[2] In 1950-51, Barnett served as a public affairs officer in the American Consulate in Hong Kong, helping to analyze China's internal politics and to draft recommendations for propaganda campaigns.
Beginning in 1952, he spent four years as an associate of the American Universities Field Staff, writing accounts of current developments in China from a base in Hong Kong.
[1] Barnett told the committee that China's initial reaction to American overtures was "almost certain to be negative and hostile and that any changes in our posture will create some new problems, but ... initiatives on our part clearly are required if we are to work, however slowly, toward the long term goal of a more stable, less explosive situation in Asia and to explore the possibilities of trying to moderate Peking's policies.
He joined with other academics such as Robert Scalapino, Lucian Pye, John K. Fairbank, and Richard L. Walker to organize the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.
In 1974 Barnett noted that Americans tended to shape their views of China "to fit their own preconceptions and mood of the moment, with minimal understanding of the realities of the situation.
"[6] In the late 1970s, he supported President Jimmy Carter 's drive to follow Nixon's 1972 breakthrough with formal diplomatic recognition of China.
In the early 1980s he advised against the sale of modernized jet fighters to the Republic of China on Taiwan, a position that was followed in the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
His works, along with those of such scholars as Ezra Vogel, Franz Schurmann, and G. William Skinner had "remarkable staying power" and "continued to shape the research agenda and analytical vocabulary of the field."
Oksenberg wrote that Barnett's personality was "deeply emotional about China yet carefully analytical; eternally optimistic yet realistic; adventursome yet cautious; committed yet balanced; modest yet authoritative; tolerant yet demanding; spontaneious yet meticulous; relaxed yet intense; gentle yet tough.
The lecture, the only one of its kind delivered on Chinese soil, has been made by a number of very prominent Americans including President Jimmy Carter, and honors Barnett's critical influence on U.S.-China relations, and that of Michel Oksenberg, one of his students.