22 world THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012 CHINA DAILY Knowing how China’s leaders think New York-born banker and author BACKSTORY ROBERT LAWRENCE has an insider’s understanding KUHN International corporate By ANDREW MOODY strategist, investment sities and all have significant banker, senior adviser to andrewmoody@ experience, often having run multinational corporations chinadaily.com.cn two or more provinces or and author major municipalities as Party Age: 67 Robert Lawrence Kuhn says secretary, governor or mayor.” Education: the West oft en doesn’t under- Kuhn, who is also a new • Bachelor’s degree in stand the Chinese leadership’s China Daily columnist, is human biology, Johns Hop- key priorities for China. The much in demand from major kins University, 1964 67-year-old American is seen news organizations around the • PhD in anatomy and brain by many as one of the few world and makes TV appear- research, University of figures outside the world’s ances on BBC, CNBC, Eurone- California at Los Angeles, second-largest economy who ws and Bloomberg TV. He says 1968 actually does. he has had complete freedom • Master of sciences in man- He is regarded as a knowl- to express his opinions. agement, MIT Sloan School edgeable insider, having been “I have written three books of Management, 1980 an adviser to a number of lead- about China, and dozens of Career: ing Chinese bodies since the articles and columns. I’ve pro- • President and co-owner late-1980s and knowing many duced two major TV docu- of The Geneva Companies, a US leading mergers and of the country’s top political mentaries about China and acquisitions company (sold fi gures personally. given scores of media inter- to Citigroup in 2000) “There is rarely alignment views — and never has anyone • Chairman, The Kuhn between what topics China’s in China even requested to Foundation, which pro- leaders think are important censor anything I’ve published duces documentaries on about China and what the or broadcast outside of China,” scientifi c and philosophical world thinks,” says Kuhn, also he says. questions as well as on an international corporate strat- Some in the West, however, China issues egist and investment banker. have accused him of being too • Author of The Man Who Changed China: The Life “Understanding China requires much of an insider and not giv- Robert Lawrence Kuhn says China’s growth is good for the world, but it cannot ‘save the world’. FENG YONGBIN / CHINA DAILY and Legacy of Jiang Zemin knowing the diff erence.” ing the full picture about China and How China’s Leaders He was speaking recently because he was too close to the ing a parallel business career have worked with several for try’s unprecedented urbaniza- Think, as well as 25 books in the five-star Grand Hyatt leadership. and became president of Th e a number of years. When you tion and modernization. on business strategy, hotel in central Beijing, which “I deem it vital, consider- Geneva Companies, a leading hear them speak over a period of “Growth rates will naturally fi nance and investment is his home for 90 days a year. ing China’s importance in the US mergers and acquisitions time, it gives you a sense of their ease from reform’s historic banking He divides the rest of his time world, that China’s leaders company, which he eventually personalities and character as averages — probably to 6 to 8 Books: The Infl ationary between his three homes in become more known to the I have written three sold to Citigroup in 2000. well as their intellectual capabili- percent per annum — which Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic the United States and traveling world, and known not just via books about China, At the same time he was ties, leadership style and political is less than we are used to, but elsewhere. sound-bites and photo ops, but cementing links with leading progress,” he says. which may be optimal because Origins by Alan H. Guth, and dozens of articles Lake Views: This World and “They treat me very well by seeing them up close as real ‘‘ business and political fi gures Kuhn sometimes likes to China can more eff ectively deal the Universe by Steven L. here. Even when I travel people — hearing their own and columns. I’ve in China. invoke humor to explain why with its most severe problems, Weinberg, The Coherence around China, I keep a room words, listening to their stories, produced two major His organization, Th e Kuhn there is sometimes friction particularly economic and of Theism by Richard Swin- here,” he says. getting their ways of thinking. Foundation, with China Cen- between Chinese and Ameri- social imbalances and sustain- burne, and Infi nite Minds: A Th e hotel is well placed near I’m pleased to facilitate some of TV documentaries tral Television, produced the can leaders. able development. Philosophical Cosmology China’s seat of government this,” he says. about China and given documentary In Search of Chi- “Some people think it is “However, China’s economy by John Leslie. Books on consciousness by John R. around Tian’anmen Square “I also off er my own analysis. scores of media inter- na for PBS in the US, which because of ideological, histori- is fragile, vulnerable to exog- Searle, David J. Chalmers where he has an extensive net- As for my accuracy and under- views — and never has was broadcast in 2000. cal or cultural reasons that we enous shock. China’s growth is and Colin McGinn work of contacts. standing, readers or viewers He is now working on a new have communication prob- good for the world, but it can- anyone in China even Film: Closer To Truth, His latest book, How China’s can judge for themselves.” fi ve-part series, China’s Chal- lems. As I once pointed out, not ‘save the world’,” he says. TV series on science and Leaders Th ink: Th e Inside Story Kuhn, who was born in New requested to censor lenges, which will be broadcast perhaps it’s because China’s Kuhn says there is often a philosophy; Peter Getzels, of China’s Past, Current and York, began his career as a sci- anything I’ve published in China in the autumn and leaders, the members of the danger of China being mis- producer/director Future Leaders, which is now entist. Aft er studying biology at or broadcast outside syndicated to PBS stations in Politburo Standing Commit- represented because it is seen Music: Piano Concerto out in paperback and runs to Johns Hopkins University, he the US next year. tee, were trained as engineers, through a narrow perspective. in D-fl at major by Aram more than 500 pages, goes into did a doctorate in anatomy and of China.” Perhaps Kuhn’s most sig- and most American politicians “Western media takes Chi- Khachaturian (1903-78), extensive detail about those brain research at the University nifi cant project was writing a were trained as lawyers. May- na’s very real problems and played by Kuhn’s wife Dora ROBERT LAWRENCE KUHN Serviarian-Kuhn who have the responsibility for of California at Los Angeles in AUTHOR OF HOW CHINA’S LEADERS biography of former president be the problem is that lawyers reports them as if they were, shaping modern China. the 1960s. Brain science and THINK: THE INSIDE STORY OF Jiang Zemin, which was the and engineers can’t talk to one say, 80 percent of China’s story. Food: “I eat tofu all the time. CHINA’S PAST, CURRENT AND FUTURE I appreciate the unbeliev- Kuhn, who cuts a dapper consciousness remain major LEADERS best-selling book in China in another!” I take the same problems — ably diff erent textures.” fi gure, says many in the West interests of his. 2005. Kuhn says the main focus in which are genuine and often often have an outdated view His fi rst involvement in Chi- How China’s Leaders Think the West is oft en the Chinese intractable — and they make about modern Chinese leaders. na was through the scientifi c was based on interviews with economy and whether it will up, say, 35 percent of my work,” proper and suffi cient context,” “The reality is that China’s community when he worked from Song Jian, then a State more than 100 leading Chinese continue to motor ahead. he says. he says. leaders are meritocratic,” he with scientists reforming Chi- councilor and chairman of the political fi gures, some of whom “China should have 10 to 20 “It is not that Western media says. na’s research and technology State Science and Technology he has known for more than a more years of what we should is conspiratorially biased or Huang Tiantian, Dong Fangyu “Many have strong academic base. Commission. decade. still call relatively high growth, always anti-China, it is that and Zheng Yibing contributed backgrounds from top univer- He received an invitation At the time he was develop- “I know many personally and driven by continuing the coun- they often do not provide to this story. Archeologists may have found model for Mona Lisa By ELLA IDE in Florence, Italy believed to have served as the in resolving art mysteries. convent’s new cement fl oor last ist, and though there is little crucially, with the skull intact. the age of the person when they muse for Leonardo da Vinci’s “It is the culmination of all our year, aft er fresh documents con- proof, most art historians agree Th e next step is to send the died,” said Vinceti, who is chair- Archeologists on Tuesday Mona Lisa. work, where we’re getting close fi rmed that Gherardini, the wife that Lisa Gherardini served latest remains off for a series man of the Italian national com- unearthed a skeleton in a rare Silvano Vinceti, who heads to answering the key question, of rich Florentine silk merchant as the primary model for the of tests to confi rm they belong mittee for cultural heritage. state of preservation in Florence up the team of Italian archeolo- ‘Will we or will we not fi nd Lisa Francesco del Giocondo, had bewitching painting. to Gherardini. Th e team then “Th en comes the biggest test, in what they believe may be a gists, said this discovery in an Gherardini’s remains?’ lived in the convent after her Mona Lisa was composed hopes to reconstruct her face the DNA, because we have the crucial step towards unraveling abandoned convent was partic- “Today we opened another husband died and was looked between 1503 and 1506 and and compare it with the facial mortal remains of her children... the mystery of the identity of the ularly exciting — though tests tomb with a complete skeleton, aft er by her two daughters, who hangs in the Louvre museum features in the painting. and if it corresponds, we’ll know woman with the most enigmatic would still have to be carried which is very important because were nuns. in Paris. “Carbon-14 dating allows these remains belong to Mona smile in the world. out to ascertain the identity of in the fi rst phase of the research She was eventually interred Although researchers had pre- us to date the period, and we Lisa’s model,” he said. Several bodies have been dis- the remains. we did not fi nd human remains. there. viously discovered bits of bones have to fi nd out whether the If her identity is confi rmed, the covered in the hunt to fi nd the “I’d say that we’ve got to the Th ey had been moved to another Del Giocondo is thought to and two sets of remains in the remains date to the middle of researchers will begin the two- remains of Lisa Gherardini, the really exciting part for research- location,” he said. have commissioned the por- convent, the latest skeleton to be the 16th century. month process of reconstruct- Florentine noblewoman widely ers,” said Vinceti, who specializes Th e team began digging up the trait from the Renaissance art- unearthed is the best preserved, “We will then do tests to prove ing the skeleton’s face.