Here Gomes Jiang

摘要

Jiang zemin is cursed by his cue cards. Under their spell he sounds like the Soviet-trained engineer that he is—and remarkably unlike the CEO of China Inc., Asia's most dynamic country. Jiang recited from notes for 35 minutes in Shanghai last week for a group of American visitors, rendering unremarkable, formal answers to prearranged questions on U.S.-China relations, economic reform and the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. The performance seemed especially flat given the timing—two weeks before a watershed summit with Bill Clinton. But when Jiang closed the "formal session of the interview," broke into English and invited his guests to stay on for "chatting, confidential off the record," he loosened up, was more forthcoming. In private, he is a good, if not great, communicator.