China Briefing | Better Angels is to China-US ties what Inconvenient Truth is to global warming

Oscar winner Malcolm Clarke’s documentary features heavyweights like Kissinger and Tung Chee-hwa, but it is the ordinary Chinese and Americans – ‘accidental diplomats’ – who really steal the show

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Bao Wangli, a Chinese engineer in Ethiopia, in a scene from Better Angels. Photo: Better Angels

Published: 9:00am, 10 Nov 2018Updated: 6:24pm, 11 Jan 2019

However one looks at it, it is hard to be an optimist these days about Sino-US ties, arguably one of the most consequential bilateral relationships in the world.

The US President Donald Trump’s trade war against China has already shown signs of spilling over to poison the overall relationship, raising international concerns that a wider conflict between the two countries may be on the cards.

The latest worrying signal, which has emerged over the past few weeks, is that US universities have begun to terminate academic exchanges and links with Chinese counterparts citing concerns over intellectual property and academic freedom. This is an ominous sign as academic exchanges are part of the essential civil society bonds which help underpin and strengthen bilateral ties.

Amid all the doom and gloom, however, it is heartening to see the release of a 92-minute documentary titled Better Angels, produced by a team of American and Chinese filmmakers, aimed at projecting a little hope and positivity.

The movie, directed and narrated by two-time Oscar winning director Malcolm Clarke, features political and business heavyweights including three former US secretaries of state (Henry Kissinger, James Baker, and Madeleine Albright), Tung Chee-hwa (Hong Kong’s first chief executive), and Ronnie Chan (a billionaire property tycoon).