Peter G. de Krassel - Feasting Dragon, Starving Eagle

I have spent many hours over the decades with glass mates debating the merits of U.S. policy toward China because of Americas misguided fixation with establishing and maintaining a military presence in Taiwan to fight communist China. I have done so in America, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, China and just about every other country Ive been to when people find out I live in Hong Kong. The prolonged disagreements usually ended with me telling them to kiss my glass because I had no doubt they were wrong. It cost me big time over the years personally and professionally. Commie, China lover, and stooge are some of the more polite monikers I have been branded with. Time has, regretfully, proven me right.

America was the economic drunkard that went on a binge and must now get into rehab. To all those worldwide glass mates, thank you for the honest political exchanges especially the many chefs and bartenders with whom I have had the privilege of sharing ideas about the ingredients of their food, drink and politics most notably the real-live Main Bar at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong and the Overseas Press Club in New York City. Living in China and regularly visiting the U.S. is a politically sobering experience.

The revolutionary changes that have taken place the last few years with cocktails at bars around the world, but especially in America the global political bartender have been stunning. Not just the martini menu, but a pina colada transformed into a panda colada? That is when I realized that Chinas global appetite make that eating and drinking binge and influence has become a lot more invasive than merely economic.

The ingredients for all good cocktails and meals are selected and determined by the bartenders and chefs who prepare them. Hopefully, they listen to each other and their customers and change their menus according to market prices of seasonal produce and political reality to ensure their customers, citizens and reviewers get the best meal and value for their money. In theory, the same should be true with politics and the politicians who cook up the domestic and foreign policies that govern the lives of their citizens and the books of the public coffers. But it isnt. The politicians in Washington pay whatever price is necessary to get themselves re-elected, and their constituents be damned. The result is that America is being devoured by China. America has become Chinas cheap buffet.

There are four families in particular petite-foix whose members have been an integral part of this ongoing dialogue, that of former California Secretary of State March Fong Eu; Kevin and Mary Catherine McBride; Nelson and Angela Wong; and Steve and Taiyun Chicorel. I traveled with the Secretary and her husband Henry Eu to Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China in the 1980s. In the course of those travels, I got to know her children, daughter Suyin and son Matt Kip Fong, with whom I shared many alcohol-fueled argumentative political debates in California, but especially in Taiwan, where I was the designated drinker for the secretary. After the formal dinners, I would adjourn with Kip, who in 1994 became California state treasurer through 1998, and local Taiwanese politicians and California political activists to debate the pros and cons of Americas Taiwan policy. Needless to say, I was the odd man out.

Sitting down to write this book, I spent several memorable visits with Suyin and her husband Jim Stein, son Alaric and daughter Melody in 2008, during the presidential election and right after the vice presidential debates, at their home in Sebastopol, California, reminiscing about those memorable days and how to constructively convey to America why it had better wake up before it is regurgitated by China, or worse, disposed of as waste. Much to my surprise and delight, Alaric and Melody helped restore my faith in Americas children with their political awareness and wisdom, which is reflected in the children of many Taiwanese and mainland China children of friends and business associates, who for political reasons have asked that their names not be acknowledged. Hence the dedication of this book to American and Chinese children.

I also spent many a late alcohol-fueled night with Kevin McBride, born and bred in Wilmington, Delaware, and his wife Mary Catherine, who hails from New York starting in 1984 in my then-wife Gails restaurant Scratch through the 2008 U.S. presidential election during my visits to California, when I would stay with them and discuss U.S. and China politics. Their daughter Caitlin was studying global business and Mandarin in Beijing during the 2008-2009 academic year. Mary Catherine was the producer of T.V.s Knotts Landing. We worked together on the Jan & Dean In China concert and movie in 1986 and the Young Indiana Jones in Beijing episode in the 90s.

While in China, I met Nelson Wong in the early 90s. Nelson was born and raised in Shanghai, China, moved to Hong Kong in the 80s and got into the real estate consultancy and agency business, where he met his future wife Angela. They have two daughters; the older Shu-shu is studying International Relations and Law at the London School of Economics. Nelson maintains residences in Hong Kong and Shanghai, where he and I have also spent many a late night in spas, sweating out our political opinions about America, China, Khazakhstan, North Korea, Japan and Taipei as we soaked up the vodka and whiskeys on offer.

Taipei is where Hollywood producer Steve Chicorel and his wife Taiyun and children Philip and Anabel live. Steve was born and raised in Milwaukee, lived in New York, Hawaii and Los Angeles. He met Taiyun at the airport in Chicago. Steve, Taiyun and I also spent many an alcohol-lit-night on their rooftop or garden in Brentwood, California, Taipei or mine in Hong Kong debating U.S.-China-Taiwan relations.

Today the world accepts China as a re-emerging power that, if it chooses, has the ability to cripple America and the countries it leads and misguides economically. This is nothing new and should not come as a surprise. Like many others, I have been writing, talking to the Eus, McBrides, Steins, Wongs and Chicorels of this world and warning those who care to listen, for more than three decades now, of the dawning of the age of China at the dawning of the Age of Aquarius at the expense of America.