A nine member American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) delegation visited China from December 10-16, the latest in a line of annual delegations reaching back to 1994. AFPC Vice President Richard Harrison organized the visit, which was led by former Under-Secretaries of State Robert Joseph and William Schneider. Other delegation members included AFPC President Herman Pirchner, Jr.; AFPC Senior Fellow for Asia and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia Pacific Security Affairs, James Clad; presidential appointee in the Reagan and successive U.S. administrations, the Hon. Diana Denman; the Hoover Institution board of overseers member, Stephen Kahng; Founder and President of ISC International Ltd., David Meister; and Policy Analyst for Gingrich Productions Inc., Claire Christensen. The delegation met with senior Party and government officials in Beijing and visited Shenyang, the capital of one of two Chinese provinces contiguous to North Korea.
Discussions focused heavily on the evolving North Korea nuclear weapons/missile development crisis, and on how to slow and/or abate momentum by Pyongyang towards deployable functioning nuclear weapons. The delegation’s discussions also traversed strategic competition, deepening U.S.-India relations, Taiwan’s future path, U.S.-China energy cooperation, Russia’s place in Chinese foreign policy, and even the impact of changes to U.S. tax law.
