Rifle-toting police disappeared from outside the U.S. Embassy Wednesday for the first time since June after former President Nixon told the Chinese he didn't want to visit an embassy surrounded by guns.
An American diplomat told Nixon he had accomplished in one day what the embassy had been trying to achieve for five months.Also Wednesday, Nixon told one of China's hard-line leaders that many Americans feel the June crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators was "excessive and unjustified" and question whether political repression in China is permanent.
Nixon, speaking at a banquet hosted by President Yang Shangkun, said "Americans will long remember the tragedy that recently occurred in this city."
Yang and Premier Li Peng are thought to be behind the June 4 military attack on pro-democracy protesters that claimed the lives of hundreds of unarmed civilians.
Nixon's speech also repeated the theme he has sounded throughout his five-day visit - that China-U.S. relations are too important to be hurt by what has become one of the worst rifts since Nixon restored official contacts in 1972.
"We must not permit our real enemies - misunderstanding, fruitless resentment, endless recrimination - to close the door we opened with such high hopes 17 years ago," he said.
Nixon, on the last full day of his visit, earlier told embassy staff members he had reached few points of agreement with Chinese leaders over the government's bloody suppression of the pro-democracy movement.
"We see it from totally different vantage points," he said, describing the discussions as "like two ships passing in the dark."
A member of the Nixon party said the former president, in a meeting with Premier Li Monday, told the Chinese he didn't like guns and didn't want to see guards with AK-47s outside the U.S. Embassy when he visited.
The embassy has protested three times in the past week, charging that diplomats and their families have been harassed - including police pointing rifles at diplomats' children. American officials also have expressed concern over sharply increased surveillance of the embassy compound in recent days.
Li told Nixon the police presence was needed to guard against a possible escape by dissident Fang Lizhi and his wife, Li Shuxian.
Fang and his wife sought refuge at the embassy after the June military crackdown, when troops killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in clearing central Beijing of protesters. Both are wanted by Chinese police on charges of counterrevolutionary agitation.
Alhough the rifles disappeared for Nixon's visit, a large contingent of People's Armed Police remained on guard today Wednesday outside the embassy buildings. Six stood at posts around the main embassy office that Nixon visited, two guarded a consular office down the street and seven congregated outside the residence of Ambassador James Lilley several blocks away.
All wore belts with small pistols. Most embassies have only one or at most two Chinese guards stationed at their gates.