FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WNED ǀ WBFO Media Contact: Munk Debates Media Contact: Heather Hare Sherry Naylor Director, Corporate Communications Naylor and Associates (716) 845.7155 • [email protected] (416) 368.8253 • [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Munk Debate on China Airs June 18 on WNED-TV Is China a threat to the liberal international order?

Tickets to the Munk Debates in can sell out in just 15 minutes, but WNED-TV viewers don’t need to leave their living rooms to catch the latest debate on China and its impact on the world. “China: Friend or Foe?” airs at 10 pm Tuesday, June 18, on WNED-TV, with renowned panelists H.R. McMaster and Michael Pillsbury arguing one side and Kishore Mahbubani and Huiyao Wang arguing the other. Rudyard Griffiths is the organizer and moderator.

The Munk Debates, now in its 11th year, are held twice a year in Toronto and tackle major policy issues, such as whether American foreign policy emboldens terrorists, whether men are obsolete, and whether religion is a force for good in the world. The Munk Debates are ’s preeminent forum to discuss the pressing issues of our time. Previous Munk Debate participants are a who’s who of world influencers, including former British Prime Minister , former US Secretary of State , former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon, and .

The motion for the Spring 2019 Munk Debate, held May 9: is China a threat to the liberal international order? Arguing for the resolution is H. R McMaster, who served as the 26th Assistant to the President for National Security before retiring from the U.S. military as Lieutenant General in 2018. He is a New York Times bestselling author, and a West Point graduate with a PhD in military history. He is joined by Michael Pillsbury, one of Donald Trump’s top advisors on China. Pillsbury is the author of The Hundred- Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower, and the director for Chinese strategy at the D.C.-based Hudson Institute.

Arguing against the resolution is Kishore Mahbubani, former President of the United Nation Security Council and past dean of the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Mahbubani is the author of numerous bestselling books, including 2018’s Has the West Lost It? A Provocation. Joining him will be Huiyao Wang. Dr. Wang is the Founder and President of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) in Beijing. He was a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a Senior Fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

Rudyard Griffiths is the organizer and moderator of the Munk Debates. He is the author of the 2009 Globe and Mail book of the year, Who We Are: A Citizen's Manifesto, and has edited various essays on Canadian and international political and historical themes. He has been a television anchor on BNN, CTV News Channel, and Bloomberg TV Canada.

The debate was filmed and edited to an hour to be aired on WNED-TV June 18 at 10 pm. It will be rebroadcast at 1 am Thursday, June 20, and 5:30 pm Saturday, June 22.

The Munk Debates are a signature initiative of the Aurea Foundation, founded in 2006 by Peter and Melanie Munk to support Canadian institutions involved in the study and development of public policy. Funding for broadcast of The Munk Debates was provided by Empire Communities.

# # #

About WNED | WBFO The WNED | WBFO family of stations broadcasts PBS, NPR and Classical music programming throughout the Western New York and Southern Ontario regions. These high-quality programs and community outreach services inform, enlighten, entertain and educate our local and regional communities. Our member-supported stations include WNED-TV (PBS), WBFO-FM 88.7 (NPR), Classical 94.5 WNED, JazzWorks, WNED thinkbright Create and PBS KIDS 24/7. WNED-TV is also a national producer of award-winning documentaries. Additional information about WNED ǀ WBFO can be found at wned.org.

About the MUNK DEBATES The Munk Debates are a signature initiative of the Aurea Foundation, founded in 2006 by Peter and Melanie Munk to support Canadian institutions involved in the study and development of public policy. Held semi-annually since 2008, The Munk Debates are the world’s leading forum for civil and substantive debate. The Debates’ mission is to provide a global platform for leading thinkers to debate the big issues transforming society. Additional information about the Munk Debates can be found at munkdebates.com.