While Asia and Europe's bilateral links with the United States are deep, ties between Europe and Asia need to be strengthened. In the aftermath of the Asian economic crisis and Europe's focus on issues closer to home (European single currency and the enlargement process), is the building of a new Asia-Europe partnership a priority for the European Union? Can the Asian economic crisis serve as a window of opportunity for closer and lasting economic cooperation between Asia and Europe? How can Europe assist in the implementation of economic reform programs and the process of market liberalization? What is the future of enhanced EU-Asia political cooperation in the areas of the environment, crime and drugs, terrorism, and human rights? How can Europe and Asia best pursue their common interests in arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation? Professor Rinsche has had a distinguished career in German and European politics spanning more than three decades: as a member of the German Parliament (1965-1972) and a member of the European Parliament for twenty years (1979-1999). He was president of the EP-Delegation for ASEAN, South-East Asia, and South Korea (1979-1999), and chairman of the CDU/CSU-Group from 1989-1999. He is currently president of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a German political foundation promoting civic education in Germany and democracy and development abroad. Professor Rinsche will have just returned from an extended trip to South-East Asia and China and will share his recent insights in the current situation in that region.

Since the early 1990s the issue of how the Japanese remember World War II has been in the headlines over and over again. The most recent round of junior high school textbook revisions, for example, has created a firestorm of protest in Korea and China. But there is much evidence to belie the charge that the Japanese suffer from collective amnesia. War memory is not fixed but remains highly contested. Peter Duus, a historian of modern Japan, William H. Bonsall Professor of History at Stanford. He has written and edited several book on prewar Japanese imperialism, including The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910.

This luncheon comes at a time when the Shorenstein Forum is nurturing a special interest in journalism, and embarking on shared activities with its sister institution at Harvard, the Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics, and Public Policy. The Forum is delighted to welcome this distinguished delegation from the Brookings Institution. ***** THIS LUNCHEON IS BY INVITATION ONLY. *****

Susan V. Lawrence is Beijing Bureau Chief for the Far Eastern Economic Review, the Hong Kong-based weekly newsmagazine wholly owned by Dow Jones & Co. Before joining the Review in 1998, Ms. Lawrence was an Associate in Research at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University. From 1990 to 1996, Ms. Lawrence was Beijing Bureau Chief for the Washington, D.C.-based newsweekly US News & World Report. From 1989 to 1990, she worked on the foreign desk of US News in Washington, D.C. Ms. Lawrence holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies and an M.A. in Regional Studies-East Asia, both from Harvard University. She was a Harvard-Yenching Institute Scholar at Peking University from 1985 to 1987.

The Asia/Pacific Research Center welcomes family, friends, colleagues, and students of Michel Oksenberg to celebrate his life.

Dennis Harter is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and a Foreign Service Officer (since 1966) specializing in Asian Affairs. From 1968-1970, he served as a district senior advisor in the Mekong Delta, then as deputy director for Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia Affairs in the late 1970s. He has served as director of Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam Affairs during the period of normalization of relations with Vietnam, and as deputy chief of Mission (Deputy Ambassador) from August 1997 to the present. He also served in Hong Kong twice; in Taiwan and Indonesia, and was Consul General in Guangzhou, People's Republic of China from 1989-1993.

Twenty years ago, there was little to no private wealth in China, yet today the average personal net worth of the wealthiest 50 entrepreneurs is over $200 million. The Communist Party's survival depends on China's successful economic integration into the world trading system, and it can not achieve this without entrepreneurship on a large scale. Hence the Party's pragmatic philosophy: to allow a few individuals to get rich in the belief that they will play a significant part in developing the rest of the country. Who are the 47 men and 3 women on this year's top 50 list? In what industries have their companies arisen? How has the composition of the ranking changed during the past 2 years? And what do their stories illustrate about changes in China's climate for entrepreneurship?

Rupert Hoogewerf is a freelance journalist whose research into the Top 50 wealthiest entrepreneurs of China was published for the second year running in Forbes magazine. Prior to journalism, Mr. Hoogewerf worked for 7 years with Arthur Andersen in London and Shanghai. Graduating from Durham University in Chinese and Japanese, he is based in London and Shanghai.