On October 16, the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security hosted Madam Fu Ying, the chairperson of the National People’s Congress’s Foreign Affairs Committee to discuss current and future US-China relations. The roundtable discussion was introduced by Sherri Goodman, senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of CNA Corporation and was moderated by Paul Stern, founder and chair of the Stern Group. The discussion focused on the future of US-China relations from both economic and security perspectives in preparation for the summit between President Obama and President Xi in November. Participants also discussed China’s progress on its reform efforts.

Madam Fu has been the Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress of China since March 2013. She joined China’s Foreign Service in the late 1970s and was first posted to Bucharest, Romania. Later she returned to the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Beijing and worked for many years as an interpreter for Chinese leaders. In 1992 in Cambodia, she became China’s first civilian UN peacekeeper and hence the start of her decade-long engagement with Asian affairs. From 1993 to 2000, she served successively as the Director, Counselor of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian Department, Minister Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia (1997), China’s Ambassador to the Philippines (1998). She then served as the head of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian Department (2000), working on China’s comprehensive strategic partnership with ASEAN and the launch of the Six Party Talks.

She was appointed the Chinese Ambassador to Australia in 2003 and later Ambassador to the United Kingdom in 2006. From 2009 to 2013, she served as the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. Her portfolio first included Europe and foreign affairs pertaining to Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan. Since 2012 she covered Asia as well as Boundary and Ocean Affairs.