648 { China’s Quest
proposals approved and lay them before Clinton during an April 1999 visit
to the United States. Although surprised by how far-reaching Zhu’s proposal
was—how far it went in addressing US demands—Clinton decided not to
accept it. According to David Lampton, the main reason for this decision was
Clinton’s belief that he simply could not, at that juncture, secure congressio-
nal approval for granting China permanent most favored nation status—an
essential quid pro quo for Zhu’s concessions to US concerns. The year 2000
was also a Presidential election year, and the probable Democratic nominee,
Vice President Al Gore, did not want to alienate labor union support by sup-
porting WTO or permanent MFN status for China.^21
China’s media did not explain the nuances of Clinton’s rejection of Zhu’s
offer—Democratic Party electoral calculations, congressional sentiment
about China, or the role of Congress in the US political system. The way it was
explained to them by China’s media was that China’s leaders had gone a very
long way to meet US demands, and faced considerable internal opposition
in that effort, only to have the offer rejected by the United States. It seemed
to many Chinese, probably including some PBSC members, that the United
States simply did not want cooperative relations with China, and that it was,
after all, really hostile to China. The efforts of Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji
to reach out to the United States and find common ground seemed naive to
many Chinese who followed foreign affairs. China’s leaders needed a tougher
approach to dealing with American arrogance and hegemony.
Then a US warplane bombed the PRC embassy in Belgrade. On May 7, a B-2
stealth bomber operating out of an airbase in Missouri dropped laser-guided
bombs on the PRC embassy in the Yugoslav capital. The bulk of them hit the
intelligence section of the PRC embassy. Three Chinese personnel were killed
and over twenty injured. It subsequently became clear that the maps used by
the CIA to target the NATO bombing effort were out of date. The building in-
dicated on the CIA targeting map as an office of the FRY Ministry of Defense
was, in fact, now the embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the FRY.
The CIA officer who made this mistake was later fired. But all this would
become apparent only later. At the time, all this was obscured by the fog of
war. About two hours after the Belgrade embassy was bombed, an emergency
Politburo session convened to discuss “countermeasures.” Jiang Zemin pre-
sided, spoke first, and set the tone for deliberations:
I was so filled with anger when I heard the news. I could not say a word,
and my mind went completely blank. This crude, brutal, and evil action
is a serious violation of China’s sovereignty and a crime—a crime of
openly trampling on international law, and one that is extremely rare in
the history of foreign relations. US-led NATO must bear full responsi-
bility for this matter. At today’s meeting, we will study how to respond
to this extremely abominable incident.^22