Stuart's remains buried in China

HANGZHOU, China, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- The remains of former U.S. Ambassador to China John Leighton Stuart have been interred in China as he requested in his will 42 years ago, officials said.

Stuart died in Washington in 1962, 13 years after he was ejected by Mao Zedong, whose Communist Party had seized control of the country and labeled him a symbol of U.S. imperialism. On Monday, after years of negotiation, Stuart's ashes were laid to rest at a ceremony attended by officials from both countries near Hangzhou, The New York Times reported.

Stuart was the last U.S. ambassador to China until full diplomatic relations were restored in 1979. He was denounced by Mao in a famous 1949 essay in which he mocked Stuart as "a symbol of the complete defeat of the U.S. policy of aggression." Because of that, it took Stuart's supporters many years to negotiate his burial there, the newspaper said.

Stuart for 45 years worked as a missionary and educator in Hangzhou, Beijing and Nanjing. In 1919 he founded Yenching University, whose campus is the site of Peking University. He was appointed ambassador in 1946 and served during the Chinese civil war, during which he supported the Nationalists.