John Thomson - Remainder of Interview

China Hands

John Thomson was a career diplomat with the U.S. Foreign Service from 1970 to 1997, serving in Mainland China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Sweden, and Washington D.C. He was a First Secretary of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing from June 1978 to February 1979, and Counselor of Embassy 1979-1981 during which he played a key role in normalizing U.S.-China relations. After leaving the Foreign Service, John was Resident Director of the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, the first City of Chicago representative in China, and Director of the University of California Beijing Center. Before beginning his study of Chinese language in 1965, John served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps.