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Mr. Paulson has chosen Alan Holmer, a negotiator without China knowledge or experience, to "run the US-China strategic economic dialogue." After many years of dealing with Americans who deal with China, I fail to comprehend how the American businessman, other than the mere buyer of a commodity product, continues to assume that success can be had in any foreign nation without substantial knowledge of it.

One hopes that Mr. Holmer will prove himself to be incredibly persuasive, resourceful and manipulative. But he is a curious choice when there are more than a handful of highly-trained negotiators with China-specific expertise. He could be ripe pickings for an excuse when Mr. Paulson's initiatives to move China fail to budge it.