Liu Fengming during the Beijing Olympic torch relay. by Ding Lin/Xinhua

Liu Fengming at Microsoft China’s annual party.

Liu Fengming (center) and his schoolmates at the gate to Peking University.

Liu Fengming, soon after he arrived in Beijing for higher education.

Liu Fengming celebrates with Microsoft China employees.

There’s a popular saying in China, that “When life closes one door, somewhere it opens a window of opportunity.” This belief underscores the inspirational story of Liu Fengming, Vice President of Microsoft Greater China Region & Microsoft Associate General Counsel and an accomplished Chinese lawyer who accredits his international success to the past 30 years of China’s reform and opening-up.

When I first met Liu in 2008, both Microsoft and China had already witnessed the end of a significant chapter in their history - while at the same time welcoming a new era of opportunity. For China, the hosting of the Beijing Olympic Games changed the way the world perceived the Middle Kingdom, becoming a landmark of the country’s new age of development. And for Microsoft, the eminent retirement of Bill Gates made the world imagine a future without its founding father as the company entered new territories and new ventures.

Transitional periods like these inspire Liu Fengming, I’ve learned.

While listening to Liu’s personal stories of life in China, education in the US, and career worldwide, I couldn’t help but appreciate how some individuals can recognize opportunity amidst great difficulty and challenge. And Liu Fengming, a man who realized his potential when the odds were often against him in life, made me truly believe that life does not have to be about closed doors but more about open windows (or Windows Vista).

Rural Village to US University

An often drought-stricken county in western China’s Gansu Province, Dingxi is considered to be one of the poorest areas in China. In 1974, 17-year-old Liu and 11 of his schoolmates were dispatched to the county for “re-education” to experience rural life and hard work.

Two years later, the provincial government of Gansu recruited workers from rural areas. Liu was selected to receive vocational training in Lanzhou, the province’s capital city. “At that time I had three choices: To be a security guard, hotel attendant or a restaurant waiter. After nearly three years of tough experience in the countryside, the most important thing for me was to feed myself. So, I decided to be a waiter at a Lanzhou restaurant. I was there for nearly two years,” Liu says.

Soon after, the Cultural Revolution came to an end, and China resumed its college entrance examination system.

It was generally not easy to get into college, because many applicants had no time to prepare for the examinations. Many were trapped in their jobs, supporting their families. “At that time I was still young, so I had the energy to study. Indeed, I had no idea about college life, but merely wanted to learn,” Liu recalls. In 1977, he took his college entrance examinations and was subsequently enrolled to the Law Department of Peking University.

Things went well for Liu at Peking University. Not long before he was to complete his undergraduate courses, China began to offer graduate programs. The application form provided an option for expressing a willingness to study abroad. “Though I was not very clear about what would happen if studied abroad, I still marked ‘Yes.’ Thus, when I was enrolled in the graduate program, because of my high academic scores, I automatically became one of the first students to study abroad under the sponsorship of the Chinese Ministry of Education. Benefiting from the exchange program between Peking University and the University of Washington, I became a visiting student at that US state university,” Liu says.

In the States, Liu majored in law, and at first his greatest ambition was to return to become a teacher at Peking University. This was the driving force behind his pursuit of a Ph.D. However, more options were to be presented.

His First Case: His Own

At the University of Washington, Liu planned to apply for the US bar exam. But to qualify for the exam, it was required that applicants must graduate from law schools approved by the American Bar Association (ABA). Some states even have in place specific qualifications for the exam. Liu was informed he would not be permitted to take the exam, since he was neither an American citizen, nor a permanent resident of the United States.

After negotiations, the ABA suggested he appeal to the board, asking for a reexamination of the law regarding bar exam qualifications. This Liu did. “I agued in my appeal that the local bar exam requirements violated the US constitution, which advocates everyone is equal before the law.”

The local court replied that if Liu passed the bar exam, he would be allowed to practice law in the United States for a year. “I considered such a time limit to be unreasonable, so I appealed to the state Supreme Court. After hearing my appeal, nine judges reached a conclusion that if I passed the bar exam, I could practice law without any unjust limit,” Liu says. Washington State has since modified its law concerning local bar examinations.

Liu passed the bar exam and became the first certified lawyer who was neither an American citizen nor a US permanent resident.

Home: Past, Present, Future

In 1992, Liu returned to China and joined the law firm of Graham & James, subsequently serving as the law firm’s chief representative to China. Three years later, he became one of the firm’s global partners, later serving as a legal advisor with a shipping company, as well as the company’s general manager for the northern region. In 1997, Liu joined the Microsoft Corporation, and was later named Vice President of Microsoft Greater China Region & Microsoft Associate General Counsel. In that position, he was responsible for legal affairs in the region, such as relations with local governments, policy formulation and public welfare undertakings.

Liu and his former schoolmates revisited the Dingxi County village in which they stayed decades before. Unlike metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai, the village changed little over the decades. “The villagers even remembered our names, perhaps because we were the only outlanders to ever visit and live in the village,” Liu says. The outlanders left the village and went on to lead very different lives. Some entered college, and some went abroad. “To a large extent, however, the lives of those villagers remain unchanged. Why? Because they have no chance to experience the outside world,” Liu explains.

“The most notable benefit brought on by the reforms and opening-up policy is that we had the chance to know the outside world,” Liu says. When he confers with his foreign colleagues about China, Liu often notes that the Chinese people are creating and improving more as they learn about the world. This can be attributed to China’s reform and opening-up policies, which encourage people to better utilize their talents, resourcefulness, and imagination. To better understand a reformed and opened China, one must not only look to those magnificent skyscrapers and increasingly changing underdeveloped areas, but, rather, also take into account the less noticeable changes occurring in the nation.

“I would not have been able to go abroad without reform and opening-up, let alone return as a lawyer with a foreign law firm,” Liu says. “Three decades ago, it would have been unimaginable for a US lawyer to practice in China. Also, Microsoft wouldn’t have settled and prospered in the Chinese market without the nation’s reform and opening-up, and I wouldn’t have had a chance to serve the company.”

“I’m a direct beneficiary of China’s 30 years of reform and opening-up,” Liu concludes.

(Photos courtesy of Microsoft China)