In December 1989, George H. W. Bush sent Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Kagleburger hack to China. China had received $1.3 billion from the World Bank the preceding year and was scheduled to obtain $2.3 billion in the coming year; 30 it also regularly received hundreds of millions of dollars through the Asian Development Bank. Winston Lord, the former ambassador to China, argued in an essay in The Washington Post that the US double standard on human rights with regard to the USSR and the PRC rested on two premises. A member of the Politburo, Wan I J. who was friendly with US president Bush, was travelling to the United States during the upheaval. President Bush tried to send private messages to China's leaders. The incident at Tiananmen Square put President Bush in a very difficult position. In October, Bush allowed China to resume upgrading Chinese fighter planes at two locations in the United States as part of the Peace Pearl project.