Randy Kluver, director of the Institute for Pacific Asia and the Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University, has been invited to testify on information control and media influence associated with the Olympics in the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) public hearings. The topic of discussion is related to Chinese media, which is Kluver’s area of research expertise, and he also serves as a research professor in the Department of Communication.

The hearing on media control will seek to examine ways in which media censorship and restrictions on publicly-available information within China can affect the economic, diplomatic and security relationships between China and the United States.

Kluver will be giving an oral presentation of his views on the effect that the preparations for the Olympics have had on press freedom, and if the Chinese government has honored pledges of media freedom made earlier. He will also be giving his policy recommendations for the U.S. government in regard to these issues.

Other panelists on the June 18 hearing are Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at the University of California-Berkeley; Ronald J. Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab-Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, principal investigator for the OpenNet Initiative; Peter Gries, Harold J. & Ruth Newman Chair in US-China Issues at the University of Oklahoma; Perry Link, professor of East Asian studies at Princeton University; and Charles Freeman, Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Both the hearing transcript, including the oral presentations and dialogue with Commissioners, and the prepared (written) statements will be made a part of the hearing record that will be posted on the Commissioner’s Web site ( www.uscc.gov ) where it will be available to members of the Congress and their staff and to the public.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission was created by statute in October 2000 by the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act to monitor, investigate, and submit to congress an annual report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.

The official press release and a detailed schedule of the hearings is available at the USCC website at http://www.uscc.gov/pressreleases/2008/08_06_18-19pr.php.

Contacts: Dr. Randy Kluver / Carmen Suen (979) 845-3099 or csuen@ipomail.tamu.edu  http://international.tamu.edu/ipa/