For Your Attention: Recommended by the Committee of 100

“Witness to 30 Years of China-U.S. Relations”

March 2009 | By Jane Leung Larson

“Witness to 30 Years of China-U.S. Relations” is an interview with Jan Carol Berris, Vice President of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR) published in the January 15 issue of Beijing Review. A good friend of the Committee of 100, Berris’ career in U.S.-China relations is actually closer to 40 years long. She came on board the National Committee in 1971 and played a large role in hosting the Chinese Ping Pong Team on its visit to the U.S. in 1972, the first of the hundreds of Chinese delegations for which the National Committee (and Berris) would be responsible. Berris first went to China in 1973, and about 100 trips later, she was a member of the 45-person American delegation to China in January to celebrate the 30th anniversary of normalization, a trip that the National Committee co-sponsored (and that C-100 Chairman John L. Fugh and Executive Director Alice Mong were invited to join). Berris is possibly the American with the longest continuous career in U.S.-China relations, and her prescription to both countries for a positive future is: “To be open, curious, and try to trust one another.” (Read the article)