A dinner and lecture on the business opportunities in the People’s Republic of China is being held from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Worthington Inn, followed by a panel discussion on campus.

The discussion is titled “Business Opportunities in China: Entry into the World Trade Organization and Planning for 2008 Olympics.”

A dinner is planned from 5 to 6 p.m., and experts on business opportunities in China will speak and answer questions after the dinner.

Speakers will include professor Mujin Zhang, the chairperson of a six-day seminar on Chinese business opportunities for American corporate CEO’s and Consul Deyou Tian, the Chief Representative of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade in Chicago.

Prior to assuming this position in America, Tian was the Executive Assistant to His Excellency Sun Zhenyu, the Chinese Ambassador to the World Trade Organization.

Topics the speakers will touch on include the legal framework of China’s new status in the World Trade Organization, the restructuring of China’s marketing mechanism, investment and business opportunities and the need for human resources training in China and the opportunities of joint investment between America and China.

Comments from the Charleston/American perspective will be made by John Faust, an Eastern professor emeritus and research associate at the Public Policy Institute of Eastern.

Faust recently returned from observing China’s changing economic and political landscape.

“From the American perspective, we see tremendous change going on in China,” he said. “But it is very uneven.”

Faust also said it is going to take time to see the sudden increase in change that is occurring in China.

Reservations are required to attend the $20 dinner.

Contact the Charleston Area Chamber of Commerce at 345-7041 to register for the dinner or to find out more information.

For those who cannot attend the dinner and lecture, the same speakers will hold a public meeting and panel discussion from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in the Lumpkin Auditorium Room 2030.

Sponsors for the event are the Charleston Area Chamber of Commerce and the Public Policy Institute of Eastern.