China Relations Expert Attends Official
State Luncheon for China President Hu Jintao
Rex Graham | Jan. 24, 2011
Last week after lecturing UC San Diego students in her Chinese politics course, Susan Shirk boarded a plane for Washington, D.C. to lunch with China President Hu Jintao and most of his cabinet officers at an official state luncheon at the U.S. State Department. The lunch was co-hosted by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and included most of the Obama administration cabinet and other dignitaries and Chinese-American civic and business leaders.
Shirk is one of a several UC San Diego academics in the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) who move easily between classroom and high-level meetings and special assignments at the U.S. State Department, Office of the United States Trade Representative, Department of Defense, World Bank and other national and international agencies and organizations.
At UC San Diego, Shirk is director of the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) and Ho Miu Lam Professor of China and Pacific Relations at IR/PS. She and her colleagues at IGCC study a wide range of international topics involving security, environmental and economic policies that shape our ability to prevent conflict and promote cooperation across the globe.
Shortly after the luncheon Wednesday, cameras focused on Shirk, wearing a stylish red jacket during her appearance in the Washington, D.C. studio of the PBS News Hour. On the TV broadcast, she and other China politics experts analyzed shifts in U.S.-China relations resulting from the China president’s visit, including a joint statement from the two countries that included China’s commitment not to discriminate against foreign firms in government purchases of technology and its call for dialogue between North and South Korea. North Korea immediately made overtures to the South.
With cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing at the luncheon, Shirk was seated at a table with the Chinese minister of finance, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing and others. “Ambassador Kirk and I talked about Peter Cowhey,” said Shirk.
Cowhey, dean of IR/PS, served a 12-month assignment as the senior counselor to Ambassador Kirk in the Office of the United States Trade Representative under President Barack Obama.
“Cowhey’s many high-level relationships in Washington and my ongoing connections with the State Department enable us to keep up with what’s going on inside China and other Asian and Pacific Rim countries, and bring academics from China and other countries and senior U.S. administration officials to IR/PS to give talks and meet with our students,” said Shirk, who served in the Clinton administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, with responsibility for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden co-host a luncheon at the State Department for China President Hu Jintao.
Photo/
U.S. Department of State
“It was exciting to attend the state luncheon with the China president and his cabinet,” Shirk said, “and it gave me a good chance to talk to the participants on the substance of the meetings and learn about the negotiations that led to the joint statement.”
As a professor at UC San Diego, Shirk continues to play a key unofficial role in evolving relations between the U.S. and Asian countries as the founder and director of the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue since 1993. In 2009, the meeting of this annual unofficial “track two” forum at UC San Diego included high-level ministers and diplomats from North and South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and the United States. The meetings focused on nuclear nonproliferation and the global economic crisis and sought to increase understanding and trust among participants.
During the state visit last week, the Obama Administration pressed President Hu on a variety of contentious, ongoing issues, including human rights abuses, Chinese currency and trade policies, intellectual property protections and resumption of the now-suspended six-party talks to take up North Korea’s nuclear program.
“We felt quite pleased with the progress on North Korea and Chinese economic issues,” said Shirk. “Now we have to wait and see how they’re implemented.”
Shirk followed First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Clinton in wearing bright red dresses at official functions during last week’s China events in Washington, D.C., but Shirk’s choice of colors was a personal and symbolic one. “When I first went to China in 1971, the Chinese officials suggested I use Kodak film because it accurately captures the national color red,” Shirk said with a chuckle. “But red is also my favorite color.”
In addition to appearing last week on the PBS News Hour, where she is a frequent guest expert on China, Shirk was also interviewed last week for stories about the China president’s visit by the Washington Post, China Daily, United Press International and other media outlets. She also was a guest on radio public affairs programs hosted by Los Angeles radio stations KCET and KPFK.
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