President Carter's decision to normalize the relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China in 1979 changed China, the United States, and the world. The Carter Center's China Program is dedicated to preserving this legacy and advancing U.S.-China relations by building synergy between China and the United States on issues of global importance, including fostering greater cooperation between them in other nations, providing resources and scholarship, and nurturing the next generation of young leaders who can shape the critical U.S.-China bilateral relationship to be a cornerstone of global peace and prosperity.
The China Program is initiating pilot programs to highlight the benefits of coordinated and collective action between the United States and China in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This includes developing a platform to monitor and report on regional crises that could result in internal chaos and damage the crucial U.S.-China relationship. The program encourages multilateral dialogue to help resolve local conflicts, provide advice and assistance to local economic development and political reform efforts, and produce confidence-building measures for the U.S.-China relationship.
Complexities in U.S.-China relations require the next generation of leaders in both countries to be innovative problem solvers and analysts with fresh approaches to the global impact of U.S.-China bilateral relations. The China Program is developing a framework for simulated U.S.-China negotiations on regional and global issues to enhance policy education for future leaders who will either manage or influence bilateral collaboration outside the two countries. The Center also will select young scholars and professionals to be fellows working in the United States or China to monitor issues impacting U.S.-China relations and identify policy analyses to inform decision-makers and opinion makers.
The China Program produces original scholarship that provides action-oriented insights for advancing U.S.-China collaboration on global issues. Central to this, the program convenes an annual Carter Center Forum on U.S.-China Relations and organizes workshops on subjects crucial to both countries in collaboration with partners in China and other countries. Conference proceedings and workshop papers are published online or in print.
In 2000, the China Program helped launch a website on villager self-government in China that quickly became one of the most comprehensive websites on grassroots democracy in China. Today, the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs maintains a website. Two years later, the Center launched http://www.chinaelections.org/, which became the most visited political reform portal inside and outside China.
In 2008, the China Program and the Center's Global ATI Initiative jointly launched http://www.chinatransparency.org/. Since 2013, the China Program has followed a select community of 100 influential Weibo bloggers at www.weibochina.org, where policymakers, scholars, and ordinary people can observe a China different from official media reports. Also in 2013, the program launched the website http://www.uscnpm.org/ to provide updates on a wide range of topics related to U.S.-China relations, including foreign policy, economy and trade, and social media.
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Carter Center websites in China have become popular platforms for gathering information and exchanging views on political reform.
Meet people whose lives have been changed by the Carter Center's China Program.
