From November 25 through December 3, the Committee of 100 led five journalists from U.S. media to China as part of its Educational Exchange Program. Journalist delegation participants were: Clive Crook, senior editor of The Atlantic and columnist at Bloomberg View; Brian Lehrer, host of The Brian Lehrer Show;WNYC, Winnie O’Kelley, deputy business editor of The New York Times; Gary Silverman, U.S. news editor and deputy managing editor of the Financial Times; and Jonathan Tepperman, managing editor of Foreign Affairs.
2012 C100 Leadership Delegation at the Bund
Delegates visited Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, attending meetings covering a variety of topics: economy, culture, education, art, media, Chinese foreign policy, U.S.-China relations, finance, energy, and the political system. Journalists met with high-level Chinese government officials, opinion leaders, public intellectuals, scholars, business leaders, students, and local journalists. The delegation engaged in lively discussions with Tsinghua University professors and graduate students as well as students at a local Beijing middle school and enjoyed performances of guqin [Chinese lyre] and traditional Chinese Opera from the local arts community. C100 member Handel Lee, accompanied by other C100 Greater China Members – Ge Li, Dazong Wang, and Ya-qin Zhang– hosted the delegation’s dinner in Beijing.
Wanxiang Group Chairman Lu Guanqiu with Clive Crook, senior editor of The Atlantic
Delegates left China with a broadened perspective that should inform their future reporting.
Jonathan Tepperman, managing editor of Foreign Affairs articulated: “I have a much deeper, more subtle and more nuanced sense of [China] and of elite opinion. .I may not know the answers, but I feel like I now know some questions to ask. I wanted to say I’ve been on many press trips in the past and this was by far the best.”
A second participant, Clive Crook, senior editor of The Atlantic revealed what he learned amidst the plethora of new information and insights: “Very hard to say what was most valuable. Overall intellectual stimulation—new conviction that this is a huge and fascinating story, that the world is pivoting around this place, and that I need to follow what’s going on from now on far more closely.”
For more trip insights from C100 delegates, see the following media coverage:
“Why China and the U.S. Can Be Capitalist Comrades”
Clive Crook
Bloomberg View
December 4, 2012
“China’s Ghost Towns Won’t Have a Hard Landing”
Clive Crook
Bloomberg View
December 11, 2012
“The Mysterious Ways of the United States and China”
Clive Crook
The Atlantic
December 13, 2012
“China: the Politics and Business”
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Brian Lehrer
The Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC
December 6 – 14, 2012
“Cornered by a blushing LaMotta”
Gary Silverman
Financial Times
December 6, 2012
