version with pictures printable pdf single page March 8 • March 10
Today will be my first day without taking prednisone in about 12 days and it will be interesting to see how long it takes me to get relaxed and normal. I guess it’s been good to be hyper to get more things done but the bags under the eyes increase day by day with only 4–5 hours of sleep.
Up at 5:30am and found the fitness room by 6:00am. Only one other man leaving. Not like the crowded one at the hotel. I was most pleased to find one recumbent bike and pedaled for almost 20 minutes. Next I set out to find the spa to see if I could manage it on my own. Happy to say I could and did do some more leg exercises in this warm environment. I push my wheelchair as I go and I balance well and will get lots of walking in this way. Phil was up when I returned and we had breakfast overlooking the sea. A waiter filled and carried my plate for me as I directed what to have.
Today we have four lectures. We took the computer up for help and managed to send the last message to Peter only and when we have time will have to reform the group. Meanwhile I will write in Word and send as an attachment when we can. This is a saving as every minute on the computer we pay for!
President Bush was our first speaker this morning introduced by Don Kendall Sr., former CEO of Pepsi Cola. They are old-time friends. He told us the Bushes are masters of developing and maintaining personal relationships. They really talk to people and get to know them. No President has been better than Bush in his international personal relationships.
I must say it was like having an intimate chat with a President. Perhaps how it would have been listening to FDR and his fireside chats. It was an emotional time. I’m impressed with the sincerity and thoughtfulness of Bush 1. Keeping your word is extremely important to him. Again he was reading from his diaries as well as speaking about his experiences as President. Tiananmen Square was extremely difficult for him as he declared sanctions. He had had a very personal relationship with Deng and he didn’t want to lose that. Instead he wrote Deng Xiao Peng a personal letter which he read to us. He managed to keep the door open when Congress wanted to shut it. Deng replied to him within 24 hours. He was able to set up a second level talk. Phil is doing the content of what we are hearing and I’m doing impressions.
Bush tells us he has a good relationship with Bill Clinton but not Hilary. Barbara chimed in from the audience that Bill talks endlessly. Bush tells us he’s an old man with not a lot to say and he can afford to listen to Bill.
Bush worked hard to restore the relationships with the Chinese government and left the embassy in 1975. As Vice-President he was sent back to restore the relationship. Bush doesn’t fear history’s verdict. There is nothing more important for the peace and prosperity in the world than to maintain a good relationship between China and the US. China has come a long way but has a long way to go in the human rights area. When he opened up to questions he commented I won’t answer it if I don’t like it!
He chided Hilary for using her woman’s rights speech here as important to her foreign relationship resume. He said it was not well received. There are 3 T’s the government won’t talk about here. One is Taiwan and a second is Tibet and the third is Tiananmen. Bush seems relaxed and genuine. He got up the steps to speak using a cane which you can tell he doesn’t like to use. He threw it down on the stage saying I don’t know what to do with that thing!
The second lecture of the day was William Perry speaking on “A Rising China-Friend or Foe?” I always look forward to his lectures as they are multi-media. He often interweaves music and poetry in with his topic. He considers our relationship to China as our most important one. It’s important that we get it right! We had a good relationship in ‘78 to ‘89. When Clinton was elected he did nothing with China his first year. By his second year he realized it’s importance but the relationship was never as good as before.
Perry has stayed in touch with China and has been a part or has led track two government talks each year with China. He played us excerpts from one meeting. We have carefully maintained a strategy of ambiguity with China towards Taiwan. US would defend Taiwan if they were attacked by China. If Taiwan is the aggressor the US would not come to the aid of Taiwan. Perry believes Taiwan should become like Hong Kong- one nation but two systems. He encourages cultural opportunities between the two.
Our third lecture of the day was by Anping Chin on “Confucius: The Man and his Teaching.” I had read her book before we came and confess I didn’t really understand what Confucius was all about after finishing! I learned I was not alone in talking with others over meals. She was born in Taiwan and emigrated to the US in the 1960’s. She is a leading historian and expert on Confucianism, Taoism, and the Chinese intellectual tradition (so says our program) She is currently teaching history at Yale.
Probably the Cultural Revolution was the hardest time on Confucianism. The Red Guards smashed his temple and dug up his body. Now Confucianism is being revived. Young children are once again encouraged to read the historical and traditional. She read some of the sayings of Confucius to us. His sayings are all bits of fragments about him and it is difficult to piece them together. His father died when he was 3 and his mother when he was a teenager. He lived from 551BC-479BC dying when he was 72. His father was 40 years older than his mother and it may have been an illicit relationship. He divorced his wife and had a daughter and a son but was not close to his family.
One saying he has was “Do not travel to foreign places while your parents are alive.” We blew that one! The parent child relationship is the most difficult. He was toughest on moral discretion. The parent/child relationship founded on love and affection. It is the source of our humanity. If a child remembers what he learns at home, he will cope better in the wide world.
Confucius was never a success but he never gave up trying. We know very little of what he thought of women. He thought they were petty yet he gave the most important relationships to the mother. She is responsible for the climate and is the manager of everything!
Confucius had very few followers until he was over 65. At that time he finished his self-exile. She was asked if Socrates knew Confucius. Probably not but both were interested in possessing knowledge. Socrates would want to beat the other person but Confucius would want the other person to understand. She was a passionate lecturer.
Our fourth lecture of the day was by Anping’s husband, the noted historian Jonathan Spence. Phil had read part of his very long book on China. He also teaches history at Yale. He teaches Chinese history from about 1600 to the present. His lecture was “China: the Years of Expansion, 1630–1800.$rdquo; We think of China often as timeless and fixed in space when in fact it is constantly in motion. He lectured using a huge map illustrating the movement. He spoke about the Ming and Qing dynasties. (I’m getting so far behind that I’ll skip my notes of this.) The bottom line was that we credit communism with much of what is happening today when in fact the same issues and questions have been going on for thousands of years.
Tonight was the Captain’s dinner though there was no evidence of the captain! All 8 from our table lived in California and we had a wonderful evening of conversation. The man to my left had taught at South Pasadena High one year in 1965 and then gone on to become a diplomat many years later with service in Haiti, Turkey, Vienna and Rome where he was processing the Jews coming out of Russia in 1989-1990. He speaks 6 languages. His wife is a from Rumania and is also a diplomat. We were the liberals at the table and often abused in good fun! Two gentlemen at the table both had grandson’s recently entertained by Warren Buffet. The coincidences tying us all together always seems to be stronger on these World Leaders Trips than any others I’ve attended.
Earlier in the trip one of the passengers is in the law firm headed by Stephen Neal. I told him I was Stephen Neal’s first grade teacher and he was an imp and my favorite student. That has already been e-mailed to Stephen with a warm greeting back to me. Many of the people we are sitting with have been appointed to do something by President Bush! And Peter somehow it doesn’t seem appropriate to ask the president a digging or tough question. Sorry!
We attended an operatic evening in the theater with a young woman who often sings for the Royal family in England. And so to bed after a very long day that I thought was two days. Another “pinch me am I really here day!”