By Chas Freeman
Ambassador Han Xu was a man of his times, and his times were the
formative period of modern Chinese diplomacy and contemporary
Sino-American relations. This is an account of the life of a
popular, conscientious, and devoted Chinese patriot that can and
will be read and appreciated at many levels by Americans and those
outside China concerned with Sino-American relations, now that we
can read it in English.???
It will delight those readers who remember Han Xu as the
earnestly upright, friendly, and competent diplomat he was. It will
remind those readers who did not know him how very hard it was to
achieve the present, mainly cooperative, Sino-American
relationship. To still others, it will introduce the Chinese
concepts of protocol, courtesy and consideration that Han Xu
exemplified and that have become widely admired around the
world.
This book is, at one level, a meticulous account of the
professional life of one of Zhou Enlai's principal?
lieutenants, an enthusiastically? fastidious public servant
who helped at the tactical level to create the modern Chinese
foreign ministry and its diplomatic style, manage both
Indochina-focused Geneva conferences and the non-aligned summit at
Bandung, cope with the era of Sino-American estrangement, assist at
the birth of the Sino-Soviet split, set up Nixon's path-breaking
visit to Beijing, achieve Sino-American normalization, open the
Chinese liaison office in Washington, reach difficult
post-normalization accommodations with Americans over the Taiwan
issue, serve as China's ambassador to Washington in both the best
and worst of times, and – as a final contribution to his country in
official retirement -- broaden China's diplomatic ties
globally.?
Focused on Han Xu's role in all of these major developments in
the diplomacy of the last quarter of the 20th century as well as in
other, less well known events, this book provides important
insights into how things looked to Chinese policy-makers and
participants at the time. Its account of the Chinese handling of
the run-up to President Nixon's China breakthrough is the most
complete yet published. Its blow-by-blow account of the
Sino-American normalization process and the Sino-Japanese
antecedents this followed will come as a revelation to those who
did not live through these events. Its account of the Chinese
embassy's performance after the June 4th Incident in 1989 will
evoke wry sympathy in any practitioner of crisis management or to
ambassador who has had to cope with sharp foreign reactions to
unexpected developments in his country and consequent setbacks to
its relations with other countries and peoples.?
At another level, this is the history of the personal and
professional formation of a man who was a major figure in the early
diplomacy of the People's Republic of China. The moving opening
account of Han Xu's childhood and his subsequent rebellion against
the autocratic and unbending father whose guidance he spurned but
whom he came in some respects to resemble is the story of a
generation of Chinese patriots who dropped out of university to
join the communist-led fight against the Japanese and for social
justice in their homeland. The numerous details of Han's
interaction with Zhou Enlai (whose leadership in the formation of a
distinctive Chinese diplomatic style cannot be overstated) and of
his struggles to define rules and regulations for the practice of
diplomacy by a completely unformed and inexperienced Chinese
foreign ministry and diplomatic service provide invaluable insights
into why China behaves as it does on the international
stage.?
Han's perplexity as the red guards of the "cultural revolution"
sought to portray his meritorious service as subversive mirrored
that of every dedicated civil servant in the Chinese system.?
Han's unflagging loyalty to the cause distinguishes him from many
who found it all too Kafkaesque to be tolerated.? And, no
father who has given similarly of himself to his professional
duties will avoid a wistful feeling when reading of Han Xu's
enforced distance from his children and his beautiful and
exquisitely refined wife (to whom this empathetic account of Han's
life owes a great deal).
At still another level, this book provides interesting insights
into the functioning of China's foreign ministry, Chinese
interpretations (and misinterpretations) of the behavior of the
ever inscrutable Americans at various points over the past
thirty-five years, and the difficulties any ambassador has in
dealing with a large, fickle democracy like the United
States.? But it should be read and will be enjoyed, most of
all, for its dynamic portrayal of one of the late 20th century's
most ingratiating professional diplomats, China's Han Xu, in the
institutional and international settings in which he excelled.
(China.org.cn February 21, 2008)
