China Rising

Principia College's Public Affairs Conference celebrates its 60th anniversary by presenting a conference on China's rise in politics, economics, resources, and culture.

Public Affairs Conference 2009

Celebrating its 60th anniversary, Principia College's Public Affairs Conference is the oldest student-run conference of its kind in the United States. Every year at PAC, student delegates gather together with professional experts and faculty to discuss the most relevant issues of the time. This year's conference will be on China Rising - particularly on China's politics, economics, resources, and culture.

Speakers confirmed for this year's PAC include Jonathan Spence, Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and recent lecturer for the BBC Reith Lecture Series; Minxin Pei, senior associate in the China Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and Cheng Li, senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center and the William R. Kenan Professor of Government at Hamilton College. Other speakers will include Elizabeth Economy, David Michael Lampton and Nicholas Lardy.

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8:00 – 10:00 pm David Michael Lampton The Three Faces of Chinese Power: Might, Money and Minds

9:00 – 10:30 am Panel Session 1: Regional Perspectives on Rising China

    * Speaker 1- China and its Asian Neighbors
    * Speaker 2- China and Africa
    * Speaker 3- China and Latin America

10:45 – 12:15 pm Panel Session 2: The Chinese Economy

    * Nicholas Lardy - Understanding China’s Remarkable Economic Growth
    * Speaker 2 - The Experience of Foreign Business in China
    * Daniel Wright - The U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue

12:30 – 1:15 pm Lunch

1:30 – 2:30 pm Elizabeth Economy: China’s Environmental Crisis

2:45 – 5:30 pm Policy Workshops according to assignment.

6:30 – 7:45 pm Banquet

8:00 – 10:00 pm Cheng Li and Minxin Pei: China’s Political Future: Decay or Development?

9:00 – 10:00 am Albert Willner: China: Security Perspectives

10:15 – 11:45 am Panel Session 3: Human Rights in China

    * Speaker 1- The Current Human Rights Situation
    * Speaker 2- Human Rights and Outside Pressure
    * Speaker 3- Tibet

12:00 – 2:30 pm Lunch in Workshop Groups followed by Workshop Presentations

3:00 – 4:30 pm Jonathan Spence: China and the United States: Past and Future