As an active, long time member of the Nati’onal Committee for US-China Relations, I was invited to attend the Seattle dinner held in honor of the visit to the US of China’s President, Xi Jinping. It was his 7th visit to the US since 1985. The visit to Seattle provided an opportunity for President Xi to meet with a broad range of US business leaders and state government officials as a way to kickoff his US visit to the White House.
In today’s world because of security concerns everywhere, the arrangements for the official visit and dinner in Seattle’ reflected intense security protocols. While the dinner was held downtown at the Westin Hotel in Seattle, all guests were required to report first to the Conference Center at the Washington State Convention Center to go through a lengthy series of security checks. We had to arrive between 2:30-345pm to be cleared, and then was escorted by bus for the ride to the Westin so we could attend the 4pm reception and the 5pm dinner.
The dinner was scheduled a bit earlier than usual to accommodate the Jewish dinner guests so they could attend religious services afterwards in honor of the Yom Kippur holiday. The dinner officially lasted from 5-7pm because the Yom Kippur holiday began at sundown.
The people at the cocktail party and the dinner reflected a “who’s who” in the China business, government and academic affairs. Penny Pritzer, the US Secretary of Commerce, was the top US government official. Others included the Governor of the State of Washington, the Mayor of Seattle, and the former US Ambassador to China, Gary Locke–who also previously served as former Governor of Washington State and former US Secretary of Commerce. The pivotal guest, however, was Dr. Henry Kissinger, who was accorded the special honor of introducing President Xi Jinping. It was a truly wonderful moment as I thought back to the secret visit of Kissinger to China in 1971 that set in place the forces that led then President Richard Nixon to go to China to meet Chairman Mao and Zhou Enlai in 1972. I have read Kissinger’s memoirs about the days he and Nixon spent in China and they provide fascinating reading! I can only imagine what it must have been like to have been part of the conversations about world affairs took place between Mao, Nixon and Kissinger.
Now, it was 2015, over forty years since renewed contact between our two countries ‘began. And, here I was in Seattle attending an amazing dinner, even if the visit by President Xi was occurring in the midst of one of the most challenging moments in Sino-US relations. While bilateral trade, investment relations, science and technology cooperation, and educational exchanges have grown remarkably since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1979, a host of vexing problems seem to dominate the headlines when discussions of US-China relations are presented in the media. Difficulties over issues such as China’s role in the South China Sea, market access or cyber security unfortunately often seem to overshadow the simple fact that the US and China have become increasingly interdependent regarding a broad spectrum of government and non-government activities. With everything from cross-border foreign investment, academic exchanges, and S&T cooperation continuing to expand, it seems hard to imagine that tensions between the two governments have risen to such a high level. One wonders why after four decades of sustained contact and engagement, the US and China still have tremendous difficulty finding common ground over so many important global and regional issues? To me the situation is rather straight-forward: there is no major global issue today whose solution will not require necessarily close Sino-US collaboration and coordination.
It is against this paradoxical backdrop of growing and deepening ties as well as increasing tensions’ that the formal dinner remarks of President Xi Jinping take on special meaning. President Xi clearly came to the US to voice China’s commitment to a positive sum Sino-US relationship in all domains. His speech emphasized two major points:
First, the bilateral relationship is strategically important to both countries and especially to China; a strong, vibrant US- China relationship is good for world peace and regional stability. And second, that China’s rise is intended to be a peaceful one, but it also is the case that China’s voice needs to be heard in the negotiation of the rapidly evolving world order of the 21st century. While President Xi emphasized that China still possesses many of the features of a still developing country, it also is the case that the PRC is not a typical developing nation either–as evidenced by its ability to send astronauts into space, its technological prowess in fields such as supercomputing, and its advances in high speed rail. Coming to grips with China’s rapid and sustained rise is one of the major challenges facing the US and the other Western nations for the next several years and beyond.
The audience seemed extremely pleased with President Xi’s remarks including the fact that he referred to author Ernest Hemingway’s experiences in Cuba, quoted Martin Luther King, and referenced the popular TV show “House of Cards” in his remarks.
The dinner was a typical array of Western food, steak and salmon, plus some very sweet chocolate mousse desserts. My Chinese friends would have much preferred some fresh fruit rather than a super rich American sweet. In fact, I believe they would have preferred Chinese food if given a choice! The meal was accompanied by some tasty wines from Washington State.
The overall event was a fantastic opportunity for networking, meeting old and new friends alike. Having spent my professional career deeply embedded in the world of contemporary China studies and having spent over 5+ yrs living in Beijing as part of the management consulting and China business world, it occurred to me that the number of my professional China-related associates’ has continued to expand each and every year. More American firms are doing business in or with China, more US scholars are engaged in research and teaching about China, and more American young people are either trying to master Chinese language or build their careers in association with China. Enmeshed in a crowd of 750+ people, I felt myself marveling at the fact that China matters have absorbed the attention of so many people on both sides of the Pacific.
Within minutes of the last toast, the room emptied very quickly and I went off to attend the special service for Yom Kippur. It was a small group of 20 or so people, but the guest list included Dr. Kissinger and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzer. I smiled as the service began at simply how wonderful it was that in the US, people from all walks of life and varied backgrounds could achieve such high’ office and success in their lives. It was an amazing evening, especially to be one of the 750 special guests included for this rather momentous event. I believe I can say without hesitation, despite the fact it was not the most intimate of events, everyone in the room felt as special as I did.
