Long Debate over the US Challenge } 649
One by one, Politburo Standing Committee members opined on the
bombing. Li Peng went first. The attack was not an “isolated matter” but “a
carefully crafted plot of subversion.” The United States was attempting “to
wantonly provoke disturbances” in China. The attack was also punishment
of China for its opposition in the UN Security Council to NATO’s interven-
tion in Yugoslavia. Washington dared to do this just now because of China’s
eagerness to enter the WTO. “It is because the United States has this bargain-
ing chip that it dares to brandish this big stick against our heads.” Hu Jintao,
already designated as Jiang’s successor, spoke next. Hu stressed internal sta-
bility, urging maintaining stability and unity, restraining protest activities
(against the bombing), and giving “timely guidance to the patriotic fervor
of the masses,” including “mobilizing organizations at all levels to do ideo-
logical work and persist in reasoning with the masses, guide their feelings,
and take control over the situation.” Li Lanqing (the official guiding WTO
negotiations with the United States) concluded that “the current attack by
the United States on our embassy in Yugoslavia is a dangerous signal! In
the future, direct confrontation between China and the United States will
be unavoidable.” “In a word,” he warned, “the United States wants to cre-
ate chaos in China.” Because the Falun Gong incident had just taken place,
the United States “wants to sound China out and create chaos in China.”
Li Ruihuan warned that the United States might be attempting to “create
chaos in China, to have China’s young people vent their hatred on the United
States on [to] the Chinese government. The Americans hope for nothing bet-
ter than to provoke contradictions between the government and the broad
masses of people, especially young students, and thereby shift the crisis.”
Zhu Rongji was the only PBSC member who acknowledged the possibility
that the bombing might have been an accident. Yet even he concluded: “This
is a deliberate action by the United States. Its purpose is to see China’s reac-
tion. If we submit to this humiliation without a protest, the United States will
become even more unbridled in the future.” Every PBSC member believed
that the bombing had been a deliberate US attack on the Chinese embassy.
Among the countermeasures approved by the PBSC was the organization
of demonstrations against US diplomatic facilities in China, while ensur-
ing that no one attempted to “deflect the spearhead” of the demonstrations
against the government.
As soon as the news that “the United States has bombed the Chinese
embassy” reached China, anger began to boil. All sorts of explanations
erupted spontaneously. The Americans were punishing China for blocking
Security Council authorization for the Kosovo intervention. Washington
was testing China, to see how firmly it would respond to direct aggression;
if China’s response was weak, the Americans might move to foster Taiwan
independence, or Tibetan independence, or perhaps support Chinese politi-
cal dissidents. The Americans were trying to show the world that China