NOTE: This is part of a continuing online novel. Here is the Table of Contents.

Hu Xintao was celebrating the successful Treaty of Hong Kong between India and Pakistan by sharing a private pot of good tea with his predecessor, and the man who had negotiated the treaty, Jiang Zemin.

Jiang was tired. Hu could see this in his eyes. It had been a hard road for him these last few months. Offered as hostage for the life of Osama Bin Laden, then sent here as emissary to negotiate between sworn enemies, it was more than could be expected of a 78 year old man. Yet his eyes sparkled in a way he had not seen since he gave the reins of power to Hu a few years before.

“Yes, I read the Bush speech,” he said, leaning forward and sipping from his cup. “It was a good speech. It reminded me of the words Li Peng gave when our stability was threatened. This will do a great deal toward strengthening ties between our great nations, if the moment can be seized.

“How so, Wise Leader?”

“Buy dollars,” Jiang said with a smile. “Our trade relations will be far more regular if the relationship between our currency and the U.S. dollar moves closer to what it was a few months ago. So will our political relations.”

Hu smiled. “There is more to this than you’re saying,” he said.

“Have you ever been fishing?” Jiang said. Hu shook his head. He was a city boy, from Shanghai.

“When I was a boy in Yangzhou, we sometimes had to fish in order to eat. I cannot believe sometimes that I ever ate fish directly from the Grand Canal, it was so filthy even then, but, so….” His eyes grew wistful. He was describing a sad memory, Hu thought, but in a happy way. He sat quietly, and poured more tea from the pot between them.

“With some fish, some strong fish, you need to let your line play out. Let them fight, feel them struggle, give them the illusion of escape. Then as they tire you slowly reel them in. They gain a new surge and run out, you allow that. But as they tire you reel them in again. In time they come right into the boat. This is what can make fishing a sport, not just a way to eat, and I was the only one in my group who would ever fish in this way. The others would either fight back continually or cut the line, let the fish go. I would gain the fish’s respect, and then it would give its life to me.”

For Jiang it was a long speech. Hu saw the Wise Leader’s eyes mist up with memory. Was it for the fish, for his youth? He had no need to know. It was the lesson that mattered. "So the exchange rate is a fishing line?” he asked.

“You can think of it that way. The underlying relationship is the economic one. Our economy continues to grow, just as our standing in the world grows. Our aid to the victims of last month’s Great Wave has cemented our relations with South Asia, allowing these negotiations to succeed and for peace to replace war. Our economic aid this month has cemented relations with Africa. It is what the Japanese dreamt of and fought for, what they called the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, but in this case truly cooperative.

“You can win more with rice than you can with bullets. Never forget that.”

“Should I put it in my little red book?” Hu Xintao said it with a smile.

Jiang Zemin laughed. “Maybe I will write a memoir,” he said.

“While you learn to play golf?” The two men smiled so wide, drinking their tea, that tears came to their eyes.

“So what happens now?” Hu Xintao asked at last, when both men felt their mirth pass, and Hu felt his responsibility as President of China return to him.

“We go back to business,” said Jiang. “You still have horrible problems to deal with. Our country still has more people in poverty than any other in the world, real poverty in which even a mobile phone like this (he pulled one from a pocket) is an unattainable luxury. We must keep pressure on villages to empty, especially in southern China, to increase production and stop flu transmission. We must find solutions to the twin problems of energy and pollution.”

“And we must maintain stability?” Hu said.

“That grows harder as more of our people gain prosperity,” said Jiang. “It grows much harder as the price of progress becomes trained, hard-working minds instead of hands. Minds that are free in science also want more freedom in politics. Much of that freedom can be achieved within the party, praising honest cadres and fighting local corruption. But that won’t always be enough. Alternate visions must be allowed to contend, first on a local level, on the level of a school or neighborhood organization, then on a provincial level, first within the party, then between outward factions.

“And it’s from within that contention that you should seek your successor. Loyalty to the people, not just the state, not just the party, and a vision for the future, is what you should seek.

“An honest man, a modest man, a man physically sated, willing to sacrifice to help others. Build those traits in your government, all the way down the line, and don’t be afraid of disagreement within bounds. Encourage it. In a stable society there are many valid paths. So long as the path agreed to is valid, so long as consensus does not disturb stability, don’t be afraid to follow it.

“I wish I were a young man, Hu,” said Jiang, putting down his cup. “There are so many great things out there waiting to be done. With a stable, united, prosperous China, imagine what the world can do in this great century!”

“Will you be there for the launch?”

“Shengzhou-6?” I would be honored.”