Renowned Sinologist Ezra Vogel dies at 90

WASHINGTON • Distinguished US China scholar Ezra Vogel, professor emeritus at Harvard University, died at the age of 90 on Sunday, according to the Fairbank Centre for Chinese Studies at Harvard University.

He died of complications from surgery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his family said.

"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our former director Ezra Vogel (1930-2020)," said the centre on Twitter. "He was a true champion of our centre, an erudite scholar, and a wonderful friend. He will be truly missed."

The death of Professor Vogel is "a huge blow to the field, especially at this critical time, because Prof Ezra was a major supporter of the effort to inject greater sanity and balance into US thinking about China," tweeted Dr Michael Swaine, director of the East Asia Programme at Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

In an online event this October, Prof Vogel suggested that the United States have high-level talks, intellectual exchanges, and economic cooperation with China.

"Competitors can talk as competitors, but it doesn't have to be enemies. It can be competitors; it can be suspicious. But, it can be under some kind of control," he noted.

Prof Vogel spent 10 years studying China's former leader Deng Xiaoping and wrote a book titled Deng Xiaoping And The Transformation Of China. Published in 2011, the over 900-page tome has provided a window for Westerners to gain a better understanding of modern China.

Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai has extended his deepest condolences to the family of Prof Vogel.

Prof Vogel was also a leading American expert on Japan.

He was widely known for his 1979 book Japan As Number One: Lessons For America, which became a best seller in Japan, Kyodo News reported.

The US Embassy in Tokyo said in a Twitter post: "Ezra Vogel's scholarship brought Americans and Japanese closer together."

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