About the 21st Century Council

The 21^st Century Council is a non-governmental forum co-launched in 2011 by a number of world-renowned statesmen, strategists and entrepreneurs. With the current No.1 mission to enable G20’s action in global governance, the Council has regular get-togethers each year for suggestions to governments on how to improve global governance, and is known as "the shadow G20."

The Council currently consists of 42 members, including former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, American investor Berggruen, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, former British PM Gordon Brown, former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former Spanish PM Felipe Gonzalez, former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, former Pakistani PM Shaukat Aziz, former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, former WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, Nobel laureates Joseph E. Stiglitz (economics), Michael Spence (economics) and Ahmed H. Zewail (chemistry), professor Francis Fukuyama at Stanford University, professor Kishore Mahbubani at the National University of Singapore, and Executive Chairman of Google Eric Schmidt, etc. Zheng Bijian, CIIDS Chairman and former Executive Vice President of Party School of the Central Committee of CPC, was also invited as a founding member. Wu Jianmin, CIIDS Executive Vice Chairman and former Chinese ambassador to France, currently serves as a director.

In October 2011, the first session of the Council was held in Paris, which had a dialogue with Nicolas Sarkozy, rotating chairman of the G20 Summit in Cannes and French President. Chairman Zheng Bijian expounded the idea of China’s adherence to peaceful development and dedication to maximizing common interests for all parties concerned in the pursuit of a full-range, multi-level community of interests, which was widely endorsed by Council members. The Council decided to incorporate "constructing a community of interest based on the expanding convergence of interests" in the final statement of the assembly and accepted it as the Council’s guideline.

In May 2012, the 21^st Century Council met in Mexico City, to made recommendations on the issues challenging the G20 and its future operating model. The Council had a dialogue with Felipe Calderon, Mexican President and rotating chairman of the G20 summit in Mexico. The Council also suggested to Russian President Vladimir Putin about reform of the G20 mechanism prior to the G20 summit in St. Petersburg in September 2013.