Duke-UNC China Leadership Summit 2014

Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill host a three-day conference that brings together top students from the US and China to hear speakers and engage in discussions regarding current issues in Sino-US relations

CLS 2014

March 28-30, 2014

Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Theme: The Chinese Dream: Local Realities and Global Implications

中国梦：梦想照进现实

The Duke-UNC China Leadership Summit (CLS) is a three-day conference hosted each spring at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. CLS brings together top students from the US and China to hear speakers and engage in discussions regarding current issues in Sino-US relations. Half of the conference participants, known as delegates, will be selected from Duke and UNC and the other half will be selected from other universities. The conference will create a networking platform for all delegates to discuss issues related to the growing US-China rivalry  and explore opportunities for future collaboration on innovative ideas for tackling future issues.

CLS began in the fall of 2010 as a modest proposal on the parts of Elaina Giolando (UNC '11) and Zishu Chen (UNC '14) . Elaina and Zishu presented their ideas for a Duke-UNC China- related conference to Haoxiaohan Helen Cai (Duke'14) who started up the endeavor at Duke. Strong leaders from both schools, including McKay Roozen (UNC '12) and Jack Zhang (Duke '11), joined in and dedicated themselves to making this conference a success. CLS 2011 attracted forty delegates from the two universities. All delegates submitted both a written application and completed an interview prior to their selection. In 2012, CLS attracted more than 60 delegates including graduate students. New and ongoing partnerships were formed; a collaboration between the newly minted Duke Office of Global Strategies and Programs allowed two Chinese delegates from Wuhan University, Duke's sister university, to attend CLS. The 2014 will host more students but will not compromise quality for quantity. After the 2012 conference delegates said that while the speakers were inspiring, the networking opportunities at CLS were the most memorable. The 2014 conference will accept applications from out of state students and graduate students.

Additionally, in response to popular demand from UNC CLS delegates, UNC has created the Carolina China Network , an organization that provides China-related academic events and news throughout the year.

On the Duke side, Duke East Asian Nexus (DEAN) is a large sponsor of our conference. DEAN is a student organization that seeks to enrich the Duke Community's understanding of political, economic, and cultural issues facing the region of East Asia.