On the spring season of this millennium year, USCF successfully held the first Session of "US-China Forum" entitled "Writing New Pages in Sino-US Relations-a 21st Century Perspective" on April 25th and 26th at Hilton Hotel in Manhattan, New York. USCF forged this two-day forum on the purpose of establishing much stronger Sino-US relations with a broader base of the two people. The "US-China Forum" of this millennium year marked its significance as a high-level exchange activity between the two countries, which could be best characterized as first time in history in terms of non-governmental activity, maintaining diversified topics in discussion of mutual cooperation in many areas, such as politics, economy, culture, science and technology, law, media and environmental protection etc. Many speeches given which had concentrated on timely sensitive issues like granting China PNTR status, attending WTO as well as peaceful settlement of Taiwan issue aroused widespread attention.
Forum opened with a welcome speech given by Mr. Larry L. Lee, the Executive Director of USCF. Dr. Ernest Scalberg, Senior Advisor to the Foundation and Dean of Fordham University Graduate School of Business Administration was the host. Opening ceremony followed with speeches given by Mr. Chai Zemin, first Chinese Ambassador to US, also General Advisor of USCF, Mr. John Holden, President of National Committee on US-China Relations, Ms. Nina Chan, Representative of Mr. George E Pataki, Governor of New York State, Mr. Chen Ranfeng, Spokesman of the Permanent Mission of People's Republic of China to the United Nations and a special representative of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations, Ms. Wang Hongming, General Manager of Dawn Garments Group, Mr. Shi Junqing, General Director of Rongchang Group
"Strengthened Sino-US ties will benefit both countries, because US can provide technologies and capital that China is in urgent need of, while China has a huge market potential for US to tap,?, the relationship between China and US will move forward despite of all kinds of obstacles." Said Mr. Chai Zemin, commenting on US-China relations as well as blessing the promising future of the two nations and the further communication and understanding of the two peoples.
Forum continued with session speeches and discussions in different sections. (Please sees the schedule of US-China Forum for detail.) During Luncheon Session, special speeches were given by Mr. James Sassor, former US Senator and Ambassador to China and Ms. Grace Vance, daughter and representative of Mr. Cyrus Vance, US Secretary of State, Manager Director of the Nature Conservancy.
In his speech, Mr. Sassor urged the US Congress to grant China PNTR status and expressed optimism about prospects for the peaceful settlement of the Taiwan issue, saying the Chinese mainland and Taiwan share a common historical and cultural heritage and fundamental interests.
People from both countries enjoyed the discussions. All participants could feel the importance of opening such an annual forum that could focus on specific discussions of the "Development of Sino-US Relations" and the urge on making each contribution to make this relationship a smoother and stronger one. Many of them showed their strong interests in approaching the membership of US-China Association, which is affiliated to USCF, and looking forward to the next session of "US-China Forum". The two-day forum ended with a farewell banquet and closing speeches which given by Mr. Zhang Hongxi, PRC Consul General in New York City, specially invited sponsors, General Manager of Bank of Communications New York.
On April 27th, at his office-'Henry Kissinger's Association', Dr. Kissinger was so glad to meet a group of representatives from the forum, including the ambassador Chai, Mr. Larry Lee, Mr. Xiao Yongzhen, Advisory Director of USCF, Ms. Wang Hongming, Mr. Shi Junqing, Ms. Song Lijun, Chief Editor from China Daily and Mr. Li Jinyuan, General Manager of Tianshi Group etc. Enthusiastically, Dr. Kissinger and Ambassador Chai switched and shared opinions on the understanding of several current issue ongoing with this US-China relations. At the same time, Mr. Larry Lee introduced Dr. Kissinger about USCF and the exchange work that the Foundation contributed to and the first session of "US-China Forum" activity. Dr. Kissinger was very interested in hearing of this activity and gave very high comments on it. Dr. Kissinger also expressed his wish on attending the second session of "US-China Forum" next year. During the conference, the same group of representatives also visited Mr. Vance, former US Secretary and his wife.
USCF, Fordham University Graduate School of Business, People's Daily Overseas Edition and China Daily jointly organized this first session of "US-China Forum".
