China Focus

The annual Jimmy Carter Forum on U.S.-China Relations is a conference which brings together former diplomats, academics, and other experts to share ideas on how the U.S.-China relationship could maintain resilience under current geopolitical and trade tensions. Hosted alternatingly between China and the United States, this is a platform which has fostered open communication since 2012.

The Jimmy Carter Conversations on U.S.-China Relations is a series of roundtable events held several times a year across the United States and Japan. The series brings together experts to talk about a preselected set of issues in a similar way to the annual conference.

Both conference series are an opportunity for direct communication and important dialogue across the cultural and geographical divide which pose a threat to the U.S.-China relationship.

China Focus is proud to be one of the only resources in the United States for information on Chinese public opinion on domestic and foreign policy issues.

Our collaboration with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in 2025 produced standard-setting research into how ordinary Chinese people view their country’s place in the world. Across original articles in NPR, Bloomberg, NBC News, and South China Morning Post, our findings were viewed by an estimated 190 million people, demonstrating the international relevance and appetite for this type of research. We seek to repeat this project annually.

China Pulse is our forthcoming longitudinal study of Chinese attitudes toward the United States and societies across Asia in collaboration with Emory University’s Department of Political Science.

With new data collected twice annually, China Pulse will provide a dashboard for researchers to explore Chinese citizens’ attitudes on unification with Taiwan, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Japanese militarization, American economic and foreign policy, and more. Our exploratory studies already reveal surprises for many watching China from the outside: pacificism on Taiwan unification, support for military coercion in the Philippines, and an openness to working with the United States despite the significant unpopularity of Washington, D.C.

There is currently an increased sense of risk for young professionals to participate in pro-peace events as tensions become increasingly strained. China Focus actively combats this trend by seeking out the next generation of pro-peace advocates and giving them a platform to voices their ideas and build connections on either side of the Pacific Ocean.

Our most important project in this vein is Emerging Voices for U.S.-China Cooperation, an annual conference for China experts within five years of their most recent degree and working in a field related to China expertise.

China Focus also co-sponsors the Fudan University & University of California – San Diego Young Scholars Conference to promote informed, evidence-backed dialogue. Sponsorship extends to graduate and post-doctoral students to participate in the conference. These students research international development, conflict resolution, technological competition, and more.

Our English-language newsletter and blog, U.S.-China Perception Monitor, and it’s Chinese-language counterpart, 中美印象 Zhong Mei Yinxiang, feature original analyses from and interviews with policy experts and academics studying the U.S.-China relationship and its impacts across the globe. 

While our English-language articles and interviews separate fact from fiction in the U.S.-China relationship and China’s international relations with, especially, Southeast Asia, our Chinese-language website publishes near daily translations of China commentary popular in the West. The goal in either case is to show each side what the other is thinking, saying, and doing to help decrease the threat of mutual misunderstanding, locate shared problems, and articulate what renewed bilateral cooperation could look like.