Committee of 100 Newsletter

Hope and Fear: American and Chinese

“Integrating U.S., Chinese Views
Can Build Bridges”
By Frank H. Wu
Detroit Free Press
December 13, 2007

This week, a nonprofit group called the Committee of 100 released an unprecedented mirror survey of American attitudes toward China and Chinese attitudes toward America. Founded by prominent Chinese Americans such as cellist Yo-Yo Ma and architect I.M. Pei, C-100 promotes good relations between China and America, along with participation of Chinese Americans in public life.

This new study reveals a paradox of hope and fear. On the one hand, both sides see common interests in trade relations. Americans are more likely to blame their own government, rather than China, for the U.S. trade deficit with China, which hit $232 billion in 2006.

Winter 2008 | Newsletter

Winter 2008
New C100 Parallel Survey Of Americans And Chinese Shows Mutual Perceptions Are Characterized By Both Hope & Fear

Recent Awards to C100 Members

H.K. Chang, who recently retired as President and University Professor of City University of Hong Kong, received the Medal of Excellence in Engineering Education from the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) in New Delhi at its General Assembly on November 15. This award is presented biennially by WFEO, a federation of national engineering organizations from 90 countries representing 8 million engineers that operates under UNESCO to address social issues from peace to sustainable development. Chang was honored for his contributions to engineering education and to building the engineering programs at the six universities where he taught from 1975 to 2007. Chang received two honorary professorships in China, from Tsinghua University on December 7, and from Xi’an Jiaotong University.

Hollywood film star Joan Chen has been winning award after award for her performance in the highly-praised 2007 Australian film, The Home Song Stories, directed by Tony Ayres. Chen plays a single mother and nightclub singer who leaves Shanghai to marry a sailor in Australia and finds herself once again adrift. In Australia, Chen won three “best actress” awards, from the Australian Film Institute, Inside Film and Critics Circle. In Taiwan, she won the Golden Horse Award for Best Leading Actress, considered the equivalent of Asia’s Oscars. And, the film was Australia’s official entry into the Foreign Film category of the 2008 Academy Awards. In March, The Home Song Stories was shown at the San Francisco Film Festival.

U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (UCIS) Director Emilio T. González presented C-100 Chairman John L. Fugh with the “Outstanding American by Choice” certificate on January 15 at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Washington, D.C. This initiative recognizes naturalized American citizens who have “demonstrated their commitment to this country and to the common civic values that unite us as Americans” by their “civic participation, professional achievement and responsible citizenship.” Fugh was born in Beijing and came to the U.S. at age 15 with his family. The first Chinese American General in the U.S. Army, Fugh graduated from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and George Washington University Law School. He retired from the U.S. Army in 1993, as The Judge Advocate General with the rank of Major General. In this position, Fugh managed the Army’s worldwide legal organization. In addition to chairing the Committee of 100, Fugh is also a director and member of the executive committee of the Atlantic Council.

Lawrence Tu, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Dell, Inc., was honored by the Asian American Bar Association of New York, on February 7 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square. Before joining Dell in 2004, Tu was Executive Vice President and General Counsel at NBC Universal. Earlier in his career, Tu spent time in Asia as managing partner of the Hong Kong office of the law firm O’Melveny & Myers and as General Counsel Asia-Pacific for Goldman Sachs. Prior to entering the private sector, Tu was an attorney for the U.S. State Department and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. He is a member of the board of directors of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association and is one of the top Asian Americans in the legal profession.

C100 Delegation Calls on Chinese Leaders in Beijing

Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), was among the Chinese leaders who met privately with Committee members last November, when the Committee held its Greater China conference in Beijing. Covered extensively in the Chinese media, the C-100 delegation included Chairman John L. Fugh, H.K. Chang, Pehong Chen, Leroy Chiao, Henry Lee, Kai-Fu Lee, Cheng Li, Howard Li, Xiaobo Lu, Jenny Ming, Henry Tang, Executive Director Alice Mong, and Public Affairs Director An Ping. The NPC Chairman welcomed suggestions from the Committee delegation, saying that the members understood both cultures. At each meeting, Committee members gave a preview of “Hope and Fear,” the C-100 mirror survey released in December.

Wu told the delegation that the Communist Party had set itself two important tasks after the 17th Party Congress in October: social justice and balancing economic development. “For the moment, when people refer to China’s development, they say that Chinese cities are on a equal levels with European cities; but the development level of Chinese villages is similar to that of African villages.”

The Committee also met with NPC Vice Chairman Sheng Huaren and had a roundtable discussion with Lu Congmin, Vice Chairman of the NPC Foreign Affairs Committee and other NPC members. Liu Qi, Chairman of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, thanked C-100 for supporting Beijing’s bid to host the 2008 Olympiad. Other leaders visited were Liu Yandong, Vice Chairman, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, who gave a briefing on the 17th Party Congress; Cai Wu, Director of the State Council Information Office; and Wang Chao, Assistant Minister, Ministry of Commerce. Wang said that of the 50,000 American companies that have invested in China, over half have turned a profit. He said that China took product safety seriously and had formed a special task to deal with it.
–Thanks to An Ping for her assistance with this article.