LEVEL 1 - 1 OF 14 STORIES
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