At the Dawn of the New China: An American Diplomat's Eyewitness Account - Softcover

Richard Williams

9781891936753: At the Dawn of the New China: An American Diplomat's Eyewitness Account

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1891936751 ISBN 13: 9781891936753

Publisher: EastBridge, a nonprofit corporation, 2005

The year 1979 marked turning points in both contemporary Chinese history and Sino-American relations. Deng Xiaoping initiated market reforms and an opening to the global economy which would transform China, with Guangzhou (Canton) at the forefront. Washington and Beijing's mutual diplomatic recognition triggered an across-the-board expansion of relations between the United States and China.

When Vice President Walter Mondale traveled to Canton for the formal opening of a new consulate there, career diplomat Richard Williams took office as the first U.S. consul general in mainland China in 30 years, tasked with projecting an American presence, cultivating local contacts, reporting on southern Chinese political and economic developments, promoting U.S. business interests, and issuing visas. Williams's Chinese wife, having left the country 30 years earlier as the Communist government assumed power, was emotionally reunited with brothers and sisters still recovering from Cultural Revolution travails. His son and daughter encountered problems and found adventure as the only foreign teen-agers in Canton.

Told with insight, humor, and pathos, At the Dawn of the New China is Ambassador Williams's account of the eventful two years he and his family and colleagues spent in Canton and on extensive travels elsewhere in China. He has expanded his detailed journal with declassified official cables, newspaper accounts, and other materials to provide a vivid and compelling human picture of a China on the brink of great change.

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About the Author:

Richard Williams served over three decades as a career U.S. diplomat and opened the first American consulate in mainland China since the 1940s. He also served as the first U.S. ambassador to Mongolia and as consul general in Hong Kong. Williams was director of Chinese affairs at the U.S. State Department during the Tiananmen crisis.

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