AS THE DIRECTOR of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, Eden Woon has demonstrated an unflinching determination to face challenges. Taking on his position during the relative prosperity of early 1997, Mr Woon soon found the going getting tough as the Asian financial crisis rocked the region. Since then, Mr Woon has had his work cut out representing the SAR's business community while the economy attempts to find its footing. The task may be difficult but one senses that Mr Woon would not have it any other way. 'Never be complacent and always look forward to new challenges,' said Mr Woon when asked for his motto in life. This eagerness to expand his horizons has been a recurring theme during Mr Woon's career. A former United States Air Force officer, Mr Woon also served as China policy adviser to then US Defence Secretary Dick Cheney, the present US vice-president elect, during the Bush Senior administration. Mr Woon left Shanghai, where he was born, for Hong Kong at the age of two, in the mass exodus that accompanied the Communist victory. He lived here for 10 years, and credits the time for helping him become fluent in Cantonese. 'We were probably one of the poorest Shanghainese families in Hong Kong,' quipped Mr Woon. Eventually his family emigrated to the US, where his father took up a post as a professor of Chinese literature in the University of Iowa. Iowa City was a very far cry from Hong Kong, but Mr Woon had few problems assimilating in a new culture, apart from the obvious language problems. 'It was difficult language-wise,' he said. 'But you're a kid so you just adjust quickly.' Mr Woon also found himself two years ahead of his classmates, having skipped one year in Hong Kong and one in the US. However, the gap in years posed few problems for him and he graduated from high school a few days after his 16th birthday. Graduating with a maths degree from the University of Iowa, Mr Woon completed a PhD in the same subject at the University of Washington in Seattle. Eschewing the allure of the private sector, Mr Woon decided to join the US Air Force after finishing his doctorate, using his maths skills in the research and development sector. 'Initially I was using my math in research and development on missiles and rockets,' said Mr Woon. An air force officer, Mr Woon progressed to a professorship at the air force academy in Colorado Springs, teaching mathematics to the cadets. For the first 10 years of his career, he was essentially working in the highly technical field of military mathematics. It was at this point that Mr Woon's career started to take a slightly different and significant tack. 'The air force decided to send me to China,' explained Mr Woon. 'I went in as the first military representative of the air force to Beijing.' It was 1983, and marked the start of a burgeoning relationship between the US and China, as military and technology transfer programmes took place with increasing frequency. 'I was fortuitous that at that time the military relationship opened up,' said Mr Woon. 'The relationship was good at that time.' Personally, the move marked the beginning of Mr Woon's career in China policy, an area which he has never left. 'It pointed me to the China policy track, which I've pretty much stayed on,' confirmed Mr Woon. Further job progression was not long beckoning, however, and Mr Woon found himself working again in mathematics, at the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon. It was, says Mr Woon, a difficult switch to make. 'Once you've had the China interaction, sitting in the Great Hall of the People with Deng Xiaoping, it's difficult to go back to the basement of the Pentagon and sit in front of computer terminal for 10 hours a day!' The relationship between the US and China, however, was building and the powers that be recognised a man of Mr Woon's talents would be better off in the China policy office at the Pentagon. It was the end of Mr Woon's career in mathematics, as he now devoted himself full time to travelling to China on policy trips. 'In the mid-80s the relationship was very good and I was travelling 16 times a year to China,' he said. In 1989, came Tiananmen Square, an event that Mr Woon believes has forever changed the interaction between the US and China. It was at that point that Mr Woon became China policy adviser to the US Secretary of Defence, Dick Cheney. A difficult period for Mr Woon followed as the relationship between the two countries deteriorated rapidly. 'It was fairly painful as we had to dismantle the relationship and programmes we had set up in the mid-1980s. ' Mr Woon recalls in particular the fraught negotiations with the People's Liberation Army over suspending military co-operation immediately after Tiananmen. 'It was a very tense three days,' he said. 'These were the same people we were dealing with before the crackdown.' Over the next few years the US encountered turbulent times dealing with China, and after helping revive the military relationship between the two countries, Mr Woon realised it was time for another drastic career change. 'In '94 I decided the US-China bilateral relationship, and especially the security relationship, is always going to be very difficult,' he said. 'I decided that I wanted to do something else, but something to do with China.' That 'something else' was heading the Washington State China Relations Council in Seattle. Leading a trade organisation may sound different to working in the air force, but Mr Woon explains there were striking similarities as both jobs required genuine interaction with China. 'It was not a difficult transition as I was still dealing with the Chinese,' said Mr Woon. 'Negotiating on the business side was really no different to negotiating on the Government side.' The handover was fast approaching and the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce were looking to break with over 100 years of tradition and appoint their first non-British director. With his China expertise and linguistic skills, Mr Woon was an attractive choice and the rest, as they say, is history. Nowadays, Mr Woon enjoys his work immensely and, apart from tennis and golf, uses his frequent trips abroad to relax. He feels he has found his calling in Hong Kong, explaining that the numerous challenges facing the chamber are more than enough to keep him occupied. He also credits his experiences as a military man with instilling in him a disciplined mind-set. 'It makes me more mission-oriented,' explained Mr Woon. Graphic: hour14gwz
