You are invited to participate in a conversation with AEI's James R. Lilley, Jeffrey Lilley--his son and coauthor--and former CIA director William Webster on the publication of China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage, and Diplomacy in Asia (PublicAffairs, April 2004). Ambassador Lilley's memoirs not only chronicle three generations of experiences from an American family in the Far East, but also provide a fascinating look at Asia's history, its relationship with the United States, and most of all, a special look at China.

The book takes us through four periods--China as a supine giant under foreign domination, China in a period of chaos during the Japanese invasion and civil war, U.S.-Chinese hostility for two decades, and finally the rapprochement of 1971-1972. While there are still lessons to be learned, Ambassador Lilley--who has been a U.S. ambassador to China and South Korea and is the only American to be chief of a mission on both sides of the Taiwan Strait--demonstrates how relations with China will affect our future.