Press & Media
The Foundry (Blog)
Commentary Archive
Heritage Experts
Computer-Assisted Research & Reporting
Events
À La Chart
Washington Roundtable for Asia-Pacific Press
Contact Us
Return Home




   PRESS  > Events
 

China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage, and Diplomacy in Asia

Date: July 15, 2004
Time: 12:00 noon
Speaker(s): Ambassador James R. Lilley
Author
Host(s): Larry M. Wortzel, Ph.D.
Vice President and Director, Kathryn
and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute
for International Studies,
The Heritage Foundation
Details:
Location: The Heritage Foundation’s Van Andel Center

James Lilley's life and family have been entwined with China's fate since his father moved to the country to work for Standard Oil in 1916. Lilley spent much of his childhood in China and after a Yale professor took him aside and suggested a career in intelligence, it became clear that he would spend his adult life returning to China again and again. He served for twenty-five years in the CIA in Laos, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Taiwan before moving to the State Department in the early 1980s to begin a distinguished career as the U.S.'s top-ranking diplomat in Taiwan, Ambassador to South Korea, and finally, Ambassador to China.

From helping Laotian insurgent forces assist the American efforts in Vietnam to his posting in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square crackdown, he was in a remarkable number of crucial places during challenging times as he spent his life tending to America's interests in Asia. In China Hands, he includes three generations of stories from an American family in the Far East, all of them absorbing, some of them exciting, and one, the loss of Lilley's much loved and admired brother, Frank, unremittingly tragic. China Hands is a fascinating memoir of America in Asia, Asia itself, and one especially capable American's personal history.

Amb. James R. Lilley served in the CIA, White House,
State Department, and Defense Department. He is the only American to have served as the head of the American missions in both Beijing, where he was Ambassador from 1989-1991, and Taiwan, where he was Director of the American Institute in Taiwan from 1982-1984. From 1986-1989, he also served as the U.S. Ambassador to South Korea. Currently, he is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC
 
 

Sign Up For Our Mailing Lists

Additional Information
Upcoming events:
 
Iran's Nuclear Defiance: International Dimensions
2/17/10

Transatlantic Security and Defense Cooperation: NATO, Missle Defense and the European Union
2/18/10

NATO and the Fight for Security in a Dangerous World
2/22/10

 
Related Papers:
 
No papers currently available.
Contact An Expert
MEDIA INFORMATION LINE:
Phone: 202.675.1761
Fax: 202.544.6979

Print Interview Requests:
Jim Weidman
Director, Editorial Services
202.608.6145
Jim.Weidman@heritage.org

Opinion Editorial Requests:
Paul Gallagher
Manager, Editorial Services
202.608.6151
Paul.Gallagher@heritage.org

Radio/TV Interview Requests:
Matt Streit
Director
202.608.6156
Matt.Streit@heritage.org

Elizabeth F. Lincicome
Senior Media Associate
202.608.6157
Elizabeth.Lincicome@heritage.org

Israel Ortega
Senior Media Associate
202.608.6176
Israel.Ortega@heritage.org

Audrey Jones
Media Associate
202.608.6159
Audrey.Jones@heritage.org

Asia-Pacific Media Requests:
Nick Zahn
Asia Communications Associate
202.608.6150
Nick.Zahn@heritage.org

-----
Recent Heritage Research
View All
February 9, 2010
by Charles D. "Cully" Stimson
February 9, 2010
by The Heritage Foundation
February 9, 2010
by Karen Campbell, Ph.D.
 
Commentaries
View All
February 2, 2010
February 2, 2010
February 1, 2010