How Ezra Vogel strove to break down barriers

China-US ties

Vogel lamented that officials in the current US administration knew far less about China compared with their Chinese counterparts' knowledge of the US. He worried about the deteriorating relations between the two countries over the past three years.

"The idea of decoupling is impossible and won't go very far," he said during the talk in Hong Kong in November last year.

On July 3 last year, Vogel and several other China experts published a joint letter in The Washington Post titled "China is not an enemy".

Signed by some 100 China scholars, business leaders and foreign policy experts, the letter argued that the deterioration of bilateral relations did not serve US or global interests, and said many US actions were contributing directly to the downward spiral in ties. Seven proposals were put forward to improve relations between the two countries.

In an op-ed article in The Washington Post on July 22, Vogel argued that "US policies are pushing our friends in China toward anti-American nationalism".

He wrote that US policy and political rhetoric toward China in recent years had been dominated by officials with limited knowledge of developments in China.

"It is not in the United States' interest to turn the Chinese into enemies," he wrote, adding, "We need some fundamental rethinking of our policies."

In a talk at the China Institute in New York on Sept 17 last year, Vogel urged people to do whatever they could to prevent a new Cold War between the two countries. More than a year ahead of the US presidential election, he said he hoped the new administration would "reverse the course".

Vogel was well received by many Chinese scholars when he attended the virtual Xiangshan Forum early in the morning US Eastern Standard Time on Dec 1, when he shared his views on how to improve relations during the upcoming administration of Joe Biden.