The 2nd Annual Tufts University Symposium on China took place on Friday in Cabot Intercultural Center, examining U.S.-Sino relations from economic, environmental and military perspectives.
Retired Rear Admiral Eric McVadon delivered the keynote address, called the David Rawson Memorial Lecture, at the end of the event, which was sponsored by the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL), the Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES) and IGL group.
McVadon's speech, which expressed hope for the future of relations between the United States and China, drew heavily on his military background.
"There are real reasons for distrusting others," McVadon said. "But there are more and better reasons" to trust China, he added.
McVadon predicted an improvement in relations between the two nations under the Obama administration.
"President [Barack] Obama will be pragmatic with respect to China," he said, adding that the "bilateral relationship has moved from markedly adversarial."
He said that, in its foreign relations, the United States must balance "the need to hedge and the desire to engage, the prospect of confrontation and the pursuit of cooperation.
"A new relationship has come about," McVadon added, "The United States and the People's Republic of China are, at a minimum, part-time partners."
McVadon also expressed an optimistic outlook about relations between China and Taiwan.
"With a new president in Taiwan who is more conciliatory and less independence-minded, tensions have eased," he said. "[Chinese citizens] think there has been enough intimidation."
Sophomore Daniel Yoon, the campus representative for Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps, helped organize the event.
"I spent four hours with [McVadon] this morning," Yoon said on Friday. "This guy knows just about everything there is to know on U.S.-China relations."
Senior Candice Montalvo organized the symposium, continuing the event that Leah Averitt (LA '08) began last year. Montalvo collaborated with ALLIES and the IGL to obtain keynote speakers and funding and to organize the symposium.
"It looks like it will probably find a home base within the IGL somehow," Montalvo said. "I am really happy because I would like for it to continue."
The three-part symposium included two panels, entitled "U.S.-China Economics and the Global Recession" and "Environmental and Energy Policy in China."
The three speakers at the panel on the economy included Usha C.V. Haley, an Asia Programs Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, and Tufts Associate Professor of Economics David Dapice.
The speakers for the other panel included Jialiang Xu, a professor of public administration and director of the Center for Civil Society and Local Governance at Beijing Normal University and visiting scholar at Harvard University (of Fairbank Center of Chinese Studies); Avraham Ebenstein, who has examined the health impacts of environmental deterioration in China; and Hongyan He Oliver, a post-doctoral research fellow at the Kennedy School.
