Alitto witnesses China's rise first-hand

He was there from the start, sitting near President Nixon as the chief interpreter for Chinese delegations first visiting the United States in 1972. Since then he has often traveled with Chinese delegations as their interpreter and was called upon to interpret amid a 2001 international incident in which a U.S. spy plane was downed in China.As a scholar, Alitto, Associate Professor of History, has devoted his career to studying Chinese history. He was among the first Americans invited to visit the Communist country in 1973, and in 1986, he opened the first site for rural research. He has witnessed remote villages blossom into communities with modern infrastructures and industrial plants.But it was Alitto's biographical work on Chinese philosopher and reformer Liang Shu-ming that endeared him to the Chinese people and helped create a minor industry on the topic. Millions of copies of his book have been sold in Chinese translation. Alitto is now somewhat of a celebrity in China, and the foreign media frequently rely on him as an expert. Most recently, as a commentator on President Obama's inauguration.It is satisfying to know that I am able to help the Chinese understand Americans, says Alitto, whose affable chuckles seem to go naturally with his generous mustache.