Discussants analyze the current trends and forces that have been driving--and blocking--political opening in China in the reform era. Four panels were convened: (1) China's Political Development since 1979, (2) The Changing Communist Party, (3) Emerging Pluralism in China, and (4) China's Legal Reform.

Discussants analyze the nature of organized peasant rebellions in rural China.

General Xiong Guangkai, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, was the guest of honor in a roundtable discussion on U.S.-China security issues, jointly hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Brookings Institution.

In the first session of a two-part conference series, over 120 leading observers of U.S.-China relations attended a forum featuring prominent specialists to engage in discussion on the challenges of China’s rapidly changing political, economic and social situation.

The almost single-minded interest in the personnel matters surrounding China's upcoming leadership transition ignores a far more important point: very serious underlying issues of governance await China's next leadership, no matter who this might be.