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Ambassador James R. Lilley | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Ambassador toChina | |
| In office May 8, 1989 – May 10, 1991 | |
| President | George H. W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Winston Lord |
| Succeeded by | J. Stapleton Roy |
| United States Ambassador toSouth Korea | |
| In office November 26, 1986 – January 3, 1989 | |
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Richard L. Walker |
| Succeeded by | Donald Gregg |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1928-01-15)January 15, 1928 |
| Died | November 12, 2009(2009-11-12) (aged 81) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Spouse | Sally Booth |
| Children | 3 sons |
| Education | Yale University (BA) George Washington University (MA) |
| Profession | Diplomat |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army United States Air Force |
| Years of service | 1945–1946 1951–1954 |
| Battles/wars | Korean War |
James Roderick Lilley (simplified Chinese:李洁明;traditional Chinese:李潔明;pinyin:Lǐ Jiémíng; January 15, 1928 – November 12, 2009) was a CIA operative and an American diplomat. He served asUnited Statesambassador toChina from 1989 to 1991.[1]
Born to American parents in China, Lilley learnedMandarin at a young age before his family moved back to the United States at the outbreak ofWorld War II. He served in theUnited States Army before earning an undergraduate degree fromYale University and a master's in international relations fromGeorge Washington University. He then joined theCentral Intelligence Agency, where he would work for nearly 30 years in a variety of Asian countries prior to becoming a diplomat.
Before being appointed ambassador to China in 1989, he was director of theAmerican Institute in Taiwan, Washington'sde facto embassy on the island, and ambassador toSouth Korea. After the suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests, Lilley was critical of the Chinese crackdown and harbored a prominent dissident in the embassy, but worked to prevent long-term damage toUnited States–China relations. After his retirement, he published a memoir and worked as a fellow at theAmerican Enterprise Institute.
James Lilley was born inQingdao (Tsingtao) in coastalShandong Province, Republic of China, to Americanexpatriate parents.[2] His father, an oil executive who had moved to China to work forStandard Oil in 1916, and his mother, a teacher, hired a Chinese nanny to help raise him. He spokeMandarin fluently from a young age, in addition to French and English.
In prewar China, Lilley befriended and played catch with a Japanese soldier, but in 1940, soon after the outbreak of World War II, his family returned to the United States as fighting between Japanese and Chinese forces began to ravage the coastal regions of China. He attendedPhillips Exeter Academy and served in theUnited States Army atFort Dix from 1945 to 1946. During Lilley's army service, his older brother, whom he revered and who was a soldier stationed inHiroshima, Japan, committed suicide.
After leaving the Army, Lilley earned a bachelor's degree fromYale University and a master's degree in international relations fromGeorge Washington University before studying classical Chinese atHong Kong University andColumbia University.[3] He began his career in government by joining theCentral Intelligence Agency in 1951, at the beginning of theCold War.[2][3] In 1954, he married Sally Booth, with whom he had three sons.[2]
As a CIA operative, Lilley worked in various parts of Asia, includingLaos,Japan,Hong Kong,Taiwan andMainland China.[4] In Laos, he worked to undermine the communist side in theLaotian Civil War.[5] and helped to insert a number of CIA agents into China.[2] In 1975, he was appointed to the position of national intelligence officer for China, which made him the highest-ranked expert on China in the American intelligence community.
Early in the administration of PresidentRonald Reagan, he was appointed to theNational Security Council, where he served as the senior expert onEast Asia.[3] From 1981 to 1984, he served as director of theAmerican Institute in Taiwan, the United States' unofficial diplomatic liaison to the government of Taiwan.[4] There, he resisted attempts by theState Department to end arms sales to Taiwan, which the department hoped would lead to better relations with China. Lilley's resistance resulted in a compromise in which the United States agreed to reduce arms sales to Taiwan but set no timeline for stopping them. The United States has continued the arms sales.[2] Lilley delivered what came to be known as theSix Assurances to then-PresidentChiang Ching-kuo.[6]
In 1985, Lilley became the deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs. In the private sector, he taught about China at theJohns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and consulted for companies doing business in East Asia.[3] In 1986, Reagan appointed him as the United States ambassador toSouth Korea, where he served until 1989.[4] His tenure in South Korea coincided with profound political change there; the year after his arrival, the country held its first real presidential election in nearly two decades.[3]
Lilley was appointed by PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush to be ambassador to China in 1989, the only American diplomat to head diplomatic missions in both mainland China and Taiwan.[3][4] Bush and Lilley had a longstanding friendship that began in the early 1970s, when Lilley was the head of station for the CIA inBeijing, and Bush was the chief of mission. That personal relationship meant that Lilley often had the ear of the president on issues relating to China, and many of his missives home were read directly by Bush.[2] To gain a better understanding of what was happening on the ground, Lilley began to bike regularly through the streets of Beijing soon after his arrival. Thus, he was familiar with the grievances of Chinese students who participated in theTiananmen Square protests of 1989 and sympathized with their interest in a more open government and society.[3] He criticized the Chinese government after the violent suppression of those protests, which garnered widespread international attention and condemnation. In addition, he harbored the political dissidentFang Lizhi inside the American embassy for 18 months before the Chinese government allowed Fang to enter exile in the United States.[2]
Despite his sympathy with the students' cause, Lilley argued against severe actions by the United States government such as severing ties with China, as he believed that such actions would not have the intended effect.[3] He also arranged for a secret trip by two senior United States officials to reassure the Chinese government that the United States wished to continue its relationship with China.[2] He did so, he later said, out of a belief that the United States "could contribute in constructive ways to a more open China."[3] Despite his criticism, he remained respected by authorities in China, many of whom turned out at farewell parties when Lilley left China and retired from the diplomatic corps in 1991. His successor argued that Lilley's childhood familiarity with Chinese society had given him a unique perspective on Chinese culture and government.[3]
On November 5, 1991, President George H. W. Bush nominated Lilley to succeedHenry S. Rowen as theAssistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. On November 27, 1991, he appeared before theSenate Committee on Armed Services. His nomination was approved by both the committee and the full Senate that same day.[7] Lilley served in his final government position from December 12, 1991 to January 20, 1993.[8]
Following his retirement from government service, Lilley became a senior fellow at theAmerican Enterprise Institute, focusing on East Asian relations, and continued writing and speaking about the relationship between the United States and China. In 2004, he published a memoir,China Hands, dedicated to his brother, which dealt with his early exposure to Asia and his professional career.[4]
Lilley died atSibley Hospital inWashington, D.C., from complications ofprostate cancer.[2]
Whereas these assurances, first delivered to Taiwan's president by AIT Director Lilley, have come to be known as the Six Assurances;
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Director of theAmerican Institute in Taiwan 1981–1984 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | U.S. Ambassador to Korea 1986–1989 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | U.S. Ambassador to China 1989–1991 | Succeeded by |
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| Commissioner | ||
| Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary | ||
| Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary | ||
| Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | ||
| Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | ||
| Chiefs of the U.S. Liaison Office inBeijing | ||
| Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | ||
See also:American Institute in Taiwan | ||
| Korea | | |
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| South Korea | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
