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Last month, Professor Tim Weston, CAS Associate Director, served as the scholar-expert for a delegation of Communications Directors for members of the U.S. Congress. During this trip, they met with numerous Chinese government and business leaders. Reflecting on the experience, Weston said, "What I found most interesting is that I was traveling with a group of Americans whose job it is to create images for members of Congress and they were met on the Chinese side by an effort to do the same."

Weston's trip was featured on September 5 in this CU Connections article.

"Tim Weston, associate professor of history and associate director of the Center for Asian Studies at CU-Boulder, recently served as the scholar/escort for a delegation of congressional communications directors during a weeklong educational trip to China.

The trip was jointly arranged by the National Committee on United States-China Relations, based in New York, and the Chinese National People’s Congress (NPC). A few years ago, Weston was named a Public Intellectual Fellow of the committee, which is one of the leading non-governmental organizations that facilitates contacts between the Chinese and U.S. governments. Because of Weston’s association with the committee and his expertise in both modern Chinese history and contemporary China, he was chosen to accompany the group to act as a resource during the trip.

The delegation included communications directors for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer.

'I tried to put contemporary China in a longer, modern, historical context. Chinese government personnel are very conscious of history, and the folks I was with didn’t have a serious background in Chinese history,' Weston said. 'For instance, I spoke about the role of imperialism in China and the sensitivity the Chinese have around these issues.'"

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