Event




Hostage Diplomacy and U.S.-China Relations: The Legacy of The Peking Express

Co-sponser with CSCC
James Zimmerman, Partner, Perkins Coie LLP
- | PCPSE Room 200 | 133 S. 36th St
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We are pleased to announce a book talk by Beijing-based author and lawyer James Zimmerman about his book, The Peking Express: The Bandits Who Stole a Train, Stunned the West, and Broke the Republic of China. James will discuss The Peking Express story, as well as contemporary parallels of China’s use of hostage diplomacy. James has worked as a foreign lawyer in Mainland China for over 25 years, representing defendants in a wide range of cases including national security matters, business and financial crimes, and matters involving foreign media operating in China. He is a former four-term chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, and also author of the American Bar Association’s China Law Deskbook.

The Peking Express is a true story about China’s great train robbery of 1923 and full of banditry, political intrigue, heroism, and a reflection of the excesses of the Warlord Era in early 20th century China. The crisis — covered extensively in newspapers around the world — lasted for six weeks while the bandits moved the hostages across the Shandong countryside with the Chinese army in pursuit. The book is getting much positive reviews in The New York Times, South China Morning Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, China Books Review, Literary Review, Publishers Weekly, Irish Times, and has the honor of being listed as a New York Times Editors’ Choice.

See the website for more details about the book at www.ThePekingExpress.com.

For Zoom option of book talk event, register here.