People of 1989: George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush became the 41st President of the United States on January 20, 1989. He had been the Vice President under President Ronald Reagan for eight years already. In his previous political endeavors, he had also served, among other positions, as the Ambassador to the United Nations and Chief of the Central Intelligence Agency. Thus, he was well regarded as a top expert in foreign affairs.

But he seemed to be most proud of his experience as the Chief of U. S. Liaison Office in Beijing during 1974-1975, the precursor of embassy in China. He and his wife enjoyed riding bicycles in the streets and hutongs of that city, gaining first-hand intimate feelings of that mysterious country before her opening to the rest of the world.

After his inauguration, Bush quickly planned a trip to Japan, China, and South Korea (using the funeral of Japanese Emperor Hirohito as an opportunity) as his first official working trip as President. This was the very first "pivot to China" attempt by the US government. On February 25, 1989, barely a month into his presidency, Bush arrived in Beijing.

On the second day of his triumphant return, however, there was trouble. Bush was to host a banquet at the Great Wall Hotel and he had invited many dignitaries in Beijing, including some famous dissidents. Professor Fang Lizhi and his wife Li Shuxian were invited but was blocked by authority from attending on the street outside of the hotel. The couple held a press briefing later that night at the Shangri-La Hotel instead. It was the first signal that government's tolerance of dissident activity was reaching its end. The Bush administration had only muted response to that incident.


The sudden eruption of student movement later that year caught Bush by surprise, when his attention was focused in the East Europe. The US government stayed in a low profile during the entire period.

After the massacre, while shocked, President Bush quickly decided that his first priority should be to "preserve the relationship" between America and China. Just as the US government was denouncing the brutality, Bush was already seeking private channels to convey his true intention to Beijing. On June 20, while the ripples of the massacre were still apparent, he wrote a secret letter to his "old friend" Deng Xiaoping, delivered through the Chinese ambassador Han Xu (韩叙). Deng Xiaoping quickly responded, and with it started a secret diplomacy between the two great nations. Shortly after, White House envoys, former President Richard Nixon, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and others visited Beijing either in secret or officially, maintaining a viable communication channel.

At the same time, Bush was facing tremendous pressure from the American public and Congress to impose tough sanctions on China. The newly formed Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars in America launched a successful and sustained lobbying campaign, which was supported by most Congress members, led by the Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. They managed to pass a series of legislation aimed to punish China and protect Chinese students in America.

Bush had to use almost all of his political capital to contain and limit the "damage." On November 21, he vetoed a sanction bill. On November 30, he vetoed an "emergency Chinese protection bill" but implemented its content with an executive order. On December 19, he was already lifting some sanctions previously imposed. Then on May 24, 1990, he extended China's "Most Favored Nation" (MFN) status. The MFN status for China would continue to be an annual political battle afterwards, but never seriously threatened again. (In 1992, Bill Clinton strongly attacked Bush on this issue, vowing to be tough to Beijing. But after his election, Clinton also continued to extend the status and eventually made it permanent.)

Bush also experienced difficulty in securing the release of Fang Lizhi, who had taken refuge in the US Embassy in Beijing after the massacre. He viewed the issue as a huge headache. After a year of negotiations, Fang Lizhi was finally allowed to leave China. When Fang Lizhi almost immediately criticized US government's "double standard" on human rights issues regarding China, Bush and his team were deeply offended.

During his four years in office, President Bush oversaw "a world transformed," with fundamental changes occurring in China, East Europe, and Soviet Union. He also won a complete military victory in the first Gulf War. However, his triumph in foreign affairs was no match to a domestic economical recession and was defeated for reelection.

Bush died on November 30, 2018. He was 94.


People of 1989

This Day in 1989: May 24, 1990, US Extends China's "Most Favored Nation" Status

On May 24, 1990, American President Bush announced that, after a long deliberation, he had decided to extend the "Most Favored Nation" trade status.

The Most Favored Nation (MFN), later renamed as Normal Trade Relations (NTR), was the default relation status between US and most of her trading partners. However, as a non-market-economic country, China's status required annual review and approval.

The 1990 review was hugely controversial, coming right at the first anniversary of Tiananmen Massacre. There were strong opposition from both the Congress and grassroots. Bush explained that, without the status, Chinese people, Americans, as well as Hong Kong would face great losses, which was not what he wanted to see. He pointed out that, Britain, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan all hoped for the extension of MFN. The US Ambassador to China also reported that students and intellectuals in China, with whom he had contacts, were also in support of the extension.

After 1990, the annual review of China's MFN remained a contention in American politics, until a decade later when President Clinton signed into law to permanently grant the status to China. Soon after that, China successfully joined the World Trade Organization, making the MFN obsolete.

Days of 1989

This Day in 1989: May 18, 1990, Jiang Zemin Interviewed by Barbara Walters

On May 18, 1990, American Broadcasting Company (ABC) broadcast an interview of Jiang Zemin by reporter Barbara Walters. This was the first interview of the new General Secretary by a western reporter. It was also the first private interview by a Chinese leader after the Tiananamen Massacre.

The interview was actually conducted on May 2 at the Beijing Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

Jiang Zemin stated in the interview that the military suppression of the 1989 movement was necessary and that the strong reactions by western countries was "much ado about nothing."

Walters showed a picture of the "Tank Man," famous in the west and asked for the whereabouts of the person in picture. Jiang Zemin replied that he didn't know where the person was but he did not believe that he had been killed. This confrontation is available on YouTube.

Jiang Zemin also called on President Bush to extend China's "Most Favored Nation" trade status.


Days of 1989

This Day in 1989: December 19, 1989, President Bush Lifts Some Sanctions against China

On December 19, 1989, President Bush lifted restrictions on loans by US Import-Export Bank to American companies trading with China. The restriction was part of a sanction measure imposed by the US Congress in November as a response to the Tiananmen Massacre.

Bush also issued a permit for an Australian company to launch three US-made communications satellites using China's rockets. After the massacre, the American government froze any export to China that could be used for military purpose. The satellite launch fell into the category and had been suspended since.

In an official statement, Bush pointed out that the actions would benefit American national interest and be helpful to sustain the commercial cooperation between the US and China.

Days of 1989

This Day in 1989: December 9, 1989, US Envoys Officially Visit China

On December 9, 1989, US National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and Deputy Secretary of State Larry Eagleburger arrived in Beijing. As envoys of President Bush, their mission was to brief Chinese leaders on the recent US-Soviet summit. The visit marked the official end of US government policy of suspending high-level contacts between the two nations after the Tiananmen Massacre.

Even during the official suspension of contacts, Bush had previously dispatched the same two officials to China in secret in July. The Chinese foreign minister and the US Secretary of State also held meetings during the United Nation sessions in September.


Days of 1989

This Day in 1989: November 30, 1989, President Bush Vetoes Emergency Chinese Protection Act but Implements with Executive Order

On November 30, 1989, President Bush vetoed H. R. 2712 -- Emergency Chinese Immigration Relief Act of 1989, sponsored by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D). The Act was chiefly aimed at waiving "the two-year home country residence requirement for" Chinese nationals who were in US on exchange visitor (J) visa, as a protection for them not subjecting to possible punishment from Chinese government.

President Bush vetoed the bill not because he disagreed with the proposal but that he believed it was a executive branch decision not to be muddled by the Congress. At the same time of the veto, he issued an executive order to implement the exact same policy.

The Congress attempted to override the veto. It succeeded in the House but failed in the Senate.

Three years later, Pelosi passed a much broader Chinese Student Protection Act, granting permanent residency ("green card") to all, estimated as 50,000, Chinese citizens in the US. That Act was signed into law by President Bush on October 9, 1992.


Days of 1989

This Day in 1989: November 21, 1989, President Bush Vetoes Act with China Sanction

On November 21, 1989, President Bush vetoed H. R. 1487, Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991. The act contains multiple items aimed to sanction China as a punishment of the Tiananmen Massacre.

The Chinese government had published official statements condemning the Act after its passage in Congress.

At least on the surface, Bush's veto was not related to the sanctions. He cited an amendment in the Act related to the Iran scandal as a congressional overreach upon the executive power.

The Congress was not able to override the veto.


Days of 1989

This Day in 1989: October 28, 1989, Former President Nixon Visits China

On October 28, 1989, Former President and "Old Friend of Chinese People" Richard Nixon arrived in Beijing. He came as a private citizen at the time that US-China government contacts had been suspended.

However, Nixon consulted with President Bush before his travel. Bush asked Nixon to fact-find as well as moderate many issues between the two countries, especially that Professor Fang Lizhi's taking refugee in US Embassy.

Nixon met with Deng Xiaoping, Li Peng, and other high-level officials during his stay in Beijing.


Days of 1989

This Day in 1989: July 30, 1989, Chinese Students in US Organize

On July 30, 1989, after 3 days of meeting in Chicago, more than 350 delegates selected by Chinese students all over the US officially announced the formation of a new organization: the Independent Federation of the Chinese Students and Scholars (IFCSS).

Wuer Kaixi and Yan Jiaqi atttended the meeting as invited guests. This is the first time they appeared publicly in US after their escape from China.

During the entire 1989 student movement, Chinese students in the US had adopted a very supportive stance from abroad. They launched several demonstrations in major US cities to support the movement at home and collected donations that were sent back to Beijing. After the massacre, large-scale demonstrations took place all over the US. Almost all local student unions officially severed any ties with the Chinese embassy.

The new IFCSS was organized in a way similar to US government, with a headquarters, a concil, and a supervisory committee forming three branches of shared power. Dr. Liu Yongchuan (刘永川) from Stanford University was elected as the first President.

IFCSS would become the most active and influential China lobby in the US, laying groundbreaking work for Chinese participating in US politics. Most significantly, they successfully pushed through the 1992 Chinese Student Protection Act, which granted green cards to some 54,000 Chinese nationals in the US.

On the other hand, they were not as successful in lobbying for economic sanctions and the revoke of China's Most Favored Nation status, due to the strong resistance from the Bush administration.

In late 1990s, IFCSS gradually lost her grassroots support and organization power and faded out from public domain. To this day, a skeleton organization still exists with her main activity being leading commemorative at anniversaries of the massacre.


Days of 1989

Days of 1989: July 1, Bush's Special Envoys Visit Beijing in Secret

On July 1, 1989, National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and Associate Secretary of State Larry Eagleburger arrived at Beijing. They held talks with Deng Xiaoping, Li Peng, Yang Shangkun, and other Chinese officials.

After the massacre, White House had immediately announced a suspension of high-level contacts between the two governments. However, President Bush was so worried about the Sino-US relationship that he penned a private letter to Deng Xiaoping. Soon after receive a positive response, he dispatched Scowcroft and Eagleburger as special envoys to maintain communication channels. Although Bush thought the mission was successful, he was nonetheless concerned that China did not provide any response of substance.

The July visit was kept in secret for a few months until in December of that year when a second visit to Beijing by Scowcroft was discovered by the media.


Days of 1989

Days of 1989: June 20, Shanghai Executes 3, Bush Pens Secret Letter to Deng Xiaoping

On June 20, 1989, Shanghai sentenced three people to death for participating in riots.

The White House announced its suspension of all high-level Sino-US official contacts. Yet on the same day, President Bush wrote a secret letter to Deng Xiaoping in order to preserve the relationship.


Days of 1989

This Day in 1989: February 25, President Bush Visits China

On February 25, 1989, American President George H. W. Bush, who had been in office for barely a month, arrived in Beijing for a working visit of China.

President Bush at Tiananmen Square, February, 1989

In the late 1970s, Bush had served as the official envoy to China, establishing the liaison office that eventually became the official embassy. He and his wife enjoyed riding bicycles on Beijing streets and acquired substantial knowledge of Chinese society. He also boosted personal relationship with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping.

After becoming the President, Bush took the opportunity of the funeral of Japanese Emperor Hirohito to launch his first major diplomatic trip by visiting Japan, China, and Korea, before visiting any traditional western allies. (To soften possible controversy, he paid a same-day symbolic visit to neighboring Canada before the Asian trip.)

More than twenty years later, President Obama attempted his own version of "pivot to Asia."


Days of 1989

This Day in 1989: Fang Lizhi Unable to Attend Bush's Banquet

In the evening of February 26, 1989, Professor Fang Lizhi and his wife Li Shuxian, accompanied by their American friend Perry Link and his wife, were on their way to the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel, where the visiting President George H. W. Bush was hosting a banquet. In a somewhat surprising and controversial move, Bush had invited this prominent dissident as a gesture of support.

Their car was soon stopped by the police, citing a traffic violation. They walked instead, but were refused entry to the hotel. The police even ordered taxi and bus drivers not to pick them up when they tried to go to the American Embassy instead.

They eventually ended up at the Shangri-La Hotel and told their stories to the foreign press there. Fang Lizhi protested that "this is a fresh example of the human rights violations in China."

The Bush administration had only muted response to the incident.

Days of 1989

Book about Tiananmen: A World Transformed

President George H. W. Bush was only in office for four years but during that period (1989-1993) he saw what could be termed as the most dramatic change of world politics in our modern history. His memoir A World Transformed, co-authored with his National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and published in 1998, candidly recorded the foreign policy operations of his administration.

With the fall of Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet empire, the wars in Panama and Gulf, it is perhaps understandable that the book only has a very small number of pages devoted to the effects and aftermath of the Tiananmen Massacre and the China affair in general. They are pretty much limited to Chapter 4: "Untying a Knot."

The chapter or book did include any thoughts or reactions of the authors while the 1989 student movement was in progress. Rather, it started right after the massacre, which caught the President by surprise. The chapter did contain valuable first-hand information on the thought process, strategy, as well as tactics the authors invoked, including excerpts of Bush's diaries at the time. It also provided a glimpse to the behind-the-scene, and sometimes secret, personal diplomacy spearheaded by Scowcroft. Both of them had been to China and met Deng Xiaoping personally before 1989 -- Bush as the first envoy to the People's Republic and Scowcroft as a participant of diplomatic missions by Presidents Nixon and Ford.

The title of the chapter is a phrase borrowed from a Chinese proverb meaning that a knot could only be untied by the one who originally tied it. Here, the knot is referring to the estranged state of the US-China relationship with Deng Xiaoping and Bush alternatively blaming the other as the one who tied it up.

The title accurately reflects President Bush's view on the situation. He never saw it as an opportunity to advocate liberty and human rights in China or condemning tyranny, but just a troublesome mess he had to untangle with his diplomatic skill. From the very beginning, he was fixated at preserving the fragile US-China relationship and determined to go out of his way to achieve it. He did condemn the Chinese government and impose limited sanctions. But he did it largely because he had to, not because he wanted to, as he repeated explained to his "old-friend" Deng Xiaoping in his then-secret personal communications.

The book also contains fleeting descriptions of the fights the Bush White House put up against the Congress and American public opinions in various China-related issues such as the scope of sanctions, the Most Favored Nation status, and the protection of Chinese students in the US. (The last one was largely a political turf fight with both sides making the same policy actions.)

Most foreign policy memoiors written by top government officials tend to be dry and largely unreadable. Bush and Scowcroft's A World Transformed is a refreshing exception. The book is written in a style that interlaces either author's first-person account of the events with a supplemental third-person story-telling to provide background and perspectives. As such, the entire book reads like a fascinating conversation recounting the past by a pair of old hands. Unfortunately, against the back drop of the emerging New World Order, Tiananmen and China did not receive a proper billing in their account.

Books about Tiananmen

Document of 1989: President Bush's Secret Letter to Deng Xiaoping

On June 20, 1989, after his attempt to call Deng Xiaoping directly failed, President Bush hand-crafted a  letter himself, initiating a secret top-level contact with China as his attempt to preserving the US-China relationship. Deng Xiaoping responded immediately to the letter.

This letter was later published in Bush's book All the Best (It was also published in A World Transformed, but with more omissions):


His Excellency Deng Xiaoping
People's Republic of China
Beijing

June 20, 1989


Dear Chairman Deng:

I write this letter with a heavy heart. I wish there were some way to discuss this matter in person, but regrettably that is not the case. First, I write in a spirit of genuine friendship, this letter coming as I'm sure you know from one who believes with a passion that good relations between the United States and China are in the fundamental interests of both countries. I have felt that way for many years. I feel more strongly that way today, in spite of the difficult circumstances.

Secondly, I write as one who has great respect for what you personally have done for the people of China and to help your great country move forward. There is enormous irony in the fact that you who yourself have suffered several reversals in your quest to bring reform and openness to China are now facing a situation fraught with so much anxiety.

I recall your telling me the last time we met that you were in essence phasing out of the day-to-day management of your great country. But I also recall your unforgettable words about the need for good relations with the West, your concerns about "encirclement" and those who had done great harm to China, and your committment to keeping China moving forward. By writing you I am not trying to bypass any individual leader of China. I am simply writing as a friend, a genuine "lao pengyou."

It is with this in mind that I write you asking for your help in preserving this relationship that we both think is very important. I have tried very hard not to inject myself into China's internal affairs. I have tried very hard not to appear to dictating in any way to China about how it should manage its internal crisis. I am respectful of the differences in our two societies and in our two systems.

I have great reverence for Chinese history, culture and tradition. You have given much to the development of world civilization. But I ask you as well to remember the principles on which my young country was founded. Those principles are democracy and freedom--freedom of speech, freedom of assemblage, freedom from arbitrary authority. It is reverence for those principles which inevitably affects the way American view and react to events in other countries. It is not a reaction of arrogance or of a desire to force others to our beliefs but of simple faith in the enduring value of those principles and their universal applicability.

And that leads directly to the fundamental problem. The early days of the student demonstration, and indeed, the early treatment of the students by the Chinese Army, captured the imagination of the entire world. The wonder of TV brought the details of the events in Tiananmen Square into the homes of peple not just in "Western" countries but world-wide. The early tolerance that was shown, the restraint and the generous handling of the demonstrations, won world-wide respect for China's leadership. Thoughtful people all over the world tried to understand and sympathize with the enormous problems being faced by those required to keep order; and, indeed, they saw with admiration the manifestation of policy which reflected the leaders' words: "The Army loves the people." The world cheered when Chinese leaders were seen patiently meeting with students, even though there were "sit ins" and even though disorder did interfere with normal functions.

I will leave what followed to the history books, but again, with their own eyes the people of the world saw the turmoil and the bloodshed with which the demonstrations were ended. Various countries reacted in various ways. Based on the principles I have described above, the actions that I took as President of the United States could not be avoided. As you know, the clamor for stronger action remains intense. I have resisted that clamor, making clear that I did not want to see destroyed this relationship that you and I have worked so hard to build. I explained to the American people that I did not want to unfairly burden the Chinese people through economic sanctions.

There is also the matter of Fang Lizhi. The minute I heard Fang was in our Embassay, I knew there would be a high-profile wedge driven between us. Fang was not encouraged to come to our Embassay, but under our widely-accepted interpretation of international law we could not refuse him admittance.

In today's climate I know this matter is of grave importance to you and I know it presents you with an enormous problem; a problem that adversely affects my determination and, hopefully, yours to get our relationship back on track.

We cannot now put Fang out of the Embassay without some assurance that he will not be in physical danger. Similar cases elsewhere in the world have been resolved over long periods of time or through the government quietly permitting departure through expulsion. I simply want to assure you that we want this difficult matter resolved in a way which is satisfactory to you and does not violate our commitment to our basic principles. When there are difficulties between friends, as now, we must find a way to talk them out.

Your able Ambassador here represents your country firmly and faithfully. I feel that Jim Lilley does the same for us; but if there is some special channel that you would favor, please let me know.

I have thought of asking you to receive a special emissary who could speak with total candor to you representing my heartfelt convictions on these matters. If you feel such an emissary could be helpful, please let me know and we will work cooperatively to see that his mission is kept in total confidence. I have insisted that all departments of the US government be guided in their statements and actions from my guidance in the White House. Sometimes in an open system such as ours it is impossible to control all leaks; but on this particular letter there are no copies, not one, outside of my own personal file....

I send you this letter with great respect and deep concern. We must not let this important relationship suffer further. Please help me keep it strong. Any statement that could be made from China that drew from earlier statements about peacefully resolving further disputes with protesters would be very well received here. Any clemency that could be shown the student demonstrators would be applauded worldwide. We must not let the aftermath of the tragic recent events undermine a vital relationship patiently built up over the past seventeen years. I would, of course, welcome a personal reply to this letter. This matter is too important to be left to our bureaucracies.

As I said above, I write with a heavy heart; but I also write with a frankness reserved for respected friends.

Sincerely,

George Bush


Document of 1989

Document of 1989: President Bush's Diaries

In the book A World Transformed, coauthored with his national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, President George Bush included some of his diary entries written in June and July of 1989, reflecting his thoughts immediately after the Tiananmen Massacre. His focus was at preserving the US-China relationship:


June 5, 1989
[Representative Steve] Solarz on the left and [Senator Jesse] Helms on the right want us to move much more radically. Helms has always detested this relationship, and Solarz [, who wants me to recall our Ambassador,] is the guy who wants to overthrow no matter who's involved. He's the kind of guy that was delighted about the overthrow of Shah, not worrying about what follows on.

I talked to Nixon at 8:00 AM, and he was saying, "don't disrupt the relationship. What's happened has been handled badly and is deplorable, but take a look at the long haul." I told him I was not going to recall [Ambassador] Lilley, and he thought that was good. He doesn't think we should stop our trade [and should do] something symbolic, but we must have a good relationship in the long run...and that is what I will try to do while denouncing the violence and abuse of power...The reports from China are still crazy...There are rumors that "Li Peng has been shot," and rumors that "Deng was dead." All of this tells me to be cautious and calm.

June 10, 1989
Dissident Fang is in our embassy, and it turns out his wife may have been supported by unfriendly elements, and this will make the Chinese even more outraged. We had no choice but to take him in, but it's going to be a real stick in the eyes to the Chinese.

At the press conference, I pointed out we weren't sure who was in charge, but then yesterday--the day after the press conference--Deng and Li Peng...reappeared, and the stories are [that] all the hard-liners are in charge. China needs to make a clear statement about reform, and going forward. It would be good if they could make some statement of regret about what happened; but they seem to be circling the wagons, going after students, and showing pictures of soldiers that were abused... I want to preserve the relationship, but I must also make clear that the US cannot condone this kind of human rights brutality. You have the networks, led principally by Dan Rather, pitching everything with the highest emotional content and driving to...almost break relations with China, and that I don't want.

June 20, 1989
...I'm sending signals to China that we want the relationship to stay intact, but it's hard when they're executing people, and we have to respond. We've got to stand for what this country believes in--human rights, right for peaceful protests, etc. They killed three guys yesterday who allegedly burned a train in Shanghai, but I hope they won't go after all the student organizers in Beijing with the same brutality. Dissident Fang is making things much worse and Fang's son showed up at a hearing under the patronage of Jesse Helms--stupid--and it just makes things worse.

It's the morning of Wednesday, June 21. I told Brent Scowcroft that I wanted to [ask] Han Xu if he felt [sending an emmissary] was worth doing. I went to a meeting...and during that hour, Brent talked to Han Xu [who] said he wanted to come over. So within a couple of minutes of Brent having set the appointment up--and without me even knowing about it because he had not had time to get back to me--we got a press inquiry saying, is the President going to meet with Han Xu? Absolutely unbelievable. I walked down to Brent's office to talk about it, and Patty Presock was the only one who had some inkling of it; but the next thing she knew, she got a call from Brent's office, and it was overheard, apparently, by the press office. A terrible situation. So we immediately canceled the meeting. We cannot have a meeting like this in public--it just escalates our concern or attention to the matter.

June 24, 1989
It's June 24th...much to our surprise, on Thursday--less than 24hours later--we got back a personal response [from Deng]. He accepts my idea of a personal emissary. [The question is "who?"] Jim Baker does not want to be undermined, so I thought of a lot of alternatives: Kissinger and Nixon--too high profile, and too much propensity for leakage, though both would be very good; [John] Holdridge or other ambassadors--not enough standing; and Jim Lilley--no good, because of the dissident Fang. I don't want to embarrass Lilley by leaving him out to dry, but I don't want to undermine Baker's running foreign policy. I want to get the best expert who knows Deng--and that is Scowcroft. So on Saturday morning, I proposed to Brent that it be him and Eagleburger, and he's agreeable; I called Baker, and he's agreeable; and so we'll have a meeting on Sunday afternoon.

The plan at this point is to have an over-the-top flight in an unmarked plane going into some Chinese base. It's highly sensitive, China is blasting the United States for interfering in their internal affairs, and we are criticizing China, though not as vociferously as most in the congress would like me to do. This has been a very delicate matter--how to handle this relationship. China is back on track a little with the Soviets, and they could indeed come back in much stronger if we move unilaterally against them and cut them off from the west. Deng still worries about "encirclement," and so do I.

The dissident [Fang] matter is horrible. There was a little squib in intelligence that they might condemn him and kick him out [of the country], and that would be the best answer right now...So far, we're getting reasonable marks for the way we're handling it, and good support from Broomfield, Foley, and Lee Hamilton. The Senate is in a little more disarray, and Lloyd Bentsen told me today that he wants to help. It's highly complex, and yet, I'm determined to try to preserve this relationship--cool the rhetoric. I feel deeply offended by what China has done with the students and the others who courageously stood their ground. And I'm upset that Zhao Ziyang has been kicked out. But I rememebered his lecture to us on reform and "caution." I take this whole relationship very personally, and I want to handle it [that way].

July 9, 1989
It's now July 9th, and we're three hours out on our way to Poland. Down below is a bright blue Atlantic that you can see forever, and the gleaming blue and silver engines on Air Force One are over my right shoulder...China still worries me. We see nothing that I really want China to do in order to solve the existing problem of strained relations, and I don't think any other Western country does. I think they're glad I'm holding the line. They can be out front with more rhetorical overkill, but I will continue to try and hold the line, though I am uneasy about my ability to keep this relationship on track. As long as China tries to say there was no massacre in Tiananmen Square, no lives lost except for the lives of Chinese soldiers, then the matter will not be quiet.

Document of 1989

People of 1989: Fang Lizhi (方励之)

Professor Fang Lizhi was born on February 12, 1936. In the mid-1940s when he was only 12 years old, he witnessed some student movements in his middle school and joined an underground Communist organization. In 1952, he enrolled in the Physics Department at Peking University and formally became a member of the Communist Party upon graduation. But soon he got in trouble in the "Anti-Rightists" movement and was expelled from the Party and sent to countryside to be "re-educated" through manual labor. He was only 23 then.

It was during that dark period that Fang Lizhi married Li Shuxian, a formal classmate at Peking University who had also been expelled from the Party. The couple survived living and laboring in separate countryside locations and gave birth to two sons during that time.


After the Culture Revolution, Fang Lizhi was able to return to academia and by mid-1980s he had become a professor and Vice President of the University of Science and Technology of China in Anhui Province. It was there he launched a fruitful career as a pioneer researching relativistic cosmology in China. But he gained great fame by giving inspiring speeches in many universities advocating liberty, democracy, and human rights, using western examples he had observed from his frequent travels abroad. Audiotapes of his speech were widely copied and passed around in student dorm rooms. At that time, he called for young students to join the Communist Party and "reform it from within."

In December, 1986, when students at USTC were planning a demonstration protesting election rules, Professor Fang Lizhi gave a rousing speech to a student gathering during which he famously declared that "democracy could not be given from above but had to be demanded from below." But nonetheless, he tried to persuade students to limit their actions within the campus. He failed on that as students marched downtown.

A few weeks later, after a wave of student demonstrations that swept the country including cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, Fang Lizhi was once again expelled from the Party and stripped of all his positions in USTC. He was relocated to Beijing and assigned a research position at the Beijing Observatory. In 1988, Liu Gang engineered a campaign at Peking University to successfully elect Li Shuxian as a local People's Representative, partly to salute Professor Fang Lizhi. 

On May 4 that year, Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian participated as speakers the first "Democracy Salon" organized by Liu Gang at Peking University.

In January, 1989, Fang Lizhi suddenly broke his silence again by issuing an open letter to Deng Xiaoping calling for an amnesty of political prisoners including Wei Jingsheng. The letter was echoed by a few similar ones co-signed by prominent intellectuals and the like. In February, he wrote an essay titled "China's Despair and China's Hope" declaring that "the 40 year Socialist experiment in China has failed." The essay was published in New York Review of Books and Hong Kong presses but also posted as a Big Poster at Peking University. By that time, he had abandoned the idea of reforming the Party from within and advocated that "We must also take action from outside of the system. We must force the issue in any way we can."

His words drew attention everywhere. That February, Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian were invited to attend a state bangquet hosted by the visiting President George H. W. Bush but were brutally stopped near the party by a swarm of police.

As the 1989 student movement was ignited after Hu Yaobang's death, Fang Lizhi chose to stay behind the scenes so that he would not bring unwanted attention or trouble to the movement. Earlier on, he did provide private advices to a few student leaders such as Liu Gang and Wang Dan but refused invitations to make public speeches. Later, he expressed his displeasure of the aggressive tactics in the movement:

Once the hunger strike started, the movement went out of control, and I suspected that the government would use military means to end it. These students just did not understand. They grew up in the generation after the Cultural Revolution and had never seen the Party kill people on a large scale. The students loved that line in L'Intenernationale about this being the final struggle, but I told those who came to my home that this was most definitely not the final struggle. They felt that if they just carried this struggle through, they would be victorious. I didn't think so.

Nevertheless, Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian were publicly labeled as the "black hands" of the movement by the government. On May 31, several small-scale rallies organized by the government sprang up in the Beijing suburbs, in which "angry peasants" burned effigies of Fang Lizhi's likeness.

By then, Fang Lizhi already found himself followed when he left Beijing for an academic conference. Within hours after the massacre on June 3, he contacted the American Embassy through their American friend Perry Link and eventually gained protection there. Soon, government "Wanted" posters with the couple's pictures were all over the place：

They stayed in the Embassy for about a year while the China and US were engaged in a diplomatic standoff. Fang Lizhi managed to continue his scientific research there and published a paper bearing the diplomatic address. They eventually were allowed to leave China and reached US by way of UK.

Once on the US soil, Fang Lizhi immediately and openly criticized the American government's double standard on China's human rights and quickly lost confidence of the US government and faded from public view. He became a professor at University of Arizona and continued his physics research there.

Other than a few interviews, Fang Lizhi had largely avoided speaking about the 1989 student movement in detail. He was engaged in a few oversea democracy activities but stayed away from controversies and in-fights. In more recent years, he had been writing many witty and moving essays about his life and science, but seldom touched the subject of 1989.

Professor Fang Lizhi passed away in his home at Tucson, Arizona, on April 6, 2012. He was 76 and survived by his wife Li Shuxian and his eldest son. (Their second son, Fang Zhe, who had briefly accompanied them in the US Embassy, died in a traffic accident in 2007.)

People of 1989

People of 1989: James R. Lilley

Jim Lilley became the American ambassador to China in the spring of 1989, just as the undercurrent of student movement was emerging. Although he was born in China and had previously served as the CIA station chief in Beijing under George H. W. Bush, he was not as deeply involved with the Chinese intellectual community as his immediate predecessor Winston Lord.

Jim Lilley has been credited for providing daily, detailed reports about the events to then President George H. W. Bush during the turmoil of 1989. But his influence or effects, if any, to the movement itself remains unknown.

He did take some notable actions after the massacre. His embassy provided asylum to the famous Chinese dissident Fang Lizhi and he took an uncompromisable stand on the issue in Fang Lizhi's safety and well-being. At the same time, however, he also arranged a secret diplomatic mission which had the national security adviser Brent Scowcroft visiting Beijing and toasting with Deng Xiaoping.

Jim Lilley successfully negotiated the settlement which sent Fang Lizhi out of Beijing and to the United States. He was subsequently shocked to see Fang Lizhi criticizing the US as well as President George H. W. Bush as soon as he had stepped on the American soil. He had never forgiven Fang Lizhi for that action. Fang Lizhi, on the other hand, quickly lost his standing with the American governmental circle.

James R. Lilly passed away Nov. 12, 2009, at the age of 81.


People of 1989

NYT Archive 1989: Crackdown

As troops opened fire in Beijing nineteen years ago, New York Times' series reports changed from "Upheaval in China" to "Crackdown in China". But on that day, not much reporting actually made it before the deadline. No death toll was given. There was not yet a comprehensive coverage of the crackdown itself, saving a "reporter's notebook" by Nicholas Kristof:

The violence against students and workers in Tiananmen Square was most obvious today, because for the most part they were the ones getting killed. But they, too, were violent against the police and army troops, although less effectively so.

Clutching iron bars and bricks, the students glared at soldiers 100 yards away on the other side of the square. It was dark, although the fire from an armed personnel carrier that students had set ablaze cast an eerie glow over part of the square, and the troops and their rows of vehicles could be dimly discerned in the haze.

From time to time, a group of them would advance on the soldiers to throw rocks and otherwise harass them. And then often, they would be shot and killed. It was an unequal competition.

Whenever the students got their chance, spotting an unarmed group of soldiers, they attacked with bricks and iron bars. However, the soldiers, most of whom had guns, tended to stick together.

Until now, students had emphasized the need for nonviolent tactics, and today some still begged their friends to put down their bricks and iron bars. But many students seemed to have crossed their personal Rubicon today, and those who previously had clutched leaflets and megaphones today picked up firebombs.

President George H. W. Bush and other American officials immediately condemned the crackdown. 300 people sieged on the Chinese Consulate at New York. More reactions were seen in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In Taiwan particularly, on the day their President acknowledged Communist control of China, the events and tragedy at Tiananmen were actually bringing people across the strait together.

As the brief history of this movement was outlined, NYT also published an extensive report on the reasons behind it. The lengthy piece was obviously written before the crackdown and being published for the Sunday edition.

NYT Archive 1989: Reading The Tea Leaves

By May 24, 1989, it was entering the fifth day of martial law. People in Beijing were getting used to have hundreds of thousands troops blocked at their gates. The troops even showed signs of retreating, when they could. New York Times reported increasing struggles at the top:

As hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in Beijing and Shanghai for the ouster of Prime Minister Li Peng, China's top leaders met in secret in the capital on Tuesday and appeared to make significant progress in breaking the political deadlock.

Early this morning, there were signs that Zhao Ziyang, the Communist Party leader, who was stripped of his powers late last week after he urged a moderate line toward students demonstrating for democracy, might be making a comeback.

There were also hints in official news reports that Mr. Li might be in political trouble, and military troops began to withdraw from some of their positions in the capital.

The most striking sign of a change in the power struggle came early this morning when news organizations for the first time in several days referred to Mr. Zhao and identified him as still being the General Secretary of the Communist Party.

After meeting with President George H. W. Bush, Wan Li cut short of his trip in the United States and was on his way home. He had become the unexpected hope for restoring leadership in China.

The official newspapers in Beijing, who had enjoyed unprecedented freedom of press in the last few weeks, continued to push limits in their own defiance to the martial law. As oversea Chinese students tried to piece together what was happening, foreign broadcast were suddenly allowed to resume.

In the middle of all, three men threw eggs and paints to deface the giant portrait of Mao Zedong on Tiananmen. Student detained and handed them over to police, thinking they could be acting on government's behalf to create pretext for a crackdown. The portrait was replaced in late afternoon, to the cheers of 20,000 people there.