As a Churchill Fellow in 1984, I cycled across China to open up grassroots contact between rural Chinese people and the West, increasing trust and collaboration – building bridges rather than political fences.

Rural China was closed to foreigners then. Ignoring the rules, we cycled 3,500 miles across the country, living everywhere with rural families. We were eventually stopped and 'adopted' by the authorities and media, who celebrated the trip, and accompanied us on the final stages. Rural travel by foreigners was progressively allowed over the following years. Building on that experience, I then worked for 33 years at McKinsey and Company, enhancing business collaboration between East and West. This included training Chinese executives on Western-style 'agile' leadership through wilderness expeditions to Greenland and Canada. Having retired from McKinsey I am now CEO of the Schwarzman Foundation, focusing, among other things, on cross-cultural collaboration between East and West through a Rhodes-type scholarship programme at Tsinghua University in China.

My Fellowship was a life-changer, and I will continue to build non-political connections between East and West. This is more important than ever.