Round Table Discussion with Robert Suettinger

On 16 December 2003, Robert L. Suettinger led a roundtable discussion at Arundel House, chaired by Adam Ward, on the prospects for US–China relations. Suettinger is the author of the critically well received Beyond Tiananmen: The Politics of US–China Relations, 1989–2000, which was published in June 2003 by the Brookings Institution. During a long career in the US government, Suettinger was among other posts, Director of Asian Affairs on the National Security Council and National Intelligence Officer for East Asia (both under the Clinton administration). In his remarks, Suettinger took up as his theme the continuing frailty of a bilateral relationship that US Secretary of State Colin Powell has described as being in better shape than at any time since President Richard Nixon’s visit to China.