Peace Programs

China Program Overview

What is the status of democracy in China?

What is the Carter Center's role in China?

What role is online dialogue playing in political reform?

Why is community building important in China?

What is the Carter Center's role in China?

President Carter's interest in China began when he was a boy growing up in South Georgia.  Stories of missionaries in China aroused his sympathy with the Chinese people, and he
started donating through his church to help improve living conditions there. 

President Carter began to look into normalizing relations with the People's Republic of China shortly after he was elected president in 1976.  After years of difficult negotiations and overcoming both popular and official resistance at home, President Carter and the Chinese leaders at the time decided to normalize relations effective Jan. 1, 1979, almost simultaneous with the Chinese decision to launch economic reform and initiate measures to open their society.

After leaving the White House in 1981, President Carter continued to pay great attention to China's reform.  In the1980s, The Carter Center helped address the needs of disabled Chinese through two projects: one to train 900 Chinese elementary teachers of deaf and blind students, and another to help design and construct a large facility to manufacture high technology prostheses. In 1998, an unprecedented three-year agreement was signed with China's Ministry of Civil Affairs for The Carter Center to work primarily in four China provinces to observe village elections and help the ministry standardize election procedures across villages. This work included gathering election data with computer technology, educating voters, and training election officials. The project was renewed and its scope expanded to include such activities as helping amend election laws and assisting limited attempts at election reform beyond the village level in townships and counties.

Today, the China Program is working to help the government be more transparent and accountable to citizens. It also is strengthening citizen participation in governance through greater access to information, online portals for debating public policy and advancing political reform, and scholarly forums on democracy, human rights, and rule of law principles on college campuses. All of our programming is done in consultation with Chinese government agencies and designed to deepen reform measures on the government agenda.

 

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