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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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111389
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11138900.051
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1990-09-19
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NATION, Page 37Hard Words To Hard-LinersNixon delivers blunt advice to China's leaders
"I checked my handgun at the gate," Richard Nixon quipped
within
earshot of a dozen armed Chinese police and soldiers standing guard
around the U.S. embassy in Beijing. His sarcasm drew whoops of
laughter from foreign service officers, who had lodged three
complaints in as many days against "harassment" by the Chinese
troops stationed outside the compound. With Sino-American relations
at their lowest in years, the former President was back in Beijing
last week on a "private" visit, attempting to salvage what he could
of the relationship he had launched with such drama in 1972. If any
outsider had the stature to force the Chinese leaders to conduct
what a Western diplomat called a "reality check" on their view of
the world, it was Nixon.
He began by taking on Premier Li Peng, whom he had pointedly
not asked to meet. In a private session, Nixon reportedly deleted
no vitriolics in expressing American outrage over the regime's
crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators last June. To end the
current impasse, he suggested, the two nations should halt their
recriminations and propose mutual talking points. He threw out the
first one: "When I go to the embassy, I hope there will not be
guards with AK-47s outside." Li retorted that the troops had been
posted there to prevent the escape of dissident Fang Lizhi.
The U.S. decision to grant Fang and his wife refuge has become
the primary source of tension between the two countries. Just
before Halloween the Chinese mounted a show of force around the
embassy, evidently fearing that masked party guests were going to
smuggle Fang out in a coffin. Diplomats had joked openly for months
about pulling such a stunt. The Chinese evidently took them at
their word -- monitored, no doubt, over tapped phone lines.
Nixon's suggestions for restoring the relationship fell on deaf
ears. Deng was unyielding during his three hours of talks with
Nixon. China, he contended, had not done "one thing harmful" to the
U.S. "But the U.S. was involved too deeply in the turmoil and
counterrevolutionary rebellion," he lectured. Although Deng
expressed a strong desire to repair the damaged ties, he insisted
"it is up to the U.S. to take the initiative."
"Had that attitude existed back in 1972, there would have been
no embassy here," Nixon commented later. Echoing George Bush's
announcement of a meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev, Nixon likened his
discussions with China's leaders to "two ships passing in the
night."