1 the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project TERESA CHIN JONES Interviewed By
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project TERESA CHIN JONES Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: July 2, 2007 Copyright 2007 ADS TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in the SSR of Chinese diplomatic parents. Raised in SSR and S. Parents Life in Tashkent Communist take-over of China Settling in New )ersey niversity of Pennsylvania Religion Chinese history and folklore Nixon opening to China Marriage niversity of Pennsylvania, Chemistry Program Student 19.9-1960 Reasons for choosing Penn Fellow classmates Ph.D1 1966 2ietnam 3ar Agriculture Department Laboratories 1966-1968 3yndmoor Agricultural Research Labs. 3ashington1 D.C. Dairy Lab. Chromatography Paris1 France, Institute Pasteur7 Post Doctorate 1969-1981 3ife of Foreign Service Officer David )ones Birth of twins 2ineland1 New )ersey, Substitute Mathematics Teacher 1981-1982 Dealing with problem pupils Entered the Foreign Service in 1984 1984 1 3ashington1 DC, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency 1984-1986 2erification technology issues Binary chemical weapons Chemical1 Biological1 Radiological (CBR) 3arfare Three Mile Island Misconception of nuclear reactor vulnerability Destroying a nuclear reactor Iraq?s Osirak reactor India?s Peaceful Nuclear Explosion Intra-Agency bickering Soviet technology Leave without pay 1986-1988 Accompanied husband to NATO Ambassador Strausz-HupA Brussels1 Belgium, Consular Officer 1988-1980 FlemingC3aloon relationship 2isa cases Environment Holzman Amendment Congressional interest Iran State Department, Oceans1 International Environmental and 1980-1982 Scientific Affairs (OES), Scientific Officer Non-Proliferation and Export Controls Nuclear Export Controls Pakistani nuclear program Mr. Dhan?s theft of centrifuge plans 2ELA satellite ballistic missile launch detector President Carter and S nuclear power program Indian Ocean1 South Atlantic Event 3orking environment Shorted Locating Indicator for Electromagnetic Radiation (SLIFER) Soviet negotiations State Department, INR7 Political-Military Affairs Officer 1982-198. Director Hugh Montgomery 3orking Environment Arms Control and Disarmament Agency7 State Dept. Rep. Soviet technological capabilities Telephone technology Personalities East-3est Trade COCOM 2 Supercomputers Export Controls Chinese illegal technology transfer Soviet Europe pipeline project State Department, East-3est Trade, Export Controls (E R) 198.-1988 International Economist COCOM (3assenaar Eroup) Agencies? differences in aims Operations Examples of scientific research Duties of Science Officers Soviet biological warfare production High Speed Integrated Circuits example Nuclear Submarine Detectors Toshiba problem Hughes Helicopter diversion by North Dorea State Department, FSI, Economic Training 1988 na Cox Chapman Fellowship Critique of course State Department, Oceans and International Environmental and 1988-1990 Scientific Affairs, International Relations Officer Office of Science and Technology Cooperation Scope of international agreements American Assn. for the advancement of Science fellows Circular 18. memos State Department, FSI, French language training 1991-1992 State Department, Board of Examiners 1992 Examination Process Case study method Candidates? qualifications Critique of process Montreal1 Canada, PoliticalCEconomic Officer 1992-1994 Meech Lake Accords collapse Fuebec separatists Economic factors in separation issue Influence of France Fuebec-Ontario relationship Anti-American bias in school Atlantic Provinces 0 Ottawa1 Canada, EconomicCScientific G Technical Officer 1994-1996 National Institutes of Health problem niversal Health Care S-Canada Boundary 3aters Treaty Environmental controls St. Lawrence River pollution S-Canada shared water issues Department of State, Counseling and Assignments Officer 1996 Problems with efficiency reports Eeneral Comments on the Foreign Service American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) China visit )apanese and Dorean Embassy Science Counselors Circular 18. Process Environmental issues National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) China studies Intellectual Property Rights Individual assignment issues 2iews on individual Secretaries of State Elobal warming Appointment of Ambassadors Cone system Freedom of Information INTERVIEW Q: oday is July 2, 2007. his is an interview with eresa Chin Jones. his is being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and raining, and I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. You go by erry. )ONES7 Hes. Q: Well, erry, let(s start at the beginning. When and where were you born) )ONES7 I was born November 001 19411 in Novosibirsk1 SSR. Q: All right. So we want to figure out how you came to be born in USSR in Novosibirs-. )ONES7 3ell in the summer of ?41 Hitler invaded the Soviet nion. My father was a Chinese Nationalist diplomat assigned to the Chinese embassy in Moscow. They sent all the diplomatic dependents to Novosibirsk for safety. My mother still remembers going on 4 the train to Novosibirsk1 which was just packed with diplomats and their children1 and looking at the troop trains going endlessly in the other direction. She doesn?t think too many of those troops ever made it home again. Q: hese were the Siberian divisions that were brought in that sort of turned the tide in the battle for Moscow. )ONES7 3ell they were a never ending stream of men. Once my IexpectantJ Mom and Dad got to Novosibirsk1 they settled in nicely1 but on November 001 she fell down a flight of stairs. She was eight months pregnant when I was born. Even Chinese1 coming from wartime China1 were horrified at the sanitation standards at the hospital. Doctors didn?t wash their hands and wore their outside boots into surgery. It was no surprise when Mom developed peritonitis - considered 100% lethal before antibiotics or even sulfa drugs existed. But fortunately1 at this point in time Stalin wanted the Nationalists as friends1 so Malenkov (the Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs) listened to my father?s complaints that a total incompetents dealing with my mother and actually ordered one of the better surgeons in Moscow to go there and take care of her. 3ith no antibiotics1 they could only operate to drain the pus that developed internally - at a rate of two operations a week. She was down to about 80 pounds and after several months during which she weakened steadily1 they were sure she would die. A good friend of hers1 a Eurasian1 the Polish Chinese wife of a Chinese diplomat and a very devout Catholic1 managed to somehow find a priest to give my mother last rites and to baptize me -- Teresa1 after her favorite saint. She also gave my mother the very last of her holy water from Lourdes which she had gotten years ago when on a pilgrimage. My mother1 then came out of the coma and1 at age 8.1 is frail but still healthy. As my mother told us1 she remembered that she died and was greeted by a little boy and a little girl carrying a lantern -- spirits whom traditional Chinese believed were there to escort dead souls to judgment. She prepared to go when she heard a loud voice tell her1 INot your time J - thus shocking her out of her coma. She still had months of hospitalization during which her Russian became superb. She was 20 years old and a high school graduate1 which was considered very well educated for a Chinese woman then. By the time she came out of the hospital she could read 3ar and Peace easily in Russian, she could go to plays, and she could bargain for food in the bazaars. After Novosibirsk1 my father was send to be the L2 at the Chinese Consulate Eeneral in Tashkent. I have only vague memories left of growing up in the Consulate Eeneral compound in Tashkent. The Consul Eeneral was also named Chin and also from Northern China. It was a busy enough post as there were large numbers of Chinese1 probably illegal laborers1 who got into trouble with the Soviet government. For example1 at that time the easiest thing to get in the world was a Soviet Citizenship Hou went in to . get a ration card1 they put your thumb on a card and they told you1 IHou are now a Soviet Citizen.J So there was a whole lot of pleading and begging at the consulate. The area itself was strongly Muslim, and the locals often looked very Asian-probably as a result of centuries of Mongolian control. Even under Stalin there was very high crime1 for example1 the policeman in front of the Consulate gate was murdered.. For security the consulate bought a half wolf-half dog hybrid from the city zoo. So growing up I had the strongest impression that dogs kept their tails between their legs and howled. Q: But first let(s ta-e your family. What do you -now about your father(s family) What was the family name and where did they come from) )ONES7 Mo father?s family name is Chin (Fin) which is written as the same Chinese character as the Chin emperor. But since the Chin emperor?s name wasn?t Chin1 the actual family descent was from a well known Chinese Robin Hood who may not be quite the Sherwood Forest type. I was told he was a courier1 who fell ill while waiting for a response to his message. His horse1 his armor1 his sword all got taken to pay for his care. Once recovered1 he wanted to retrieve his sword - a family heirloom. The locals said1 I3ell too bad. The sword has been bought by a bandit king in the mountains. Hou will have to go get it from him.J He went to take the sword by force from the bandit king and ended by talking and drinking with his new found soul-mate. They talked and then talked some more, then they drank and drank some more. This is a hard liquor region of China (just look at all those bronze wine vessels from Chinese tombs in the Smithsonian). My ancestors had a world technological lead in distilling alcohol. In the end1 they became partners and controlled that area for years and years. They were only brought back into legality by the fact that the emperor got caught in a ravine in some local battle and sent out passenger pigeons saying1 I3hoever comes to my aid gets instant pardon and control of your land.J They joined the mob that rescued the emperor and that was it.