Twice annually for the past 16 years, as the representative of an international organization of governments, I have gone to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City to participate in drafting sessions on model laws on the arbitration, mediation/conciliation, and the settlement of contract disputes. Gathered at these session are representatives from over a hundred nations and along with non-government organizations dedicated to dispute resolution of international trade contracts.
At a luncheon at this month’s drafting session on the enforcement of international settlement agreements, I sat across from Xiao Chuan Yang, a Beijing attorney and arbitrator. I had not planned to attend the luncheon and did so at the last minute at the urging of two colleagues from Australia. My seating with Xiao Chaun Yang was serendipitous it being the only chair left at a long table seating 40 other lawyers. In the course of our conversation about our respective legal careers and our experiences with international arbitration, we discussed my experience negotiating contracts with officials of the Chinese government and its many bureaus, and my general familiarity with navigating through the sometimes obstinate and opaque Chinese bureaucracy during my travels to Beijing.
In discussing our educations and legal training and other life experiences we inquired of each other about whether we had served in the military. I mentioned my Navy service. His face lit up. He, too, had served in the Navy. He asked what ship I had served on and what I did. I explained that I was in communications and served on shore stations in the Pacific islands of Guam and Okinawa, and in Italy and England in the mid to late 1950’s. His face widened in a smile. He, too, had served in communications from a base in Shanghai. We reviewed the tenseness of those times, the daily Chinese shelling of Quemoy and Matsu, islands off the coast of Taiwan, and the then anticipated Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
There was a reflective pause in our conversation as we both leaned back in our chairs and smiled. I suspected that he might have done what I had done, and sensed he had the same feeling about me. Our identical and simultaneous questions crossed each other as we asked and answered them. It was a “you too” moment. I listened to the Seventh Fleet, he said. I knew all of your ships. And we listened to your ships, but we had more of them than you did, I responded. We both laughed and agreed that for sure we were both still doing it. He noted that the Chinese navy was listening to us from bases all along its coastline.
We discussed the improved state of diplomatic and commercial relations between our two countries in the past 50-years. Both of us agreed that China, despite its increased defense spending, was no longer a military threat to the U.S. and the Western world, but instead a commercial one. China had come too far in its economic growth and commitment to globalization to jeopardize its manufacturing and trading advantages. His presence and participation in the drafting sessions was further evidence that China is a commercial player that intends to remain a force in world trade.
Life often leads us to interesting cross roads. How often do two lawyers interested in facilitating the resolution of trade disputes discover they were once on opposite sides during the Cold War listening to each other’s communications, perhaps in preparation to either prevent or provoke a dispute with possible cataclysmic results? Read More
At a luncheon at this month’s drafting session on the enforcement of international settlement agreements, I sat across from Xiao Chuan Yang, a Beijing attorney and arbitrator. I had not planned to attend the luncheon and did so at the last minute at the urging of two colleagues from Australia. My seating with Xiao Chaun Yang was serendipitous it being the only chair left at a long table seating 40 other lawyers. In the course of our conversation about our respective legal careers and our experiences with international arbitration, we discussed my experience negotiating contracts with officials of the Chinese government and its many bureaus, and my general familiarity with navigating through the sometimes obstinate and opaque Chinese bureaucracy during my travels to Beijing.
In discussing our educations and legal training and other life experiences we inquired of each other about whether we had served in the military. I mentioned my Navy service. His face lit up. He, too, had served in the Navy. He asked what ship I had served on and what I did. I explained that I was in communications and served on shore stations in the Pacific islands of Guam and Okinawa, and in Italy and England in the mid to late 1950’s. His face widened in a smile. He, too, had served in communications from a base in Shanghai. We reviewed the tenseness of those times, the daily Chinese shelling of Quemoy and Matsu, islands off the coast of Taiwan, and the then anticipated Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
There was a reflective pause in our conversation as we both leaned back in our chairs and smiled. I suspected that he might have done what I had done, and sensed he had the same feeling about me. Our identical and simultaneous questions crossed each other as we asked and answered them. It was a “you too” moment. I listened to the Seventh Fleet, he said. I knew all of your ships. And we listened to your ships, but we had more of them than you did, I responded. We both laughed and agreed that for sure we were both still doing it. He noted that the Chinese navy was listening to us from bases all along its coastline.
We discussed the improved state of diplomatic and commercial relations between our two countries in the past 50-years. Both of us agreed that China, despite its increased defense spending, was no longer a military threat to the U.S. and the Western world, but instead a commercial one. China had come too far in its economic growth and commitment to globalization to jeopardize its manufacturing and trading advantages. His presence and participation in the drafting sessions was further evidence that China is a commercial player that intends to remain a force in world trade.
Life often leads us to interesting cross roads. How often do two lawyers interested in facilitating the resolution of trade disputes discover they were once on opposite sides during the Cold War listening to each other’s communications, perhaps in preparation to either prevent or provoke a dispute with possible cataclysmic results? Read More