Oldest ngo pushing bilateral ties has much to show for its efforts

As the National Committee on US-China Relations (NCUSCR) gets ready to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Chinese table tennis team's historic visit to the US in April, not many would have understood the key role played by the organization in shaping US public opinion on China over the years.

Last year, the NCUSCR became the oldest US non-governmental organization (NGO) dealing with Sino-US ties when it completed 45 years of existence.

Though much water has flown under the bridge in the intervening years, the gains made by the NGO have been impressive. Stephen Orlins, current president of the NCUSCR, says that when he decided to learn Chinese at Harvard University in the 1970s, there was no inkling that Sino-US ties would become an integral part of global diplomacy.

Orlins says that his interest in Asia started with the war in Vietnam. "It was a war that affected everything my generation thought about," he says.

Like many of his classmates at Harvard University, Orlins was also one of the critics against the war in Vietnam. For Orlins, learning Mandarin was an opportunity to understand Asia better and also find answers to his inner turmoil.

Born in 1950, Orlins was raised believing that the American government had given his immigrant family an extraordinary opportunity to get ahead in the US. His paternal grandparents came from Russia, while his mother hailed from France.

"I needed to understand why the American government, which my parents idolized, did this bad thing - to fight an unjust war. I decided to study Asia to understand the reasons behind the Vietnam War," Orlins says.

Little did he realize then that his life would be intertwined with China. He says he has had a "virtually uninterrupted contact with China" over a 40-year period.

After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University, the young Orlins went to work for the US State Department, first in the Office of the Assistant Legal Advisor for Political-Military Affairs and then for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. During his State Department stint, Orlins was part of the legal team that helped establish diplomatic relations with China.

Over the next few decades, he dabbled as an investment banker, a lawyer and an investor with ties in Asia. He first came to Beijing as a lawyer, and then stayed on in Hong Kong as an investment banker. He worked as the president of Lehman Brothers Asia in Hong Kong from 1987 to 1990. He then moved on to Beijing to work as an investor before becoming the head of the largest NGO dedicated to US-China relations.

"I have come a full circle in my career," says Orlins, who has completed six years in his current job.

"I am in a position where I can do things for America again. Better understanding between the US and China will strengthen bilateral ties further and make the world a better place," he says.

Orlins says that he recently stumbled upon the essay he had submitted along with his Harvard Law School application. Though he has forgotten much of the contents, he says that most of the points in the article are still relevant.

While most people go to law schools to be a corporate lawyer or a banker, Orlins had written that having a law degree and his ability to speak Chinese would allow him to play a role in helping America be a better place.

"Like what Chairman Mao (Zedong) said, 'wei renmin fuwu', (to serve the people), I went to law school for public service. I was in the State Department to help establish diplomatic relations with China. After that, for 25 years, I was an investment banker. I was also a lawyer. Those were great jobs, but they weren't why I went to law school," he says.

"I believed I was qualified to make a unique contribution to US-China relations, but I did not think that it would be the most important relationship today. But even if it isn't, I would still be doing what I am doing."

Orlins says he is happy to head an organization that has hosted several Chinese leaders, ranging from Deng Xiaoping's historic visit in early 1979 to President Hu Jintao's trip in 2011. On Feb 15, the NCUSCR will co-host a luncheon for Vice-President Xi Jinping during his visit to Washington.

Set up in 1966, the NCUSCR has evolved over the years. It first briefed US government officials on China from 1966 to 1968 at a time when there were no diplomatic relationships between the two nations.

"In 1972, after former secretary of state Henry Kissinger's visit to China, the NCUSCR hosted the Chinese ping-pong team in the US. It was the foundation of a people-to-people relationship that has blossomed in the last 40 years."

Over the years, the role of the NCUSCR has evolved from organizing cultural exchanges and educational trips to holding high-profile discussions on economic relations, human rights and security between the two nations. "Because of our nearly 45-year-old association with China, we have been able to hold discussions on many sensitive topics that even the American government could not," he says.

"We have conducted economic dialogue on subjects that both governments are wary of discussion. We are franker than the governments could be. We had a discussion with the People's Liberation Army about security issues. We had human rights discussions with the State Council of the People's Republic of China and China Foundation for Human Rights Development," Orlins says.

Even though there have been several impressive strides, Orlins still sees some impediments in Sino-US ties.

He agrees with some experts' prediction that trade tensions between China and the US will worsen this year due to the bleak financial outlook and US election politics.

"The economic outlook creates risk to the trade relationship, and that is worsened by the fact that elections portray China to be a very negative force in US job losses. The candidates are saying Chinese trade policy - its currency valuation - is a significant cause for unemployment in the US. So the response will be further trade actions against China," he says.

"If you ask whether there are going to be problems in the relationship, the answer is yes. Will there be problems with trade issues? Yes. Will there be problems on US criticism of China's human rights policy? Yes. Will there be problems relating to how we deal with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Iran? Yes."

While China and the US face similar threats such as terrorism, climate change, piracy and financial crisis, cooperation is "something that will occur" between the two, he says. Fundamentally, the two countries' interests are complementary, and not conflicting.

"Economic growth in the two countries is in the interest of both. The US does not want to see China fail, and China does not want to see the US fail."

Orlins says that if he could change one thing, he would like to see more trust in the US-China relationship.

"The single greatest impediment to constructive relations is the mistrust between China and the US," he says. "If I had a magic wand and can wave it, I want more trust from China to America, and from America to China. I wish they can trust each other more."

(China Daily 02/10/2012 page6)