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(More customer reviews)For anyone interested in Washington State trade with China, Wendy Liu's Connecting Washington and China - The Story of the Washington State China Relations Council is a must read. This book was first published in 2005 in English; the book was more recently published in Chinese. It might easily be overshadowed by volume with more strategically ominous titles and content. This volume is not full of statistics that document the rise of China's trade and the role that Washington State has played in that rise, rather it is a human story of the men and women who where instrumental in establishing the council in Seattle, and then ensuring its survival during the tumultuous period after the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989. It is a story written from the perspective of someone - and I do not think Ms. Liu would be offended that I say this - who is not a "trade expert" and that contributes to the humanness of the story being told.
The story is told chronologically and thus it begins with the creation of the council in 1979. Based on some serious archival research as well as interviews with many of the principals, Ms. Liu tells a fascinating story of how the Council was born of a strong coincidence of time and place, but even stronger efforts of a handful of individuals, chief among them the five signers of the Articles of Incorporation of the Council: Robert C. Anderson, Patricia Baillargeon, Stanley Barer, James Dwyer and Richard Kirk.
I found especially fascinating the story of how the founders of WSCRC sought the blessing of the then-President of the Washington Council on International Trade (WCIT), who thought that "everything should be under WCIT," in other words, there is no need for a separate council devoted just to trade with China. This is an issue I would have liked to learn more about, but Ms. Liu does not elaborate. And probably rightly so as the issue of overlapping mandates among promotional organizations like WSCRC and WCIT is the subject of a separate volume. But as someone involved with establishment of a global education organization, I can identify with such challenges.
The Council has had four Executive Directors to date - Robert Kapp, William Abnett, Eden Woon, and the current Director, Joseph Borich. In chapters devoted to each director, Ms. Liu tells the story of the ups and downs of the council, from its rapid growth in membership in the 1980's, to its decline in period following the Tiananmen Square incident in China in 1989, when relations between China and the rest of the world were under great duress, to the rebuilding of the Council's membership in the 1990's.
How the Council survived the dark years immediately after 1989 (for a period of two years the Council was effectively placed under the administrative wing of WCIT) is another story that I would have liked to learn more about. But this brief book, less than 200 pages, was never intended to offer an in-depth history of any particular chapter in the history of the Council. Rather, the book paints in broad brushstrokes the story of how the Council came about and key developments in its first twenty-five years. This volume offers an excellent practical introduction to understanding the important role that non-government organizations play in promoting relations between countries.
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You may know Seattle, Washington as the hometown of Boeing, Microsoft and Starbucks. Did you know that it was also the home of the Washington State China Relations Council, the only statewide nonprofit organization in the country focused on developing ties with China? You may know that the U.S. and China normalized their relations in January 1979. Did you know why China's paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, visited Seattle one month later? You may know that the U.S. and China have been trading partners. Did you know why, in 1979, the first Chinese cargo ship in 30 years docked in Seattle? You may know of Washington's first woman governor Dixy Lee Ray. Did you know that the most powerful man in China blew smoke in her face to make a point about human rights? You may read about U.S.-China relations or China-watching sometimes. Did you know any real people who dealt with China and their stories? In Connecting Washington and China, Wendy Liu reveals the state's special relationship with China through the story of this unique council on China—its birth, growth, ups and downs—especially its leaders, who have written one state's remarkable chapter in the chronicles of U.S.-China relations.
