Chas W. Freeman Jr. is one of the world's foremost authorities on China, and served for years as one of America's top diplomats. He was President Richard Nixon’s principal interpreter on his historic 1972 trip to China. Freeman went on to be the charge d’affaires at the newly opened U.S. Embassy in Beijing, where he frequently interacted with Chinese leaders like Deng Xiaoping and Zhou Enlai. He later served as the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War and Assistant Secretary o