ABSTRACT
In early March 1987, Chairman Wu Zhongliang suddenly reappeared at Beijing Jeep. Chairman Wu had been away for nearly ten months, since he was reported to be ill on the eve of the talks to settle American Motors' financial problems. Moreover, some of the Party leaders who had engineered the ouster of Hu began calling upon older, semiretired cadres to return to their old factories and offices in order to help guide China back in the right direction. A month after his return, Chairman Wu started pressing for a major change in Beijing Jeep's management. He suggested that Chen Xulin, the man the Americans had been grooming to succeed St. Pierre as president, might not get the job. The return, the rise, and the fall of Chairman Wu at Beijing Jeep may have been connected to the broader political swings in China that spring.
