By Marisa Buchanan, NBC News Producer
In our "Making A Difference" series, we tell the stories of all kinds of people who are working tirelessly, selflessly, and often invisibly to make the world a better place in some way. The person we will profile tonight on the broadcast had no plans to be one of these people. A "suit" for most of his life, he was a salesman so good at his job that the Today Show profiled his efforts early on in his career. He managed to rise to the top ranks of American business in China at a time when that country had just opened its doors to Westerners. It's a country where people respond to a unique mixture of personal relationships and hierarchy that few outsiders really understand. John Kamm, however, learned how to work that system: who to talk to, who to toast, whose hand to shake, whose back to slap. And he gained a lot of clout in the process.
After years of financial success, Kamm could have continued to make money, but remarkably, instead he now saves lives. He is a human rights advocate and Executive Director of the Dui Hua Foundation. Just what he does and who he has saved you'll see tonight, in Mark Mullen's report. In the meantime, here's a "guest blog" John Kamm wrote for us:
I enjoy public speaking, and I usually speak at least once a month somewhere in the world. A few months ago, I was in Hong Kong preparing to go up to Beijing on one of Dui Hua’s missions to ask the Chinese government about its political prisoners. My audience in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was the American Chamber of Commerce, an organization I headed in 1990 when I made my first intervention on behalf of a Chinese political prisoner.
My topic was China and the Olympics, and my main point was that China’s poor international image could have a negative impact on the country’s chances of staging a successful Olympics. For China’s leaders, success is not measured solely by the number of medals won. It’s important to be successful, but even more important to be seen as being successful. In this respect, Beijing needs to be worried. China’s ratings are falling sharply throughout North America, Europe and even significant parts of Asia – the very places where foreign audiences will be biggest. An NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll taken in July reveals that two thirds of Americans have little or no interest in going to Beijing to watch the Games.
A couple of years ago I spoke to a business audience in Hong Kong and only 10 people and a couple of reporters showed up. This time was different. A good crowd, and almost as many journalists as the folks who paid for their rubber chicken lunches. In the big group of journalists, a camera team from NBC News was at work. Marisa Buchanan and her crew were beginning to film what would eventually be part of the “Making a Difference” story on my work.
After the speech and press conference, Marisa and I went down to the harbor, still among the world’s most beautiful despite years of unfettered reclamation projects. While we were talking, a junk in full red sail glided past. Junks are rarely seen in the harbor anymore. I figured this was a propitious sign for the program.
Most Americans probably don’t recall that China was adored by the American public in the mid-1980s, with favorability ratings as measured by the Gallup Poll approaching 80 percent. Then came Tiananmen Square in 1989, and suddenly China was a pariah. Her favorability rating as measured by Gallup fell in half, and it barely moved above 40 percent for another dozen years.
Then September 11, 2001 happened, and China’s leaders decided to seize the opportunity to improve relations with the U.S. It took several steps on the trade and security fronts, but of special importance was the decision to release long serving political prisoners. China’s image began to improve and polls in 2005 and 2006 revealed that China was now seen as a friend or ally by two thirds of Americans.
Unfortunately, China’s leaders reversed course in mid-2005. After meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2005, they concluded that the US and its allies, using western NGOs, were out to foment a “color revolution” to overthrow the communist regime. The security police began to crack down heavily on any Chinese suspected of promoting the color revolution. Human rights activists and defenders were arrested and given long prison sentences, journalists were harassed and beaten (never a good thing for one’s image), and ethnic groups persecuted. Early releases of important political prisoners all but ceased.
Now China has the Games, something it won in the summer of 2001, shortly before its international charm campaign began. Because of rights abuses at home and support for regimes in places like Darfur and Burma, China’s image is at rock-bottom in key markets, including but not limited to the US. In a UPI/Zogby poll published in May, 79 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the Chinese people, but an astonishing 87 percent have a negative view of the Chinese government.
The Chinese government has recently taken a few steps to improve its human rights image like sharply reducing the number of executions, and its Dui Hua’s job – and the job of other NGOS – to prod them to do a lot more in the short time before the Olympic Games take place.
