New York: The Asia Society, one of the oldest U.S.-based organizations focused on bridging ties between the U.S. and Asia, formally launched a new Center for China Analysis in New York on Monday.
Founded with the support of John D. Rockefeller in 1956, the organization’s mission remains “to add light rather than heat to the discourse in order to find pathways through the seemingly intractable challenges of our age,” Asia Society CEO Kevin Rudd said at an inaugural conference on Monday called “China’s Future: What It Means for Asia and the World.”
“We see ourselves as a think tank and a do tank. We’re not into the business of just thinking alone. Thinking is the sound of one hand clapping; thinking and doing is the sound of two hands clapping,” said Rudd, a former Australian prime minister, and foreign minister. The Mandarin speaker began his career as a China scholar, serving as an Australian diplomat in Beijing before entering Australian politics.
