Chinese business leader Weijian Shan discusses the lessons learned from his exile to the Gobi Desert at age 15, the lasting implications of Mao’s Cultural Revolution and his observations on the US-China relationship. 

On the US-China Relationship: “I think that more than 20 years ago when the two countries first established a relationship, the differences between the two countries were as wide as possible. China was a closed economy, closed system. America was an open society and liberal democracy. Yet the countries were able to find common grounds and common interests to build their relationship. And I would say that period of time was almost like a honeymoon.”