Conference Schedule

• Kal Raustiala, Director, Burkle Center for International Relations
• Qiu Shaofang, Chinese Consul General

• "Assignment: China -- The Week that Changed the World"
  • The Nixon trip was not just a geopolitical milestone, it was also a media extravaganza. America’s top journalists fought to cover the historic event. The USC U.S.-China Institute’s Assignment: China series features interviews with those journalists, as well as the American and Chinese officials who sought to shape the coverage. It also includes broadcast excerpts and never before released footage. Mike Chinoy, USCI senior fellow, reports and narrates the series. He was previously CNN’s Senior Asia Correspondent and Beijing Bureau Chief.

• H.R. Haldeman, White House Chief of Staff to President Nixon – first-hand video account of the 1972 China Summit

• Richard Solomon, USIP
• James Mann, Johns Hopkins (interviewer)

Panel I will assess the significance of the visit at the time, in the US as well as in China. What did the historic summit symbolize about the relationship between the two powers, and how was the summit received domestically in each? What larger impact did it have on the Cold War? In retrospect, were Nixon and Mao visionaries, or would other leaders have acted similarly?

Panelists

• Julia Strauss, University of London
• Timothy Naftali, New America Foundation
• Chen Jian, Cornell

Moderator

• Yunxiang Yan

Panel II will assess the enduring legacies of the summit. How have US-China relations evolved, and what role did Nixon’s visit, and the ensuing normalization of relations, play in subsequent developments? Looking back, what is the lasting meaning of the summit? Where are US-China relations today—and likely to be tomorrow?

Panelists

• Susan Shirk, UCSD
• Minxin Pei, Claremont McKenna
• Gen. Wesley Clark

Moderator

• Kal Raustiala