China's Foreign Policy
The U.S. and China share very different historical backgrounds in terms of challenges, growth, and philosophy, including very different geographical perspectives that have played a large part in each country’s trajectory. How do these historical perspectives impact the U.S. and China’s current foreign policies when engaging in international topics like the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the continuing COVID-19 crisis? This April, the USHCA will partner with the World Affairs Council of St. Louis to explore how these issues impact current foreign policy and contemporary issues between the U.S. and China.
This event will feature special panelists Governor Bob Holden, Chairman & CEO of the U.S. Heartland China Association, USHCA Strategic Advisor Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, former Ambassador to Cambodia, and Board Member Ms. Susan Thornton a retired senior U.S. diplomat with almost three decades of experience with the U.S. State Department in Eurasia and East Asia. She is currently a Senior Fellow and Visiting Lecturer in Law at the Yale Law School Paul Tsai China Center
Moderator

Dennis Pruitt
VP, Business Development at the Missouri Partnership
Dennis Pruitt
International business development practitioner with extensive experience in corporate relations, public policy, government affairs and international relations. Project management experience involving site selection, corporate decision making, financial incentives, state and community regulatory process for the location of manufacturing plants, warehouses, offices. Chairman or executive member of numerous city, state, and national committees involved with international relations and economic development. Certified economic developer with 22 years of experience as a director and vice president with state and local economic development organizations. Lived in France, Malaysia and Thailand. Fluent in French and English.
Panelist

Governor Bob Holden
Chairman and CEO of USHCA
鲍勃·霍顿
鲍勃·霍顿于2001至2005年间担任密苏里州第53任州长。在当选州长之前,霍顿曾担任过两任密苏里州财政部长和三任密苏里州众议员。
鲍勃·霍顿的一生都在为公众服务。除了担任公职,霍顿也曾为州财政部长James I. Spainhower和Mel Carnahan、美国参议员Thomas F. Eagleton和国会议员Richard A. Gephardt效力过。
霍顿州长在任期间,他曾担任中西部州长协会主席;开设了密苏里州在中国的第一个贸易办事处;成立了密苏里州第一个拉美裔外展委员会;将密苏里州在女性领导职位的排名从第41位拉升至第5位;任命了200多名非裔美国人担任重要领导职务;建立了该州第一个青年内阁;并在密苏里州建造了第一座获得LEED认证的州办公大楼。
鲍勃·霍顿目前是美国全球领导联盟(U.S. Global Leadership Coalition)的密苏里州联合主席,同时也是全国有色人种协会(NAACP)密苏里州分会的执行董事会成员。自2005年卸任公职后,霍顿创立了霍顿公共政策论坛,并在韦伯斯特大学担任了10年的教授。在韦伯斯特大学期间,他帮助建立了在密苏里州圣路易斯韦伯斯特大学的第一个孔子学院。
40多年来,鲍勃·霍顿一直是美国退伍军人协会密苏里州孩童项目的积极参与者。在他的领导下,第一批中国学生代表团成为这一历史性项目的参与者。自那第一批代表团的参与,他一直在努力推动中国学生前往密苏里州以及密苏里学生前往中国的学生代表团,并计划发起来自其他州的代表团。
鲍勃·霍顿认为,美中两国的长期经济成就必须建立在相互尊重、明确理解和坦诚对话的基础上。这点可以通过扩大我们的文化联系,创造更多的教育伙伴关系,以及为两国成功的企业铸造机会的桥梁来实现。
Gov. Holden was recently inducted to the Missouri Public Affairs Hall of Fame. Watch his honoree video here.
Panelist

Susan Thornton
Senior Fellow and Research Scholar, Yale University Law School, Paul Tsai China Center
Susan Thornton
Susan A. Thornton is a retired senior U.S. diplomat with almost three decades of experience with the U.S. State Department in Eurasia and East Asia. She is currently a Senior Fellow and Visiting Lecturer in Law at the Yale Law School Paul Tsai China Center. She is also the director of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Until July 2018, Thornton was Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State and led East Asia policymaking amid crises with North Korea, escalating trade tensions with China, and a fast-changing international environment. In previous State Department roles, she worked on U.S. policy toward China, Korea and the former Soviet Union and served in leadership positions at U.S. embassies in Central Asia, Russia, the Caucasus and China.
Thornton received her M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and her B.A. from Bowdoin College in Economics and Russian. She serves on several nonprofit boards and speaks Mandarin and Russian.
Panelist

Amb. Kenneth Quinn
President Emeritus at The World Food Prize Foundation
Amb. Quinn
Dr. Kenneth M. Quinn, former U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia, assumed the leadership of the World Food Prize Foundation on January 1, 2000, following his retirement from the State Department after a 32 year career in the Foreign Service.
Inspired by the vision of Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, the founder of the World Food Prize, Ambassador Quinn has endeavored to build this annual $250,000 award into “the Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture.” Held each October in Des Moines on or around World Food Day (October 16), the World Food Prize Laureate Award Ceremony, “Borlaug Dialogue” international symposium and Global Youth Institute have grown in size and stature under his direction.
With the support of the John Ruan family, Dr. Quinn has led the campaign which successfully raised over $30 million to restore the historic Des Moines Public Library and transform it into the World Food Prize Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates. He provided the personal leadership to have the building designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification, the highest possible level of energy efficiency and resource conservation.
During his diplomatic career, Ken Quinn served: as a Rural Development advisor in the Mekong Delta; on the National Security Council staff at the White House; as Narcotics Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Vienna; for four years as Chairman of the U.S. Inter-agency Task Force on POW/MIAs; and as Director of Iowa SHARES, the humanitarian campaign that sent Iowa doctors, nurses, medical supplies and food to starving Cambodian refugees.
A fluent speaker of Vietnamese, Dr. Quinn acted as interpreter for President Gerald Ford at the White House and personally negotiated the first ever entry by U.S. personnel into a Vietnamese prison to search for U.S. POW/MIAs. He was also a member of the first U.S. team to gain entry to a former Soviet prison in Russia.
Ambassador Quinn, a graduate of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, has a M.A. in Political Science from Marquette University and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Maryland. He and his wife Le Son have three adult children.