CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA

Baucus And Bereuter Appoint Senior Staff For Congressional-Executive Commission On China

Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and Congressman Doug Bereuter (R-NE), the Chairman and Co-chairman, respectively, of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, announce the appointments of Ira Wolf as Staff Director and John J. Foarde as Deputy Staff Director of the Commission (also known as the Baucus-Bereuter Commission on China).

The Commission, created by the China PNTR legislation enacted in Public Law No. 106-286 in 2000, consists of nine Senators, nine members of the House of Representatives, and five Administration officials appointed by the President.

The Commission's mandate is to monitor and report on human rights and the development of the rule of law in China, and to maintain a registry of victims of human rights abuses in China. In meeting this mandate, the Commission will cover the full range of human rights and legal reform issues, including WTO implementation and compliance, and will submit an annual report to the President and to the Congress. The Commission will make additional staff appointments in the coming weeks.

Ira Wolf has served since 1999 as Senior Advisor for International Trade to Senator Baucus. Before joining the Senator's staff, he was Vice President of Eastman Kodak Company in Japan, Assistant United States Trade Representative for Japan and China, Director of Government Relations-Japan for Motorola, Legislative Assistant to Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, and a Foreign Service Officer.

John J. Foarde was Vice President of the United States-China Business Council from 1998 to 2001. As a Foreign Service Officer at the Department of State from 1980 until 1998, he served as Attorney-Advisor for Consular Affairs in the Office of the Legal Adviser, Country Officer in the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs, and handled a variety of human rights and political issues as a political officer at U.S. Embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Beijing, PRC; and Dhaka, Bangladesh. Mr. Foarde also served as a consular officer in Santiago, Chile, and as Country Officer for the Eastern Caribbean in the State Department's former Bureau of American Republics Affairs.