Robert Lawrence Kuhn is a renowned US expert on China. His book, The Inside Story of China's 30-Year Reform: How China's Leaders Think, is considered "an example of an international expression of China's story" for its profound description of China's reform and opening-up.

During his tenure as the secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping met Kuhn on two occasions, offering Kuhn advice on how to understand and study China.

Kuhn still remembers the story Xi told him about "blind men feeling the elephant."

Produced by Xinhua Global Service