Read stories below to learn how the Carter Center works to impact the lives of women, children, and men around the world.
Barbara Smith, vice president of the Carter Center’s peace programs, says she was born to her line of work. Her mother is from Germany and taught her the value of international perspectives. Her father was in the military and ingrained in her the importance of service. Learn more »
This interview with President Carter was conducted in Spring 2020 and originally published in the Bush China Foundation’s 2019/2020 Annual Report. Learn more »
The Carter Center's China Program looks back at President Carter’s 1979 decision to normalize relations with China, and is publishing academic papers to commemorate the anniversary. Learn more »
The Carter Center is commemorating the 40th anniversary of normalizing diplomatic relations with China with a symposium on Jan. 17-19 that will feature dozens of experts on U.S.-China relations. You can read more about this diplomatic feat on this page, which features a Q&A with President Carter, a timeline of key moments in the China Program, and a President Carter-penned op-ed on the future of U.S.-Sino relations that recently ran in The Washington Post.
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Key moments in the Center’s decades-long relationship with the People’s Republic of China.
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By Jordan Ryan, vice president, peace programs
In today’s world, the task for peacemakers is urgent. Learn more »
One afternoon last summer, a 14-year-old boy from China turned up at The Carter Center bearing a check for $451. Leo Hu and his schoolmates in Xi-an raised the money by charging admission to a play they wrote about Syrian refugees, and he flew all the way to across the Pacific to deliver it in person. Learn more »
The world’s two great superpowers could achieve more progress if there were less suspicion and more cooperation between them, participants in a series of bilateral Carter Center forums say. Learn more »
By Yawei Liu, director, China Program
The relationship between the U.S. and China is an incredibly important one. In the 36 years since former U.S. President Jimmy Carter normalized relations between the two superpowers, the countries have developed a productive and mutually beneficial relationship. But suspicion and mistrust still exist. Much of the Carter Center’s work in China in the last few years has involved advancing U.S.-China relations, in part by nurturing the next generation of leaders in both nations. Learn more »
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter will provide remarks at an exhibit of Chinese paintings to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the normalization of U.S.-China relations on Thursday, July 17, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Center’s Cecil B. Day Chapel. The exhibit is co-sponsored by The Carter Center and the Chinese Artists Association, which is China’s premier art institution with 6,000 members. Learn more »
In early 2010, remote Baimiao Township in Sichuan Province, China, was dubbed the "naked government" when local officials posted its budget online, reportedly disclosing everything from salaries to the cost of notebooks and paper cups.
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The Carter Center’s China Program recently launched a “China in Africa” website to feature original content from African contributors expressing their views on China’s impact in their respective communities. The project aims to bridge the gap of understanding between Chinese decision-makers and African communities about China’s impact on the African continent. <p>China Program Director Yawei Liu explains the project.…</p> Learn more »
Cheng Li, director of research and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center, was part of a small Carter Center delegation that traveled to China in March to advance the Center's programming efforts there.
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A small Carter Center delegation is in China this week to advance the Center’s programming efforts there. The Center has worked to help standardize the vast array of electoral procedures taking place in local communities and foster better governance for more than a decade, at the invitation of the Chinese government. Learn more »
China Elections and Governance Online, a project of the Carter Center's China Program, has received top honors from two major Chinese publications. Learn more »
After seven years online, the Carter Center sponsored-website www.chinaelections.org is one of the most visible platforms in China for the dissemination of democratic awareness and civic culture. Learn more »
A Chinese delegation hosted by The Carter Center is studying today's U.S. election in the San Francisco and Washington, D.C., areas to learn more about election procedures and reduce misperceptions by the Chinese of the American democratic system.
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Websites sponsored by The Carter Center have become an important portal for political reform in China, engaging their audiences with news articles translated into both Chinese and English and offering a platform to debate current affairs in a traditionally closed society.
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What struck me most about the country is not how the people have changed: it is how the government has changed because of people. The government seems to be more keenly aware of the people’s needs, of the growing gap between the rich and the poor, of the international pressure on China to change its policies on issues such as environmental pollution, global warming, energy saving, and of its own source of legitimacy. Learn more »
One of the most important democratic experiments of the last 25 years has been the movement in 600,000 villages across China toward competitive elections, allowing 75 percent of the nation's 1.3 billion people to elect their local leaders. The Carter Center has worked with the Chinese government to help standardize the vast array of election procedures taking place in this new democratic environment and to foster good local governance.
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