U.S.-China-Korea Dynamics

Crafting Policies in the Moonshine Period

On May 24, 2017, a staff briefing on “U.S.-China-Korea Dynamics: Crafting Policies in the Moonshine Period” was hosted by NBR and the US-China Business Council (USCBC) in conjunction with the Congressional U.S.-China Working Group at Rayburn House Office Building.

The United States and China are dealing with increased uncertainty on the Korean peninsula. North Korea tested a new missile during a Chinese-led regional trade summit in Beijing, showing that the Kim regime would continue to heighten tensions. Meanwhile, South Korea’s newly-elected president, Moon Jae-In, is expected to pursue a more active engagement strategy with the North, and must deal with complicated trade relationships with China and the United States. How do these recent developments affect the geopolitical and economic relationships between U.S., China, and the Korean peninsula? What are the implications for the United States? This briefing will provide staffers with an understanding of the security and trade relationships between the United States, China, and the Koreas, and offer recommendations on how Congress might respond to changes in these relationships.

Panelists

Marika Heller, China Analyst, Crumpton Group
Mark Manyin, Specialist in Asian Affairs, Congressional Research Service
Marcus Noland, Executive Vice President and Director of Studies, Peterson Institute for International Economics
Ely Ratner, Senior Fellow in China Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

Panelist Bios

Marika Heller is a business, economic, and geopolitical analyst with more than a decade of experience on China-related issues. She has extensive experience advising Fortune 500 multinational companies on market strategy and regulatory policy in Asia in multiple sectors, including information technology, electronic payments, commodities, automobiles, food and beverage, and energy.

Prior to working at Crumpton Group, Ms. Heller served as a senior analyst at The Asia Group, where she worked directly with MNC clients to devise strategy that navigated the regulatory, economic, and geopolitical environments of their markets. She also worked for several years as an international manager in China’s Sichuan Province.

Ms. Heller is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and holds a Master’s in International Affairs with a focus on International Economics and International Management from UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy & Strategy, a Master’s in International Policy Studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, and a Bachelor’s in Political Science with a Chinese minor from Middlebury College.

Mark E. Manyin is a specialist in Asian Affairs at the Congressional Research Service (CRS), a non-partisan agency that provides information and analysis to members of the U.S. Congress and their staff. At CRS, Dr. Manyin’s general area of expertise is U.S. foreign economic policy toward East Asia, particularly Japan, the two Koreas, and Vietnam. From 2006 to 2008, he served as the head of the CRS’ 11-person Asia Section, overseeing the Service’s research on East, Southeast, and South Asia as well as Australasia and the Pacific Islands.

Prior to joining CRS in 1999, Dr. Manyin completed his PhD in Japanese trade policy and negotiating behavior at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He is a former CFR term member.

Marcus Noland, executive vice president and director of studies, has been associated with the Peterson Institute since 1985. From 2009 through 2012, he served as the Institute’s deputy director. His research addresses a wide range of topics at the interstice of economics, political science, and international relations. His areas of geographical knowledge and interest include Asia and Africa where he has lived and worked, and the Middle East. In the past he has written extensively on the economies of Japan, Korea, and China, and is unique among American economists in having devoted serious scholarly effort to the problems of North Korea and the prospects for Korean unification. He won the 2000–01 Ohira Memorial Award for his book, Avoiding the Apocalypse: The Future of the Two Koreas.

Dr. Noland earned his BA at Swarthmore College and PhD from the Johns Hopkins University. He is currently a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and at the East-West Center. He was previously a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

Ely Ratner is the Maurice R. Greenberg senior fellow in China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. His work focuses on U.S.-China relations, regional security in East Asia, and U.S. national security policy.

From 2015 to 2017, Ratner served as the deputy national security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, covering the global portfolio with particular focus on Asia and China policy, the South China Sea, North Korea, and U.S. alliances in Asia. From 2011 to 2012, while a CFR international affairs fellow, he served in the office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs at the State Department covering China’s external relations in Asia. He also previously worked in the U.S. Senate on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and in the office of Senator Joe Biden. Outside of government, Ratner has worked as a senior fellow and deputy director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security and as an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation.

Dr. Ratner received his BA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and his PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.