Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Following the success of ASEAN's series of post-ministerial conferences launched in the mid-1980s, APEC started in 1989, in response to the growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific economies and the advent of regional trade blocs in other parts of the world; it aimed to establish new markets for agricultural products and raw materials beyond Europe. Headquartered in Singapore, APEC is recognized as one of the highest-level multilateral blocs and oldest forums in the Asia-Pacific region, and exerts significant global influence.
Robert Nicholas Burns is an American diplomat and academic who has been serving as the United States ambassador to China since 2022.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), or Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), was a proposed trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim economies: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States. In the United States, the proposal was signed on 4 February 2016 but not ratified as a result of significant domestic political opposition. After taking office, the newly elected President Donald Trump formally withdrew the United States from TPP in January 2017, therefore ensuring the TPP could not be ratified as required and did not enter into force. The remaining countries negotiated a new trade agreement called Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which incorporated most of the provisions of the TPP and which entered into force on 30 December 2018.
Victor D. Cha is an American political scientist currently serving as senior vice president for Asia and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Toshimitsu Motegi is a Japanese politician who currently serves as the Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party. He has previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2019 to 2021, and as Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry from 2012 to 2014. He is serving in the House of Representatives as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He leads the Heisei Kenkyūkai faction within the LDP.
Daniel H. Rosen is an American business executive, academic and author. He is a specialist on the Chinese economy.
Minxin Pei is a Chinese-American political scientist. He is the current editor of the China Leadership Monitor. He is a specialist on governance in China, U.S.–East Asia relations, mass surveillance in China, as well as democratization in developing nations. He is currently the Tom and Margot Pritzker '72 Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College and a non-resident senior fellow in the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He was formerly a senior associate in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement were held between 12 countries between 2008 and 2015. The negotiations were aimed at obtaining an agreement between the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement parties Brunei, Chile, Singapore and New Zealand, as well as the Australia and the United States.
Bonnie S. Glaser is managing director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She was previously a senior adviser for Asia and the founding director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Glaser is also a non-resident fellow with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, a senior associate with CSIS Pacific Forum, and a consultant for the U.S. government on East Asia. Glaser writes extensively on Chinese policy, including its foreign and military policy towards the United States., Cross-Strait relations, China's relations with Japan and Korea, Chinese perspectives on missile defense, and multilateral security in Asia.
Robert Emmet Lighthizer is an American attorney and government official who was the United States Trade Representative in the Donald Trump administration from 2017 to 2021.
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), initially abbreviated as TPP11 or TPP-11, is a trade agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. It evolved from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was never ratified due to the withdrawal of the United States. The eleven members have combined economies representing 13.4 percent of global gross domestic product, at approximately US$13.5 trillion, making the CPTPP one of the world's largest free trade areas by GDP, along with the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, the European single market, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. The United Kingdom and the present members formally signed an accession protocol on 16 July 2023, and will join the agreement when it has been ratified by all parties, or after 15 months if the UK and a majority of CPTPP parties have ratified it.
Sheena Elise Chestnut Greitens is an American political scientist currently serving as an associate professor in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. She was First Lady of Missouri from 2017 to 2018.
Laura Rosenberger is an American diplomat currently serving as Chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). She formerly served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for China and Taiwan at the National Security Council in the Biden administration.
Rush Doshi is an American political scientist currently serving as senior fellow for China and director of the Initiative on China Strategy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served at the White House National Security Council in the Biden administration as Director and later Deputy Senior Director for China and Taiwan from 2021 to March 2024.
Zack Cooper is an American national security and foreign policy analyst currently serving as a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University, and a lecturer in Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He also serves on the advisory boards of the Open Technology Fund and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance.
Evan S. Medeiros is an American international relations scholar currently serving as the Penner Family Chair in Asia Studies in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Cling Family Distinguished Fellow in U.S.-China Studies at Georgetown University. He is also a senior advisor at The Asia Group, a senior fellow on foreign policy at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis, a non-resident senior fellow in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Asia Program, a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations' board of directors, a member of the International Advisory Board of Cambridge University's Centre for Geopolitics, a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a board member of Blackberry Government Solutions.
Ryan Hass is an American foreign policy analyst currently serving as director of the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center and the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies.
Jude Blanchette is an American foreign policy analyst and China specialist currently serving as Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Richard Fontaine is an American foreign policy analyst currently serving as CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).
David O. Shullman is an American political scientist currently serving as Senior Director of the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub, leading the think tank's work on China, as well as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. Previously he was a Senior Adviser overseeing democratic resilience building against authoritarian influence at the International Republican Institute between 2018 and 2021 and Deputy National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council between 2016 and 2018.
