CONFIDENTIAL
"Many cities in China are paralysed" at a time when this was almost certainly not true of any city, including Peking. Reverting to the Big Lies, the reason why people in streets here and elsewhere in China were so anxious to know what the foreign media or foreigners in China were saying about events in Peking was only partly to learn the facts. It was also to hear them first-hand from reliable sources and thus provide ammunition with which to break down the refusal to admit the truth which was such a natural refuge for frightened parents and others in exposed positions of authority.
14.
Shanghai was safe throughout. Otherwise I and several of my colleagues would not have kept our wives and children here. In a strange way my mother-in-law got it right when she said that, despite her worries, she took comfort from the fact that we were in Shanghai, not Peking or Hong Kong. Nevertheless there were strains here, especially living as we do above a crowded office. My children were going into the garden past worried British and Hong Kong residents of Shanghai, a Hong Kong student on the run (and later his relatives), visiting British media tourists (one of whom set up a camera outside our front gate). But the only moment that gave me real worry was when the official version of events produced deliberately horrific shots of dead and burned soldier corpses at a time when cartoons are usually on television. Luckily we were able to keep the children away. There are some other lessons about our staffing and communications which I will pursue separately. However, I should record here my gratitude for the excellent work done by Jane Govier whom you kindly allowed to stay here when she was stranded from Commercial Section in Peking. I think we were the only mission in China to expand our numbers during the crisis!
POSTSCRIPT:
HU YAOBANG
15. Hu's death was the first of the notable catalytic events which contributed to the political drama and its tragic military denouement. Of senior Chinese leaders whom I have observed closely, he was almost the only one in whom warmth and naturalness were immediately evident. On his 1986 visit to Britain he chose to visit Shakespeare's birthplace rather than Marx's tomb. It was typical of him to quote at lunch in Stratford as an example of a phrase from English literature which meant much to him - not Shakespeare but Shelley. The line is, indeed, one which Chinese reformers
(especially since the May 4th Movement) so like to quote that it is almost naturalised: "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" That proved ironic for Hu Yaobang, whose Spring became Fall. It may be a prophecy of hope for China. But as one of China's best young poets, Bei Dao, wrote a few years ago in a poem now proving chillingly prophetic:
CONFIDENTIAL
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