CHINA: SENDING OFF A FRIEND
Mom and Chris, China, 1994 Beijing was the last foreign city Mom and I were together in before she died. Our first foreign city was when we spent the night in Tokyo in 1971 before flying to Kwangju, Korea to live for a year. We had traveled the world together for twenty-three years. Mom was very pleased with her posting at the US Embassy in Beijing. She handled Southeast Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, the Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand, and Narcotics issues. She was also the deputy external chief. External referred to China's relations with other countries, as opposed to internal, which meant China's internal affairs, such as human rights and politics. She interacted with diplomats in other embassies and Chinese officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and research institutes. Mom talked about how there was a good atmosphere in the embassy and that they all had the greatest respect for the Ambassador. I visited Beijing at Christmas in 1994, and then...
