You can thank, or blame, the U.S. Army for this blog. Totally disregarding my directions to teach me Russian, French or German, the Army sent me to learn Chinese in 1969. Prospects for China watchers at that time were nil. Mao was leading China through the madness of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. China’s main contact with the West consisted of insults and bellicose threats (which may be why the Army wanted Chinese linguists).
But Nixon went to Beijing shortly before I got out of the Army in 1972, and prospects looked a little better. After a stint working for trading companies in Taiwan, I returned to the U.S. to earn a Bachelors in journalism and a Masters in Chinese language and politics. I made it to Hong Kong to be a free-lance business reporter in 1983. Mao’s successors across the border in China were four years into market-oriented economic reforms and the Open Door policy. I watched China develop for 14 years from Hong Kong, with many trips to cities around China.
Among other jobs, I served as China correspondent for Asian Business magazine, contributing editor for Hong Kong Business magazine and monitored Chinese-language newspapers and wrote daily Hong Kong stock market reports for UPI.
After returning to the U.S. I produced an annual report on China’s social insurance system for Watson Wyatt Worldwide and wrote stories about China for several publications, including Equities Magazine (which is not connected to this blog). I’m still fascinated by China; I like to try to understand things and explain what I understand. So now we have China Gate.
