China Town Hall: Local Connections, National Reflections

Presentations by Norman J. Ornstein, Steve Orlins and Syndey Rittenberg where attendees are able to ask questions through webcast live.

China Town Hall is a national day of programming on China involving 40 cities throughout the United States. 

Mr. Ornstein’s presentation, including real-time Q&A segment, will be webcast live starting promptly at 4:00 p.m. until approximately 4:45 p.m. PST.  A “Question Kiosk” computer will be provided for local event attendees to submit their questions in real time.  Mr. Rittenberg's presentation will follow the webcast at approximately 5:00 p.m.

Thursday, April 17, 2008
3:45 PM to 6:00 PM
Stephens Lounge, 3rd Floor, Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union 

Norman J. Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.  He also serves as an election analyst for CBS News and writes a weekly column called "Congress Inside Out" for Roll Call newspaper.  He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and other major publications, and regularly appears on television programs such as The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline, and Charlie Rose.  He serves as senior counselor to the Continuity of Government Commission, working to ensure that our institutions of government can be maintained in the event of a terrorist attack on Washington.  His campaign finance working group of scholars and practitioners helped shape the major law, known as McCain/Feingold, that reformed the campaign financing system.  He is also co-directing a multi-year effort, the Transition to Governing Project, to create a better climate for governing in the era of the permanent campaign.

Mr. Ornstein is a member of the board of directors of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the Campaign Legal Center, and of the board of trustees of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society.  He was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and   Sciences in 2004.  His many books include The Permanent Campaign and Its Future, Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy, The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track--all co-authored with Thomas E. Mann; and Debt and Taxes: How America Got Into Its Budget Mess and What to Do About It, with John H. Makin.

Steve Orlins has been President of the National Committee since May 1, 2005.  Prior to becoming president, Mr. Orlins was the managing director of Carlyle Asia, one of Asia largest (USD 750M) private equity funds.  Since its founding in 1999, he has been
and remains the chairman of the Board of Taiwan Broadband Communications (TBC).  TBC is now one of the three largest cable television companies in Taiwan with over 640,000 subscribers.  Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Orlins was a senior advisor to AEA Investors Inc., a New York based leveraged buyout firm, with responsibility for AEA’s business activities throughout Asia. 

From 1983 to 1991, Mr. Orlins was with the investment banking firm of Lehman Brothers where he was a Managing Director from 1985 to 1991.  From 1987 to 1990, he served as President of Lehman Brothers Asia.  Based in Hong Kong, he supervised over 150
professionals with offices in Hong Kong, Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Manila and Singapore.  Prior to joining Lehman Brothers, Mr. Orlins practiced law with Coudert Brothers and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York, Hong Kong and Beijing.

From 1976 to 1979, Mr. Orlins served in the Office of the Legal Advisor of the United States Department of State, first in the Office of the Assistant Legal Advisor for Political-Military Affairs and then for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.  While in that office, he was a member of the legal team that helped establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.  Mr. Orlins is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and earned his law degree at Harvard Law School.  He speaks Mandarin Chinese and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  In 1992, Mr. Orlins was the Democratic nominee for the United States Congress in New York’s Third Congressional District.

Sidney Rittenberg is currently the President of Rittenberg Associates, Inc. Since 1986, he has been a senior advisor to major US and international corporations doing business in China. His clients included AIG, Intel, Nextel, Teledesic, Digital Equipment, ARCO, Hughes Aircraft, ICO, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Ford, Nintendo USA, Trammell Crow, Prudential Insurance (UK), Levi Strauss, Hershey, United Conveyers, Dan Rather (CBS News), Billy Graham and Family, USIS, etc. He has been a partner in the consulting firms Index Group and Kamsky & Rittenberg. He was the Vice Chairman for Asia at Computerland Corporation.  Mr. Rittenberg lived and worked in China for 35 years. He had worked with Chairman Mao Zedong (founder of the People’s Republic of China) and was a friend of Zhou Enlai (late Premier of China). He was close enough to late premier Deng Xiaoping to persuade him to agree to his first television interview with a Westerner: Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes. He maintains close relationships with people in high places in Beijing, as well as in Washington D.C.  Mr. Rittenberg graduated from the University of North Carolina and attended postgraduate studies at Stanford University. He is a Director of the Washington State China Relations Council, and a member of Rotary Club International.