The China Forum, an annual conference hosted by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, starts at 9 a.m. ET on Oct. 18.
The meeting features former United States Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger, Chairman of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), and other experts.
The China Forum was founded to help Americans understand the nature of China, the Chinese Communist Party, and key issues in U.S.–China relations.
Agenda:
9 a.m.—9:15 a.m. ET
Opening Remarks: Amb. Andrew Bremberg, president and CEO, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
Chairman’s Remarks: Edwin J. Feulner, chairman, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
9:15 a.m.—9:45 a.m. ET
Keynote Remarks
9:45 a.m.—10:40 a.m. ET
Technology, Authoritarianism, and Big Tech’s Compliancy
The unique paring of an authoritarian government with highly advanced technology has resulted in the world’s most sophisticated police state, and the CCP is determined to export these measures to regimes around the world. The panelists will discuss the extent to which the CCP seeks to disrupt global norms governing the use of technology to repress people both at home and abroad and how Silicon Valley is unwittingly or wittingly complicit.
10:45 a.m.—11:40 a.m. ET
Global Governance: World Order with Chinese Characteristics?
Now more than ever the CCP appears confident that their system of governance is ascendant. This now poses a serious question for the United States and its allies: Does the CCP intend to export this system of governance in the same way that the Soviet Union did? This panel will explore the ways in which the CCP is promoting its authoritarian system overseas, or at least using its growing influence to silence dissent against it.
11:45 a.m.—12:40 p.m. ET
China’s Frontiers: The CCP and Colonial Legacies
How do we view China: a nation, a civilization, or an empire? In 1949 the CCP inherited a vast landmass that encompassed countless cultures, languages, and ethnic groups. Mao implemented a Leninist system that promised many of these unique groups autonomy within a socialist state. However, under Xi Jinping and his “second-generation ethnic policies,” it seems that the CCP has resurrected the same kind of colonialism that was practiced by the empires of the 19th century. This panel will focus on the crises facing the nations that live along China’s historical frontiers, namely the Turkic peoples, Tibetans, and Mongols as well as how Hong Kong fits into this discussion.
12:40 p.m.—1:30 p.m. ET
Luncheon
1:30 p.m.—2:25 p.m. ET
Supply Chain and Forced Labor
Reports published in the past year by Victims of Communism have presented new evidence that hundreds of thousands of indigenous laborers in Xinjiang are being forced to pick cotton, attend “vocational training,” and being deported to other parts of the country as part of a coercive state-mandated labor transfer and “poverty alleviation” scheme, with possibly drastic consequences for global supply chains. This panel will discuss this evidence, its implications, and what can be done to affect change.
2:30 p.m.—3:25 p.m. ET
The Myth of Chinese Financial Hegemony
China is home to the largest finance sector in the world, but it may not be as strong as it seems. The Global Magnitsky Act empowered free governments to sanction individuals responsible for human rights abuses. The free world appears to be on the verge of taking the next step, which is to target private companies whose support of governmental actions makes the abuses possible. This panel will discuss the risks run by U.S. and Chinese businesses providing material support for China’s human rights abuses. Additionally, panelists will discuss how multinational corporations are enabling Beijing’s repression and what can be done to hold them to account.
3:25 p.m.—3:30 p.m. ET
Closing Remarks: Amb. Andrew Bremberg, president and CEO, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
