James Lilley, an ambassador to China, dies

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- James R. Lilley, a China-born CIA agent who was U.S. ambassador to Beijing during the Tiananmen Square uprising, has died at the age of 81.

Lilley, who had prostate cancer, died Thursday at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, The Washington Post reported.

Lilley was born in China to U.S. citizens. After graduating from Yale, Lilley joined the CIA in 1951, becoming, as he wrote in a memoir, "a foot soldier in America's covert efforts to keep Asia from being dominated by Communist China." He was Beijing station chief in the 1970s when a future president, George H.W. Bush, was chief of mission.

He was ambassador when the Chinese government cracked down in 1989 on pro-democracy demonstrators. He sheltered Fang Lizhi, a leading dissident, for more than a year in the Embassy.

"Because he was raised in China, Jim Lilley had the ability to view China as an ordinary country with no romanticism about his views," said J. Stapleton Roy, who succeeded Lilley as ambassador. "On the one hand, he could be very critical of China. On the other hand, he could weigh in when you weren't expecting it with a defense of our relationship with China."