TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/031389/03138900.043

Text File | 1990-09-22 | 4KB | 68 lines

WORLD, Page 38

CHINA

The Furious Flap over Fang Lizhi

Washington and Beijing clash over a famous dissident


    Fang Lizhi was not exactly a household name outside China until
he was invited to dine with President George Bush. Then a series
of missteps turned a social occasion into a diplomatic cause
celebre. Using crude police muscle, the Chinese government
physically barred Fang, China's most famous dissident, from
attending the Texas barbecue that Bush gave at the Great Wall
Sheraton Hotel to salute Chinese dignitaries at the end of an
otherwise friendly visit to Beijing. The invitation infuriated the
Chinese government, Fang's manhandling offended the U.S., and the
Bush Administration was left with egg foo yung on its face.

    The Fang flap began innocently two weeks ago, when he received
an elegantly engraved invitation from the U.S. embassy to attend
Bush's brisket, beans and beer supper. Fang, an astrophysicist
expelled from the Communist Party and fired from his job as a
university vice president in 1987, was startled; by demanding
democracy and calling socialism "the scourge of humanity in this
century," the outspoken scientist has gone further than any other
dissident in angering Chinese officials.

    Some U.S. Congressmen had urged Bush to usher human rights to
the forefront of the U.S. dialogue with China, as is the case with
the Soviet Union. But White House officials acknowledged that Bush
never raised the issue directly in his private talks with China's
top leader, Deng Xiaoping, and Premier Li Peng. The Chinese did,
though. Toward the end of a wide-ranging 90-minute conversation on
Sunday afternoon, Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang
told Bush that dissidents threatened to upset the social order,
which would "provide a pretext for the turning back of (economic)
reforms." American support for them, Zhao added bluntly, "will not
be conducive to the relationship between China and the U.S."
Rushing off to a television interview, Bush did not respond. Just
a few hours later, Fang was herded away from the Sheraton by
plainclothes police.

    Bush sought to dispel the embarrassment of an affair that left
him caught between placating both the offended Chinese and American
critics who attacked the Administration for not sending an escort
for Fang, or even holding a separate but highly visible meeting
with dissidents. On his departure for Seoul, Bush expressed to Vice
Premier Wu Xueqian his regret that Fang had been barred from the
banquet and instructed Ambassador Winston Lord to follow up on the
matter with the Foreign Ministry. The Chinese announced that they
"resented" the U.S. decision to invite Fang to the dinner without
consulting them. When an Administration official replied that the
U.S. was under no obligation to do so, Beijing termed the remark
"irresponsible."

    Once the rhetoric subsided, a senior Administration official
who was on the trip disclosed that the Chinese had been informed
in advance that Fang would be invited to the banquet. Beijing
expressed its disapproval to the U.S. embassy, which passed on the
complaint to Washington, but somehow the message never reached the
highest levels at the White House. "The communication in
Washington," the official observed wryly, "is less than perfect."
Whether the Administration would have removed Fang from the list
in any event is another question. Says a U.S. official: "You cannot
get into a bargaining situation over a guest list."

    At the moment few experts foresee any lasting damage to
Sino-American relations. "Human rights is an important element in
our foreign policy," says a U.S. official, "but by no means the
only element." But the Fang affair has succeeded, intentionally or
not, in bringing the human rights issue to the fore in the West's
dialogue with Beijing.