500 { China’s Quest
contrary to the moral sentiments of the American people, a factor that played
a role in his electoral defeat by William Clinton in November 1992. Deng also
came under criticism over his “conciliatory” policy toward the United States,
although this criticism would crescendo only in 1995. In the face of strong
domestic criticism, the two old friends, Bush and Deng, worked to rebuild a
cooperative Sino-American relation.
Having failed to reach Deng by telephone on June 5, Bush sent a hand-
written letter to Deng on June 21 stating Bush’s firm conviction that good re-
lations between China and the United States were a “fundamental interest of
both countries,” and proposing US dispatch of an emissary to Beijing to dis-
cuss ties.^29 Deng replied the very next day, indicating a willingness to receive
a representative from Bush. Scowcroft was Bush’s emissary; his first, secret,
mission to Beijing was in July, barely six weeks after the Beijing Massacre.
During their talks, Deng stressed to Scowcroft his desire for continued
friendship with President Bush, but took a tough stance on US interference in
China’s internal affairs and sanctions. The events of June 4 were, Deng said,
“an earthshaking event,” in which it was “very unfortunate that the United
States is too deeply involved.” US foreign policy had “cornered China,” Deng
said. Moreover, “The aim of the counter-revolutionary rebellion was to over-
throw the People’s Republic of China and our socialist system. If they should
succeed in obtaining that aim the world would be a different one. To be frank,
this could even lead to war.”^30 Deng also insisted that since it was US actions
that had created the problem in relations, it was the United States that should
“untie the knot.” Deng reiterated that message to Richard Nixon when the
latter visited Beijing a few months later:
Please tell President Bush, let’s end the past, the United States ought to
take the initiative, and only the United States can take the initiative.
The United States is able to take the initiative ... China is unable to ini-
tiate. This is because the stronger is America, the weaker is China, the
injured is China. If you want China to beg, it cannot be done. If it drags
on a hundred years, the Chinese people can’t beg [you] to end sanc-
tions. ... Whatever Chinese leader makes a mistake in this respect would
surely fall, the Chinese people will not forgive him.^31
Deng reached out to other influential old friends of China to convey the
message that the United States needed to move first to “untie the knot.” Henry
Kissinger and Mike Oksenberg were among the notables invited to Beijing in
1989 to learn Beijing’s view of relations.
The presence of dissident astrophysicist and professor Fang Lizhi and his
wife in the US embassy in Beijing, where they had fled on the evening of
June 3, was one source of Chinese grievance. CCP leaders viewed the Fang
couple as major instigators and ringleaders of the recent “counterrevolution-
ary rebellion”—key members of the “small group with ulterior motives” that