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students were killed outright, and thousands more died in the merciless
death hunt against political dissidents which followed. Mankind was
horrified. For Bush, however, the main considerations were that Deng
Xiaoping was part of his own personal network, with whom Bush had
maintained close contact since at least 1975. Bush's devotion to the
immoral British doctrine of "geopolitics" further dictated that, unless and
until the U.S.S.R. had totally collapsed as a military power, the U.S.
alliance with China as the second-strongest land power must be maintained
at all costs. Additionally, Bush was acutely sensitive to the views on
China policy held by his mentor, Henry Kissinger, whose paw-prints were
still to be found all over U.S. relations with Deng.
In the pre-1911 imperial court of China, the etiquette of the Forbidden
City required that a person approaching the throne of the "Son of Heaven"
must prostrate himself before that living deity, touching both hands and
the forehead to the floor three times. This is the celebrated "kow-tow."
And it was "kow-tow" which sprang to the lips and pens of commentators all
over the world as they observed Bush's elaborate propitiation of the Deng
regime. Even cynics were astounded that Bush could be so deferential to a
regime that was obviously so hated by its own population that it had to be
considered as being on its last legs.
In a press conference held on June 9, in the immediate wake of the
massacre, Bush astounded even the meretricious White House press corps by
his mild and obsequious tone toward Deng and his cohorts. Bush limited his
retaliation to a momentary cutoff of some military sales. That would be
all: "I'm one who lived in China; I understand the importance of the
relationship with the Chinese people and with the government. It is in the
interest of the United States to have good relations...." / Note #1 / Note
#4
This was the wimp with a vengeance, groveling and scraping like Neville
Chamberlain before the dictators, but there was more to come. As part of
his meek and pathetic response, Bush had pledged to terminate all
"high-level exchanges" with the Deng crowd. With this public promise, Bush
had cynically lied to the American people. Shortly before Bush's invasion
of Panama in December, it became known that Bush had dispatched the two
most prominent Kissinger clones in his retinue, NSC Chairman Brent
Scowcroft and Undersecretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, on a secret
mission to Beijing over the July 4th weekend, less than a month after the
massacre in Tiananmen. The story about Scowcroft and Eagleburger, both
veterans of Kissinger Associates, spending the glorious Fourth toasting the
butchers of Beijing was itself leaked in the wake of a high-profile public
mission to China involving the same Kissingerian duo that started December
7, 1989. Bush's cover story for the second trip was that he wanted to get a
briefing to Deng on the results of the Bush-Gorbachov Malta summit, which
had just concluded. The second trip was supposed to lead to the quick
release of Chinese physicist and dissident Fang Lizhi, who had taken refuge
in the U.S. embassy in Beijing during the massacre; this did not occur
until some time later.
The news of Bush's secret diplomacy in favor of Deng caused a widespread
wave of sincere and healthy public disgust with Bush, but this was shortly
overwhelmed by the jingoist hysteria that accompanied Bush's invasion of
Panama.
Bush's handling of the issue of the immigration status of the Chinese
students who had enrolled at U.S. universities also illuminated Bush's
character in the wake of Tiananmen. In Bush's pronouncements in the
immediate wake of the massacre, he absurdly asserted that there were no
Chinese students who wanted political asylum here, but also promised that
the visas of these (non-existent) students would be extended so that they
would not be forced to return to political persecution and possible death
in mainland China. It later turned out that Bush had neglected to
promulgate the executive orders that would have been necessary. In response
to Bush's prevarication about the lives and well-being of the Chinese
students, the Congress subsequently passed legislation that would have
waived the requirement that holders of J-visas, the type commonly obtained
by Chinese students, be required to return to their home country for two
years before being able to apply for permanent residence in the U.S. Bush,
in an act of loathsome cynicism, vetoed this bill. The House voted to
override by a majority of 390 to 25, but Bush Democrats in the Senate
allowed Bush's veto to be sustained by a vote of 62 to 37. Bush, squirming
under the broad public obloquy brought on by his despicable behavior,
finally issued regulations that would temporarily waive the requirement of
returning home for most of the students.
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