Seeking a New Life in China

Abstract

This chapter details how, though the author loved the Washington Post and could not imagine quitting, his lack of enthusiasm for covering intelligence, the FBI investigation, and the Post's reaction had exhausted him and left him dispirited. Thus, he took a job offer from U.S. News & World Report, when it decided to reopen its Beijing bureau. Though the author had long disliked the group journalism of newsmagazines, this was not his first thought. He immediately saw it as a possible way to be with Louise Branson in China much sooner. The chapter then looks at how the author witnessed the start of the events leading up to the Tiananmen Square uprising and massacre. It all started on April 15, 1989, when the Chinese Politburo member Hu Yaobang died at age seventy-three. With his death, Hu became a symbol of a yearning for Gorbachev-style reforms in China.