Chapter 17: George H. W. Bush’s Mistaken Support for Deng Xiaoping, 1989 (Part I)

In June 1989, the “June Fourth” incident occurred in Beijing. The Chinese government deployed tanks and troops to suppress pro-democracy protesters, resulting in the deaths of thousands. President Bush imposed sanctions on China. These sanctions included an executive action by George H. W. Bush that allowed Chinese citizens who were residing in the United States and had entered the country before April 11, 1990, to obtain permanent residency. A similar situation had occurred once before, in 1949, when the Chinese Communist Party came to power. At that time, students from mainland China who were already in the United States were permitted to remain permanently. Most later obtained U.S. citizenship; a few, such as Qian Xuesen, were denied citizenship applications due to suspected lingering ties with the Communist Party and were eventually deported.

Forty years later, the situation in 1989 resembled that of 1949 in some ways, but differed in others. Back then, Mao Zedong had “leaned to one side” toward the Soviet Union, becoming a junior partner in the communist bloc and drawing a complete line of separation from the United States. China subsequently followed the Soviet lead, with the USSR providing weapons and artillery while China supplied cannon fodder, directly participating in the Korean War. The result was more than two decades of blockade and isolation. It was not until 1979, when China and the United States established diplomatic relations, that the blockade was lifted. By then, China had entered the Deng Xiaoping era. Through reform and opening up, Deng rescued the Chinese Communist Party from desperate straits. Deng held one firm belief: countries that maintained good relations with the United States all became prosperous. Convinced of this, he opened the door to Sino–U.S. trade and was unwilling to lose the hard-won beginnings of economic exchange with the United States. After the Tiananmen incident in 1989, although Sino–U.S. relations appeared strained on the surface, Deng Xiaoping was secretly and intensively negotiating with the United States behind the scenes.

On the American side, the president was George H. W. Bush. Bush had previously served as director of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing and had developed deep personal connections with Chinese officials. From February 21 to 28, 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon made his historic visit to China. During that visit, the two sides issued the Shanghai Communiqué on February 28, 1972. On May 1, 1973, China and the United States established liaison offices in each other’s capitals. Before the formal establishment of diplomatic relations in 1979, the director of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing effectively functioned as the U.S. ambassador to China. In 1974, at the age of 50, George H. W. Bush became the second director of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing. At that time, China had not yet begun reform and opening up. He and his wife Barbara lived in Beijing for 15 months, riding Forever-brand bicycles through the city’s hutongs. Coming from a background as CIA director, Bush gained an understanding of China through the details of everyday life.

After the June Fourth incident, President Bush quickly dispatched White House National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger on a secret trip to Beijing to meet with Deng Xiaoping and other senior Chinese leaders. Bush also wrote a personal letter to Deng Xiaoping, expressing hope that China would continue to affirm economic exchanges with the Western world. He was willing to shoulder the enormous pressure from the U.S. Congress, which demanded an immediate cutoff of economic and trade relations with China, while at the same time offering China substantial practical assistance.

Because the Bush administration continuously extended goodwill and demonstrated great patience toward China, the Chinese government was able to rebound from the depths despite facing comprehensive international sanctions. Some commentators have remarked, “If not for George H. W. Bush, would the United States have continued to maintain such an intimate relationship with the Chinese Communist Party?” Clearly, Bush fell for Deng Xiaoping’s strategy of “keeping a low profile.” At that time, China had just begun to taste the benefits of engagement with the United States. Its priority was to stabilize relations with Washington and leverage American economic strength to drive China’s own development. Without Bush’s accommodation with the Chinese Communist Party, China would not later have risen to become the world’s second-largest economy.

In Eastern and Central Europe, communist regimes were facing waves of protests and demonstrations. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev allowed member states of the Warsaw Pact to carry out political and economic reforms. These reforms, however, did not change the ultimate fate of communist parties being forced from power.

In the summer of 1989, President Bush visited Hungary and Poland, strongly supporting peaceful transformation in both countries. Each was developing a free-market economy and struggling to dismantle centralized control. Lech Wałęsa, chairman of Poland’s Solidarity trade union, emerged as a leader of reform and later became the democratically elected president of Poland.

On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall, which had stood for 28 years, was opened. Tens of thousands of people shouted slogans demanding that the wall be torn down. East German communists were forced to introduce a new election law guaranteeing free elections under international supervision. East Germans learned that they could travel wherever they wished, whenever they wished. Twenty-four hours later, the Soviet Union declared that such actions were reasonable. Citizens and soldiers then began dismantling the Berlin Wall. The entire world watched, hoping this marked the beginning of a new era of peace.

The fall of the Berlin Wall signified the end of communist regimes in Eastern Europe under Soviet control and also marked the conclusion of more than forty years of Cold War confrontation between East and West. In July 1991, President Bush and Soviet President Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Bush declared that dictatorships and totalitarianism would come to an end, like withered leaves falling from an ancient tree. Free nations, he said, would take action to welcome the arrival of a new era. On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev announced his resignation. The following day, the Supreme Soviet passed a resolution declaring the cessation of the Soviet Union’s existence. The Soviet Union formally dissolved.