Assignment China: A Conversation with Mike Chinoy

featuring

featuring
Mike Chinoy
Non-Resident Senior Fellow
U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California

Speaker’s summary:
The China beat is one of the toughest in journalism- and one of the most important. How the US media has covered the country has profoundly influenced American government policy and shaped public opinion, not only in the US but also, given the clout and reach of American news organizations, around the world. 

Assignment China, a remarkable new book by former CNN Beijing Bureau Chief Mike Chinoy, is the story of the American journalists who have covered China—from the Communist revolution of 1949 through the COVID-19 pandemic—told in their own words. 

Described by Judy Woodruff of PBS as “riveting reading for anyone who wants to understand China, or cares about how great reporters do their work, Assignment China provides important insights about China, journalism, and Sino-American relations at a critically important time.”

Speaker Bio

Mike Chinoy is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California. He spent 24 years as a foreign correspondent for CNN, serving as the network’s first Beijing bureau chief and senior Asia correspondent. Before joining CNN, Chinoy worked for CBS News and NBC News. He won Emmy, Dupont, and Peabody awards for his coverage of China. He is the author of five books: China Live: People Power and the Television Revolution, Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis, The Last POW, Are You With Me? Kevin Boyle and the Rise of the Human Rights Movement, and Assignment China. 

The China Seminar was founded by Dr. Daniel W.Y. Kwok 45 years ago. Under his guidance, it became a signature program of the Friends of the East-West Center (FEWC) in 2009. The program provides an informal venue for China experts, such as scholars, diplomats, and journalists, to present talks on aspects of China that interest the community and members of the Friends. Topics include politics, economics, social issues, history, culture, food, arts, and many other subjects. Though Dr. Kwok has recently retired from his involvement with the program, the FEWC and the East-West Center remain committed to continuing this important program.

Rendevous with Destiny? What Xi Jinping’s Third Term Means for Taiwan and the United States

featuring
Dr. Antonina Luszczykiewicz
Fulbright Senior Scholar
Indiana University, Bloomington

Speaker’s summary:
Dr. Antonina Luszczykiewicz will present possible scenarios for Taiwan and the United States after Xi Jinping’s re-election and the American midterm elections of 2022. She will explore the domestic challenges facing Beijing, Taipei, and Washington, and will analyze their impact on the Indo-Pacific and the future of the international order, asking if China’s “reunification” with Taiwan is a historical inevitability, as stated by Xi and every other leader of the PRC since Mao.

Dr. Antonina Luszczykiewicz is a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Indiana University, Bloomington, and a founding director of the Taiwan Lab research center at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Educated as a specialist in political and cultural history of China, India, and China-India relations, she has published three books and a wide range of articles focusing on China–India relations and the United States, the image of Indians and Chinese in literature and film, and the Cold War discourses and narratives in the Asian context. She is currently a non-resident fellow of the Taiwan Center for Security Studies at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan.


The China Seminar was founded by Dr. Daniel W.Y. Kwok 45 years ago. Under his guidance, it became a signature program of the Friends of the East-West Center (FEWC) in 2009. The program provides an informal venue for China experts, such as scholars, diplomats, and journalists, to present talks on aspects of China that interest the community and members of the Friends. Topics include politics, economics, social issues, history, culture, food, arts, and many other subjects. Though Dr. Kwok has recently retired from his involvement with the program, the FEWC and the East-West Center remain committed to continuing this important program.

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China: The Next Phase of the Global COVID Pandemic

featuring
Dr. Tim Brown
Senior Fellow, East-West Center

Speaker’s summary:

China, where the initial zoonotic transfer occurred that launched the COVID pandemic, held the beast at bay for three years with increasingly aggressive efforts to maintain zero COVID. However, ultimately, evolution won out and the virus became so transmissible that such efforts were ultimately doomed to failure. Early indications of this had been seen in New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong, places that also held it at bay for a time. This talk will review the current approach to COVID being taken in China and explore how it differs from the approaches taken in those other places. It will also explore the likely consequences of this uncontrolled spread and its potential implications for the global pandemic.

Dr. Tim Brown is a Senior Fellow in the Research Program at the East-West Center and heads the Center’s HIV modeling team, which produces the tools used by national HIV programs and modeling teams throughout Asia. His primary focus is on infectious disease modeling and its applications to public policy. He currently works with UNAIDS, Global Fund, Avenir Health, and other global and national partners to develop HIV estimation and projection tools and methodologies for countries, apply these to comprehensive policy analyses of HIV epidemics and effective responses to them, and support the development of improved strategic information systems in Asia and the Pacific. Like many working in HIV, Dr. Brown has been drawn into efforts to respond to the COVID pandemic in the last two and a half years. In a previous incarnation, he obtained his Ph.D. in High Energy Theoretical Physics from the University of Hawaiʻi.

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The China Seminar was established by Dr. Daniel W.Y. Kwok in 1977. Under his guidance, it became a signature program of the Friends of the East-West Center (FEWC) in 2009. The program provides an informal venue for China experts, such as scholars, diplomats, and journalists, to present talks on aspects of China that interest the community and members of the Friends.