Event Summary
On July 1-4, 1998, the Preventive Defense Project hosted a conference entitled "Global Security Trends and U.S.-China Defense Relations" in Honolulu, Hawaii with the support of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.
The conference brought together senior officers of the People''s Liberation Army, American experts on China, and former American and Chinese defense officials. The heads of the Chinese delegation were Wang Daohan, Chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, and Admiral Li Yao-wen, former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. William Perry and Ashton Carter led the American delegation which included General Brent Scowcroft; General Karl Eikenberry, U.S. Defense Attach to the PRC; and Ambassador Robert Blackwill. During the three-day conference, participants discussed East Asian security issues, the Taiwan question, South Asian security, and the future of U.S.- China military-to-military relations. Both the Chinese and American delegations were guests of Admiral Joseph Prueher, Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Command, and observed the Fourth of July festivities at Schofield Barracks, the largest army base in Honolulu. The conference was part of the Preventive Defense Project''s ongoing initiatives to help identify and forestall global and regional developments that could pose major new threats to US interests. The talks were fruitful and will lead to a return visit by the Preventive Defense Team to China in March 1999. The project, which is directed by Ashton Carter and William Perry, is a joint venture between Stanford University and Harvard University and is a multi-year effort supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and private sources.