Baum credited Rhoda Sutherland of Oxford University with inspiring his interest in linguistics.
[4] On February 20, 1989, Baum and fellow scholars Harry Harding, Larry Krause, and Michel Oksenberg met with George H. W. Bush, then incoming ambassador to China James Lilley, and others to brief the president on U.S.-China relations.
[citation needed] As discussion turned to human rights, Baum advised that it would not be wise to single out specific Chinese dissidents to bring the issue to the fore and that it would be better to talk about human rights in the most general terms possible.
He talked with his friend and Los Angeles Times correspondent James Mann about this, unintentionally leaking the information, and the next morning the information appeared on the front page of the Los Angeles Times with the headline Bush, on China Trip, to See Dissidents, Sources Say.
The leaked information made its way to China, and Fang, Perry Link, and their wives while driving to the banquet were forced off the road by Chinese security police.