CHINA CONFIDENTIAL CHINA CONFIDENTIAL - , ‒ Compiled and edited with introductions and conclusion by Nancy Bernkopf Tucker Published in cooperation with the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Program, and the ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Series COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK Columbia University Press Publishers Since New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tucker, Nancy Bernkopf. China confidential : American diplomats and Sino-American relations since / Nancy Bernkopf Tucker p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN ––– (acid free paper) — ISBN ––– (pbk. : acid-free paper) . United States—Foreign relations—China. China—Foreign relations—United States. United States—Foreign relations—–. United States—Foreign relations—–. Diplomats—United States—History—th century. Diplomats—China—History—th century. I. Title. E..C T .—dc – Casebound editions of Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America c p An Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST)/ Diplomatic and Consular Officers, Retired (DACOR) Book To Gisl whose remembrance of things past shaped my world and Warren who has given me so much to remember CONTENTS Acknowledgments xi Cast of Characters xiii Abbreviations xxiii Introduction CHAPTER ONE: WAR ENDS, WAR BEGINS Immediate Postwar Period Marshall Mission Civil War China Lobby Ward Incident Chinese Communist Victory—Beijing and Nanjing Chinese Communist Victory—Shanghai Bombing by Nationalists China White Paper Attack on the Foreign Service Sino-Soviet Relations Departure Developments in Taiwan On the Eve of the Korean War CHAPTER TWO: 1950s Korea U.S.-China Policy I Negotiation with the PRC Hong Kong vii CONTENTS Developments in Taiwan I Offshore Islands Developments in Taiwan II Taiwan Riot Sino-Soviet Split U.S.-China Policy II Tibet CHAPTER THREE: 1960s U.S. Policy Negotiation with the PRC I Sino-Soviet Split Taiwan I Taiwan Strait Crisis Sino-Indian Border War United Nations Hong Kong I Vietnam War I Kennedy Assassination Hilsman Speech Hong Kong II Negotiation With the PRC II Vietnam War II Taiwan II Chinese Activities in Indonesia and the Third World Cultural Revolution CHAPTER FOUR: NORMALIZATION Preliminary Indicators Nixon, Kissinger, and Normalization Taiwan Negotiation with the PRC United Nations Nixon Trip to China CHAPTER FIVE: 1970s Liaison Offices Stalemate viii CONTENTS Taiwan Carter Deng Xiaoping Visit Taiwan Relations Act Relations with the PRC Vietnam Hong Kong CHAPTER SIX: 1980s Election Campaign Taiwan Arms Sales Issue China in the s Reagan Visit to China Hong Kong China in the Later s Human Rights and Political Reform Tibet Exchanges Between China and the U.S. Taiwan Korea Soviet Union CHAPTER SEVEN: CRISIS YEARS— TIANANMEN AND THE 1990s Tiananmen U.S.-China Relations in the s Lee Teng-hui and the Visa Issue Taiwan Strait Crisis Japan Tibet Concluding Thoughts Notes Index ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS T of those quick books done in between other, more taxing projects. As always, time passed and the book lingered. I want, therefore, to begin by thanking several people and organizations for their patience: Kate Wittenberg, my editor, who remained encouraging even after I exceeded deadlines; the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where I began the project while a resident fellow writing a differ- ent book; and, of course, my husband, Warren I. Cohen, who sacrificed many an outing to my all too hectic schedule. I owe to Warren as well an intellectual debt for his careful reading of the manuscript, his enthusiasm for its contents, and suggestions for revisions. Six other scholars also deserve gratitude for reading the proposal and/or manu- script. Unfortunately, four remain anonymous, allowing me to thank only George C. Herring and Richard H. Immerman. Editing oral history is not the same as writing history and I am grateful to Don Ritchie, associate histo- rian of the U.S. Senate, who has made this relatively new field more accessi- ble to novices like me and who encouraged me to go ahead with the project. The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, housed at Georgetown University and the National Foreign Affairs Training Center, collected all but one of the interviews I have used. They compose a small fraction of the more than eleven hundred currently in the constantly grow- ing collection covering all parts of the world. Ambassador Steven Low, at the time serving as president of the association, cleared the way through copyright agreements for the project to begin. Charles Stuart Kennedy, director of the ADST Oral History Program, conducted most of the inter- views, although a few were done by others, including myself, and the late Marshall Green, who contributed not only his own reflections and inter- viewing talents, but also some of the funding for the ADST effort. For the xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS single non-ADST interview, I thank the Bancroft Library of the Univer- sity of California, Berkeley which graciously shared the recollections of John S. Service with me. At Georgetown University, the staff of the Department of History, most especially Larry Fields and Elizabeth English, rendered continuing support, even while laughing at my lack of computer skills and constant warfare with the copying machine. The School of Foreign Service gave me time off at the beginning of the project and down the road supported the transcription of the Winston Lord interview. Finally, I want to thank the diplomats whose words I have captured in this history of U.S.-China relations. They have made a unique contribution with their obvious effort to look back thoughtfully at their lives and record the difficult, amusing, and significant moments they experienced in the field and in Washington while dealing with Chinese affairs between and . As a result of my own brief service in the Office of Chinese Affairs at the Department of State and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, as well as my participation in continuing China policy discussions in Washington, D.C. over the past decade, I have been fortunate to know many of these individ- uals personally. They are in real life every bit as dedicated and insightful as they appear in the book. Their interest in the betterment of U.S.-China- Taiwan relations and their concern for the future of Hong Kong continues in most cases beyond their government service. In particular, I must thank Paul Kriesberg, who sadly did not live to see the volume published, and Winston Lord, both of whom were especially generous with their time. xii CAST OF CHARACTERS (only China-related positions are listed) Donald Anderson Chinese Language Training, Department of State and Taichung, Taiwan, –; Consular Officer/Political Officer, Consulate General, Hong Kong, –; Interpreter Training, Taichung, Taiwan, –; China Desk/Warsaw Talks, Department of State, –; Talks with Chinese Embassy, Paris, France, –; Political Officer, Liaison Office, Beijing, –; Political Officer, Consulate General, Hong Kong, –; Office of Chinese Affairs, Department of State, –; Consul General, Consulate General, Shanghai, –; Director, Office of Chinese Affairs, Department of State, –; Con- sul General, Consulate General, Hong Kong, – Robert Anderson Vice-Consul, Consulate General, Shanghai, –; Political Officer, Nanjing, – Oscar Armstrong Officer, Consulate General, Guangzhou, –; Embassy, Beijing, –; Consulate General, Hong Kong, –; INR—Chinese Affairs, Department of State, –; Deputy Principal Officer, Hong Kong, –; East Asia Bureau/Public Affairs, Department of State, –; Taiwan Affairs, Department of State, –; Director, Office of Chinese Affairs, – Willis Armstrong Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, – xiii CAST OF CHARACTERS Leonard Bacon Officer, Consulate, Hankou, –; Embassy, Nanjing, –; Deputy Director, Office of Northeast Asian Affairs, Department of State, –; Acting Director, East Asian Affairs, Department of State, Natale Bellocchi Administrative Assistant, Consulate General, Hong Kong, –; Chinese Language Training, Taichung, Taiwan, –; Assistant Commercial Attaché, Embassy, Taipei, Taiwan, –; Chief, Com- mercial Unit, Consulate General, Hong Kong, –; Deputy Princi- pal Officer, Consulate General, Hong Kong, –; Director, Ameri- can Institute in Taiwan, – Robert R. Bowie Director, Policy Planning Staff, Department of State, –; Assistant Secretary for Policy Planning, Department of State, – Marshall Brement Staff Assistant, East Asian Affairs, Department of State, –; Chi- nese Language Training, Department of State and Taiwan, –; Political Officer, Consulate General, Hong Kong, – Frank Burnet Chinese Language Training, Department of State, Taichung, Taiwan, –; Staff Assistant, Far East Bureau, Department of State, –; Political Counselor, Embassy, Taipei, Taiwan, – Ralph Clough Vice Consul, Consulate, Kunming, ; Embassy, Chongqing, –; Embassy, Nanjing, ; Language Officer, Embassy, Beijing, –; Chinese Secretary, Embassy, Nanjing, –; Political Officer, Con- sulate General, Hong Kong, –; Deputy Director, Office of Chi- nese Affairs, Department of State, –; Director, Office of Chinese Affairs, Department of State, ; Advisor, Negotiations with Chinese Poland, Switzerland, Great Britain, –; Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy, Taipei, Taiwan, –; Policy