CHINA Town Hall Held With Dr. Zbigniew Brezezinski Focus on U.S.-China Relationships and Legal Implications

University of California Hastings College of the Law was honored to have been selected to host the 2011 CHINA Town Hall: “Local Connections, National Reflections,” a national day on China involving 50 cities throughout the United States, on November 15.

The Town Hall featured a national interactive webcast with Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski and a local panel on the legal dimensions of the U.S.-China relationship. The program was presented before an auditorium of law students, alumni, faculty, law practitioners and China scholars. Keith J. Hand, associate professor of law, UC Hastings, and Nicholas Calcina Howson, professor of law, University of Michigan, served on the panel.

Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former National Security Advisor and Counselor and Trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was introduced by Mr. Stephen A. Orlins, president, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, who moderated the national webcast.

Dr. Brzezinski shared diplomatic insights into U.S.-China relations with the understanding that “educational answers about China will help fashion policies that will benefit the United States. “Today, each side knows—and their leadership knows—that we need each other. The new historical context in which we operate gives us a perspective on how to handle the future,” Brzezinski said. “Let’s not, at this stage, prejudge the trajectory of the U.S.-Chinese relationship.”

Following his remarks, Dr. Brzezinski opened up the discussion and answered questions submitted by email from across the country. From Peoria, Illinois to Seattle, Pittsburg, and New York City, viewers queried him on a vast number of subjects, including fair trade, human rights violations, philosophical differences, and China’s investments in Africa.

During the second part of the program, Chancellor and Dean Frank H. Wu introduced panel presenters Keith Hand and Nicholas Calcina Howson, who spoke on the legal dimension in the U.S.-China relationship. “The future is China,” Dean Wu said. “We need to acknowledge the importance of the role a Pacific Rim law school such as U.C. Hastings can play. UC Hastings has made East Asia an important part of its curriculum, planning and development.”

Associate Professor Hand focused on human rights and rule of law development, which he said was “an area of ongoing tension and strain.” Hand posed the question, “Has China abandoned law?” and emphasized that “this is a complex system; there are many cross currents. We need to be thinking on long-term time horizons, stay the course, and accept that our ability to influence these events is limited. We need to continue engaging Chinese on these issues.”

Professor Nicholas Calcina Howson next discussed cross-border investment issues. He spoke about the phenomenon of China’s outbound investment and made a case for why outbound investment is beneficial to the United States. “There is a huge stock of potential investment that could come from the United States.”

Howson believes that this investment by the Chinese firms and capitalization has a number of benefits for China and Chinese law. He cited as benefits enhanced transparency, better compliance, improved corporate governance, and better labor and union rights.

"This was a crash-course update on the US-Sino relationship,” Cheong Kyle Chuah, Esq.’10 said. “Dr. Brzezinski, Professor Hand and Professor Howson were all forefront experts with regard to the current state of affairs between the United States and China."

The Town Hall was cosponsored by the National Committee on United States-China Relations and University of California Hastings College of the Law.

About UC Hastings College of the Law

UC Hastings College of the Law was founded in 1878 as the first law department of the University of California. Located in San Francisco's Civic center, steps from City Hall, the State and Federal Buildings, the State Supreme, Superior and Appellate Courts as well as the United States District Court and Court of Appeals, the law school is an integral part of the fabric of the City of San Francisco and the California judicial system. Over the past 133 years, UC Hastings has served as the law school of choice for an ever-increasing diversity of students. Now, UC Hastings alumni span the globe and are among the most respected lawyers, judges, public servants, and business leaders today.