By Dr. BRIAN K. CLARDY

When I normally pen an article on foreign policy, it is based upon observations made in both written and broadcast media, as well as listening to my favorite pundits discuss the issue in detail. This, coupled with my own formal academic training, has made for an exciting life and career in discussing international relations and diplomacy. However, when I speak of Sino-U.S. relations, I am not coming strictly from an intellectual and policy based hermeneutic, I also address it as someone who spent a number of days touring that rising power and was deeply impressed with what I saw and experienced.

As part of an eight-person delegation from Murray State University, I was fortunate to have visited the Peoples’ Republic of China as guests of the Peoples’ Education Press. For two weeks, we toured most of the significant cultural and historic sights in Beijing and some of the major cities in Henan Province—specifically Lyuoyang, Zhengzhou, and Keifeng.

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