Analysis
Biden approach to Saudi Arabia echoes Bush’s China policy after Tiananmen Square
Also: Washington and Riyadh seek to break Sudan deadlock; Syrian factions unite against Turkey.
Biden's Saudi turnaround has precedent
It was exactly 33 years ago this month, in June 1989, that the People’s Liberation Army crushed pro-democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds or more, in June 1989.
US Secretary of State James Baker described Tiananmen as ‘the greatest blow to normalization’ since US President Richard Nixon's opening to China in 1972.
US-Sino relations in 1989 were at their peak, Baker writes in The Politics of Diplomacy, and Tiananmen was a ‘great leap backward.’
