How Chinese Diplomacy Is Different From American
America and China have very different approaches to diplomacy. You can see this at the embassy level. You can see it in the people they send. I’ve dealt with both Chinese and Americans in Sri Lanka and these are my experiences. In short, China adapts to us. America expects everyone to adapt to America.
America
Steve or Dan or Jeff was the cultural attache at the American Embassy. He emailed me one day, because I was a blogger I guess, and we met. They abducted my phone at the door and we talked about free speech. I ended up having dinner with him and his now husband.
I use multiple names because I can’t remember, but also because he could be anybody. I think he went to Turkey or somewhere else next. He didn’t speak Sinhala or Tamil and I never met any Americans that did. The Embassy had local staff to interact with most local people, but the actual staff were resolutely American.
Jeff and the Embassy crowd were ‘expats’ (expat being the white word for migrant worker). Them and the NGO types would drive around in diplomatic cars to bars and restaurants, down South, integrating loosely with Colombo’s English-speaking society. He would end up talking with people like me, who were like him, but I am…
