In one of the diplomatic complexes facing the Liangma River in Beijing is the Embassy of Bolivia, where Mauricio Belmonte welcomed me with a warm smile and the soft and slow cadence so typical of the highland nation.
Belmonte’s three periods in China—first as a student and then as a diplomat—add up to almost 10 years, but beyond the seconds, minutes and hours are the experiences he has had in the country. They have been an invaluable source of learning. One of these lessons has to do with the idea of “working not only with discipline, but with conviction,” he said. “The Chinese have that
