In the fall of 2007, the National Committee organized its second in a continuing series of Policy Leaders Orientation Programs, bringing a delegation of young Chinese officials to the United States for a two-week, multi-city program on American history, culture, values, diversity and politics.

The delegation traveled around the eastern seaboard, making stops in Williamsburg, Washington, D.C., Gettysburg, Lancaster, Harrisburg, and New York City for meetings with counterparts, visits to national monuments and other sites of historical and/or cultural importance, and interactions with locals.

The Policy Leaders Orientation Program builds on the earlier success of the National Committee’s Scholar and Consular Orientation Programs – first begun in 1980 – which provided U.S.-based Chinese students and diplomats, at a key stage in their career development, an introduction to U.S. political, social, and cultural institutions and opportunities to interact with a wide range of American citizens. The current Policy Leaders Orientation Program provides a similar opportunity to the current generation of young diplomats, officials and policy analysts, alternating between U.S. and China-based participants.

For this round of the program, participants were drawn from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, National Development and Reform Commission, People's Bank of China, State Environmental Protection Administration, Chinese Institute of International Strategic Studies, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. For the inaugural Policy Leaders Orientation Program, in January-February 2007, all participants were U.S.-based diplomats working at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., or one of the Consulates.

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