He was a 27-year-old junior officer accompanying Geng Biao, then a vice premier and China’s leading military official. Geng had been my host the previous January, when I was the first US defense secretary to visit China, acting as an interlocutor for President Jimmy Carter’s administration.
华盛顿——1980年5月，中国新任主席习近平首次访美。他当时是陪同耿飚访美的一名27岁的下级军官，之后曾历任副总理和军方高级职务。我曾是美国访华的首位国防部长，在以吉米·卡特政府特使身份访问中国时，耿飚恰好负责我的接待工作。