Jeffrey Busch in Dominic Lam’s Hong Kong office in 2019. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

In October 2022, two former US presidential advisers, Jeffrey Busch and Professor Dominic Man-Kit Lam, published a political thriller, Accidental Diplomacy, which portrayed a potential Sino-US war, together with a way to prevent this catastrophe and ensure peace. The book has sold more than 100,000 copies on Amazon, and won a number of international awards.

In recent years, Sino-US relations have become increasingly tense, profoundly affecting the international situation. Many people believe that China and the United States may trigger World War III. The South China Sea has been cited as an even greater potential hotspot than the Taiwan Strait.

The confrontation between China and the US in the South China Sea a few years ago made both of them worried, and they often discussed this situation at Lam’s Hong Kong office

The South China Sea arbitration incident has been fermenting since 2013. In the summer of 2020, US warships frequently patrolled the South China Sea. Wang Yunfei, a Chinese military expert, said, “the most serious period in history for attacks on China’s islands and reefs has arrived”. Observers wondered between competition and cooperation, where will Sino-US relations lead? And is war between China and the US inevitable ?

READ MORE: Xi urges stable Sino-US ties

Lam and Busch, who are old friends, were deeply worried. So they decided to co-write Accidental Diplomacy in English. The Chinese version is about to be published for Chinese-speaking readers all over the world.

Busch was appointed to the US government by two US presidents as the US representative to the United Nations in the 1980s. He has also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the international arena. Lam is not only a distinguished professor in science and medicine, who was professor at Harvard Medical School and Texas Medical Center, but also a world-class artist and philanthropist, and is often called "modern-day da Vinci" by the media.

In the late 1980s, Lam and Busch were invited to join the Advisory Committee of president George Bush, and thus became acquainted. The friendship has lasted for more than 30 years. After Lam returned to Hong Kong, Busch still came to Hong Kong every year – until the COVID-19 pandemic struck – to meet his old friend.

The confrontation between China and the US in the South China Sea a few years ago made both of them worried, and they often discussed this situation at Lam’s Hong Kong office. As the conversation deepened, the inspiration to write a novel for world peace emerged. The story described in the novel was based on a real-life accidental event in the South China Sea area, and the birth of the novel itself was based on such an accident. 

Accidental Diplomacy: Winners of American Writing Awards, The Brew Book Excellence Award, Pinnacle Book Achievement Award and the BookFest Award. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The South China Sea became the fuse

The novel begins in the South China Sea, where US warships and Chinese fighter jets encounter each other and refuse to back down. A computer glitch prompts a US Navy lieutenant to make a split-second decision to shoot down two Chinese planes with missiles, and the Chinese pilots, in revenge for their fallen comrades, counterattack the US warship. The already tense Sino-US relations are thus on the verge of breaking down, and war is imminent.

However, whether in China or the US, some people advocate war and others yearn for peace. In the book, Chinese Foreign Minister Sheng Yao (Yao Sheng) and US Secretary of State Bill Bryers had a bad relationship in their early political careers, and they did not like each other. But both of them firmly believe that the war could be avoided through diplomatic means. Because of this common belief, they both make huge sacrifices and finally turn the tide.

Belief in world peace contributed to the book’s success

The creation of the novel was entirely at the whim of the two authors. Lam recalled that in the process of co-creating, they usually just sat down and chatted first in Lam’s office before going home to start writing. In the field of fictional literature, it is relatively rare for two authors to cooperate because the cost of communication may be very high due to differences in ideas. Their cooperation shows the tacit understanding between two old friends.

Even though the two authors had reached the highest levels in their respective fields, they were novices in the field of literary creation. However, this did not affected their debut novel in the slightest. With its fluent writing, ingenious plot reversals, and most importantly, their strong belief in bringing world peace, it has proved extremely popular.  On Amazon, Accidental Diplomacy scored 4.2 stars, and nearly 70 percent of readers have given it a five-star full score.

READ MORE: World needs stable China-US ties, Xi says

Critics have also praised the book. Since its publication in October 2022, Accidental Diplomacy has won many professional awards, including the 2022 American Writing Award, Australia’s BREW Book Excellence Award, Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, and The BookFest Award.

Lam was quite unaffected by the unanimous praise from the outside world. Even though he said he was grateful for the positive feedback, he admitted that at the beginning, he could hardly imagine himself as a co-author of a novel, let alone one that might have an impact on world peace. 

After realizing that the novel has aroused great interest in the English-speaking world, Busch and Lam hope to convey this appeal for peace to Chinese readers, thereby promoting world peace and harmony.