That there is a special bond between Lionel Vairon and China, there can be no doubt.
However, like a fine French wine that benefits from long cellaring, Vairon""s relationship with the country has taken the best part of three decades to mature.
Now at last, the bottle is open, unfinished business is being finished, and Vairon, his clients and China are savoring the results.
It may seem strange that a man who obtained a master""s degree in Chinese language and culture and in political science in the 1970s－he also studied Russian and Vietnamese－as well as a PhD in Far Eastern studies should have taken this long to get to the party.
In the time it has taken him to arrive, the Frenchman""s career has been so varied that he can legitimately describe himself as a journalist, diplomat, academic, teacher, author and consultant, one whose peripatetic path has taken him to various corners of the planet, notably Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia－via France and Luxembourg－and eventually to China.
First, after completing his Chinese studies, he took up a post working as a journalist for the influential news magazine Jeune Afrique in 1985.
He then worked for France""s Foreign Ministry on Africa and then on Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern affairs.
He also worked for the French Defense Ministry.
He and his wife, Nicole Vairon-Khao, have worked in Asian countries such as Cambodia, Thailand and Iraq, but they had never set foot on the Chinese mainland before 2005.
"We were so interested in China and love Chinese culture, so it""s a pity we didn""t do anything with it at that time," Vairon said.
Now he serves as a researcher, with the title senior fellow, at the Charhar Institute in Beijing, founded in October 2009.
The institute bills itself as a private nonpartisan think tank focusing on foreign policy and international relations.
Vairon decided to resign from the French Defense Ministry in 2008, the same year in which China""s foreign investment, most of which had flowed into Africa and Asia, soured.
It was also the year in which Beijing hosted the Olympic Games, an event that unleashed what Vairon called a bout of "China bashing", and that helped spur him to write his book China Threat: The Challenges, Myths and Realities of China""s Rise, published in New York in 2013.
With an incisive review of China""s economic strategy, deployment of resources, national defense, political reform, ethnicity and religion, terrorism and developments in human rights, Vairon""s book amply demonstrates that China poses no threat to the world.
On the contrary, it shows that China""s peaceful development should be a matter of positive news across the globe.
The diplomat-turned-consultant, whose Chinese name is Wei Liunan, soon came up with the idea of making use of his experience as a diplomat as well as his knowledge of Africa and the Middle East to help Chinese companies wishing to go global.
"We (he and his wife) had worked all our lives with developing countries and not with China, but we had the basis of Chinese language, culture and philosophy, so it seemed obvious that we could work as a link between China and developing countries," Vairon said.
To that end, the couple set up a company named Cultural Education and Communication Consulting in Luxembourg in 2006, through which they have provided advice for companies from China as well as countries in the Middle East and Africa, helping them find investment partners and assisting them in negotiations.
Thousands of Chinese companies are flocking to Africa and the Middle East, and because of a lack of cultural awareness on both sides as well as other misunderstandings, conflicts and poor decisions arise, Vairon said.
Part of the reason is that China and Chinese companies are still too often unable to adequately communicate effectively, causing their image to be tarnished.
His wife, Vairon-Khao, a cross-cultural consultant with their company, is just as committed to the idea of effective communication.
Operating overseas is not just about money, it is also about understanding how to communicate with locals, she said, adding that if a group of Chinese, Arabs and Africans are keen to work on something, their inability to understand each other can cause relationships to quickly unravel.
"That""s why corporate diplomacy is so important," Vairon-Khao said."We help people in their first steps, so they can get to the point where negotiations begin."
For Africans and Arabs, China is so alien that it might often seem like another planet, the couple said, and if Chinese companies do not care enough about respecting and understanding the people they were dealing with, the spirit of collaboration will fade.
"As a Tunisian minister told me,""If there""s such a small difference between the price a Chinese company and a French company are charging, I""d rather work with French people""," Vairon says."""Because I know, and I studied in France, but I don""t understand anything about China, including its language, culture and business model."""
Overseas companies and individuals represent China, and any distrust and criticism of them will influence people""s opinion about China""s intentions regarding the country or the region.
The need for China to be seen in a positive light is all the more important given the stiff competition from likes of India, Japan, Russia and Turkey, who have similar investment ambitions, Vairon said.
China needs friends, and the first step in gaining them is to respect and try to understand those you are trying to win over, he said.
When it comes to training employees, knowledge and respect of local culture and law should take priority over technical matters, he said.
Culture has always been a priority in Vairon""s business and research.
His passion is the result of the influence of two professors who taught him Chinese at university, he says.
Those professors stressed that language is compulsory but not the only way to learn about another country; just as important are the history, culture and philosophy that underpin that language.
In 1981, Vairon and his wife went to Taiwan to continue studying Chinese and stayed there for six months. Twenty-four years later, his first trip to the Chinese mainland took him to Shanghai, Beijing and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
He has since visited the country more than 50 times and can rightly be regarded as a fully fledged sinologist.
"I didn""t have specific ideas about China because I hadn""t work on the country for more than 15 years," he said, recalling his first visit to the mainland.
Before he arrived, the picture he had of the country was mostly the result of what he had read in books and newspapers, he explained, and the reality was an eye-opener for him.
"What is interesting to compare is what you read in the newspapers in Europe and what you can understand when you come here and talk with people－provided you speak Chinese."
As an example of this discrepancy, he said years ago he had learned that old houses in Beijing and Shanghai were being demolished to make way for new buildings, and he remembered reading criticism in European newspapers about the Chinese destroying their heritage.
In this regard, the Western critics were simply projecting their own fascination with exotic eastern architecture, Vairon said, but after seeing for himself what was happening it became clear to him that the aim of tearing down old buildings was to provide better living conditions for people.
"It is quite impressive to see the speed of China""s development, not only for technology, but also for ordinary people," he said.
"I don""t think that even I quite understand China, because every time I come here I discover new things."