March 16, 2000

(Note: These are unedited and uncorrected transcripts

RABBI SAPERSTEIN: Our final panel is trying to provide policy options the United States might follow and help us understand why and what the impact of certain policy options might have and why in China.

May I ask people, if they want to talk to our guests from the former panel, if they could walk to the back of the room.

Gare Smith was formerly the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for the BHL, Bureau of the State Department Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, where he served under John Shadack (phonetic), the current assistant secretary there. He earlier served as the senior policy foreign council advisor to Senator Ted Kennedy. So he brings experience in two of three branches of government to the table, and he's been working for two decades on questions of corporate responsibility, human rights; and recently served as vice president for external affairs at Levi Strauss Company, supervising the global implementation of their code of conduct, that's often cited as an example for corporate responsibility across the world. He has recently become affiliated with the law firm of Foley, Hoag & Elliott in its Washington office.

Father Drew Christiansen for seven years was the director of the Office of International Justice and Peace at the United States Kappa Conference. He has been an associate professor of theology at the Institute of International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He has authored over 70 articles on moral theology, ethics and international affairs. I've had the personal pleasure of benefiting from his wisdom, working closely together on several projects between the Jewish and Catholic community and the interfaith community, addressing the issues of public policy; and his insightfulness and moral vision on these was invaluable to us. Now affiliated with Woodstock Theological Center of Georgetown University.

Finally, Dr. Merle Goldman is professor of history at Boston University, a research associate at the John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University. She also serves on the faculty of the foreign services of the United States State Department. She has served in the past as member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. She has authored books on China's intellectuals and democracy in China, and has just published a new and updated and enlarged edition coauthored with John Fairbank of this classic work, "China, a New History."

We are delighted to have them with us today to help us with what is, after all, our primary task and responsibility.

Dr. Goldman, I believe we wanted you to begin our conversation here.

DR. GOLDMAN: I'm on the bottom of the list.

RABBI SAPERSTEIN: Then we'll begin with Gare Smith.