Zhao Pinlu
FCM
From left to right: Zhao Pinglu, Lian Shengde, and Joel Segal on June 4 Memorial Service in April, 1999
Mr.ZHAO PINGLU, former leader of Workers' Aotonomous Fedration in Beijing 1989, is a member of the Central Committee of the Party for Freedom and Democracy in China after two years prison life in China after 1989. He was a co-founder of Free China Movement in 1998. Mr. Zhao passed away from cancer on March 9, 2004 in New York City.
Here are some historical media reports about Mr. Zhao.
Copyright 1995 South China Morning Post Ltd.
South China Morning Post
January 8, 1995
SECTION: CHI; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 2934 words
HEADLINE: Concern grows over secret ban ; Rights chief puts exiles on agenda
BYLINE: By SIMON BECK in Washington and our Political Desk
BODY:
UNITED States human rights official John Shattuck is under pressure to protest at China's secret blacklist of exiled dissidents during his visit to Beijing this week.
Mr Shattuck, who arrives in the Chinese capital on Friday, is already armed with a long list of human rights complaints, including the treatment of Tibetans, and concern China's eugenics programme may lead to forced abortions.
South China Morning Post, January 8, 1995
But Hong Kong-based human rights activist Robin Munro said yesterday the US had little choice but to add the recent revelation of a blacklist of 49 dissidents, who were barred from re-entering the country, to the agenda of his meetings with mainland officials.
"Since over 80 per cent of those named on the list are currently resident in the US it is all the more important that Mr Shattuck asks some searching questions about why dissidents are being secretly exiled," he said.
The list - published below - outlines how the exiles should be treated, if they try to return to China.
Nineteen are listed as liable for immediate arrest, including former student leaders Chai Ling and Wu'er Kaixi, as well as Yan Jiaqi, a former aide to ousted Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang.
Border guards are instructed to refuse entry to a further 11 dissidents, and immediately return them to their country of exile. These include labour activist Han Dongfang, who is now in Hong Kong after being expelled from China in 1993.
The remaining 19 dissidents are subject to less severe restrictions, with border guards instructed only to seek advice from their superiors if they attempt to re-enter China.
Those in this category include former local Xinhua (New China News Agency) chief Xu Jiatun.
Labour and pro-democracy activist Lau Chin-shek said the revelation of the list might discourage people from standing up for democracy in Hong Kong, since they would fear being subjected to similar restrictions after 1997.
"This list has confirmed that Han Dongfang's case is not an isolated one, but rather a policy set by the central government," he said.
But Mr Lau, previously accused by Xinhua of spying for Taiwan, remained optimistic the tight controls in the mainland would be eased before 1997. But if they were not, he vowed to stay.
"I would stay in the territory to avoid giving them a chance to expel me," he said.
BEIJING'S DISSIDENT BLACKLIST IN FULL
South China Morning Post, January 8, 1995
CATEGORY 1: TO BE ARRESTED ON ENTRY TO CHINA
Yan Jiaqi, 53. Former aide to ousted party chief Zhao Ziyang. Escaped from China after June 1989. In New York.
Chen Yizi, 55. Former director of the Chinese Research Institute for Reform of the Economic Structure in Beijing. Escaped after June 1989. In Princeton, New Jersey.
Wan Runnan, 49. Former chief executive officer of the Stone Computer Corp in Beijing. Escaped after June 1989. In France.
Su Xiaokang, 46. Writer, author of controversial TV series River Elegy. Escaped after June 1989. In Princeton, New Jersey.
Wu'er Kaixi, 27. Former student leader who escaped after June 1989. In San Francisco.
Chai Ling, 29. Former student leader who escaped to the US after June 1989. In Boston.
South China Morning Post, January 8, 1995
Liang Qingtun, 26. Former student leader who escaped after June 1989. In San Francisco.
Feng Congde, 28. Former student leader who escaped after June 1989. In France.
Wang Chaohua, 43. Former student leader who escaped after June 1989. Studying in Los Angeles.
Zhang Zhiqing, 31. Former student leader, still on Beijing's most wanted list. Whereabouts unknown since June 1989.
Zhang Boli, 37. Former student leader who escaped after June 1989. In Washington.
Li Lu, 29. Former student leader who escaped after June 1989. Studying in New York.
Yue Wu, 49. Former factory director in Shanxi, China. Involved with organising workers during the 1989 movement. In France.
South China Morning Post, January 8, 1995
Zhang Gang, 46. Former deputy director of public relations at the Chinese Research Institute for Reform of the Economic Structure. Escaped after June 1989. In New York.
Yuan Zhiming, 40. Writer. Escaped after June 1989. In Mississippi.
Wang Runsheng, 40. Former researcher with the Institute of Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Escaped after June 1989. In France.
Chen Xuanliang, 48. Former teacher of philosophy at the Chinese College of Politics. Escaped after June 1989. In France.
Zheng Yi, 46. Writer. In hiding for three years after June 1989. Escaped in 1992. Now in Princeton, New Jersey.
Lu Jinghua, 33. Former merchant who became involved in the Beijing Workers' Autonomous Federation in 1989. Now in New York. Attempted to return to Beijing in June 1993 but was refused entry and sent back to US.
CATEGORY 2: TO BE REFUSED RE-ENTRY TO CHINA
South China Morning Post, January 8, 1995
Wang Bingzhang, 48. Arrived in Canada in 1981 to study medicine. Founded the Chinese Alliance for Democracy in 1984. Now in New York.
Hu Ping, 48. Activist in the Beijing Democracy Wall Movement in 1979. Went to US in 1986. Former president of the Chinese Alliance for Democracy. In New York.
Xu Bangtai, 46. Former Shanghai student. Went to US in 1984 to study journalism. Chair of the Alliance for a Democratic China. In San Francisco.
Han Lianchao, 44. Former officer of the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Now a congressional assistant in Washington.
Cao Changqing, 42. Former deputy editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Youth News. Lost his job in 1987 after publishing an article calling on Deng Xiaoping to retire. In New York.
Liu Yongchuan, 36. Went to US in 1986. Ex-president of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars in Washington. Now in San Francisco.
Liu Binyan, 70. Author and former journalist for the People's Daily. In Princeton, where he publishes monthly newsletter China Forum. South China Morning Post, January 8, 1995
Han Dongfang, 32. Former leader of the Beijing Workers' Autonomous Federation. Imprisoned for two years following the 1989 crackdown. Went to US for medical treatment in 1992. Returned to China in August 1993 but was deported to Hong Kong.
Xiong Yan, 31. Former student leader. Arrested in Beijing and served two years in jail before leaving China in 1992. Now in US Army. Chair of the Chinese Freedom and Democracy Party.
Zhao Pinlu, 39. Involved in Beijing Workers' Autonomous Federation in 1989. Escaped and now in New York. Chair of the International Chinese Workers Union.
Cheng Kai, 49. Former editor-in-chief of Hainan Daily. Left China in 1989. Now doing business in Hong Kong and has made several trips to China over the past two years. Blacklisted on August 21, 1993.
CATEGORY 3: TO BE DEALT WITH "ACCORDING TO CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE SITUATION"
Fang Lizhi, 59. Former vice-president of the Chinese University of Science and Technology. Arrived in the US after a year-long refuge in the US Embassy in Beijing. Now professor of physics at the University of Arizona.
South China Morning Post, January 8, 1995
Li Shuxian, 60. Wife of Fang Lizhi and former professor of physics at Beijing University.
Yu Dahai, 34. Went to US in 1982 to study physics at Princeton. Now acting editor-in-chief of the journal Beijing Spring in New Jersey.
Wu Fan, 57. Former teacher in Anhui University. doing business in San Francisco. Chairman of the Board of the Alliance for a Democratic China.
Ni Yuxian, 50. Democracy Wall activist. Secretary general of the Chinese Freedom and Democracy Party. Attempted to return to China in 1992 but was refused entry. In New York.
Yao Yueqian, 57. Lives in Tokyo.
Tang Guangzhong, 46. Teacher in US.
Guo Luoji, 63. Former professor of philosophy at Nanjing University. Punished for criticising the conviction of Wei Jingsheng in 1979. Now a scholar at Columbia University.
South China Morning Post, January 8, 1995
Harry Wu, 58. Went to US in 1985 as a visiting scholar at Stanford University. Now executive director of the Laogai Foundation in California and a US citizen. Refused Chinese visa in Hong Kong in 1993 but managed to twice enter mainland secretly last year.
Shen Tong, 27. Former student leader who went to US after June 1989. Studying at Boston University. Chair of the China Democracy Fund. Returned to China in August 1992, arrested in September in Beijing and deported to the US.
Wang Ruowang, 77. Writer and human rights activist in Shanghai. Imprisoned for a year after June 1989. Arrived in the US in 1992. Now in New York. Convenor -general of the Co-ordinating Committee of the Chinese Democratic Movement.
Feng Suying (also known as Yang Zi), 57. Engineer and human rights activist. In New York.
Liu Qing, 47. Imprisoned for almost 11 years after the Democracy Wall Movement of 1979. Arrived in US in July 1992. Now chairs New York-based Human Rights in China.
Xue Wei, 52. Went to US in 1980. Now business manager for Beijing Spring. Chen Jun, 37. Former democracy activist in Beijing. Deported in April 1989.
South China Morning Post, January 8, 1995
Now a New York cabbie.
Yang Jianli, 32. Went to US as a student in 1982. Now at Harvard University. Vice-chair of the Alliance for a Democratic China.
Zhao Haiqing, 39. Went to US in 1982 to study at the University of Pennsylvania. Former president of IFCSS. Now doing business in Washington. Chair of the National Council of Chinese Affairs.
Zhu Jiaming, 45. Economist. Former deputy director of the International Policy Institute of the Zhongxing Investment Company. Now a visiting scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Xu Jiatun, 79. Former director of the Hong Kong bureau of Xinhua. Defected to the US after 1989 crackdown. In Los Angeles.
GRAPHIC: New agenda: pressure is mounting on John Shattuck to protest against China's blacklist of exiled dissidents - which includes Han Dongfang (top left), Chai Ling (top centre) and Wu'er Kaixi (top right).
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
South China Morning Post, January 8, 1995
LOAD-DATE: January 10, 1995
LEVEL 1 - 2 OF 14 STORIES Copyright 1995 The British Broadcasting Corporation
BBC Summary of World Broadcasts January 7, 1995, Saturday
SECTION: Part 3 Asia - Pacific; CHINA; FE/2195/G
LENGTH: 1046 words
HEADLINE: DISSIDENTS;
Blacklist of 49 democracy activists barred from entering China BODY: 'Lien Ho Pao', Hong Kong, in Chinese 6 Jan 95 Text of dispatch by 'Lien Ho Pao' correspondent Tseng Hui-yen (2582 1979 3601) in New York entitled: "Guangdong frontier defence puts 49 people on blacklist, denies them entry to China" ; subheadings as published
New York, 4th January: 'Beijing Zichun' ['Beijing Spring'], a pro-democracy journal published in New York, recently obtained a " black list" used by the Guangdong Frontier Defence Bureau to restrict the entry of 49 "personnel from The British Broadcasting Corporation, January 7, 1995
reactionary organizations" . This newspaper has been given priority to publish the list, which is divided into three categories of people according to "method of handling" . The first category lists 19 people, including Yan Jiaqi and Chai Ling, who are on the wanted list on account of the 1989 pro-democracy movement; the second lists 11 people including Wang Bingzhang, Hu Ping, and Xu Bangtai; the third lists 19 people including Xu Jiatun [former director of Xinhua Hong Kong branch], Fang Lizhi and Wang Ruowang. However, the persons named do not understand the classification method and handling criteria of the lists.
Those who fled country following 4th June incident to be detained immediately Officially called a "Detailed List of 49 Personnel of Reactionary
Organizations Outside the Border To Be Kept Under Strict Control" , the list is divided into "serial number" ; "name" ; "sex" ; "date of birth" ; "type and number of document" ; "document expiry date" ; " whether or not on wanted list" ; "border control date, communication number, and term of validity" ; "photo (separately listed as 'yes'or ' no')" ; and "method of handling" in their proper order. This reporter contacted a few persons named on the list to verify the data in the list, such as passport number and date of birth, and found them basically correct.
The British Broadcasting Corporation, January 7, 1995
Those in the first category, 19 in all, were all on the wanted list in the wake of the 4th June incident in 1989. They are (according to the serial numbers on the list): 1. Yan Jiaqi; 2. Chen Yizi; 3. Wan Runnan; 4. Su Xiaokang; 5. Wuerkaixi; 6. Chai Ling; 7. Liang Qingtun; 8. Feng Congde; 9. Wang Chaohua; 10. Zhang Zhiqing; 11. Zhang Boli; 12. Li Lu; 13. Yue Wu; 14. Zhang Gang; 15. Yuan Zhiming; 16. Wang Runsheng; 17. Chen Xuanliang; 18. Zheng Yi; and 19. Lu Jinghua.
The list lays down the method of dealing with people in the first category as follows: "In line with the relevant spirit of the central authorities, if such a person is found to enter the border, he or she should be immediately detained for examination and dealt with according to the law" .
The second category, 11 people in all, includes: 1. Wang Bingzhang; 2. Hu Ping; 3. Xu Bangtai; 4. Han Lianchao; 5. Cao Changqing; 6. Liu Yongchuan; 7. Liu Binyan; 8. Han Dongfang; 9. Xiong Yan; 10. Zhao Pinlu; and 11. Cheng Kai. Of these, Han Dongfang, Xiong Yan, and Zhao Pinlu were placed on the wanted list after the 4th June incident. The difference is that, while Han was later arrested and left the country with a Chinese passport after his release from prison, Xiang and Zhao fled the country.
The British Broadcasting Corporation, January 7, 1995
Xu Jiatun's name is on the list
The method for dealing with people in the second category is: In line with the relevant spirit of the central authorities, if such a person is found to enter the border, he or she should be prevented from entering the border and ordered to leave immediately.
The third category, 19 persons in all, includes: 1. Fang Lizhi; 2. Li Shuxian; 3. Yu Dahai; 4. Wu Fan; 5. Ni Yuxian; 6. Yao Yueqian; 7. Tang Guangzhong; 8. Guo Luoji; 9. Wu Hongda; 10. Shen Tong; 11. Wang Ruowang; 12. Feng Suying; 13. Liu Qing; 14. Xue Wei; 15. Chen Jun; 16 . Yang Jianli; 17. Zhao Haiqing; 18. Zhu Jiaming; and 19. Xu Jiatun. Of these, Fang Lizhi and his wife Li Shuxuan were once on the wanted list.
The method for dealing with people in the third category is: In line with the relevant spirit of the central authorities, if such a person is found to enter the border, he or she should be dealt with according to the circumstances.
The list shows that the CCP has an intimate understanding of overseas dissidents and pro-democracy activists, as shown by the listing of their pseudonyms and aliases. Apart from Yao Yueqian, who is presently living in Japan, and Wan Runnan, Yue Wu, Feng Congde, Chen Xuanliang, and Wang Runsheng, The British Broadcasting Corporation, January 7, 1995
who live in France, all the rest are currently in the United States.
It should be pointed out that the number of people barred from entering the border is far more than the 49 people cited above. For example, the "black list" does not include noted dissident poet Bei Dao who was barred at the border when he returned to China in November 1994.
Classification criteria hard to understand
It is not known what criteria were used to classify people in the second and third categories. For example, Wang Bingzhang, Hu Ping and Xu Bangtai, "bad ringleaders" of reactionary organizations, are among the 11 people in the second category; Yu Dahai, Wu Fan and Xue Wei, former leaders of the "reactionary organization" Alliance for a Democratic and United China, are listed in the third category. It is hard to understand why Liu Binyan, who was named by the CCP as a " prominent figure" in the move against bourgeois liberalization, is listed in the second category, while Fang Lizhi, who the CCP hates most, is included in the third category. The case of Han Dongfang, who is listed in the second category, is similar to those of Guo Luoji, Wang Ruowang and his wife Feng Suying (Yang Zi), as well as Liu Qing, who are in the third category, in that they had been imprisoned and, after their release from prison after the 4th June incident, legally left the country with Chinese passports. They are all a The British Broadcasting Corporation, January 7, 1995
real headache for the CCP.
Moreover, it is also hard to understand why Liu Yongchuan and Han Lianchao are listed in the second category and Zhao Haiqing is listed in the third as all of them are former presidents or vice-presidents of the All-America Autonomous Federation of Students and Scholars and why they are not included in the same category?
However, the fact that Han Dongfang, Lu Jinghua and Ni Yuxian were expelled when they returned to the mainland probably verifies the genuineness of the "black list" .
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: January 6, 1995
LEVEL 1 - 3 OF 14 STORIES
Copyright 1993 South China Morning Post Ltd.
South China Morning Post
February 25, 1993
SECTION: News; Pg. 10
LENGTH: 800 words
HEADLINE: Police persecuted family - dissident
BYLINE: By DANIEL KWAN
BODY: A TIANANMEN Square labour activist who was wanted by Chinese police and fled to New York claims the Chinese authorities persecuted his family.
Mr Zhao Pinlu, 36, a former leader of the now-defunct Beijing Autonomous Workers Federation, said his relatives were arrested, detained and tortured because they refused to reveal his whereabouts.
South China Morning Post, February 25, 1993
His younger brother, Mr Zhao Pinju, was sentenced to 13 years in jail for allegedly possessing a gun which he picked up in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
Although he got rid of the gun before police arrived, the 29-year-old self-employed businessman was arrested and jailed.
"My brother has had hepatitis and his condition is very poor," Mr Zhao, who visited his family in Beijing last summer, said.
"He was repeatedly interrogated and tortured and he is dying.
"Prison officials said they would release my brother only if I turned myself in."
Mr Zhao said his wife's family was also persecuted.
After his family visit, Mr Zhao went from Beijing to Tangshan, where his wife's family lived.
"Soon after I left Tangshan, the policemen were there questioning her family," he said. South China Morning Post, February 25, 1993
"Four of them were detained and beaten up by the police who forced them to disclose my whereabouts."
Mr Zhao topped a secret wanted list soon after the military crackdown. Another wanted "criminal", Mr Liu Wensheng, a 24-year-old former history student, was caught last May after three years in hiding.
Mr Zhao went into hiding soon after the crackdown and escaped to Hongkong last November. He was offered political asylum by the United States a month later.
In spite of his ordeal, Mr Zhao vowed to continue his fight for democracy and was hopeful that the situation in China would improve.
"Although I won't say there is a well-organised underground in China, there are many individuals and groups in the country working for that target (democracy)," he said.
"They are the unsung heroes. When I was in hiding, I found a lot of workers were laid off by their factories when they closed down.
South China Morning Post, February 25, 1993
"China is far from what they said. There is a strong undercurrent beneath the artificial stability portrayed by the authorities."
Mr Zhao said he intended to join the newly-formed US-based United Front for Democracy in China and may offer testimony in the United Nations Human Rights subcommission to put pressure on China to improve its human rights record.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: February 25, 1993
LEVEL 1 - 4 OF 14 STORIES
Copyright 1990 Reuters Reuters
May 31, 1990, Thursday, AM cycle LENGTH: 856 words
HEADLINE: A YEAR AFTER TIANANMEN, WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
BYLINE: By James Kynge
DATELINE: BEIJING
BODY:
The millions of democracy demonstrators who handed China's communist authorities their most serious challenge in 40 years are one year later mostly cowed, in exile, imprisoned or simply forgotten.
Only a defiant few dare to voice openly their dissent within China.
Where is Zhao Pinglu, a gruffly spoken carpenter who, like thousands of others, sat in protest in Beijing's Tiananmen Square?
Reuters, May 31, 1990
"When this is over, I will probably be executed," Zhao said at that time, well aware that his membership in a pro-democracy union of workers was serious sedition to the Communist Party.
A year after machine guns sputtered and tanks careened through China's capital the night of June 3 and 4, little is known for certain about the fate of many heroes, leaders and followers of the crushed democracy movement.
China says 300 people died in the military crackdown, dozens of them soldiers. Foreign diplomats say the death toll could be more than 2,000.
Also unknown is how many protesters have been executed, arrested or tried. Diplomats say a rough total of arrests and detentions may reach more than 10,000 nationwide.
No trial was given to 399 inmates serving three years of hard labor for participating in the protests, an official at Beijing's main Tuanhe correction center told Reuters.
Executions of democracy protesters are even harder to enumerate. In the months after June, China publicized executions of at least 20 people involved in the protests and scores of unreported executions are believed to have taken place since.
For the people of Beijing, memories linger.
One indelible recollection of last June is the young man who stood before a convoy of tanks advancing down the main Avenue of Eternal Peace and brought them to a grinding, clanking halt.
Some Western media reports have identified the man as Wang Weilin, the 19-year-old son of a factory worker, and said he was executed. This cannot be officially confirmed.
The "rumor-monger" sentenced to 10 years in prison for telling U.S. television that 20,000 people died in the military crackdown is imprinted in Chinese minds after repeated airing on state television.
Most people still have only a rudimentary knowledge of the characters who shaped last year's events, especially those who fled into exile in Europe and the United States.
Wuer Kaixi, a student who roused the crowds in Tiananmen Square by his professed indifference to death, receives a lot of media attention in the Reuters, May 31, 1990
United States but is rarely mentioned here.
After a short spell at Harvard University, he has proved partial to publicity, recording pop songs with other exiled Chinese dissidents and reportedly hiring a secretary.
Spontaneous parties were held in Beijing the night the news filtered home via foreign radio networks that another oratorically gifted student leader, Chai Ling, had escaped.
Chai and her husband, Feng Congde, figure prominently on a list of 21 wanted student leaders. They had been on the run for nine months before making it out to Paris.
Living abroad, Wuer Kaixi, Chai and other escaped democracy activists have a choice of joining various dissident organisations pledged to overthrowing communism in China.
The image of the biggest of these groups, the Front for Democracy in China, took a bruising this month after a mission to broadcast to China from a ship ended in failure and debt.
Reuters, May 31, 1990
The earliest student leader Wang Dan, a contemplative stategist, was caught within weeks of the crackdown and is now incarcerated in Qincheng, Beijing's top security prison.
Just this month three movement leaders, rock singer Hou Dejian, former university lecturer Gao Xin and intellectual Zhou Duo, began to call for the release of political prisoners such as Wang Dan. They seemed to be the only three people in China who dared to criticize regularly and openly the current government.
Hou began an outspoken crusade against the government early this year. He attributed his immunity to arrest to connections in his native Taiwan, which he left in 1983 to come to the mainland.
All three disappeared Thursday before a scheduled news conference. It is not known if the three men have been arrested or have gone into hiding.
Still in China is Fang Lizhi, the ebullient astrophysicist wanted by Beijing's hardline leaders for allegedly masterminding last year's anti-government unrest. Reuters, May 31, 1990 Fang, a hostage in his own country since last June, sought shelter with his wife at the U.S. Embassy.
Bored-looking Chinese police sit in cars and munch snacks outside the embassy gates, guarding against a surreptitious escape by the couple. The United States and China seem no nearer deciding Fang's fate.
The party's own villain from last year has fared little better. Zhao Ziyang, the party's former general secretary and renowned economic and political reformer, was last seen making an emotional exit from Tiananmen Square May 19, 1989, after failing to convince students who occupied it to leave.
Accused of "splitting the party," causing inflation and of being too soft on the student protests, Zhao is believed to be under house arrest but in good health.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LEVEL 1 - 5 OF 14 STORIES
Copyright 1990 Reuters
The Reuter Library Report
May 31, 1990, Thursday, BC cycle
LENGTH: 857 words
HEADLINE: A YEAR AFTER TIANANMEN, WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
BYLINE: By James Kynge
DATELINE: BEIJING, May 31
BODY:
The millions of democracy demonstrators who handed China's communist authorities their most serious challenge in 40 years are one year later mostly cowed, in exile, imprisoned or simply forgotten. Only a defiant few dare to voice openly their dissent within China.
Where is Zhao Pinglu, a gruffly spoken carpenter who, like thousands of others, sat in protest in Beijing's Tiananmen Square?
The Reuter Library Report, May 31, 1990
"When this is over, I will probably be executed," Zhao said at that time, well aware that his membership in a pro-democracy union of workers was serious sedition to the Communist Party. A year after machine guns sputtered and tanks careered through China's capital on the night of June 3 and 4, little is known for certain about the fate of many heroes, leaders and followers of the crushed democracy movement. China says 300 people died in the military crackdown, dozens of them soldiers. Foreign diplomats say the death toll could be more than 2,000.
Also unknown is how many protesters have been executed, arrested or tried. Diplomats say a rough total of arrests and detentions may reach more than 10,000 nationwide.
No trial was given to 399 inmates serving three years of hard labour for participating in the protests, an official at Beijing's main Tuanhe correction centre told Reuters.
Executions of democracy protesters are even harder to enumerate. In the months after June, China publicised executions of at least 20 people involved in the protests and scores of unreported executions are believed to have taken The Reuter Library Report, May 31, 1990
place since.
For the people of Beijing, memories linger.
One indelible recollection of last June is the young man who stood before a convoy of tanks advancing down the main Avenue of Eternal Peace and brought them to a grinding, clanking halt.
Some Western media reports have identified the man as Wang Weilin, the 19-year-old son of a factory worker, and said he was executed. This cannot be officially confirmed.
The "rumourmonger" sentenced to 10 years in prison for telling U.S. television that 20,000 people died in the military crackdown is imprinted in Chinese minds after repeated airing on state television.
Most people still have only a rudimentary knowledge of the characters who shaped last year's events, especially those who fled into exile in Europe and the United States.
Wuer Kaixi, a student who roused the crowds in Tiananmen Square by his professed indifference to death, receives a lot of media attention in the The Reuter Library Report, May 31, 1990
United States but is rarely mentioned here. After a short spell at Harvard University, he has proved partial to publicity, recording pop songs with other exiled Chinese dissidents and reportedly keeping a secretary.
Spontaneous parties were held in Beijing the night the news filtered home via foreign radio networks that another oratorically gifted student leader, Chai Ling, had escaped.
Chai and her husband, Feng Congde, figure prominently on a list of 21 wanted student leaders. They had been on the run for nine months before making it out to Paris.
Living abroad, Wuer Kaixi, Chai and other escaped democracy activists have a choice of joining various dissident organisations pledged to overthrowing communism in China.
The image of the biggest of these groups, the Front for Democracy in China, took a bruising this month after a mission to broadcast to China from a ship ended in failure and debt.
The Reuter Library Report, May 31, 1990
The earliest student leader Wang Dan, a contemplative stategist, was caught within weeks of the crackdown and is now incarcerated in Qincheng, Beijing's top security prison. Just this month three movement leaders, rock singer Hou Dejian, former university lecturer Gao Xin and intellectual Zhou Duo, began to call for the release of political prisoners such as Wang Dan.
They seemed to be the only three people in China who dared to criticise regularly and openly the current government.
Hou began an outspoken crusade against the government early this year. He attributed his immunity to arrest to connections in his native Taiwan, which he left in 1983 to come to the mainland.
All three disappeared on Thursday, before a scheduled news conference. It is not known if the three men have been arrested or have gone into hiding. Still in China is Fang Lizhi, the ebullient astrophysicist wanted by Beijing's hardline leaders for allegedly masterminding last year's anti-government unrest.
The Reuter Library Report, May 31, 1990 <
BR> He is sheltering with his wife in the U.S. Embassy, a hostage in his own country since last June.
Bored-looking Chinese police sit in cars and munch buns outside the embassy gates, guarding against a surreptitious escape by the couple. The United States and China seem no nearer deciding Fang's fate.
The party's own villain from last year has fared little better.
Zhao Ziyang, the party's former general secretary and renowned economic and political reformer, was last seen making an emotional exit from Tiananmen Square on May 19, 1989, after failing to convince students who occupied it to leave. Accused of "splitting the party", causing inflation and of being too soft on the student protests, Zhao is believed to be under house arrest but in good health.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: 053190
LEVEL 1 - 6 OF 14 STORIES
Copyright 1989 Newsday, Inc. Newsday
June 1, 1989, Thursday, ALL EDITIONS
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 13
LENGTH: 708 words
HEADLINE: Beijing Protesters Warned About Jobs
BYLINE: By Jim Mulvaney and Jeff Sommer. Newsday Staff Correspondents
DATELINE: Beijing
BODY:
In a threat to demonstrators who continue to occupy Tiananmen Square in a protest for democracy, government authorities warned last night that students won't be given jobs if "the current situation continues," but promised that those who return to school now will get special help to finish the school year on time.
(c) 1989 Newsday, June 1, 1989
The carrot-and-stick tactics, broadcast on the national evening news, were part of a concerted campaign to coerce and entice students and the general population to abandon opposition to the authorities.
The broadcast, controlled by a martial-law censorship board, included footage of a "mass demonstration" of "workers, peasants, people from government organizations and all walks of life" held in the Beijing suburbs in support of Premier Li Peng and martial law. Participants told the Associated Press that officials told them to attend the rally, which drew about 4,000 people.
The broadcast contained a warning from the State Education Commission that unless students return to school immediately and manage to graduate on time next month, "job distribution" - the annual allocation of employment for thousands of students - won't take place and students won't get jobs. This threat is extremely serious in a socialist society where most jobs are controlled by the government.
None of this had any visible effect, however, on the approximately 10,000 students who remained stubbornly in place in their rebel encampment at the heart of the Chinese capital. In fact, last night the students issued a new, tougher set of demands, which they said must be met before they will abandon their fight.
(c) 1989 Newsday, June 1, 1989
These include immediate cancellation of martial law, withdrawal of the estimated 200,000 troops ringing the city, guarantees that there will be no reprisals against people who took part in the demonstrations and a removal of all press restrictions.
"We will stay until the government meets these demands," said Pi Baifeng, 26, a student leader from Beijing Broadcast College. "If they do not meet the demands, the will of the people will crush the government."
It was unclear, given the amorphous state of the student leadership, whether a government concession to the demands would be enough to persuade students to leave or if they will continue their occupation of the square until the government initiates a live, televised dialogue between top party leaders and student representatives - the students' original demand.
In the square last night, after a brief but heavy rainfall, a soggy 30-foot-tall statue named "Goddess of Democracy" continued to draw large crowds and official condemnation, and students remained defiant.
Several thousand noisy marchers trooped from Tiananmen Square to police and Communist Party headquarters to demand the resignation of Li and senior leader Deng Xiaoping, who have cracked down on the popular uprising for democracy, (c) 1989 Newsday, June 1, 1989
and to protest the arrest this week of three leaders of an independent labor union.
Zhao Pinglu, head of the trade union that was formed in sympathy with the pro-democracy movement, said the men were released yesterday after police questioned them for a day.
In other developments yesterday, Chinese National People's Congress Chairman Wan Li, who had been officially reported to be "ill" and out of sight in Shanghai, was shown on national television getting off a plane at a Beijing airport.
Wan Li had in the past been viewed as a moderate and an ally of General-Secretary Zhao Ziyang, who has been out of view for more than two weeks and is believed to have lost a Politburo power struggle. No announcement about his fate has been made.
Also yesterday, Foreign Minister Qian Qichen left on an official visit to Cuba, Ecuador and the United States.
Ecuadoran officials said the visit to the two Latin American countries was scheduled three months ago. U.S. officials said a planned stopover in the (c) 1989 Newsday, June 1, 1989
United States June 12 to 14 was added before the current unrest started. Latin American officials said Qichen told them he wanted to meet with Secretary of State James Baker.
While ambassadors saw him off at the airport, "there was just diplomatic talk, protocol stuff, nothing about the current situation here," a Latin American official said.
GRAPHIC: 1) AP Photo-Farmers march in support of Chinese government (p 13 NS) . 2) AP Photo-Support On Taiwan For Protest. Thousands of students ignored rain to rally at Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park yesterday to support the student-led democracy movement in China. About 1 million students held rallies throughout Taiwan. In Beijing, government authorities warned that students won't be given jobs if they continue to occupy Tiananmen Square (p 6 NS)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LEVEL 1 - 7 OF 14 STORIES
Copyright 1989 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
June 1, 1989, THURSDAY, FIVE STAR Edition SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 12A
LENGTH: 694 words
HEADLINE: RALLY IN BEIJING BY GOVERNMENT
SOURCE: Compiled From News Services
BODY:
BEIJING - China's embattled government staged a rally Wednesday by 4,000 people to counter the student protests that have dominated the capital. The government rally, held 20 miles outside Beijing, burned an effigy of the country's most famous dissident and voiced support for martial law to end six weeks of demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of students, workers and other Chinese demanding change. Many participants said officials told them to attend the rally, the latest effort by conservatives to discredit the student movement and to consolidate their position in a political power struggle with
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 1, 1989
moderates. In the center of Beijing, meanwhile, several thousand noisy marchers trooped from Tiananmen Square to police and Communist Party headquarters to demand the resignation of Li and senior leader Deng Xiaoping, who have cracked down on the popular uprising for democracy. The marchers, most of whom were students, beat drums, pots and pans, and chanted ''Down with kidnapping!'' to protest the arrest this week of three leaders of an independent labor union. Zhao Pinglu, head of the trade union that was formed in sympathy with the pro-democracy movement, said the men were released Wednesday after police questioned them for a day. The government's rally was staged by supporters of conservative leaders who are reported to have stripped moderate Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang of his post. ''We will oppose whoever opposes Li Peng,'' read one banner. Others supported martial law for central Beijing, decreed by Li on May 20 after more than a million people took to the streets to demand a freer China and an end to official corruption. The government rally was attended by peasants, workers and high school students. It lacked the enthusiasm of the pro-democracy demonstrations that have developed in major cities. The burning of effigies of astrophysicist Fang Lizhi, an outspoken dissident who has campaigned for democracy, and an unidentified ''schemer, '' apparently a reference to Zhao, failed to stir the listless crowd. Few people joined rally leaders in shouting ''long live the Communist Party'' and other slogans. Some giggled and others waved tiny flags instead. Beijing officials informed some foreign journalists Tuesday of the march and of two others in suburbs of
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 1, 1989
Beijing. On the evening news, nationwide TV broadcast a brief segment of one of the marches. Large banners bearing slogans opposing ''bourgeois liberalization'' and capitalism over socialism appeared on Beijing hotels on Wednesday. Diplomatic and Chinese sources say a meeting of the party Central Committee to ratify the purge of Zhao has been postponed because the leadership remains divided.
GRAPHIC: Photo; PHOTO by Reuters...Government workers erasing an anti-government slogan on a pole near Tiananmen Square on Wednesday.
LANGUAGE: English
LOAD-DATE: October 22, 1993
LEVEL 1 - 8 OF 14 STORIES
Copyright 1989 The Times Mirror Company
Los Angeles Times
May 31, 1989, Wednesday, Home Edition
SECTION: Part 1; Page 12; Column 4; Foreign Desk
LENGTH: 726 words
HEADLINE: CHINA LABOR ACTIVISTS EMULATE SOLIDARITY
BYLINE: By KARL SCHOENBERGER, Times Staff Writer
DATELINE: BEIJING
BODY: Standing out in the babble of loudspeakers haranguing the crowd in Tian An Men Square at around 3 o'clock this morning were the energetic voices of the Beijing Workers' Autonomous Federation. This is a plucky band of workers who say they organized spontaneously during pro-democratic protests and dream of building something akin to Solidarity, the Polish independent labor union.
Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1989
It will be an uphill battle, they acknowledge, and a dangerous one now that the hard-line leadership of China's Communist Party is engaged in a shrill ideological campaign against "a very small number" seeking to "create turmoil. Already three of their leaders have been hauled away by the police. But rather than slip further underground, these dissidents, supported by some demonstrating students, planted themselves in front of police headquarters Tuesday to protest.
"I've made an oath on the flag; I'm putting my life on the line," said Liu Qiang, 27, a printer who wandered down to Tian An Men Square on May 19 to help protect students on a hunger strike from the threat of military intervention -- and has not been back to work since.
'The Voice of the People'
"What we're doing represents the voice of the people," Liu said. "There must be someone who stands up first for worker rights and democracy."
With the number of students camping out on Tian An Men Square in steady decline -- from tens of thousands last week to a few thousand Tuesday night -- the sudden emergence of the labor activists is a new twist in the six weeks of Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1989
raucous agitation for democratic reform.
Hundreds of people crowded around the folding table at the northwest corner of the square, where union members took turns holding a microphone and getting things off their chests. A visitor from the nearby city of Tianjin warned that eight members of a similar labor underground have disappeared in recent days. An old man cracked jokes about his job, eliciting applause and throaty laughter from onlookers.
How many have joined the union, which seems to have its strength among state railway workers, is not clear. Liu, one of the founding members, estimated that a core of about 100 are attempting to build a base. He noted that Poland's Solidarity, the first major independent trade union in the Communist Bloc, also started small.
"Like the Polish union, ours is illegal at the beginning," he said. "We hope that after the facts are known the laws can be changed. But maybe the possibility of our surviving is small because of government repression." Liu earns about $37 a month, a typical Chinese wage, at a military printing plant, a job that followed a stint in the army and two years of technical college. But it was a vague crisis in ideology, not an economic complaint, Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1989
that drove him to the barricades.
"We must overcome the slavery of workers," he said.
The reference is not to exploitation by capitalism, though. Nor is it to the one-party Communist system, which Liu and his comrades said they are happy to work within. Like the students laying siege to Tian An Men, they espouse an amorphous commitment to greater democracy and an end to official corruption.
Liu was interviewed a few hundred feet from a white "Goddess of Democracy" statue that art students had erected in the square early Tuesday. And he suggested that some some old icons of China's 40-year dictatorship of the proletariat may be expendable.
"Whether Marx fits the Chinese situation anymore should be re-examined," said Liu, who wore large, square eyeglasses repaired with a safety-pin instead of a screw. "Under some conditions, Mao Tse-tung thought is correct, but things are changing. Our theory must be developed from here on."
At the heart of the fledgling movement appears to be a sense that the government is aloof and out of touch with the workers it purports to serve through institutional revolution. Union organizers have a keen sense that they Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1989
are a threat to the rigid party system.
"The government is afraid," said Zhao Pinglu, 33, a railroad worker and a member of the union's standing committee. "They are afraid because the truth is in the hands of the people."
(The previous day, there had been erroneous news service reports that Zhao was among the activists arrested; union representatives said those detained were Shen Yinghan, Bai Dongping and Qian Yuming.)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LEVEL 1 - 9 OF 14 STORIES
Copyright 1989 Reuters Reuters
May 31, 1989, Wednesday, AM cycle
LENGTH: 674 words
HEADLINE: NEW SIGN THAT ZHAO LOSING OUT IN CHINA'S POWER STRUGGLE
BYLINE: By Mark O'Neill
DATELINE: BEIJING
BODY: In the clearest sign yet that Communist Party chairman Zhao Ziyang is losing out in China's bitter power struggle, the official People's Daily newspaper pointedly omitted his name Thursday from a list of top leaders. In a story about troops sent here to enforce martial law the daily named top leader Deng Xiaoping as chairman of the Central Military Commission and President Yang Shangkun, vice chairman of the commission, but ignored Zhao, who as first vice-chairman ranks right under Deng.
Reuters, May 31, 1989
"His absence simply confirms what we all suspect, that Zhao won't hold onto his job for much longer," a Western diplomat said.
Zhao has weeks been locked in a struggle within the Communist Party hierarchy for nearly two against more hardline members like Premier Li Peng, who advocate tough measures to curb pro-democracy protests.
China's official media still gave no hint of the whereabouts of Communist Party chief Zhao, who has not been seen in public for 12 days and is widely believed to have been ousted by Deng and other hardliners in the power struggle. On Wednesday night, crowds of students and workers called for the downfall of Li in a noisy demonstration outside the government and Communist Party headquarters, witnesses said.
More than 1,000 people marched to the gates of the walled Zhongnanhai compound close to central Tiananmen Square which has been taken over for the last 19 days by thousands of students campaigning for democratic reforms.
Ignoring emergency regulations, the crowd chanted "Down with Li Peng"- the man who declared martial law in Beijing May 20 but has been unable to enforce it.
Reuters, May 31, 1989 <
BR> "Long live democracy," they shouted.
A handful of troops guarding the ornate gateway took no action against the demonstrators but officials pushed away Western television crews, witnesses said.
Workers also celebrated the release Wednesday of three activists of a newly-founded independent workers' organization which the authorities regard as illegal.
The three workers were said to have been seized in a late-night swoop Monday. Their disappearance triggered marches to city police headquarters and the Public Security Ministry. Police never confirmed the arrests.
The government mounted counter-demonstrations but came nowhere near attracting the hundreds of thousands of people that have taken part in the biggest protest marches in Beijing since the 1949 revolution.
Western reporters in the nearby town of Huairou- outside the martial law zone- watched as more than 1,000 people marched and chanted "Oppose chaos," "Long live the Communist Party" and "Long live the People's Liberation Army."
Reuters, May 31, 1989
Local officials in Daxing to the south of Beijing shouted "Smash the traitorous bandits into little pieces" before what witnesses described as a passive crowd.
As darkness fell a sudden and violent storm swept Tiananmen Square, blowing down some of more than 100 tents erected in the heart of Chinese Communism. A 33-foot version of the Statue of Liberty built by art students opposite the portrait of Communist China's founder, the late chairman Mao Tsetung, swayed in the wind but did not collapse.
Official pronouncments in the state-run media showed the authorities were contemplating a tougher line against the students who have been officially described so far as "patriotic" but sometimes misguided.
"Immediately restore the solemn face of Tiananmen Square," read one banner headline in the Beijing Daily.
"When this is over they will definitely arrest me," said Zhao Pinglu, a leader of the illegal workers' association who broadcast diatribes against the government throughout the day.
Reuters, May 31, 1989
Eleven people have been arrested for joining a convoy of motorcyclists who roared through the city's streets early this month in a novel "ride for democracy." They were accused of disturbing the peace.
Some 150,000 troops remained poised around the city's outskirts. State television showed two generals inspecting their troops but there was no indication of any immediate intention to move into Beijing.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LEVEL 1 - 10 OF 14 STORIES
Copyright 1989 Reuters Reuters
May 31, 1989, Wednesday, AM cycle
LENGTH: 373 words
HEADLINE: WORKERS STEAL THE SHOW IN BATTLE FOR CENTRAL BEIJING AIRSPACE
DATELINE: BEIJING
BODY: A chubby female textile worker broadcasting from a filthy tent in a corner of Tiananmen Square stole the show Wednesday as the ear-piercing battle for central Beijing's airwaves hit a new pitch.
Ever since students began their occupation of the square May 13, their makeshift speaker system rigged up under the central Monument to the People's Heroes has kept up a stream of demands for democracy and freedom.
The government has fought back with powerful megaphones around the square belting out the official Communist line.
Reuters, May 31, 1989
But Wednesday a new station sprang up in the northwest corner of the square, snatching the limelight with perhaps the most vitriolic insults yet to the government of Premier Li Peng, to applause and laughter from a delighted crowd. A thousand listeners roared approval as the announcer chanted: "Arrest Li Peng. Send him to jail. Arrest Li Peng. Overthrow Li Peng."
"This is the voice of the workers of Peking," said Zhao Pinglu, a leader of the illegal Peking Workers Autonomous Federation.
"When this demonstration is over, we will definitely be arrested," she added. Such criticisms as those broadcast on the square, just out of earshot of the Zhongnanhai complex where Communist leaders live and work, are unprecedented in China since the Communists took power in 1949.
The workers' chief announcer was a woman textile worker who sat between slumbering bodies inside the tent and sang anti-government ditties.
Slightly off-key, she began to sing to the tune of "Frere Jacques":
Reuters, May 31, 1989
"And the people sing: overthrow Li Peng, overthrow Li Peng, bring democracy, bring democracy."
One government speaker at the north of the square made long heart-tugging speeches about how protesting students were denying their "younger brothers and sisters" a chance to visit the square Thursday- Children's Day.
"Remember when you were younger, how you looked forward on Children's Day to seeing China's flag flying over the Gate of Heavenly Peace," it said, referring to the gate across from the square where the portrait of the late Chairman Mao Tsetung hangs.
But the noise of competing megaphones and traffic moving slowly down the Avenue of Eternal Peace in front of the speaker drowned out its appeals.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LEVEL 1 - 11 OF 14 STORIES
Copyright 1989 Reuters The Reuter Library Report
May 31, 1989, Wednesday, AM cycle
LENGTH: 566 words
HEADLINE: CHINA STUDENTS, WORKERS PROTEST OUTSIDE COMMUNIST PARTY HQ
BYLINE: By Guy Dinmore
DATELINE: PEKING, May 31
BODY:
Crowds of students and workers called for the downfall of Premier Li Peng in a noisy demonstration outside the Chinese government and Communist Party headquarters in Peking on Wednesday night, eye-witnesses said.
More than 1,000 people marched to the gates of the walled Zhongnanhai compound close to central Tiananmen Square which has been taken over for the last 19 days by thousands of students campaigning for democratic reforms.
Reuters; May 31, 1989
Ignoring emergency regulations, the crowd chanted "Down with Li Peng" -- the man who declared martial law in Peking on May 20 but has been unable to enforce it.
"Long live democracy," they shouted.
A handful of troops guarding the ornate gateway took no action against the demonstrators but officials pushed away Western television crews, witnesses said.
Workers also celebrated the release of three activists of a newly-founded independent workers' organisation which the authorities regard as illegal.
The three workers were said to have been seized in a late-night swoop on Monday. Their disappearance triggered marches to city police headquarters and the Public Security Ministry. Police never confirmed the arrests.
The government mounted counter-demonstrations but came nowhere near attracting the hundreds of thousands of people that have taken part in the biggest protest marches in Peking since the 1949 revolution.
Reuters; May 31, 1989
Western reporters in the nearby town of Huairou -- outside the martial law zone -- watched as more than 1,000 people marched and chanted "Oppose chaos," "Long live the Communist Party" and "Long live the People's Liberation Army".
Local officials in Daxing to the south of Peking shouted "Smash the traitorous bandits into little pieces" before what witnesses described as a passive crowd.
As darkness fell a sudden and violent storm swept Tiananmen Square, blowing down some of more than 100 tents erected in the heart of Chinese communism. A huge replica of New York's Statue of Liberty built by art students opposite the portrait of Communist China's founder, the late chairman Mao Tsetung, swayed in the wind but did not collapse. Official pronouncments in the state-run media showed the authorities were contemplating a tougher line against the students who have been officially described so far as "patriotic" but sometimes misguided. Reuters; May 31, 1989
"Immediately restore the solemn face of Tiananmen Square," read one banner headline in the Peking Daily.
"When this is over they will definitely arrest me," said Zhao Pinglu, a leader of the illegal workers' association.
Eleven people have been arrested for joining a convoy of motorcyclists who roared through the city's streets early this month in a novel "ride for democracy". They were accused of disturbing the peace.
Some 150,000 troops remained poised around the city's outskirts. State television showed two generals inspecting their troops but there was no indication of any immediate intention to move into Peking.
China's official media still gave no hint of the whereabouts of Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang, who has not been seen in public for 12 days and is widely believed to have been ousted by top leader Deng Xiaoping and other hardliners in a power struggle.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Qian Qichen left on an official visit to Ecuador, Cuba and the United States. Diplomats described the trip as an effort to show a return to normality.
Reuters; May 31, 1989
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: 053189 LEVEL 1 - 12 OF 14 STORIES
Copyright 1989 Reuters
The Reuter Library Report
May 31, 1989, Wednesday, AM cycle
LENGTH: 371 words
HEADLINE: WORKERS STEAL THE SHOW IN BATTLE FOR CENTRAL PEKING AIRSPACE
DATELINE: PEKING, May 31
BODY:
A chubby female textile worker broadcasting from a filthy tent in a corner of Tiananmen Square stole the show on Wednesday as the ear-piercing battle for central Peking's airwaves hit a new pitch.
Ever since students began their occupation of the square on May 13, their makeshift speaker system rigged up under the central Monument to the People's Heroes has kept up a stream of demands for democracy and freedom.
The government has fought back with powerful megaphones around the square belting out the official communist line.
Reuters; May 31, 1989
But on Wednesday, a new station sprang up in the northwest corner of the square, snatching the limelight with perhaps the most vitriolic insults to the government yet, to applause and laughter from a delighted crowd.
A thousand listeners roared approval as the announcer chanted: "Arrest Li Peng. Send him to jail. Arrest Li Peng. Overthrow Li Peng."
"This is the voice of the workers of Peking," said Zhao Pinglu, a leader of the illegal Peking Workers Autonomous Federation.
"When this demonstration is over, we will definitely be arrested," he added. Such criticisms as those broadcast on the square, just out of earshot of the Zhongnanhai complex where communist leaders live and work, are unprecedented in China since the communists took power in 1949.
The workers' chief announcer was a woman textile worker who sat between slumbering bodies inside the tent and sang anti-government ditties.
Slightly off-key, she began to sing to the tune of "Frere Jacques":
Reuters; May 31, 1989
"And the people sing: overthrow Li Peng, overthrow Li Peng, bring democracy, bring democracy."
One government speaker at the north of the square made long heart-tugging speeches about how protesting students were denying their "younger brothers and sisters" a chance to visit the square on Children's Day on Thursday.
"Remember when you were younger, how you looked forward on Children's Day to seeing China's flag flying over the Gate of Heavenly Peace," it said, referring to the gate across from the square where the portrait of Chairman Mao Tsetung hangs.
But the noise of competing stations and traffic moving slowly down the Avenue of Eternal Peace in front of the speaker drowned out its appeals.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: 053189
LEVEL 1 - 13 OF 14 STORIES
Copyright 1989 The Times Mirror Company
Los Angeles Times
May 30, 1989, Tuesday, Home Edition
SECTION: Part 1; Page 1; Column 3; Foreign Desk
LENGTH: 940 words
HEADLINE: KEY REFORMER MAY BE OUT OF JOB IN BEIJING
BYLINE: By JIM MANN and DAVID HOLLEY, Times Staff Writers
DATELINE: BEIJING
BODY:
In a new indication of continuing political turmoil, China's official media suggested Monday that Wan Li, the reform-minded head of the country's Parliament, has been at least temporarily stripped of his duties by the Communist Party leadership.
Los Angeles Times, May 30, 1989
Wan has served since last year as head of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top lawmaking body. Wan's downfall would further undercut efforts by pro-democracy demonstrators to challenge the declaration of martial law here.
A newly invigorated core group of thousands of university students, many of them recent arrivals from outlying provinces, remained camped today in Tian An Men Square, the symbolic center of Beijing. They vowed to stay for at least another three weeks to press demands that a pending session of China's legislature overturn the martial-law decree. A crowd of 50,000 to 100,000 onlookers and supporters wandered through the square in a festive mood Monday evening, while student-controlled loudspeakers blared out music and protest speeches. Early today, some Beijing art students erected a white, 30-foot-high "Goddess of Democracy" modeled after the Statue of Liberty. Situated at the north end of the square, it faces the famous portrait of the late Chairman Mao Tse-tung that hangs on the Gate of Heavenly Peace.
"Call Open a Session of the National People's Congress. Push Forward Democracy. Dismiss (Premier) Li Peng. End Military Control," demanded a new red banner with golden characters hung prominently on the Monument to the People's Los Angeles Times, May 30, 1989
Heroes in the center of the square.
On May 20, the premier decreed martial law in Beijing, but the order has not been enforced because Beijing residents immediately barricaded the streets against the advancing troops, and because of continued infighting among political and military leaders divided over whether to use force against the demonstrators.
In a sign that a much-feared crackdown on non-student dissidents may have begun, labor activists at the square today said three of their leaders had been arrested Monday, the Associated Press reported. The agency quoted activists as saying police nabbed Zhao Pinglu, 27, head of the Beijing Independent Labor Union and an employee of the state airline, while two other union leaders were missing and believed under detention.
Troops at Station
Meanwhile, although most of the People's Liberation Army troops brought into the area remained bivouacked outside Beijing, a few had begun to maintain order in the downtown area around the train station.
Los Angeles Times, May 30, 1989
Wan only a week ago represented the Chinese government in a meeting with President Bush at the White House. Wan then cut short his visit to the United States and rushed back to China, apparently seeking to help defuse the tension between the pro-democracy demonstrators and the regime.
At the time, many demonstrators believed Wan was ready to go along with their call for a special legislative session to review the declaration of martial law.
But Wan never reached Beijing. His plane made an unscheduled stop in Shanghai, and he was said to have remained there for medical reasons. He has not been seen in public since. The Chinese press reported Saturday that Wan had come out in support of martial law in a "written speech," which he apparently did not deliver.
On Monday, China's state-controlled television and the official New China News Agency reported that Peng Zhen, an 87-year-old hard-liner who was chairman of the People's Congress until Wan replaced him last year, had presided over a meeting of leading Chinese legislators last Friday.
"Peng was entrusted by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to call the meeting," the news agency said. The account gave no explanation for Wan's absence.
Los Angeles Times, May 30, 1989
Peng was the Chinese leader who spearheaded a 1987 ideological campaign against what was called "bourgeois liberalization" in China after a series of student demonstrations led to the forced resignation of then-Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang.
Now, in the wake of renewed and much larger demonstrations this spring, Peng -- a former mayor of Beijing -- is apparently being called in to help direct a crackdown on deviations from Marxist orthodoxy. Peng is a longtime ally of senior Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, but for years has opposed any political reform that would undermine the power of the Communist Party.
In a speech given considerable prominence on Chinese television Monday night, Peng asserted that "according to the constitution, China is not a capitalist but a socialist republic. It is not led by the capitalist class but by the working class.
'Democratic Dictatorship'
"The authority (in China) is not the bourgeois dictatorship but the people's democratic dictatorship. Therefore, it violates the constitution to conduct acts of bourgeois liberalization in China."
Los Angeles Times, May 30, 1989 <
BR> In another development, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Monday that in a speech to Communist Party leaders last week, Li said the Chinese regime wanted to examine whether foreign governments such as the United States' were influencing the Chinese demonstrators. For most of the last month, the Chinese leadership has avoided blaming the demonstrations on foreigners or foreign influences.
According to the report in the South China Morning Post, Li asserted that the United States had not been happy with China's decision to invite Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to Beijing. The pro-democracy demonstrations overshadowed Gorbachev's meeting with Deng and prevented the Soviet leader from carrying out his planned schedule in Beijing.
GRAPHIC: Photo, Protesters assemble "Goddess of Democracy," loosely modeled after Statue of Liberty, that they created for Beijing square. Associated Press
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LEVEL 1 - 14 OF 14 STORIES
Copyright 1982 The British Broadcasting Corporation
BBC Summary of World Broadcasts
November 17, 1982, Wednesday
SECTION: Part 3 The Far East; B. INTERNAL AFFAIRS; CHINA II; FE/7185/BII/1;
LENGTH: 413 words
HEADLINE: Other Reports;
Shanxi county informs Zhao Ziyang of good harvest
SOURCE: Text
Peking home service 1200 gmt 6 Nov 82
Taiyuan, Shanxi provincial service 2300 gmt 13 Nov 82
BODY:
Pinglu county, Shanxi Province, was the country's second poorest county in the past. This year the county reaped a bumper harvest, removing its lable of poor county which had been eating ''resold grain'' for more than 20 years.
The British Broadcasting Corporation, November 17, 1982
Recently the Pinglu county CCP committee and the county people's government sent a telegram to Premier Zhao Ziyang to report the good news. When Premier Zhao Ziyang inspected the county in June this year, he was briefed by leading comrades of the county Party committee on the county's work. They told the Premier that the county's goal for the current year was to reach a total grain output of 100,000,000 jin a total oil-bearing crop output of 10,000,000 jin and a per capita income of 100 yuan. Premier Zhao said happily: ''Good, write a report to the State Council in the autumn and tell us the results.'' Since the beginning of this year, Pinglu county has paid attention to three things: It has further improved the responsibility system for agricultural production; it has vigorously promoted scientific farming and readjusted crop patterns; it has energetically promoted diversified undertakings. With realistic measures and concrete guidance, the peasants' enthusiasm for production soared, and the achievements far exceeded the original plans. (Peking home service 1200 gmt 6 Nov 82) (''Text'' of 10th November reply from Zhao) To the Pinglu county CCP committee and people's government: I was extremely happy to read your letter. North-west Shanxi is one of the areas for which the Central Committee and State Council are extermely concerned. It is highly encouraging that this year Pinglu county has reaped a bumper harvest, with total grain output exceeding 100,000,000 jin, oil crops exceeding 10,000,000 jin and the peasants' average distribution reaching 190 yuan, thus initially solving the problem of food and clothing and changing the county's situation of relying on external assistance The British Broadcasting Corporation, November 17, 1982
in three aspects. I hope that, in this victorious situation, you will keep clear-headed, seriously sum up experiences, do your work soundly, continue to stabilize and perfect the agricultural production responsibility systems, popularize agricultural science and technology, pay attention to maintaining ecological balance, strive for sustained growth in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, industry and side- line occupations, and do still better in building Pinglu county. (Taiyuan, Shanxi provincial service 2300 gmt 13 Nov 82)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
(12/06/2004 10:31)
Previous writings by the author in the year