Claimed He Was ‘Political Prisoner’ in Beijing, Sources Say : Rep. Savage Reportedly Disrupted Trip to China

Rep. Gus Savage (D-Ill.), who has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman Peace Corps volunteer on a trip to Zaire, also disrupted a congressional trip to China in 1986 by declaring that he was being held “a political prisoner” in Beijing, sources said Tuesday.

Savage, 64, a five-term congressman from Chicago, caused such a ruckus during the trip to China that officials at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing later dubbed it “Codel FUBAR” for “congressional delegation (fouled) up beyond all recognition.”

Met Women in Disco

According to sources, Savage clashed with Chinese security personnel at the prestigious Diaoyutai State Guest House by trying to bring two women he reportedly had met at a Beijing disco back to his room one night.

Savage, whose activities in Zaire are under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, could not be reached for comment on the accounts of his behavior in Beijing.

Rep. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Me.), ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on international operations, has asked the State Department to provide the Ethics Committee with cable messages relating to any incidents involving Savage on any official international trip. She said that she had acted on information that the incident in Zaire was not an isolated case.

Savage was one of eight members of Congress who went to China in November, 1986, on a trip sponsored by the National People’s Congress, the legislature of China. He and other House members were scheduled to meet with many top-level Chinese government officials in Beijing before touring several other Chinese cities.

Wouldn’t Attend Meetings

Sources who witnessed Savage’s behavior said that the congressman apparently became disappointed with the trip’s itinerary shortly after arriving in Beijing and refused to attend many of the meetings with Chinese officials.

One night, according to witnesses, Savage returned to his guest house about midnight with two women he had met in a disco. He identified them as “constituents” from his South Side Chicago district and demanded that he be permitted to take them to his room.

Savage protested loudly when Chinese security officials sought to bar the women from entering the tightly guarded complex. One source recalls seeing him “raising hell at the guard station.”

Peter Tomsen, then deputy chief of the U.S. mission in Beijing, eventually convinced Savage that the women could not stay at the guest house, and they were driven back to their hotels in an official car about 3 a.m., sources said.

Before the congressional delegation left Beijing to fly to Xian, one source said, Savage demanded assurances that, if he went along to Xian, he could then leave the country, missing all of the other stops that were planned for the delegation.

When he did not receive such assurances, sources said, he declared that he was being held “a political prisoner” and threatened to disrupt a meeting of the delegation with Chinese State Councilor Song Jian by protesting his treatment. Sources said that Savage was dissuaded from making a scene at the meeting by two of his congressional colleagues, Reps. Jim Moody (D-Wis.) and Edolphus (Ed) Towns (D-N.Y.).

One witness recalls seeing Savage “ranting and raving” about his complaints while standing outside the Great Hall of the People just before the meeting with Song. Later that day, after other members of the delegation had flown on to Xian without him, sources said, Savage “barricaded” himself in his room and refused to come out.

Eventually, sources said, Savage was persuaded by Tomsen to leave the guest house, and U.S. officials arranged to get him on a plane to Hong Kong that night.

Tomsen refused to comment on the story.

Savage’s behavior did not go unnoticed by his Chinese hosts. After he left the country, sources said, a very senior Chinese official told a U.S. Embassy official: “No Chinese official would ever do anything like that.”

Other members of Congress traveling with Savage were former Rep. Manuel Lujan Jr. (D-N. M.), now secretary of the Interior, and Reps. Peter H. Kostmayer (D-Pa.), Thomas M. Foglietta (D-Pa.), James H. Scheuer (D-N.Y.) and Jim Bates (D-San Diego).

One source who has gone on many congressional overseas junkets said that Savage’s behavior in China was the worst that he has ever seen.