About the Conference
The Committee of 100 Greater China Conference and Gala 2019 was held at the Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong from December 7-8, 2019 and was co-chaired by Committee of 100 Members
Richard Y. Lee and
Howard Li, who led the planning committee and staff in the organization of the event.
The conference was hosted in partnership with the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and centered around the theme, “The U.S. and China: Responding to a Changing Relationship.” We were joined by several prominent figures and officials including Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of China Zhaoxing Li, Former Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Wenzhong Zhou, Consul General Sean B. Stein from the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai, Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai Eric Zheng, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing Steve W. Churchill, Vice Chair of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries Yuan Xie, and Vice Chair of the Shanghai Overseas Friendship Association and Chairman of the Shanghai Overseas Chinese Affairs Office Jue Wang. We were also joined by twenty distinguished Committee of 100 members, as well as higher education and business leaders across Greater China. The Greater China Conference and Gala 2019 was the largest Committee of 100 conference held in Greater China to date with over 500 attendees participating in our Full-Day Conference, Awards Gala Dinner, and Committee of 100 Scholars Program (CSP) 2019 Awards Ceremony. We were honored to be joined by so many longtime and new supporters as well as distinguished guests for our annual celebration in China. Thank you to our members, speakers, and sponsors for making the Greater China Conference and Gala 2019 such a resounding success.
Full-Day Conference
Following opening statements, Committee of 100 Member X. Rick Niu chaired the first panel The Future of Win-Win: Market Access and IP Protection. Panelists included Steven Cheng, Director of the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, Carlo D’Andrea, National Vice President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China Xiongwen Lu, Dean of the School of Management at Fudan University, Jonathan Woetzel, Director of McKinsey Global Institute, and Eric Zheng, Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. Each panelist brought a unique perspective on the topic of global markets, representing a specific trading partner or region in global trade. Eric Zheng urged the governments in China and the United States to “continue this relationship, to share benefits, and to work with each other.”
For the next panel The Future of Financial Technology: Disruption to Reinvention, Christopher Thomas, Visiting Professor in Global Technology Strategy at Tsinghua University moderated the conversation between Gregory Gibb, Chairman & CEO of Lufax, Ho-Yin Lee, Managing Director in the Asia Pacific TMT Investment Banking Group at Citi, Ming Lei, Director and President of China Construction Bank Fintech Co, Qian Sun, Chair of the Department of Finance, School of Management at Fudan University, and Ya-Qin Zhang, Former President of Baidu and C100 Member. Ya-Qin Zhang highlighted artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and data as important components that will serve as the cornerstones of the digital finance industry.
Committee of 100 Member and Chairman, President & CEO of East West Bank Dominic Ng delivered the luncheon keynote speech on the U.S.-China relationship, reminding the audience that “decoupling is not a sustainable direction.” Committee of 100 Chairman H. Roger Wang presented the 2019 Special Friendship Award for Excellence in Collaboration with Committee of 100 to the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. Eric Zheng, Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai (AmCham Shanghai), accepted the award on behalf of AmCham.
For the third panel The Future of Healthcare: Innovation by Lifestyle, Larry Zhang, Global President of CASI Pharmaceuticals led panelists Dorothy Dong, Chairman of Starr Property & Casualty Insurance (China) Co. Ltd. and Chairman of Starr International Investments (Asia) Ltd., Tony Liu, Executive Director, CEO & CFO of Cellular Biomedicine Group, Shan Lu, Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Rong Yu, Chairman of Meinian OneHealth in a discussion of the rapidly developing landscape in the healthcare industry in China. Dorothy Dong noted that with the waves of innovation in the healthcare industry around new technologies, data, and AI, the next frontier will be innovation in managing the increasing financial burden of offering high-quality care, especially for China’s rapidly aging population. Professor Shan Lu echoed Ms. Dong’s sentiments and called on both the United States and China to enact bold reforms in their respective healthcare systems to create robust, national healthcare plans in which the government absorbs a much larger share of the cost of healthcare instead of the consumer and patient.
For the final panel of the day, The Future of Asian Consumerism: Digital Meets Global, Jing Huang, Executive Managing Director of the Harvard Center Shanghai moderated a discussion on consumer trends and consumer-driven business strategy in Asia today with Nolan Kay Bushnell, Co-founder of Atari, Inc. and Founder of Chuck E. Cheese’s, Derek Chang, CEO of NBA China, Xiaodong Wang, CFO of iQIYI, Inc., Holly Zheng, CEO & President of BlueFocus International, and Christina Zhu, President of Fonterra Greater China. Derek Chang discussed the importance of maintaining a company and brand’s relevance to consumers by keeping abreast of new social media platforms and methods of engagement with consumers. In a world in which an increasing number of people are accessing the internet and in which new social media platforms are gaining traction each year, businesses have to be nimble and attuned to changes in consumer engagement with social media platforms in order to maintain and grow their base of consumers.
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Committee of 100 Awards Gala Dinner
Charles Xia and Susie Yang served as Masters of Ceremonies at the evening Awards Gala dinner.
After Ambassador Zhou’s rousing speech, Committee of 100 was proud to present the 2019 Committee of 100 Life Achievement Award for Advancing U.S.-China Relations to the late U.S. President George H.W. Bush, whose son Neil Mellon Bush, accepted the award on his behalf. The dinner also featured magnificent performances from Jun Zhang, Shanghai Zhang Jun Kunqu Center Artistic Director, as well as the iSing! Performers led by Committee of 100 member Hao Jiang Tian. The night concluded with the iSing! Performers inviting all the CSP scholars onstage for an uplifting group performance and audience sing-along of Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up.”
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Committee of 100 Scholars Program
At the Committee of 100 Scholars Program 2019 Awards Ceremony on Sunday Dec 8, the Committee of 100 Scholars Program Executive Committee awarded over 50 Scholars in its largest cohort ever, which included the inaugural class of American scholars from Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, Yenching Academy at Peking University, Duke Kunshan University, NYU Shanghai, and the Nanjing-Hopkins Center. Ambassador Wenzhong Zhou delighted Scholars and attendees alike in giving impromptu remarks and presenting awards to the Scholars. The Ambassador’s remarks crystallized the impact of the Greater China Conference 2019: “I am deeply encouraged by the efforts of the Committee of 100 and heartened by the very meaningful Committee of 100 Scholars Program, seeing the future of the U.S.-China relationship in the hands of youngsters like these.”
For the first panel, Committee of 100 Member and Board Director David C. Chang facilitated a conversation on leadership in higher education with the heads of leading Chinese and American institutions in China. Accompanying him were Jeffrey S. Lehman, Vice Chancellor of NYU Shanghai, David Q. Pan, Executive Dean of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, Junfeng Zhang, Vice President of Nanjing University, and Hongkai Lai, Vice Secretary of Xiamen University. Vice Chancellor Jeffrey S. Lehman reminded audience members of the need for students, educators, and employers to look past grades and numbers alone in measuring a person’s value, and focus more attention on nurturing and rewarding creative thinking and risk-taking.
Ker Gibbs, President of American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, and Lizhong Yu, Chancellor of NYU Shanghai, both delivered luncheon keynote remarks emphasizing the importance of the U.S.-China relationship. Mr. Gibbs called on organizations, businesses, and individuals caught in the middle of the U.S.-China trade conflict to remain balanced actors, willing to be equally critical of both China and the United States. Chancellor Yu highlighted the benefits of constant cross-cultural learning and an open-mindedness for future leaders that creates the space for increased understanding between different peoples, and collaboration to solve similar problems. Following the luncheon keynote speeches was a mentorship program session between Committee of 100 members, business leaders, CSP alumni, and CSP 2019 awardees.
During the final panel of the conference, Shih-Hung Chen, China Representative for the U.S. Cooperative for International Patient Programs (USCIPP) led a discussion on entrepreneurship in which panelists shared advice from their varied experience as entrepreneurs. Panel members included James Chou, CEO & Managing Director of Microsoft for Startups, Greater China Region, Japan & Korea, Barbara Ex, Founder of White Space, Priscilla Guo, Schwarzman Scholar at Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, Arthur Kuan, CEO & Director of Cold Genesys, Inc., Michael Sung, Associate Professor of Practice in Finance at Fanhai International School of Finance and the co-director of the FISF Fintech Research Center, Fudan University, and Hongfei Zheng, Vice President of Greater China & Korea at The Coca Cola Company. Arthur Kuan emphasized that aspiring entrepreneurs need not “solve a multibillion-dollar problem,” but should instead focus on “knowing yourself, understanding your purpose and calling, and why you are doing this in the first place.”
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Volunteers
Jennifer Cai, Kate Chen, Prada Chen, Cindy Cheng, Pengcheng Deng, Claire Guan, Kaitlyn He, Wanying He, Stephanie Huang, Ziyuan Hu, Regina Jiang, Katherine Jin, Xinran Li, Jin Qin, Jelly Shen, Sabrina Song, Lan Tang, Lingli Tang, Joncey Tao, Anthony Wang, Olivia Wang, Shereen Wang, Yuanyuan Wang, Yuejuan Wang, Estela Xiang, Jassi Xie, Emma Yang, Yujing Yang, Miao Yu, Dong Xu, Cecelia Zhang, Doris Zhang, Iris Zhang, Cheng Zhao, Crystal Zhao
