From August 5 to August 11, AFPC sent a delegation of rising foreign policy experts on a research visit to China.
The delegation members first traveled to the nation’s capital, Beijing, and then to Shanghai, the mega-city along the South Eastern coast. Mr. Brian Harding, Deputy Director for Southeast Asia at CSIS and former Pentagon Country Director for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, served as the head of the delegation. The other members of the eight-person delegation were from the private sector, committee and personal staff from the U.S. Congress, and AFPC staff (Vice President of Operations Richard Harrison, trip organizer and AFPC Research Fellow and Program officer Amanda Azinheira, staff support).
While in China, the delegates engaged with senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, the National Development and Reform Commission, Zhongguancun Innoway (a technology innovation incubator), the Development Research Center of the State Council, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and the Vice Minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the CPC (IDCPC). The discussions covered a wide array of topics, including bilateral relations with China, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), South China Sea, human rights violations, and other Chinese economic and security reforms.
