At that point the mainland leaders weren't completely opposed to Lee visiting Cornell. But some of the things Lee said in the US aroused a severe reaction among the Chinese Communists, and at the insistence of the military, the PRC shifted to a hard line. Wang Daohan, Qian Qichen and Jiang Zemin were all forced to make self-criticisms.
那時，中共領導人不是完全反對李登輝訪問康乃爾，但李在美國的一些講話，在中共內部引起嚴重反彈，在軍方堅持下情勢逆轉，汪道涵、錢其琛、江澤民都被迫做自我批評。