Living U.S.-China Relations: From Cold War to Cold War chronicles David M. (“Mike”) Lampton’s education and role in US–China relations from the Cold War 1960s, through the reform era, to the present era of strategic tensions. The book underscores the importance of people-to-people contacts and Track 2 diplomacy, and the role of non-government organizations and educational exchange. Along the way it provides informed analysis of what motivated and constrained the policies of both countries at critical junctures.

Lampton addresses early a question familiar to China specialists: “why did you decide to study China?” A high school teacher sparked Lampton’s interest, providing him a foundational question dating back to the late Qing: how can China import ideas from the outside world to become wealthier and more secure without eroding China’s essence and undermining domestic stability (the “tiyong” problem)? Lampton’s analysis of the rocky road of Deng Xiaoping’s reform and the bloody 1989 crackdown at Tiananmen is informed by those early lessons. They still resonate today. Xi Jinping wants to absorb foreigners’ technology without importing their political concepts.

Other early life experiences infuse Lampton’s analysis. Lampton was a fire fighter and a US Army reservist who served in burn units for American soldiers returning from Vietnam. This motivated him to work to reduce misperceptions in Beijing and Washington that might lead to a catastrophic war.

Lampton’s book provides lessons for young China scholars today, a time of tight CCP political control and fraught foreign relations. In 1982, in the early period of China’s opening, CCP cadres were very nervous about revealing sensitive information to foreigners. Lampton studied hydraulic energy and water conservancy in the Wuhan area. By avoiding politically controversial topics and researching far from the capital he was able to learn how the party-state addresses complicated problems involving multiple bureaucracies. And he did so without setting off the alarm bells of political watchdogs. In the process, he gained valuable experience and made lasting professional contacts.

Lampton is a bridge-builder. As a young professor there he helped Ohio State forge a partnership with Wuhan University. He took leave to work at the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People’s Republic of China, promoting science cooperation. In 1987 he became President of the National Committee on US–China Relations in New York, working alongside the estimable Jan Berris and Ros Daly to foster people-to-people contacts and Track 2 dialogues, even in very tense times. Lampton defends such work in convincing fashion. First, no matter how bad relations get, it is better for both sides to be informed about the other. Misperceptions are rarely stabilizing factors in international politics. Second, since his first trip there to China in 1976, the PRC has changed dramatically, suggesting that nothing is permanent, including the current downturn in US-China relations. We need to sustain human infrastructure to take advantage of potential future opportunities for cooperation. The book’s sub-title is “From Cold War to Cold War,” but Lampton suggests that the two Cold Wars might not be bookends, but rather middle chapters in a long saga. He writes eloquently: “Organizations and individuals need to look beyond the morass of recurrent issues that preoccupy national capitals to what could be, the positive, perhaps even visionary goals toward which we as citizens of our respective nations can together strive. Realism must be leavened by idealism, and competition by cooperation” (p. 256).

The book also cries for greater bipartisanship in US policy. Lampton fostered balanced representation on the National Committee on United States–China Relations (NCUSCR)’s Board, helped shepherd mixed Congressional delegations to China, and assisted administrations of both parties when asked. He testified to bipartisan committees on Capitol Hill. He even reports a warm interaction with Senator Jesse Helms, a remarkable moment given Helms’s longtime criticism of the NCUSCR.

Lampton reports his own brief entry into the political arena, serving as an expert on Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. In a public debate with the McCain campaign’s Randall Schriver, Lampton criticized a proposal to sell US submarines to Taiwan. He did so based on his own views, rather than those of the candidate, of which he was unaware. The campaign dropped him immediately. Lampton uses this story to convey an important lesson: do not ascribe views to leaders without supporting evidence. In a rare moment in an otherwise fair and judicious book, Lampton seemingly violates that lesson. He criticizes a 2022 speech by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Taipei calling for US formal diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. I agree with Lampton that Pompeo’s policy prescription, if adopted, would much more likely trigger a disastrous war than deter one. But I wish that Lampton had just made that important analytic point. He goes further, suggesting that Pompeo was disingenuous, perhaps motivated by pecuniary interests or domestic political aspirations. What is true for ascribing views without evidence surely also applies to ascribing motivations.

Lampton’s book is a “Who’s Who in China Studies,” from his early mentors and supporters like John Lewis, A. Doak Barnett, Ezra Vogel and Michel Oksenberg, to his academic contemporaries like Susan Shirk, Kenneth Lieberthal, Jean Oi, Barry Naughton and Steven Goldstein (to name only a few), to his venerable academic colleagues who served on the Board at NCUSCR, like Lucian Pye and Mary Brown Bullock. And one never gets the sense that Lampton is name dropping. He is too humble for that; and why should he need to? Lampton’s return to academia after stepping down at NCUSCR secured his own place in the China Studies Hall of Fame. He published on a broad range of topics from US-China security tensions to leadership politics to Chinese infrastructure investments, writing in a fashion accessible to non-experts. This made Lampton an ideal professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, which trains future policymakers and diplomats from around the world. A famously dedicated teacher, SAIS rightly honoured him with an endowed professorship in his name.

Lampton’s book reminds us that US-China relations are more than summits, official dialogues and crisis management. People generally say “thank you for your service” to people who served full-time as soldiers, diplomats or intelligence officers. Mike Lampton did none of those things, but his fascinating memoir shows that public service takes many forms. I finished the book saying to myself “Mike Lampton, thank you for your service.”