 2008, from 7:00PM to 8:30PM at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

The debate featured Randy Schriver for the McCain campaign and Dr. David Lampton for the Obama campaign. The event was moderated by Kathy Chen, Editor and Assistant Washington Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Randall Schriver, co-founder of Armitage International, previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs responsible for the PRC, Taiwan, Mongolia, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands and as Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor to Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. He is also President and CEO of Project 2049, a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that promotes international security and democratic institutions in the Asia-Pacific.

Dr. David Lampton, the George and Sadie Hyman Professor of Political Science at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University, is also the Director of China Studies at SAIS and the former President of the National Committee of US-China Relations in New York City. Dr Lampton is the author of several books and articles on China, the most recent of which is The Three Faces of Chinese Power: Might, Money, and Minds (2008).

Dr. Lampton emphasized that the U.S. relationship with China is one of the most important in the world. "An Obama administration, while recognizing that the relationship is not broken, would however seek to improve it in several areas. In the trade area, an Obama administration would support efforts to create more of a level playing field between the two countries and would also increase military-to-military ties."

Also starting from the premise that the U.S. relationship with China is one of the most important in the 21st century, Mr. Schriver noted that "a McCain administration would recognize the realities and complexities of the relationship and would focus on how to best to balance the competition between the two countries with the need and opportunities to cooperate to solve common problems in security, trade, energy, and the environment."

"The U.S.-China relations is the most important bilateral relationship in the 21st century," commented John L. Fugh, Chairman of the Committee of 100. "Whoever wins the election, a central challenge for the new President is to get America's relationship with China right. We hope this forum will help inform the public about the directions of this relationship."

Quoted from: http://www.committee100.org/