China Town Hall

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

Join us for the 2022 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, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and Global Minnesota.

The program will feature virtual remarks from Ambassador Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. in conversation with National Committee on U.S.-China Relations President Stephen Orlins, followed by an on-site discussion with Mary Curtin, diplomat-in-residence at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

Program

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

6:00 p.m. — Live webcast featuring Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., former U.S. ambassador to Russia, China, and Singapore

7:00 p.m. — Local speaker Mary Curtin, diplomat-in-residence at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs

Speakers

Jon M. Huntsman, Jr.

Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2017–19, to China from 2009–11, and to Singapore from 1992–93.

Huntsman has served in every presidential administration since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, not counting the Biden administration. He began his career as a White House staff assistant for Ronald Reagan, and was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Ambassador to Singapore by George H. W. Bush. Later as Deputy U.S. Trade Representative under George W. Bush, he launched global trade negotiations in Doha in 2001 and guided the accession of China into the World Trade Organization. Huntsman is the only American ambassador to have served in both Russia and China, having served as the U.S. Ambassador to China under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2011 and as the U.S. Ambassador to Russia under Donald Trump from 2017 to 2019.

Mary Curtin

Mary Curtin, Ph.D., a Minnesota native, joined the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota as diplomat-in-residence in 2013 after a 25-year career as a Department of State Foreign Service Officer. As diplomat-in-residence, she teaches courses in foreign policy and diplomacy and serves as chair of the Humphrey School’s global policy area.

During her Foreign Service career, she served at the US Mission to the EU in Brussels; as political counselor in Warsaw, Poland; and at missions in Tunisia, Mali, and Chile, as well as in Washington, DC. She has expertise in issues including Middle East policy; European affairs, including the EU and NATO; human rights and democratization, and non-proliferation. She was a member of the U.S. delegation to the 1995 UN Conference on Women.

She earned a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University in the City of New York (1986), writing her dissertation on “Hubert H. Humphrey and the Politics of the Cold War, 1943–1954.”

She speaks French, Polish, and Spanish.

Presented in partnership with The China Center and The Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

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