World

Prueher Named To China Post

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

May 10, 1999 / 9:38 AM EDT / CBS

Retired Adm. Joseph W. Prueher, who led all U.S. forces in the Pacific during a particularly tense period in U.S.-Chinese relations, has been picked to be America's ambassador to Beijing, the White House said Thursday.

Prueher, 56, would succeed James Sasser, who has wanted to leave for some time. His nomination is subject to confirmation by the Senate.

The selection of Prueher comes at moment of rocky relations with China, after NATO warplanes mistakenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, triggering angry protests across China.

Four days of violent demonstrations finally died down in Beijing Wednesday, as American officials began moving to repair the damage from the mistaken bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

Sasser returned to his official residence for the first time since the protests began, reports CBS News Correspondent Barry Petersen. He'd been trapped inside the embassy since Saturday. Just as at the embassy, Sasser had to make his way through debris. Inside the dining room, he found broken glass where he once hosted elegant diplomatic receptions.

The ambassador paid courtesy calls to other embassies, and radiated a sense that official life is getting back to normal.

Despite his own days of hardship, Sasser is not focusing on the defaced buildings, but on repairing a badly damaged U.S.-China relationship. "I don't think anyone really anticipated the depth of the anger of the Chinese people about this terrible, terrible tragedy," said Sasser.

AP
Ambassador James Sasser hugs his wife at ambassador's residence, Beijing.

Also on Wednesday, the wounded and cremated remains of the dead arrived from Belgrade.

Offices closed temporarily and Beijing residents turned out by the hundreds to watch a motorcade bring the remains of the three Chinese journalists killed in Friday's bombing from the airport. The convoy of ambulances, buses and cars also carried the more than 20 embassy staff members wounded in the strike.

President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and legislative chairman Li Peng were shown on national television fighting back tears at memorial services as they expressed condolences to family members of the three journalists.

Wearing black bands on the left sleeves of their dark suits and white flowers of mourning in their lapels, each bowed three times before a display of large photographs of the reporters and their cremated remains in boxes covered with folded red Chinese flags.

The dead have been identified as Shao Yunhuan, 48, of the official Xinhua New Agency, and Xu Xinghu, 31, and his wife, Zhu Ying, 27, both of the Guangming Daily, a national newspaper.

State television news showed students holding vigils on campuses and shouting slogans against what is referred to throughout China as "U.S.-led NATO" and its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.

Demonstrations occurred in 19 other cities, making the protests the largest and most widespread since the crushing of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement 10 years ago. In Chengdu, in western China, the U.S. consul's residence was set on fire last weekend, but there were no injuries.

Protesters had been hurling bits of concrete and shouting anti-American slogans at the embassy over the past few days.

In the worst of it, Sasser and his staff started burning sensitive documents, fearing the crowd would get in, seize important papers, and do major damage to the whole building.