I was pleasantly surprised a couple of months ago to
get a call from Wang Fang Pi of the Chinese Political
Affairs branch in New York, an old friend. Fang Pi headed the
speech-writing office. I had met him in a press bar in
Bangkok while on a junket for the Washington Times and we had
stayed in touch for a while.
He told me that he had been assigned the writing of a
speech to be delivered by the Chinese consul before the United
Nations in answer to charges of Chinese aggression by Tony Blinken.
Would I, off the record, help him write the
thing?
To one unfamiliar with the workings of the national press
it might seem strange that he would ask this of me, a
retired mid-rank journalist of no national importance.
But in the hothouse world of Washingtons press, who you know often
counts for more than whether you are famous. He said that he had
always liked my style and that, although a graduate of Harvard, he
was not confident of his mastery of the fine points of English.
Shang I Hau, the diplomatic functionary who would deliver the
speech, was incensed at Chinas being accused of aggressiveness by
Blinken. Would I write something that was clear and, though he
didnt use the phrase, pulled no punches? No contract was involved,
no payment.
Really, this is how things are done. It meant for me a
long afternoon and an email to Fang Pi, which he might use, ignore,
or pick bits from. Since Violeta and I were leaving the next day
for a back-country trip with no internet, I had to get busy right
away. OK, fair enough.
I had never met Blinken as he became SecState well after I
left Washington. An hours Googling andhe came forth from the web
fog as pretty much generic Washington, brightish, somewhat
egotistical, and perhaps too self-confident, too much a believer in
American omnipotence, meaning he was given more to issuing orders
than negotiating. OK, nothing new
here.
But how to counter charges of Chinese
aggressiveness? ...
Ant56: A good laugh if not so real. Serco on all bases loaded.
The great Aussie dream !!! In forty years, from most affordable housing to most unaffordable in the world, the shackles of debt usury by bankster beasts, the only protected species left in Oz.
I spoke to someone from South Australia yesterday, and they told me about the drones they had seen lift off at dusk. She assumed they were police drones, and said they were massive the size of a small car; and a number of them were patrolling the sky.
...