China Law Blog

Tom Plate wrote an interesting column the other day, entitled, "George I: American internationalist," regarding George Bush's (the elder) stint in China as Chief US representative to Beijing. The column actually focuses on the book "The China Diary of George H.W. Bush," recently published by Princeton University Press, which Plate describes as "balanced, prescient and helpful:"

During the one year (October 1974 to December 1975) that George H. W. Bush served as the chief U.S. representative in Beijing, the future president thoughtfully scribbled down little jottings of his experiences and worries about the all-important U.S.-China relationship. The jottings have now been strung together into a coherent diary and with deft commentaries by Jeffrey A. Engel, an up-and-coming assistant professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Policy in Texas.

The result is a quite readable, most likable and oft-illuminating set of yearlong musings about China and the U.S., about international diplomacy and personal diplomacy and about the hated Henry Kissinger, then secretary of state.

According to Plate, "Bush the Smarter's" "preferred philosophy" was/is the following:

-- Be kind. Don't be a big shot.

-- Listen, don't talk.

-- Reach out to people. [It] doesn't have to do anything with diplomacy; it has to do with life.

-- Treat people with respect and recognize in diplomatic terms that the sovereignty [of the tiniest state] is as important to them as sovereignty is [to us]. Slightly different scale, I might add. But nevertheless this is just a value thing. This isn't any great diplomatic study from the Fletcher School or something. This is just the way you react to things.

The endline to the column is "UCLA professor and career journalist Tom Plate personally interviewed George H.W. Bush privately only once, when he was vice president, but he liked him a whole lot." I actually met George H.W. Bush on an airplane returning from Korea and he autographed my New Republic Magazine and talked with me for about ten minutes regarding a just published book on how James Baker was the worst Secretary of State in US history (please remember this was before Condoleezza Rice). President Bush told me "Jim had heard of that book" and "Jim didn't like that book." He truly could not have been more gracious.

Call me naive (or worse) but that encounter softened my views on President Bush.

As regular readers know, I am of the view that in doing business with China, respect and courtesy can go a long way towards glossing over cultural ignorance. Sort of what President Bush is saying. This isn't any great study from the Harvard Business Review or something. It's just life.