ABSTRACT
During the disastrous series of meetings in Las Vegas in the summer of 1985 and once again during the launch of the Cherokee in Beijing that fall, the Chinese noticed a new face among the American Motors team, a slightly balding chain-smoker with reddish-brown hair, a ruddy complexion, and a baritone voice. To the Americans, the Cherokee, assembled from kits sent from Detroit, was to be the focus of all American Motors Corporation (AMC) operations in China. They realized that the Chinese still wanted them to help design and produce the new four-door jeep that the People's Liberation Army wanted, but they hoped their Chinese partners would forget about that idea. Two days after the official launch of the new Cherokee, with Cappy and Clare still in Beijing, the top American Motors officials sat down with their Chinese counterparts. 1,008 kits for new Cherokee Jeeps were sitting in the United States, packed and ready to be sent.
