Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- James R. Lilley, who was U.S. ambassador to China during the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, has died in Washington.

Lilley was 81 and died Nov. 12 from complications related to cancer treatment, the Washington Post reported. Lilley was a critic of the Chinese government’s actions in quelling protests in Tiananmen Square and he housed top dissident Fang Lizhi in the U.S. embassy for a year and a month before he was allowed to leave the country for the U.S., the newspaper said.

“As ambassador to China from 1989 to 1991, one of the most difficult periods in our bilateral relations, he stood up for human rights and ensured the safety of American citizens and embassy personnel in the months following the Tiananmen incident,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an e- mailed statement.

Clinton, who is traveling in Asia, said Lilley was “one of our nation’s finest diplomats” and had “inspired generations of China hands.”

Born and raised in China’s international community, Lilley joined the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in 1951, helping insert agents into communist China and gathering intelligence on the region, the Post said. He had a close relationship with former President George H.W. Bush, serving as CIA station chief in Beijing when Bush was chief of mission there during the 1970s, the Post said.

In addition to serving in China, Lilley was ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 1986 to 1989. He also was director of the American Institute in Taiwan in the mid-1980s, according to Clinton’s statement.

Lilley was born in China on Jan. 15, 1928, and is survived by his wife, Sally, three children, a sister, and six grandchildren, the Post said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Courtney Schlisserman in Washington at cschlisserma@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 14, 2009 17:34 EST