Open Questions | ‘Parallel universes’: PR expert James Heimowitz finds hope for future US-China relations away from politics
- Veteran China watcher says revived people-to-people exchanges are key to more stable US-China relationship
- Heimowitz gauges potential impacts of US presidential election, missed opportunities, the role of ‘truly unique’ Hong Kong, and ‘saddest stories’
You came to China over 40 years ago as one of the earliest American students to the country after its opening up. What do you like the most about China and what frustrates you the most?
When I first went to China, I felt like an astronaut landing from outer space onto a foreign planet.
If you asked me this question in 2018 or 2019, I would say, the biggest thing that struck me is how modern, how cosmopolitan, how international, how global China had become. And it felt comfortable to be a global citizen in most of China.
But in the past five years, I feel things are changing. As China advances, in some ways, it seems to be doing so in parallel to the rest of the world – not in sync with it.
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US Treasury chief Janet Yellen leaves China after ‘difficult conversations’, overcapacity gripes
