Taiwan Trip Quotes

A friend had responded to my plea for books by sending me $100, along with a story clipped from the pages of the International Herald Tribune. The article focused on the Queens Public Library system. It was the busiest in the United States, due to the large immigrant population. The article profiled a recent immigrant from Taiwan—Pin-Pin Lin—who brought her two sons to the library twice a week. She insisted that they read in English rather than Chinese and would check out up to 20 books per visit. I thought of my own childhood library trips, and my parents being just as excited as Pin-Pin Lin about the possibilities inherent in reading.

I think there's a very strong set of historical examples which suggests that, without that careful work by so-called sherpas helping the climbers to climb the mountain Mount Everest and reach an agreement, there is no agreement, or if there is an apparent agreement, it falls apart very quickly. Usually a summit is an occasion to ratify what has previously been agreed, and maybe reached final agreement on a few points that are still in dispute. For example, the opening to China, which I participated in with President Nixon, would not have been possible without several trips and discussions between Henry Kissinger, General Alexander Haig, and Chinese counterparts. Almost everything had been pre-aggreed. I actually wrote part of the Shanghai Communique well in advance of the trip. And the one issue that had to be finalized was the Taiwan issue, and President Nixon's discussions with Chairman Mao and with Premier Zhou Enlai were able to bridge that gap. This is normal. [...] There is a global professional culture of diplomacy. Diplomacy in its modern state has its origins really with Belisarius, who was a figure in the Byzantine Empire under Justinian. He invented the modern foreign office, the modern intelligence agency. He was a master practitioner of divide and rule. He probably gave that Byzantine Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire, an additional 400 years of existence that it otherwise would not have had. Of course, Justinian didn't like being upstaged by this Bulgarian peasant who had risen in the ranks in what was then called Constantinople, now Istanbul. And Belisarius was of course punished for having been so successful. He was a brilliant general also. He conquered much of Italy, and restored the Roman Empire's rule briefly in Italy as well as in North Africa. You know, great figures can sometimes accomplish great things. But the tradition of diplomacy which then was basically developed in Renaissance Italy and then perfected by Richelieu, the French Cardinal statesman, always involves extremely careful notetaking and recordkeeping. It's very notable to me that, American diplomats when we meet with, let's say, the Chinese or the Russians, are at a grave disadvantage. Because we don't have access to our own records. We have not mastered the record. I don't think anybody who is professional, whether they're Russian, Iranian, Chinese, whatever, goes into a meeting without have having carefully reviewed the record, and also considered the psychological profile of the persons they will be meeting with. (Excerpt from interview "Amb. Chas Freeman: Trump’s Next Move: Does He Even Know?")