{{Short description|American diplomat}} {{more citations needed|date=February 2016}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = Ambassador | name = James R. Lilley | image = James Roderick Lilley.jpg | image_size = 200px | alt = An older white man in a gray business suit and glasses shakes hand with an older Asian man wearing a light grey outfit. Other asian men in similar outfits stands in the background. All are in a formal room with curtains and molding. | caption = | ambassador_from2 = United States | country2 = South Korea | term_start2 = November 26, 1986 | term_end2 = January 3, 1989 | predecessor2 = Richard L. Walker | successor2 = Donald Gregg | president2 = Ronald Reagan | ambassador_from = United States | country = China | term_start = May 8, 1989 | term_end = May 10, 1991 | predecessor = Winston Lord | successor = J. Stapleton Roy | president = George H. W. Bush | birth_date = {{birth date|1928|1|15}} | birth_place = Qingdao, Shandong, Republic of China | death_date = {{death date and age|2009|11|12|1928|1|15}} | death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S. | resting_place = | profession = Diplomat | spouse = Sally Booth | children = 3 sons | allegiance = {{flag|United States}} | branch = {{army|United States}}<br/>{{air force|United States}} | service_years = 1945–1946<br/>1951–1954 | battles = Korean War | education = Yale University (BA) <br/> George Washington University (MA) }} '''James Roderick Lilley''' ({{lang-zh|s=李洁明|t=李潔明|p=Lǐ Jiémíng}}; January 15, 1928 – November 12, 2009) was a CIA operative and an American diplomat. He served as United States ambassador to China from 1989 to 1991.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 May 1998 |title=The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR JAMES R. LILLEY |url=https://adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Lilley-James-R..pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240627032510/https://adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Lilley-James-R..pdf |archive-date=27 June 2024 |access-date=25 July 2024 |website=Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training}}</ref>
Born to American parents in China, Lilley learned Mandarin at a young age before his family moved back to the United States at the outbreak of World War II. He served in the United States Army before earning an undergraduate degree from Yale University and a master's in international relations from George Washington University. He then joined the Central 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 the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington's ''de facto'' embassy on the island, and ambassador to South 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 to United States–China relations. After his retirement, he published a memoir and worked as a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
==Early life and education== James Lilley was born in Qingdao (Tsingtao) in coastal Shandong Province, Republic of China, to American expatriate parents.<ref name="post">{{Cite news | last = Pomfret | first = John | title = JAMES R. LILLEY, 81: U.S. ambassador to China served during crackdown at Tiananmen Square | newspaper = The Washington Post | date = November 14, 2009 | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/13/AR2009111304182.html | access-date = 2009-11-14}}</ref> His father, an oil executive who had moved to China to work for Standard Oil in 1916, and his mother, a teacher, hired a Chinese nanny to help raise him. He spoke Mandarin 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 attended Phillips Exeter Academy and served in the United States Army at Fort Dix from 1945 to 1946. During Lilley's army service, his older brother, whom he revered and who was a soldier stationed in Hiroshima, Japan, committed suicide.
After leaving the Army, Lilley earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University and a master's degree in international relations from George Washington University before studying classical Chinese at Hong Kong University and Columbia University.<ref name="times"/> He began his career in government by joining the Central Intelligence Agency in 1951, at the beginning of the Cold War.<ref name="post"/><ref name="times">{{Cite news | last = Stout | first = David | title = James R. Lilley, 81, Envoy in Tiananmen Era, Dies | newspaper = The New York Times | date = November 14, 2009 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/us/15lilley.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries | access-date = 2009-11-14}}</ref> In 1954, he married Sally Booth, with whom he had three sons.<ref name="post"/>
==Career== As a CIA operative, Lilley worked in various parts of Asia, including Laos, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China.<ref name="embassy"/> In Laos, he worked to undermine the communist side in the Laotian Civil War.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-james-lilley16-2009nov16-story.html| title=James Lilley dies at 81; ambassador to China and CIA operative| work=Los Angeles Times| date=16 November 2009}}</ref> and helped to insert a number of CIA agents into China.<ref name="post"/> 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 President Ronald Reagan, he was appointed to the National Security Council, where he served as the senior expert on East Asia.<ref name="times" /> From 1981 to 1984, he served as director of the American Institute in Taiwan, the United States' unofficial diplomatic liaison to the government of Taiwan.<ref name="embassy">{{Cite web | title = U.S. Ambassadors to the People's Republic of China (1979–present) | publisher = Embassy of the United States, Beijing, China | url = http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/ambassadors.html | access-date = 2009-11-14 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090630141250/http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/ambassadors.html | archive-date = 2009-06-30 }}</ref> There, he resisted attempts by the State 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.<ref name="post" /> Lilley delivered what came to be known as the Six Assurances to then-President Chiang Ching-kuo.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-concurrent-resolution/88/text/eh|title=H.Con.Res.88 - Reaffirming the Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Assurances as cornerstones of United States-Taiwan relations.|date=May 16, 2016|website=congress.gov|access-date=May 19, 2016|quote=Whereas these assurances, first delivered to Taiwan’s president by AIT Director Lilley, have come to be known as the Six Assurances;}}</ref>
In 1985, Lilley became the deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs. In the private sector, he taught about China at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and consulted for companies doing business in East Asia.<ref name="times" /> In 1986, Reagan appointed him as the United States ambassador to South Korea, where he served until 1989.<ref name="embassy" /> 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.<ref name="times" />
Lilley was appointed by President George H. W. Bush to be ambassador to China in 1989, the only American diplomat to head diplomatic missions in both mainland China and Taiwan.<ref name="times" /><ref name="embassy" /> Bush and Lilley had a longstanding friendship that began in the early 1970s, when Lilley was the head of station for the CIA in Beijing, 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.<ref name="post" /> 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 the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and sympathized with their interest in a more open government and society.<ref name="times" /> 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 dissident Fang Lizhi inside the American embassy for 18 months before the Chinese government allowed Fang to enter exile in the United States.<ref name="post" />
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.<ref name="times" /> 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.<ref name="post" /> He did so, he later said, out of a belief that the United States "could contribute in constructive ways to a more open China."<ref name="times" /> 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.<ref name="times" />
On November 5, 1991, President George H. W. Bush nominated Lilley to succeed Henry S. Rowen as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. On November 27, 1991, he appeared before the Senate Committee on Armed Services. His nomination was approved by both the committee and the full Senate that same day.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.congress.gov/nomination/102nd-congress/749 |title=PN749 — 102nd Congress (1991-1992) — James Roderick Lilley — Department of Defense |website=U.S. Congress |date=27 November 1991 |access-date=2021-06-01}}</ref> Lilley served in his final government position from December 12, 1991 to January 20, 1993.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://history.defense.gov/Portals/70/Documents/key_officials/KeyOfficials05-12-21.pdf |chapter=International Security Affairs |title=Department of Defense Key Officials September 1947–May 2021 |date=2021-05-12 |pages=54–56 |publisher=Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense |access-date=2021-06-01}}</ref>
==Retirement and death== Following his retirement from government service, Lilley became a senior fellow at the American 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.<ref name="embassy"/>
Lilley died at Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C., from complications of prostate cancer.<ref name="post"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.theworldwithoutus.com/ "The World Without US – A Documentary"] – An interview with Lilley regarding the United States' involvement in Taiwan and Japan. * {{C-SPAN|25759}} * [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8043381547273365139 Chai Ling and James Lilley (the U.S. Ambassador to China during the protest) interviewed on Charlie Rose] June 4, 1996 {{s-start}} {{s-dip}} {{succession box | before=Charles T. Cross| title=Director of the American Institute in Taiwan| years=1981–1984 | after=Harry E. T. Thayer }} {{succession box | before=Richard L. Walker| title=U.S. Ambassador to Korea| years=1986–1989 | after=Donald Gregg }} {{succession box | before=Winston Lord| title=U.S. Ambassador to China| years=1989–1991 | after=J. Stapleton Roy }} {{s-end}}
{{US Ambassadors to the PRC}} {{US Ambassadors to Korea}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lilley, James}} Category:1928 births Category:2009 deaths Category:Ambassadors of the United States to South Korea Category:Ambassadors of the United States to China Category:Directors of the American Institute in Taiwan Category:Deaths from prostate cancer in Washington, D.C. Category:Yale University alumni Category:Elliott School of International Affairs alumni Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Politicians from Qingdao Category:United States assistant secretaries of defense Category:People of the Central Intelligence Agency Category:American anti-communists Category:American Enterprise Institute