The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: a conversation with John Pomfret on his new book

Sinica Podcast

Kaiser Kuo

Culture, China News, Hangzhou, Chinese, International Relations, Chongqing, Beijing, Sichuan, Currentaffairs, China, Politics, Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou, China Economy, News, China Politics, Business, Film, Shenzhen

4.8 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2016

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

John Pomfret was 14 years old when Henry Kissinger began interacting with China in secret. He took his fascination to Stanford University’s East Asian Studies program, where he was among a select group of exchange students invited to spend a year at Nanjing University in 1980, shortly after Nixon established diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China. John went back to China as a reporter for the AP in 1988, nine months before the Tiananmen demonstrations, and was expelled from the country after covering the protests’ violent turn. He returned to China again in 1998 to head up the Washington Post’s Beijing bureau. John has also reported from Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and Iran. In this week’s episode, Kaiser and Jeremy talk to John about his new book, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom, which charts the history of America’s relationship with China. John explains that the countries have been intertwined long before the ping-pong diplomacy often credited for ushering in U.S.-China relations in the early 1970s. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:34.4	that transport you from the very first word, because the next great
0:38.2	adventure is just a listener way.
0:40.8	Start your free 30-day trial at audible.com slash Wondery UK.
0:45.7	That's audible.com slash Wondery UK. Welcome to the Cynica podcast, a weekly discussion of current affairs in China, produced in partnership with SUPChina.
1:04.7	SubChina is the best way to keep up with the latest news on China with a free email newsletter, a smartphone app, and at the website, suprChina.com.
1:13.1	It's a feast of business, political, and cultural news about a nation that is reshaping the world.
1:19.4	I'm Kaiser Guo, coming to you from the Seneca South Studio here in downtown Durham, North Carolina.
1:24.8	I am joined from Nashville, Tennessee by Jeremy Goldcorn, interim editor-in-chief of
1:30.0	Sub-China, whose ongoing fight against extradition to China in connection with his
1:33.6	extensive network of illegal coal mines in San Chi province is an inspiration to each and every one of us.
1:39.6	How's it going, Jeremy?
1:40.8	He's staying strong.
1:42.5	Yeah, well, you know, the coal price is up, so things are good.
1:46.0	Is that because of Trump?
1:48.0	Probably.
	...

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