Tiananmen Square Document 7: Memorandum of Conversation, George Bush Meeting with Wan Li, 1989

By May 20, 1989, with no peaceful resolution of the crisis in sight, the Chinese government declared martial law in Beijing, hoping to intimidate the protesters to clear the square. Nevertheless, U.S. officials were still hoping to see the standoff between the government and the student demonstrators resolved peacefully. Three days after the declaration, U.S. President George Bush met with the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Wan Li, in Washington. While the documentary record is far from complete, this document, a heavily excised summary transcript of their conversation, indicates that the subject of the student demonstrations did come up at their meeting. "The President," the transcript shows, "asked how the Chairman sees the present situation playing itself out." Wan’s reply has not yet been declassified, but he apparently commented on some aspect of the demonstrations, prompting Bush to ask "if this was just a handful of all those demonstrators." Shortly thereafter, Wan cut short his U.S. visit and, on May 27, publicly endorsed the government’s martial law order.

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Original source: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB16/documents/index.html#d7