UCS - China Joint Workshops on Transparency
Introduction
The Union of Concerned Scientists, in the course of more than a decade of interaction with scores of Chinese scientists and other experts involved in the analysis and in some cases formation of Chinese arms control policy, has followed Chinese progress in developing the intellectual and institutional capacity to increase transparency through participation in international arms control negotiations. We have noticed a growing willingness to adopt positions and implement policies in support of international arms control treaties and agreements. Our experiences with a wide variety of individuals and institutions in China encouraged us to bring together a team of international arms control experts willing to discuss different concepts of transparency and consider ways in which the Chinese government could satisfy Western expectations for greater transparency in ways that are consistent with its national interests.
To that end UCS brought together 30 experts from China, the United States , and Eurpoe for a pair of workshops on transparency. The first workshop was held in Shanghai at the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in June of 2000. After an initial day of presentations and discussions the experts divided into small groups to develop collaborative research projects on issues such as demonstrating adherence to a fissile material cutoff treaty, monitoring spent fuel from civil nuclear power, and deep nuclear reductions and warhead dismantlement. These produced a set of working papers that were then presented and discussed during the second workshop, which was held in Beijing at the Institute of Internationals Studies at Tsinghua University in June of 2001.
In the course of their collaboration all parties became more acutely aware of the significant differences in Chinese and Western conceptions of transparency, a subject that is explored in an essay by China Project Manager Gregory Kulacki on Chinese Perspectives on Transparency and Security.
The Union of Concerned Scientists is especially grateful to the Ford and MacArthur Foundations for supporting this effort to engage our Chinese colleagues in a discussion of transparency. Our dialogue produced a series of investigations that indicate a clear willingness to engage the international community in developing and implementing transparency measures in so far as they are able to strengthen Chinese security.
Participants of UCS Transparency Project (2000-2001)
- Jurgen Altmann, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, Germany
- Bo Yan, Fudan University
- Cao Yunxia, Fudan University
- Harold Feiveson, Princeton University
- Owen Greene, University of Bradford , UK
- Lisbeth Gronlund, Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) & MIT
- Gu Guoliang, China Academy of Social Sciences
- Han Hua, Peking University
- He Yingbo, China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP)
- Hu Side, CAEP
- George Lewis, MIT
- Li Bin, China Youth College for Political Science/Tsinghua University
- Eryn Macdonald, UCS
- Allison Macfarlane, Harvard University
- Morten Bremer Maerli, Institute of International Affairs, Norway
- Marvin Miller, MIT
- Qiu Yong, CAEP
- Adam Segal, UCS
- Shen Dingli Fudan University
- Tang Shiping, China Academy of Social Sciences
- David Wright, UCS
- Wu Chunsi, Fudan University
- Wu Jun, Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics (IAPCM)
- Xia Liping, Shanghai Institute for International Strategic Studies
- Yan Xuetong, China Institute of Contemporary International Relations
- Yang Xianjun, IAPCM
- Jing-Dong Yuan, Monterey Institute of International Studies
- Zhang Hui, Harvard University
- Zhao Wuwen, CAEP
- Baogen Zhou, Tsinghua University
- Zhu Mingquan, Fudan University
