It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived to be true.

I knew Deng Xiaoping when he came out of prison. He had, after all, been imprisoned for nearly ten years by Mao. I know what China looked like before he took over, and so in my own mind, I don't think of Deng Xiaoping as an oppressor. I think of somebody who, faced with that crisis, made a very painful and decision with which I cannot agree. But I also think of him as a great reformer.

The position is that stability and peace in Asia depend on a cooperative relationship between China and the United States.

If eighty percent of your sales come from twenty percent of all of your items, just carry those twenty percent.

I am against portraying China as the demon of the global community. China has grasped more quickly than other countries what globalization means and what it demands. The country has learned how to use other people's innovations for itself. India, incidentally, is not far behind China in this respect. Both are not nations in the European sense, but rather cultural communities with enormous markets. The challenge of the future is to work out how to deal with that.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

What political leaders decide, intelligence services tend to seek to justify.