‘Chinese Kissinger’ Stirs Furor in Southland

A meeting in Beijing on Saturday between Chinese hard-line Premier Li Peng and Cerritos City Councilman Daniel K. Wong has outraged Chinese-Americans in Southern California who believe Wong has become a mouthpiece for that country’s propaganda machine.

Wong, a councilman since 1978 and former mayor of Cerritos who in the past has called himself the “Chinese Kissinger,” told friends he made the trip to ask Li to be lenient with student protesters, while saying that, in his opinion, some of them were out of line.

But his turn at diplomacy, which remains to this day the only publicized visit of an American with the top Chinese leadership since the government crackdown, may affect his political ambitions and has left some Chinese-Americans saying they feel betrayed.

Indeed, the Communist Party-run media portrayed Wong, 47, as a prominent Chinese-American with a “far-sighted” view of the bloody crackdown against protesters in Tian An Men Square a month ago. Wong was also quoted as saying the “government did not want bloodshed, they wanted peace.”

Chinese Media Coverage

Wong’s meeting with Li was shown two nights in a row on official state television’s evening news program during the weekend. He was quoted extensively and often on the state-run New China News Agency wire and in the party’s morning daily newspapers, People’s Daily and the English-language China Daily.

In every case, the party quoted Wong as saying the army operation was justified.

Wong, a gynecologist who is perhaps best known locally as a singer in lounge acts, was believed to be out of the country Thursday and could not be reached.

Meanwhile, animosity triggered by his reported statements is running so high in the Chinese-American community here that the Cerritos chapter of the Chinese-American Lions Club has replaced him as master of ceremonies for the group’s July 15 installation dinner, said Warren Young, incoming president of the club.

“I got complaints from several people. A lot of people called me and said, ‘If you put Daniel on as master of ceremonies I’m going to return my tickets,” Young said.

Others in Cerritos suggested that Hong Kong-born Wong’s international activities could hurt his career as a local elected official, as well as some old friends.

Political Fallout

“As a politician you don’t use this kind of massacre as a step-up,” said Frank A. Lee, a Wong campaign contributor and president of the Cerritos Sister City Foundation. “He thought he was going to benefit (politically from the China trip) and I say, ‘To hell with him.’ ”

Young agreed, saying: “I don’t think Chinese people will donate money to his election. He’s going to be in big trouble.”

“Chinese people don’t like this man,” said James Chang, of the Joint-Chinese University Alumni Assn. of Southern California. “This is just a show. He is singing a song in Beijing.”

But Wong’s friends at Cerritos City Hall said they believed he meant well and praised his sensitivity for introducing a resolution earlier that the American flag be flown at half-staff in memory of the slain demonstrators.

“The council thought that Dan’s suggestion . . . was very appropriate and we supported the motion unanimously,” said Mayor Diana Needham. “And although his trip to China has no official relationship to his Cerritos (position), we thought that it would be a positive trip for him.”

Stephen Yee, president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Assn., figured Wong would have to answer “a lot of questions” when he returns.

“Before he left to Beijing, he told me he wanted to tell Li to let the students go,” Yee said. “I think if he really supports the students, that’s OK. But if he just represents what Li wants to tell everybody, (such as) why he killed the students, that’s no good.”

After Wong’s meeting with Li, the Cerritos councilman told Western reporters that Li said the army had no choice but to fire on protesters because the army was not equipped with rubber bullets or sufficient water hydrants for hoses to drive the students back.

“Our police force is not trained for riots like in some other countries,” Wong quoted Li as saying.

Wong hosts a weekly Chinese-language television variety show on cable Channel 18 (KSCI). Acquaintances describe him as being fond of the spotlight and given to eccentricities that occasionally make him a target of criticism.

“Some people feel he is funny,” said local entertainer Pi-li Chow. “Once I was singing in a piano bar in Monterey Park and he . . . grabbed the microphone, crazy to sing. He enjoyed that.”

Cerritos officials said Wong has been a guest of the Chinese and Taiwanese governments many times.

In 1985, he embarked on a 16-day journey to the People’s Republic of China to sing popular Chinese and American tunes on national television for an expected audience of several million. Wong was the only American invited by Communist Party leaders to perform in the government-run Chinese New Year’s Eve telecast.

Warren Young recalled that Wong once said to him, “You know, if I sing here in the Chinese community in Los Angeles, only 3,000 or 4,000 people listen to me. In China, 1 billion people listen.”

“I see myself as the Chinese Kissinger,” Wong said in an interview on the eve of his 1985 journey.

Times staff writer Mark Fineman in Beijing contributed to this story.