Opinion

Why the US should look to Jim Sasser as a model for its new ambassador to China

Sasser’s conduct during the attack on the US embassy in Beijing in 1999 shows toughness is not everything

Rahm Emanuel lacks the calm and R Nicholas Burns the verve and autonomy needed for the job

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Then US ambassador to China James Sasser peers through a heavily-damaged door at the US embassy building in Beijing on May 10, 1999, following two days of attacks by Chinese protesters against Nato’s bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Photo: Reuters

Philip J. Cunningham has been a regular visitor to China since 1983, working variously as a tour guide, TV producer, freelance writer, independent scholar and teacher.

Published: 1:00am, 13 Mar 2021Updated: 5:52am, 13 Mar 2021

The image of US ambassador Jim Sasser peering out the broken door of the paint-splattered US embassy in Beijing is more than a moving photograph; it provides a mini-course in diplomacy.

The context: an anti-US demonstration whipped up in the angry aftermath to the US stealth bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7, 1999. The bombing was precise enough to destroy the building and kill three people.

There were those who claimed it was an accident, and others who insisted it was an intentional attack. Not surprisingly, opinion cleaved along national lines. Americans thought it unlikely to have been intentional. Why would a democratic country bomb an embassy? Chinese, and not just officials, thought it was intentional. Hi-tech and deadly, it showed the true colour of US imperialism.

In the hot seat during this maelstrom of national mood swings and incendiary opinion was US ambassador to Beijing Jim Sasser. The mild-mannered former US senator from Tennessee was a political appointee. He was no China expert, but a natural diplomat.