Joseph H. Greene's Letters and Reports from Beijing, 1984-1987

Letters: The letters begin in January 1984 with a diary-entry-like explanatory essay, giving the details of Joseph Greene's arrival in Beijing via Hong Kong and the official work that needed to be done in order for him to start his job, as well as a detailed description of his daily life and the people he worked with. Each of the letters, directed to various people, likely friends, provides a different facet of life or a specific event in Beijing or travel to another part of China. Notably, there is some information about Chinese politics and government, trade issues, and interaction with work, travel, friends, acquaintances, and daily life, particularly visiting places in Beijing and cultural life. The final set of letters, June-December 1987, includes some photographs, including the Bank of America building in Beijing and one of Greene, along with a newspaper article that gives few details about Greene.

Reports: These are monthly reports provided by Joseph H. Greene as Vice-President and Representative of Bank of America in Beijing. The reports begin on December 31, 1983 and continue through September 1987. They provide a variety of types of information about China, including economic and political commentary on a broad scale as well as internal information about the company, including marketing, personnel, and other information. Examples of economic data include oil and cotton production, trade, competition from other banks, research (ie: animal husbandry or reforestation); political topics include Premier Zhao Ziyang's trip to the U.S. and Canada, a visit by the U.S. President to China, the U.S.-China nuclear agreement, and the 1986-90 five-year plan. Documents also touch on the fall of Hu Yao Bang; marketing topics reflect the vast networking of Bank of America with other banks; personnel topics reflect travel related to bank business and visitors from other banks. Attached to these reports often are newspaper clippings from local newspapers, frequently China Daily, relating to bank business.