LOS ANGELES — Call it what you will. In the red-baiting McCarthy era, to be sure, it probably would have been labeled as some sort of sinister Fifth Column operating on behalf of Beijing behind America's lines. They themselves call their U.S.-based organization, rather plainly, not mentioning China, "The Committee of 100" — though this obviously distinguished group, which has been around for almost a century now, sports many more members nationwide than that.

For myself, I simply think of "The Committee of 100" as America's most prominent Chinese-American lobbying network; and if I had to throw some overall label on it, I might banner it: "Wake Up America, like it or not, China is rising; so let's figure out how to deal with it. Oh, and hurry up!" This label might not be catchy and succinct, but its sentiment is exactly what was most prominently on display at the 17th Annual Conference ("Bridging Progress, Sharing Vision") of the "Committee of 100" on April 17-19 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

It might have been the Thursday night keynote speaker who framed the C-100's vision as well as anyone. That was Ambassador Christopher Hill, who is America's widely admired assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. This high-ranking career foreign service officer is better known in the world media as the Bush administration's primary negotiator with North Korea in the six-party talks — organized by the Chinese government and held for the past few years in Beijing. And so when Hill took the podium, a profound hush came over the large ballroom as diners dropped their forks and knives and cooled down their chit-chat to see what Hill would say about North Korea.