Tree of diplomacy

Finn Aberdein has been focused on China, both as a journalist and as a producer, for over two decades. Even with his experience, this is a surprising story - one that covers an unlikely set of collaborators who have been keeping the door open for Sino-US political dialogue for over a hundred years…

By diving between the pages of field notes of early expeditions, adventurous feats to find mythical tree species in ancient Chinese woodlands, and the modern equivalent of trips between like-minded plant scientists, this programme examines how botany has been able to function as one of the longest-lasting soft powers between the two world powers.

Finn hears from policy analysts, supply chain diplomats and leading Chinese and US botanists working tirelessly to keep their boots on the ground trips operating. From the secretive walled-gardens of China’s communist elite, to the gingko picnic spaces of Bostonian college lawns, and ancient forest canopies of the Sichuan basin, a portrait emerges - one of a borderless community of plant specialists practising a special kind of soft power…

By tracing this relationship from its early roots, it becomes possible to examine today’s geopolitical stage with a sense of perspective often missing from the headlines. How has the quiet work of botanists helped weather political storms in the past? What surprising reasons have kept this collaboration both fruitful and essential? And what can a tree, captured in milky celluloid on the banks of a Chinese forest over a hundred years ago, tell us about the relationship between the United States and China today?

Presenter: Finn Aberdein
Producer: Jacob Dabb
Editor: Alex Baxter
A 2 Degrees West production for BBC World Service