China Town Hall 2026: Local Connections, National Reflections - Washington, D.C. Partner Event

YCAPS is excited to announce the next event in the in the Washington, D.C. Community! This event will feature a remote discussion with Stephen Biegun, former U.S. deputy secretary of state, and Sarah Beran, former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and former senior director for China and Taiwan affairs at the White House National Security Council led locally by Dr. Gary J. Sampson, Senior Research Fellow, YCAPS, who will guide us in a discussion titled: “China Town Hall 2026: Local Connections, National Reflections - Washington, D.C. Partner Event”.

YCAPS will host a Washington, DC partner event for the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ annual CHINA Town Hall on Tuesday, April 7 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, 401-E Conference Room. Doors open at 6:15 p.m., followed by the national livestream at 6:30 p.m. featuring Stephen Biegun and Sarah Beran, and then an in-person local discussion and moderated Q&A focused on the Japan/Taiwan/Indo-Pacific dimension of the U.S.-China relationship.

CHINA Town Hall is a program that provides a snapshot of the current U.S.-China relationship and examines how that relationship reverberates at the local level – in our towns, states, and nation – connects people around the country with U.S. policymakers and thought leaders on China.

The event is free, but space is limited and advance registration is required. YCAPS members and friends in the DC foreign policy and academic community are warmly encouraged to attend.

Registration: required via this eventbrite page

Schedule:

• 18:15 Doors Open
• 18:30-19:15 National China Town Hall Livestream
• 19:15-20:00 Local Discussion and Moderated Q&A

Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2026

Time: 18:15 doors open, 18:30 event start

Language: English

Location:

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library - Central Library, Conference Room 401-E

2901 G Street Northwest

Washington, DC 20001
https://www.dclibrary.org/plan-visit/martin-luther-king-jr-memorial-library

Google Map

Speakers:

Sarah Beran is a partner at Macro Advisory Partners, joining the firm in 2025 following a distinguished career in the U.S. Foreign Service, most recently as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

From 2022 to 2024, Ms. Beran served as senior director for China and Taiwan Affairs at the White House National Security Council. Her portfolio encompassed technology export controls, investment screening, trade policy, counternarcotics, Russia sanctions and Taiwan contingency planning. She led strategic preparations for multiple heads-of-state summits, negotiated the reopening of senior diplomatic channels with Beijing, and helped forge the first U.S.-China understanding on AI safety in the context of nuclear command and control.

Ms. Beran also served as then-U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s deputy executive secretary for the Indo-Pacific, led the office responsible for U.S. engagement in APEC, and served as former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s director of the office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs. She was posted overseas in Beijing, Islamabad, Jerusalem, and Quito. Her previous domestic assignments include office director for economic policy in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, special assistant to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Lebanon desk officer.

Stephen Biegun has more than three decades of international affairs experience in government and the private sector, including high-level government service with the Department of State, the White House, and the United States Congress. In 2021, Mr. Biegun concluded his most recent government service as the Deputy Secretary of State, to which he was confirmed by the Senate with a strong bipartisan vote of 90-3. In addition to his government service, Mr. Biegun has also served as a corporate vice president with Ford Motor Company and The Boeing Company.

Mr. Biegun began his career as a foreign policy specialist with the United States Congress, with a focus on Russia, the former Soviet Union, and Europe, ultimately rising to a number of senior-level positions including chief of staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as the national security advisor to Senate Majority Leader. He spent two years as the Executive Secretary of the White House National Security Council, serving as an advisor and deputy to the National Security Advisor. In the early 1990s, Mr. Biegun led a Moscow-based technical assistance program working closely with Russia’s first post-Soviet government.

Local Moderator:

Dr. Gary J. Sampson is a Senior Research Fellow in Chinese Strategic Studies at the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies (YCAPS). A retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, he served more than 25 years as an intelligence and international affairs officer focused on the Indo-Pacific. His assignments included principal intelligence briefer to the 38th Commandant of the Marine Corps, special assistant and chief speechwriter to the 19th and 20th Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, forces analyst on the Office of the Secretary of Defense Red Team, and Northeast Asia (China) Foreign Area Officer with multiple tours in Japan and the western Pacific. He deployed in support of Operations Southern Watch, Iraqi Freedom, and Enduring Freedom–Philippines.

Sampson earned his PhD in international relations from Tufts University’s Fletcher School, where his research examined post–Cold War PRC–DPRK alliance dynamics. His work centers on Chinese strategy, nuclear posture, and alliance politics in Northeast Asia, with particular emphasis on PRC–DPRK relations, PLA Rocket Force modernization, and the deterrence implications for Japan, Taiwan, and the wider Indo-Pacific. An Olmsted Foundation Scholar in Taiwan, he holds a master’s degree in Asia-Pacific studies from National Sun Yat-sen University, a master’s degree in strategic intelligence from the National Intelligence University, and studied Mandarin at the Defense Language Institute. His research affiliations have included National Defense University’s Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs and the Caracristi Institute for Intelligence Research at the National Intelligence University.

Format: This event will be off-the-record.

Registration: required via this eventbrite page
Moderator: Dr. Gary J. Sampson, YCAPS Senior Research Fellow

Co-Sponsor: National Committee on US-China Relations
Seminar Cost: Free of charge