A lunch meeting about China this summer at the Upper East Side headquarters of the Council on Foreign Relations felt more like an Irish wake. A crowd that included gray-haired China hands and not-so-gray-haired tech executives shared memories of their years in the Middle Kingdom as diplomats, entrepreneurs and English teachers in the countryside. They were all keenly aware that they had lived through an extraordinary period of warm relations that is now gone, perhaps forever. China has closed itself off.”The nostalgia was poignant but the gathering was also notable for what it represented. That lunch meeting underlined the fact that China was turning into something they hadn’t expected — and slipping out of their reach.

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Persons: Warren Christopher, “, ” Ian Johnson Organizations: Foreign Relations, U.S, Washington, New York Times Locations: China, Middle Kingdom, Taipei, Taiwan, Beijing, United States