Thread by @JChengWSJ

Q: As President Nixon’s translator on his first trip to China and then Charge d’Affaires at the newly opened embassy in Beijing, you’ve seen the whole arc…Since your trip in 1972, is this the lowest point in U.S.-China relations?
A: Yes.
@thewirechina
bit.ly/2ZlsKYz

@thewirechina U.S. diplomat Chas Freeman: "China is fully integrated into the global economy…Trying to contain China, we’re more likely to end up containing ourselves. We need to…realize that the monopolies on wealth and power that we once had are no longer there."
bit.ly/2ZlsKYz

@thewirechina U.S. diplomat Chas Freeman on Taiwan: "We are engaged in supporting a rump state created by the Chinese Civil War…It’s probably the most admirable society that has ever existed on Chinese soil. But it is on Chinese soil."
bit.ly/2ZlsKYz

@thewirechina Chas Freeman on Taiwan: "We are in fact, contesting the borders and the territorial integrity of a nuclear power. We never did that with the Soviet Union. The risks of a conflict over Taiwan escalating out of control are very great."
bit.ly/2ZlsKYz

@thewirechina Chas Freeman on Taiwan: "We are in the process of violating…almost every assurance we’ve given the Chinese on…Taiwan: the Shanghai Communiqué in 1972, the normalization communiqué of 1979, the arms sales agreement of 1982. We are not in compliance."
bit.ly/2ZlsKYz

@thewirechina Chas Freeman: "The U.S. has assaulted basic Chinese interests on multiple levels: objecting to China’s domestic policy…, arguing, in effect, for regime change in Beijing, because we don’t consider the Chinese Communist Party to be legitimate."
bit.ly/2ZlsKYz

@thewirechina Freeman: In 1989, "the George H. W. Bush administration hesitated to cut off relations with China for a very simple reason, which was not known to the public: mainly that the U.S. depended on listening posts in China to counter the Soviet Union."
bit.ly/2ZlsKYz