In February, AEI hosted a lecture with the Heritage Foundation that featured South Korean presidential candidate Lee Hoi Chang of the Grand National Party. He stressed that the South Korean policy toward the escalating confrontation with North Korea should be one of engagement that does not ignore the military threat posed by North Korean weapons of mass destruction.

Wu Sue-jen, wife of President Chen Shuibian of the Republic of China (Taiwan), spoke at AEI in September on Taiwan's journey from autocracy to democracy. A veteran legislator, advocate for democracy, and key political adviser to her husband, Madame Chen's visit was not only her first trip to the United States, but also the first visit from a Taiwanese first lady to Washington, D.C., in fifty years.

A February lecture by Thomas Rawski of the University of Pennsylvania examined the institutional and policy developments that point to an escalating conflict between China's market-oriented reforms and recentralization of economic decisionmaking. Mr. Rawski also discussed his research exposing the unreliability of official Chinese statistics in recent years.

An April speech by Siyuan Cao of Beijing Siyuan Research Center for Social Sciences focused on the impact of privatization on China's economic system and how it affects the reform of state-owned enterprises. Private enterprises have been gaining strength in China over the years and have become an important part of the country's economy. The speaker also discussed possible economic developments in the next ten years, as well as China's prosperity in the wake of globalization.

At an April event, Bui Diem, former ambassador of South Vietnam to the United States, and American and Vietnamese scholars considered Vietnam's political evolution and the implications for American interests and aspirations. The discussants recommended a long-term U.S. strategy toward Vietnam now that economic and diplomatic relations between the two countries have stabilized.