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Recommendation for special grant of $50,000 to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace for the 2021 U.S.-China Strategic Dialogue of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy   The Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy (CTC), based in Beijing, is one of the network of policy research centers established by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Other centers are based in Russia, India, Europe and the Middle East. CTC involves a partnership with Tsinghua University, an institution with close ties to the Chinese foreign affairs community and leadership.   The Center requests our support for the next round of its U.S.-China Strategic Dialogue, a Track II program initiated in 2010. We provided a special grant of $50,000 for this effort in 2020. CTC seeks the same level of support again, which would be matched with funding from the Ford Foundation-Beijing.   In the context of increasingly hawkish rhetoric and actions in both capitals, the Dialogue’s goal has been to facilitate a set of conversations to produce constructive suggestions on how Washington and Beijing can work together to avoid irretrievable damage to the relationship. In spite of COVID-19, last year CTC was able to pivot quickly from in-person meetings to a series of virtual convenings. The discussions were especially beneficial at a time when official diplomacy was at a standstill. In addition to analysis of the overall relationship, the sessions focused on the pandemic; technology/decoupling; and developments in the South China Sea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. The approach of pairing plenary discussion with frequent, smaller working group meetings to draft findings and joint recommendations proved effective. The findings and recommendations were shared in October 2020 with officials in the Chinese and U.S. governments as well as with many who have become members of the Biden administration (see below). CTC director Paul Haenle reports that interactions were candid, cordial and productive, resulting in many points upon which the two sides can build.   The 2021 Dialogue would follow the same general format, focused on devising an effective framework to manage competition, reduce confrontation, and facilitate cooperation. It would begin with a virtual session planned for this summer, with the intention to hold an in-person session in Beijing late in the year or early in 2022, conditions permitting. As in 2020, Stephen Hadley and Fu Ying will chair the respective American and Chinese delegations. Hadley was former U.S. National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush. Fu, former Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, is currently chair of the Center for International Strategy and Security at Tsinghua.   As the proposal highlights, participants from earlier dialogues have gone on to assume leading positions in the U.S. and Chinese governments. Past American participants now serving in the Biden administration include Kurt Campbell, Indo-Pacific Coordinator on the U.S. National Security Council; William Burns, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency; Julian Gewirtz, China Director on the National Security Council; and Melanie Hart, China Policy Coordinator serving the Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment. This kind of access provides assurance that the recommendations coming out of the Dialogue will reach high-level policymakers who will be receptive.   The requested funds would be applied to staff costs, travel and accommodation for American participants to Beijing, and hospitality for meetings. (If in-person is not possible, funds in these budget categories would be applied to the staff time required for additional virtual sessions, as was the case in 2020.) In addition to Ford’s support for the 2021 Dialogue, the Carnegie Corporation and Starr Foundation provide funding for CTC’s overall activities and operations. All of these organizations, who are members of the China Funders Group in which HLF participates, agree that the Dialogue remains an important informal channel of communication and source of independent, constructive ideas that can inform official policy formulation. Tsinghua University will also contribute toward the Dialogue’s roughly $140,000 budget.
Submitted by Helena Kolenda