Nicholas Platt and Zhou Enlai in China.

Nick Platt of Paradise Avenue, a former “Asia hand, China specialist, and intelligence analyst in the U.S. Foreign Service,” will join us to share some of his experiences and insights into our relationship with China gained from a long and distinguished career in the diplomatic service.

The program, entitled China Then and Now, will begin with a video of Platt’s own films of Nixon’s historic 1972 trip to China and life in China in 1973, the first year that the U.S. had diplomats resident in Beijing. Platt took part in the visit as staff assistant to Secretary of State William P. Rogers, and the following year helped set up the U.S. Liaison Office, the forerunner of the U.S. Embassy in the PRC. The Platts were among the first American families stationed in Beijing after the reopening of diplomatic relations.

Following the video, he will “conduct an interactive discussion with the audience on current conditions in China and the state of our relationship now.” He will also introduce the new book, which is to be officially launched in Washington, DC, on March 23, to his friends and neighbors in Piermont and the Rockland community.