If the United States had exerted maximum economic, diplomatic, and moral pressure on the regime in the weeks before the attack, perhaps it would have buckled like so many other Marxist dictatorships of that era. Or maybe the Chinese government would have had to allow significantly more freedom in order to stay in power. But Bush was no Reagan when it came to challenging communist tyrants. An experienced China hand, Bush had briefly served as America’s top diplomat there in the 1970s. When he looked at the Chinese government, he saw an important and delicate relationship to be managed. He pronounced himself “mindful” of “complexities” on what he thought was a path to democracy.45 Three decades later, the simple truth is that China is not a democracy and its people can only wonder if they will ever enjoy political freedom.
In the immediate aftermath of the massacre, the Chinese people didn’t even enjoy expanding economic freedom. One of the communist leaders most tolerant of political reform, who had been shoved aside before the crackdown, had unfortunately also been the driver of market reform. “According to the official propaganda, China’s ambitious effort to reform its state-dominated economy is alive and well. Don’t believe it,” reported the Wall Street Journal’s Adi Ignatius. “Almost four months after the Beijing massacre, it’s apparent that the hard-line stance that brought in tanks and troops to clear Tiananmen Square also has swept away plans to let market forces play a greater role in the economy. China’s economy is likely to be mired in its inefficient, half-reformed state for years to come. Key reform programs begun under the now-purged Communist Party chief, Zhao Ziyang, have been scrapped indefinitely.”46
Fortunately the cause of economic reform did advance, even if the cause of political liberty never did. But many Western observers continued to believe that political change was inevitable. As the Chinese Communist Party prepared to celebrate its seventieth anniversary in 1991, Lena H. Sun of the Washington Post reported that “to many Chinese interviewed around this vast country in recent months, the party is suffering a continuing and unprecedented decline in its prestige and moral authority. With communism in retreat around the world and with daily reports of political change in the neighboring Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, many people say the party here also is fighting a losing ideological battle with its own people.”47 Despite the hopeful news that people were increasingly rejecting Marxist dogma and instead seeking eternal truth at churches and temples, the Post report also noted ominously: “With decreasing ideological support from the rank and file, the party is using traditional instruments of control—the security apparatus, the military and the news media—to sustain its hold on power, analysts say.”
Two years later Ms. Sun reported that as China’s economy boomed, Marxism was being replaced by a belief in making money and a flourishing entrepreneurial culture. She noted that “market forces are eroding central control and authority” but also noted that, according to Amnesty International, government torture of prisoners was increasing.48
In that same year, 1993, a New York Times headline proclaimed that booming China was a “dream market” for the West. Investment capital was pouring into the country as U.S. brands from Avon to McDonald’s were ringing up huge sales. And the communist bosses who continued to cling to political power were also able to enjoy the creations of American capitalists.49
“When President Yang Shangkun, a stocky 86-year-old who praises the virtues of self-abnegation, takes a bath these days, he steps into a $7,000 whirlpool tub made by American Standard Inc.,” reported Sheryl WuDunn.
“The Communist Party leader, Jiang Zemin, a rotund fellow who likes to talk about self-sufficiency, installed the same model last year in his own bathroom,” WuDunn continued. “The Communist leaders seem to like them, for they ordered eight more, and even inquired whether they could obtain whirlpool bathtubs in which two people could bathe together.”50
And so it went for decades as the Chinese economy surged ever upward and enticed Western investors. When Maria was a CNBC anchor for years during the boom, the amazing China growth story sometimes seemed like the only story for Wall Street analysts sizing up the business plans of U.S. multinationals. Around the world, China was celebrated as the model of turbocharged competitive manufacturing.
But on top of this vibrant economy, the Chinese communist dictatorship remained in power. And it was no model of law or liberty.
6
Eyes Wide Open
It might have seemed odd to return from a long medical leave and resume work at a job in Illinois just two days before attempting to fly to China on a one-way ticket. But in February 2007 no one at Motorola knew that their colleague Hanjuan Jin was planning to leave the United States. It wasn’t until a call came into company headquarters in Schaumburg, Illinois, the next day that it became clear something was very wrong. Turns out that Jin, who worked as a software engineer for the American telecom manufacturer for nine years, had been stopped and detained during a random security search at O’Hare International Airport. She was carrying $31,000 in cash and 1,300 confidential Motorola documents—many stored on a laptop, external hard
