On NPR's "Morning Edition" this morning there was a story about John Kamm, who in 1990 was head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, where he worked for a U.S. multi-national corporation.
Kamm had it made his perks included a chauffeur-driven Mercedes and an apartment overlooking the South China Sea. According to NPR, one evening Kamm kissed that life goodbye:
Kamm was at a Chinese government banquet. Thousands were still in prison from the Tiananmen Square crackdown. A Chinese official was praising Kamm for his help in lobbying Congress.Kamm just couldn't take it.
"I stopped him, in the middle of his toast. And basically said, 'Thank you very much, but what are you going to do for me?' And the room, it just froze," Kamm recalls.
Kamm said China needed to improve its human rights record. And it could start by freeing a Hong Kong student held in Shanghai.
"Well, this minister... became very angry. He said that this was an act of gross interference in the internal affairs of China and an unfriendly act that had hurt the feelings of the Chinese people," Kamm says.
"That created quite, quite a scene," says Jeff Muir, a U.S. businessman who attended the dinner. He said people were worried Kamm was spoiling U.S.-China relations. "I remember somebody saying to the Chinese official that 'not all Americans are as impertinent as Mr. Kamm.'"
Impertinent? Sure. But the outburst was also effective. After the banquet, Kamm testified in Washington on China's behalf. About six weeks later, the Hong Kong student walked free.
Since then, Kamm estimates he's either helped free or improve the conditions of 400 political prisoners. Kamm presents their cases directly to Chinese officials. He tells them that showing mercy is good PR in America.
Since then Kamm has made a career of assisting Chinese political prisoners. So the moral to be drawn from Kamm's experience is that sometimes it is better to be impertinent rather than polite.
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