CAPP Events: 2004

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Winter 2004 CAPP Advisory Board Meeting

The Winter 2004 meeting of the Advisory Board of the Center for Asia Pacific Policy began with two optional briefings on the afternoon of December 9: Dr. Charles Wolf, Jr. presented “China’s Growth and Challenges to It,” and Dr. William Overholt spoke on “The Auto Industry in China.” That evening, Donald and Jean Tang hosted a lovely dinner.

The meeting officially commenced on Friday, December 10. Board members Roy Doumani, Robert Ferguson, Mathew K. Fong, Lalita D. Gupte, the Honorable James D. Hodgson, Peter Kwok, Robert Oehler, Nicholas Rockefeller, the Honorable Richard H. Solomon, Cyrus Tang, Donald Tang, Ratan Tata, and the Honorable Linda Tsao Yang attended.

Jim Thomson, Susan Everingham, Nina Hachigian, Bill Overholt, and Mark Dawson of RAND were also in attendance.

Jim Thomson offered opening remarks and a brief update on RAND. He reiterated the significant role of advisory boards in helping to shape the research agenda, advancing outreach, assisting in identifying prospective clients and donors, and providing financial support. Susan Everingham, the recently-appointed director of International Programs at RAND, offered an overview of IP and commented on RAND’s goal of becoming a global institution.

The morning included two briefings. The first, “How Good is the Quality of Care in the United States?” by Dr. Elizabeth McGlynn, associate director of RAND Health, described a methodology RAND researchers had developed to measure quality of healthcare in the United States, and the surprising finding that patients, on average, receive only half of recommended care. Next, Dr. David Shlapak, a senior international policy analyst, spoke on “The China-Taiwan Military Competition: Conflict and Consequences.” Dr. Shlapak described China’s military modernization and several scenarios for how a military conflict across the Strait might unfold. He concluded by noting that U.S. policy should be strongly in favor of the status quo over any military confrontation given the range of bad outcomes a conflict would likely produce. Both briefings were followed by lively discussions.

Following lunch, Nina Hachigian presented the director’s report, highlighting growth during 2004 and noting the increasing number of projects being done for Asian governments. She spoke about the broad range of current Asia research, including projects that analyzed geopolitical, economic, security, technological and human capital problems such as US-China relations, views on Japanese research, system change in North Korea and maternal health in Bangladesh. She suggested that there is no other US-based research institution like RAND conducting a similar breadth of work on Asia nor any hired by both the US and Asian governments.

Hachigian’s report was followed by her presentation of a proposed future Asia research agenda for RAND. Board members then ranked the relative importance of the proposed research topics and also submitted additional issues of interest. A robust discussion of all the issues followed.

In the final session of the day, Board chair Ratan Tata led a roundtable discussion of country and regional trends, during which each board member highlighted issues of particular interest and concern. The group discussed events in India, China, Australia, Vietnam, and the United States.

The meeting was followed by cocktails and a dinner co-hosted by Rob Oehler and Nick Rockefeller at Le Merigot Hotel. The Honorable Ronen Sen, Ambassador of India to the United States, was the guest of honor and gave a keynote address on India-U.S. relations as well as the growing stature of India on the world scene.