I first began following US-China diplomacy after a chance meeting with V.K. Wellington Koo – one of the most skilled Chinese diplomats of the 20th century. He represented China at the Paris Peace Conference after the first world war, where he advocated that China be treated as a major world power. He was among the founders of the League of Nations and the United Nations. He served as China’s ambassador to France and then Britain during the second world war.
He became ambassador to the United States in 1946, and it was there that I met him after I arrived as a student in 1949. Koo had known my father, and invited me to join him for lunch at the ambassador’s residence in Washington. It was my first encounter with a diplomat, and would leave a lasting impression, inspiring my career in US-China relations.
Through my work, I became familiar with the major forces involved in directing the US-China relationship. For three years, I taught Chinese to aspiring diplomats at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute. My students included the future US ambassador to China, Stapleton Roy. Through my work at the Library of Congress, I briefed prominent legislators on China, including Mike Mansfield, Henry Jackson, Charles Percy, Ted Kennedy, Bob Dole, and current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On the Chinese side, I met ambassadors and foreign ministers from both the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China.
During those days, diplomacy was limited to a small, elite group. The American and Chinese diplomats of the time were among the most capable diplomats in their countries. They studied the history of the relationship and were well versed in each other’s language and history. Wellington Koo received a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate from Columbia University, and The Washington Post noted in his obituary that he was “as fluent in English and French as he was in Chinese”.
03:01
Banning 92 million Communist Party members from America ‘ridiculous’, Beijing says
Banning 92 million Communist Party members from America ‘ridiculous’, Beijing says
Those were the Cold War years. The US and the Soviet Union strongly distrusted each other and, while misunderstandings at times brought the two countries to the brink of war, more frequently it was the strength of the diplomacy between them that enabled common ground to be found and tragedy to be averted.
Diplomacy happened largely without an audience. It would be the politician’s job to explain and justify foreign policy to his constituents, and the diplomat’s job to negotiate while keeping the nation’s best interests in mind and being armed with a nuanced understanding of his counterpart’s national interests.
Much is different today. In the US, China hawks view all of Beijing’s intentions as malign and see every Chinese action as a threat. In China, the new “wolf warrior” diplomats take to social media to defend China and criticise the West. The wolf warrior diplomats have come under increased scrutiny in the last few months, as their aggressive tactics clash with long-accepted standards of practice for diplomats.
US-China diplomacy has become performative, with members of the US Department of State and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs exchanging barbs over Twitter. The finessed language of diplomacy has given way to hashtags and zingers – the only common language now between the US and China.
There are obviously many complex problems affecting the US-China relationship. Issues of misunderstanding and suspicion have always been impediments to US-China diplomacy. Current tensions in the relationship – which some are categorising as a “new Cold War” – are not going to be resolved overnight by any diplomat, no matter how seasoned or well-intentioned. But I fear that the current generation of diplomats, both in the US and China, is particularly unsuited to the demands of the relationship.
Diplomacy does not often succeed when it is executed over a microphone. There is a reason that the negotiations that took Richard Nixon to China in 1972 happened secretly. If Nixon had kept the nation informed of the negotiations at every step of the way, pressure from competing interest groups, lobbyists and opposing politicians would have sidelined the talks. Nixon and Henry Kissinger would have been forced to spend their time negotiating with Democrats in Congress and with American journalists, instead of with the Chinese.
I played my own role in this diplomacy, travelling to China myself in June 1972, just four months after Nixon, to facilitate educational and cultural exchanges between the US and China. It was the first visit by a Chinese-American to be approved by the US government.
02:34
China hits back at US after Pompeo says most of Beijing’s claims in South China Sea are illegal
China hits back at US after Pompeo says most of Beijing’s claims in South China Sea are illegal
I do not mean to suggest that Americans should be kept in the dark about what their government is doing when it comes to diplomacy. But the behaviour of diplomats and leaders today – in both countries – only overcomplicates the relationship and contributes to the state of animosity.
Instead of building trust and working together to confront the economic and public health challenges presented by the pandemic, President Donald Trump is using terms such as “kung flu” and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is appearing regularly on Fox News to criticise China, as Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian continues to inflame feelings from Beijing.
The US-China relationship is not going to improve if the hawks or the wolf warriors have their way. Last month’s meeting between Pompeo and top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi highlights this. This meeting was more emblematic of the Nixon-Kissinger era of diplomacy. Pompeo and Yang met in Hawaii with little fanfare, and little buzz about what would be discussed. Yet it was doomed from the start. Pompeo has become such a derided figure in China that the idea of him negotiating anything of substance with his Chinese counterpart is nonsensical.
Hopefully, this state of US-China diplomacy will not last much longer. Criticism that the wolf warriors’ behaviour is doing more harm than good is growing. In the US, the looming November election puts the careers of Trump and Pompeo on the line. While Democratic nominee Joe Biden has suggested he would take a tough stance on China if elected, it is likely to be one based more on civility and without unnecessarily inflammatory rhetoric.
On the Chinese side, Foreign Minister Wang Yi extended a rare olive branch recently, saying: “We are still willing to grow China-US relations with goodwill and sincerity.”
I do not know if these potential changes will be enough to reset US-China diplomacy so more meaningful dialogue can take place. If the diplomats on both sides could stay off Twitter, it would be a good start.
Chi Wang, a former head of the Chinese section of the US Library of Congress, is president of the US-China Policy Foundation
