To illustrate his point that China is not the threatening juggernaut many Americans see it as, John Pomfret, who spoke on campus Wednesday, turned to stories about his old college buddies.
Pomfret, an editor for The Washington Post with extensive experience in China, said one of his classmates at Nanjing University now owns a chemical firm that dumps so much urine into the Huai River that black water runs from the taps in a nearby town, and the Chinese Communist Party lets him.
The moral of the story, Pomfret says: “When the Communist Party has a choice between economic development and environmental development, they will almost always choose economic development.”
Another of Pomfret’s classmates, with whom he shared his eight-occupant dorm room at the school, went on to use corrupt deals he made as a city administrator to transform a run-down part of Nanjing into a lucrative tourist attraction for the city. This, he said, illustrated the way that China has progressed in spite of the corruption and inefficiency of its political system.
Pomfret’s presentation, titled “Notes from a Gambling Nation: Why China Is Not Going to Be the World’s Next Superpower,” challenged the perceptions of many in the audience.
“His impression of China is not the impression that I’ve got over the years,” said Karen Atkinson, a Eugene mortgage broker who listened to Pomfret’s speech. She said she was so impressed that she asked him to recommend her further reading on the subject.
Pomfret’s major argument was that China’s leaders are placing high-stakes bets that the country can succeed in spite of four major challenges: its antiquated political system, its aging population, its environmental practices and what he calls its “materialistic Nihilism.”
Based on the amount of investment the two countries have in one another, Pomfret also argued that the futures of China and the United States are intertwined.
“Our bet on China is probably as significant as their bet on themselves,” he said.
Pomfret has gleaned his insights from a long association with China, which started when he spent time abroad there learning Chinese as a Stanford University undergraduate. Subsequently, he spent time as a foreign correspondent in China until he was expelled in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Pomfret later returned as Beijing bureau chief for the Post, a position he held from 1998 until 2003. He is currently editor of the Post’s Outlook section.
Pomfret is also the author of a book titled “Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China,” which, like his speech, attempts to tell the story of China’s recent history through the experiences of Nanjing University classmates. The book is required reading for University students in the Master’s of Business Administration program.
The speech was organized by the business and Asian and Pacific Studies programs to prepare MBA students for doing business in Asia, said Jim Bean, dean of the Lundquist College of Business. Pomfret’s visit was part of the “Engaging China” program, a collaboration between the aforementioned speech organizers. It is designed to expose students and faculty to the opportunities and challenges of doing business in China.
Event organizer Lori O’Hollaren said Pomfret was chosen to deliver the final “Engaging China” speech series because he was the author of “Chinese Lessons.”
Pomfret’s schedule during his visit to Oregon was a busy one. Earlier in the day he addressed several business and journalism classes and after his speech, he was waylaid by audience members asking him to autograph their copies of his book.
“I feel like a squeezed lemon,” he said.
But Pomfret added that he was also grateful to see the school is so aware of China.
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