On January 6–8, 2008, nearly 30 senior policy experts from China, Japan, and the United States gathered in Beijing for the Fourth US-Japan-China Trilateral Conference. The discussions over the two days covered various aspects of the complex trilateral relationship, ranging from the interlinkages among domestic politics and foreign policy in the three countries to energy issues and regional challenges such as cross-Strait relations and North Korea. Additional meetings were held on January 6th and 7th with Chinese officials.

The US-Japan-China Trilateral Conference was initiated in 2005 in response to declining Sino-Japanese relations in order to bring together senior experts to take part in candid discussions regarding the trilateral relationship. The conference was organized with the Brookings Institution and China Foreign Affairs University as well as Peking University and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. In 2008, JCIE took over from the Keizai Koho Center as the Japan-side organizer to host the 4th meeting of the conference.