Fourth Annual China Forum: Understanding the Nature of the Chinese Communist Party

Fourth Annual China Forum, held on Septembember 27-28 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC.

On September 27-28, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) convened the fourth annual China Forum at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., bringing together top experts, policymakers, and scholars to help Americans understand the nature of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and key issues in US-China relations.

The first day of the Forum featured a series of panels on topics including the CCP’s tools of economic and military coercion, its abysmal treatment of ethnic minorities, and its use of revisionist history as a tool for statecraft. Josh Rogin, a columnist for The Washington Post, moderated a discussion on how the CCP enforces domestic censorship and manipulates foreign journalists.

The panel also included The New York Times reporter Michael Forsythe who was suspended from Bloomberg News in 2013 for revealing that a story of his detailing corruption among Chinese officials was pulled after the CCP threatened to shut down the newspaper’s Beijing bureau. Forsythe unpacked some of the “red lines” journalists are greatly discouraged from crossing, especially if they report anything relating to President Xi Jinping’s background.

“The CCP does not directly censor foreign journalists, but it does find ways to suppress them.” — Michael Forsythe

Ursula Gauthier of the French publication L’Obs spoke on the difficulties of being a foreign journalist in China, noting how during multiple trips to China she had to conceal that she was a foreign corespondent to be able to speak with anyone other than CCP representatives.

“Foreign journalists cannot do their job anymore in China … it does not mean anything to be a journalist in China.” — Ursula Gauthier

Chairman Ted Yoho (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Asia, delivered a keynote address on the US=China strategic competition, the political and ideological nature of the CCP, and the paramount importance of the US-Taiwan relationship.

The Forum concluded with a private policy roundtable where scholars and experts discussed US options in dealing with China, the implications of Chinese infrastructure financing abroad, and the future of the US-China relationship.