Committee of 100 Newsletter

From the Committee of 100 Chairman

Dominic Ng

March 2012

The February visit of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping to the United States gave Americans a positive impression of China’s next leader and bodes well for a more open and productive relationship between our two countries. I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Vice President Xi in both Washingt on, D.C. and Los Angeles. He impressed me as being a down-to-earth Chinese leader with whom we can have a genuine exchange of views.

At a luncheon co-hosted by the Committee of 100 in Washington, Vice President Xi emphasized the importance of people-to-people ties in building mutual trust and recalled his first trip to the U.S. 27 years ago when he was hosted by a farm family. On this trip, he took a break from meetings with American government and business leaders to renew these friendships in the small town of Muscatine, Iowa. Vice President Xi also affirmed to me that he welcomed the next Committee of 100 delegation to China, which is planned for late 2012 or early 2013.

Honorable Mentions: Recent Awards to C-100 Members—Joan Chen, San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival Spotlight Honoree

Director and actress Joan Chen is the Festival Spotlight Honoree at the 30^th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, with three of her films showcased. The Festival is recognizing Chen because of her “indelible contribution to the Asian American experience through film.” Chen’s latest film, White Frog by Quentin Lee, received its world premiere on opening night, March 8, in which she and B.D. Wong play the less than perfect parents of a teenage boy with Asperger’s syndrome who rises above a family tragedy.

Chen’s directorial debut film was Xiu Xiu: the Sent-Down Girl, about the Cultural Revolution (1998) and featured March 9. A reunion of the cast of Saving Face (2004), a romantic comedy starring Chen and directed by Alice Wu, was on March 12.

Commerce Secretary John Bryson and Philanthropist Michael Milken are Among Keynoters at 21st Annual “Common Ground” Conference in Los Angeles

 

 

 

 

April 19-21
The Langham Huntington Hotel and Spa
Pasadena, California

Los Angeles hosts the 21st Committee of 100 Annual “Common Ground” Conference from April 19 to 21 to survey trending issues in U.S.-China relations and among Chinese Americans.

How will the outcome of the 2012 U.S. election and China’s Party Congress affect the Sino-American relationship? What challenges and choices lie ahead for U.S.-China bilateral investments? How are social investors in the U.S. and China transforming both countries? What are the new frontiers in the global film industry?

Angel Island Immigration Station’s Web Exhibition Features Joan Chen and Jenny Ming

"Immigrant Voices,” a web exhibition of contemporary Chinese American immigrant stories presented by the Angel Island Immigration Station, includes intimate profiles of two Committee of 100 members - actress and director Joan Chen and fashion retailing executive Jenny Ming. 

Chen arrived in the U.S. as a teenage movie star in 1981, and Ming emigrated with her parents from Macau to San Francisco in 1964.  Below are excerpts from these absorbing profiles:

Committee of 100 Receives $250,000 from Wanxiang Corporation for “100,000 Strong” Teachers Program

During Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping recent visit to the United States, the State Department announced a $250,000 grant from the Wanxiang Corporation to the Committee to send California middle and high school teachers on a study tour to China. As a component of the State Department’s “100,000 Strong” Initiative, the Committee of 100 Wanxiang Teaching Scholars Program is based on a signed memorandum of understanding between Wanxiang and C-100.

The 2012 C-100 Summer Institute on China will be an intensive four-week program from June 18 to July 14, combining a week of lectures and instructional strategy planning in San Mateo with three weeks of travel and study in China. This year, in keeping with the Wanxiang sponsorship, the theme will be “Renewable Energy—Science and Policy.” The Wanxiang Group is a multinational Chinese auto parts and electric car manufacturer.

To date, Wanxiang has pledged $4.5 million in support of the “100,000 Strong” Initiative to increase the number of Americans studying in China. Read about recent gifts to support the 100,000 Strong Initiative in this February 24 State Department fact sheet.

California science and social science middle and high school teachers are invited to apply before March 23 for the 2012 Summer Institute. For information, contact: Karen Williams, San Mateo County Office of Education, (650) 802-5554, or kwilliams@smcoe.k12.ca.us.

Newsmakers: Links to Members in the News—Cheng Li

Brookings Institution’s Cheng Li, Research Director and Senior Fellow of the Thornton China Center, was interviewed by Gwen Ifill on the PBS Newshour  February 14, during Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit to the U.S. Li remarked that while Xi was generally considered politically conservative, he took a courageous stand on a highly sensitive political issue during his tenure as Party Secretary of Zhejiang province. In 2007, Xi allowed the ashes of the U.S. Ambassador to China (1946-1949), John Leighton Stuart, a man famously denounced by Chairman Mao as a symbol of American imperialism, to be buried in Hangzhou. Stuart, the son of missionaries, was born in Hangzhou in 1876. The late C-100 Chairman John Fugh (whose father, Philip Fugh, was Stuart’s lifelong assistant) escorted Stuart’s ashes to China.

Li went on to note that Xi was more concerned with how the Chinese domestic audience perceived his visit to U.S. than with how Americans responded to him. Li commented that “certainly [Xi] has a more important audience at home, because he has a dilemma. If he is perceived as unnecessarily confrontational and not like a statesman or global leader, that will hurt him. But if he is perceived as a person very soft toward the United States or too accommodating to the United States or even sacrifices China's interests, that will be a disaster. So he’s got to keep a balance.”

Committee Celebrates Lunar New Year on Capitol Hill

On February 14, C-100 hosted a “Year of the Dragon” Lunar New Year Reception in Washington D.C. in the Gold Room of the Rayburn House Office Building. The guests were Asian Pacific American leaders, Members of Congress and Congressional staffers, media representatives, and other honored guests.