Former CNN senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy brings his new documentary "Assignment: China – The Week that Changed the World" to the Cable Center on Jan. 19.
Dubbed as the week that “changed the course of history,” former President Richard Nixon’s visit to China in February 1972 opened the door to the establishment of relations between the People’s Republic and the United States.
The historic visit is chronicled in Assignment: China – The Week That Changed the World, a documentary produced by the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California. Former CNN senior Asia correspondent and Beijing bureau chief Mike Chinoy — who reported and narrated the film and currently is a U.S.-China Institute senior fellow — will speak about the film at a screening at 5 p.m. Jan. 19 in the Cable Center Theater on the DU campus.
Suisheng (Sam) Zhao, executive director of the Center for China-U.S. Cooperation at DU’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies, says the Chinoy visit is a unique opportunity to hear from someone with firsthand experience of the historic Nixon visit.
“Nixon’s visit marked the beginning of the opening of the People’s Republic of China to the rest of the world,” Zhao says. “Since then, while the U.S.-China relationship continues to experience ups and downs, China now is rising as an economic, political and military power, and its relationship with the U.S. has become the most important bilateral relationship in the 21st century.”
The event is part of the Korbel School’s new Public Diplomacy Series. Retired Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey (MA ’80) kicked off the series during fall quarter.
“Public diplomacy is central to our country’s foreign and defense policies,” says Korbel School Dean Christopher Hill. “The Public Diplomacy Lecture Series will provide students with a learned and global perspective of the issues of the day as we educate the next generation of diplomats.”
Chinoy began his career working for CBS News and NBC News in Hong Kong in the 1970s. He reported on the Tiananmen Square massacre, the death of Mao Zedong, the fall of Indonesian President Suharto, the Soviet and U.S. wars in Afghanistan, the Southeast Asian tsunami and developments in North Korea.
Students, faculty, staff and friends of the Korbel School are invited to attend the Jan. 19 film screening, as are members of the general public. To register for the event, visit www.alumni.du.edu/MikeChinoy. Registration deadline is Friday.
From noon-1:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20, in Room 301 of Cherrington Hall, Chinoy will be at the Center for China-U.S. Cooperation’s Jackson/Ho China Forum to discuss his views on past and current Chinese-U.S. affairs. Pizza will be served; RSVP for this free event by e-mailing ccusc@du.edu or calling 303-871-4474.