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June 4th marks the 30th anniversary of the brutal Communist government crackdown on peaceful, unarmed, civilian protestors during China’s pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square. For those who watched from afar, the image of a young man standing in front of a row of tanks is an indelible one. For those in the midst of the chaos, the painful memory of that night would change their lives forever.
This week, the New York Times featured a story on Jiang Lin who was a lieutenant in the People’s Liberation Army at the time of the massacre. Lin wrote in 1990, “More than once I’ve daydreamed of visiting Tiananmen wearing mourning clothes and leaving a bunch of pure white lilies.” But the fear of reprisal from the current Chinese government kept her silent. She further states that so long as the Chinese government refuses to acknowledge what happened at Tiananmen Square, the nation’s stability and prosperity are in doubt.
In 1989, the US ambassador to China was diplomat James Lilley, one of the most distinguished intelligence and foreign service officers in the country’s history. Lilley was born in China in 1928 and learned Mandarin as a child. His upbringing gave him a unique perspective on China and its neighbors. He joined the CIA in 1951 and he later served as Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (1981-1984) and as Ambassador to Korea (1986-1989). From 1989 to 1991, during Tiananmen, he was the US Ambassador in China. After Tiananmen, he sheltered Fang Lizhi, one of China’s most prominent dissidents. Following his retirement, Lilley became a senior fellow at AEI, focusing on East Asian and Chinese relations. His book, China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage, and Diplomacy in Asia, was written at AEI.
Today, a number of scholars at AEI including Dan Blumenthal, Nicholas Eberstadt, Derek Scissors, Gary Schmitt, Claude Barfield, Oriana Skylar Mastro, and Research Fellow Zack Cooper build on Lilley’s legacy with their clear-eyed focus on the security and economic issues in US relations with this part of the world.
June 4th marks the 30th anniversary of the brutal Communist government crackdown on peaceful, unarmed, civilian protestors during China’s pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square.
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