Former US Ambassador To China: “‘China Expertise’ Is An Oxymoron”

Winston Lord, who served under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush as ambassador to China from 1985-89, recently spoke to Asia Society about this country’s current leadership transition. The three-part interview is on Asia Society’s blog. The first part is embedded above, in which Lord offers this soundbite:

Every time there’s a leadership change in China, people start forecasting what’s going to happen. That’s very dangerous. I believe “China expertise” is an oxymoron. It’s very difficult to predict, particularly cause of the secretive nature and the non-democratic nature of their system.

But self-anointed China experts can be so darn fun.

(All three parts of the interview are grouped in one single Youku video after the jump, for those in China.)