2023 China Town Hall

This event is being held in-person and is open to everyone.

Join us for the 2023 China Town Hall: Local Connections, National Reflections, organized by the National Committee on United States-China Relations and locally hosted by the University of Minnesota China Center and Global Minnesota.

The program will feature a live webcast with Nicholas Burns, current U.S. ambassador to China, followed by an on-site discussion with Duncan J. McCampbell, Associate Professor of International Business and Law at Metropolitan State University. Guests can submit questions for Ambassador Burns in advance using this form.

Program

5:45 p.m. — Welcome and recognition of sponsors

6:00 p.m. — Live webcast featuring Nicholas Burns, U.S. ambassador to China

7:00 p.m. — Local speaker Duncan J. McCampbell, associate professor of international business and law at Metropolitan State University

Speakers

Nicholas Burns

Nicholas Burns is U.S. Ambassador to China. Nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the Senate, he was sworn into office on December 22, 2021.

As Ambassador, he leads a team of experienced, dedicated, and diverse public servants from 47 U.S. government agencies and sub-agencies at the U.S. Mission in China, including at the Embassy in Beijing and at the American Consulates in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Shenyang. He oversees the Mission’s interaction with the PRC on the full range of political, security, economic, commercial, consular, and many other issues that shape this critical relationship.

Ambassador Burns has had a distinguished career in American diplomacy, serving six U.S. Presidents and nine Secretaries of State over 27 years. His State Department roles have included Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the State Department’s third-ranking official and most senior career diplomat (2005-2008); U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2001-2005); U.S. Ambassador to Greece (1997-2001); and State Department spokesman (1995-1997). Before that, he worked at the National Security Council at the White House (1990-1995) where he served as Special Assistant to President Clinton and Senior Director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia Affairs and as Director for Soviet Affairs for President George H.W. Bush during the collapse of the USSR.

Duncan J. McCampbell

Duncan J. McCampbell is an American lawyer and associate professor of international business and law at Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis. Following a career in private law practice, Prof. McCampbell joined West Publishing (now Thomson Reuters Legal), the world’s largest legal publisher. His work—much of it overseas—involved building new legal publishing businesses in the UK, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, Hong Kong, and Australia. In his last overseas assignment, he was posted to Beijing in 2007 as managing director of TR’s China start-up, Westlaw China.

Leaving business for academia, Prof. McCampbell became a tenured associate professor in the College of Management at Metropolitan State, where he teaches undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral courses in law, international business, and marketing, while serving as department chair. He teaches regularly in China, holding visiting scholar appointments at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, and at Huaihua University and Hunan Institute of Science and Technology in Hunan Province, PRC.

Presented in partnership with The China Center.

Register Here