../images/line4.gif
-MAY, 1999-
../images/line4.gif

Click on the calendar date in the chart below to see articles posted for that day.

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31

Click on the article title below to view the article.  Follow the 'Back to Top' links to return here.  Follow the 'Back to Article Index' links to return to the group of articles corresponding to that article's post- date.

05/30/1999 US Senate Debates On China Derailed By Dispute
05/29/1999 China Blasts US Senate Resolution On Tiananmen Anniversary
05/29/1999 US Senate Debates On China Derailed By Dispute
  US Senate Debates On China Derailed By Dispute
05/28/1999 NATIONAL INSECURITY
 U.S. muscle-flexing is spawning a new Sino-Russian entente
05/28/1999 TEN YEARS ON
 While the world fixates on Tiananmen, in Beijing citizens and cadres alike are far too busy building a modern China to dwell on the T word
05/17/1999 China's Kosovo Problem
A stray NATO missile hits the wrong building in Belgrade and sets off angry protests in Beijing
05/14/1999 CLOSE CALL Beijing's Falungong protest is a stark reminder of lurking dangers
05/13/1999

E-mail attack blamed on SAR

05/13/1999 Condemnation by Legco turns into war of words
05/13/1999 Nato-supporting Japanese student expelled
05/13/1999 Taipei arsenal stays closed to UN team
05/13/1999 I feared for safety: US Ambassador
05/13/1999 Beijing vows to beat back Nato
05/12/1999 China Says Won't Accept Embassy Attack a Mistake
05/12/1999 U.S. Ambassador Emerges from Beijing Compound
05/12/1999 Chinese Fume over U.S. Visas as Protests Ebb
05/12/1999 Ashes of China Embassy Victims Back Home
05/12/1999 China Seeking Major Concessions from U.S. - Paper
05/12/1999 Schroeder to Urge China to Help End Kosovo Crisis
05/12/1999 Beijing and European Union Resume Talks on China's WTO Entry
05/12/1999 North Korea Renews Condemnation of Chinese Embassy NATO Bombing
05/12/1999 Malaysia Expresses Shock at Bombing of Chinese Embassy
05/12/1999 Hong Kong Hackers Leave Graffiti on U.S. Government Websites: NBC
05/12/1999 Hong Kong Lowers Flag in Respect for Bomb Victims
05/12/1999 US missions to fly half-mast flags as gesture of condolence to nation
05/12/1999 Schroeder due to meet Chinese leaders
05/12/1999 National figures expected to attend journalists' funeral as ashes flown home
05/12/1999 Strikes must be halted before negotiations start, envoy told
05/12/1999 China mourns victims of Belgrade embassy bombing
05/12/1999 Chinese Embassy bombing exposes raw historical nerve
05/12/1999 Kissinger: 'Chinese Behavior is Excessive and Really Unacceptable'
05/12/1999 Americans lie low as China seethes with anger
05/11/1999 China Avoids Direct Response To Clinton's Apology
05/11/1999 China Demands NATO Bombing Halt
05/11/1999 Taiwan Right-Wing Group Protests Against NATO Embassy Bombing
05/11/1999 HK Pro-Democracy Leader Condemns Embassy Bombing
05/11/1999 China Stops Showing U.S. Films
05/11/1999 Taiwan Right-Wing Group Protests Against NATO Embassy Bombing Media Ignore Ongoing Anti-NATO Protests
05/11/1999 Protests Draw Monks, Priests and Artists
05/11/1999 Italy: NATO Must Do More Than Apologize
05/11/1999 Chinese Embassy Bombing Stirs Asian Protests
05/11/1999 Milosevic Promises China Help In Embassy Probe
05/11/1999 "Embassy Was Clearly Targeted," Claims Foreign Ministry
05/11/1999 China Assures Foreigners' Safety
05/11/1999 Chinese Media Calls NATO "Archcriminal"
05/11/1999 China Dissatisfied With Embassy Bombing Apology
05/11/1999 Ambassador: Protests Sour Sino- U. S. Relations
05/11/1999 Police Promise No Fourth Day Of Embassy Protests
05/11/1999 Chernomyrdin Begins Whirlwind Talks In China
05/11/1999 Warnings issued on travel to mainland
05/11/1999 Blame lies with old maps, says Nato official
05/11/1999 Politburo says crisis must not be allowed to damage trade ties
05/11/1999 European Union-China summit scrapped
05/11/1999 Blair plays down Dalai Lama talks
05/11/1999 4 years for dissident
05/11/1999 Editorial: Unleashing furies
05/11/1999 Eggs, ink hurled at mission in Taipei
05/11/1999 Guangzhou students keep up rage
05/11/1999

Boston off after 'barbarous' bombing

05/11/1999 Hundreds mourn strike victims
05/11/1999

Chernomyrdin in Beijing for crisis talks

05/11/1999 Legco to debate anti-Nato motion
05/11/1999 Police to step up mission guards after incidents
05/11/1999 Poor to gain from university's Net project
05/11/1999 New Clinton apology for attack
05/10/1999 Chinese Anger at NATO Bombing Being Channeled by Communist Leadership
05/10/1999 US Ambassador Expresses "Profound Sorrow"
05/10/1999 US Evacuates Consulate in Chengdu
05/10/1999 Chinese Press Blasts NATO Bombings, Mourns Dead Journalists
05/10/1999 HK Pro-Democracy Leader Condemns Embassy Bombing
05/10/1999 Taiwan Activists Torch U.S. Flags
05/10/1999 Beijing Confirms Bombing of Chinese Embassy in Belgrade
05/10/1999 US Ambassador "Urgently" Summoned to Hear Official Protest in Beijing
05/10/1999 Protest Near US Embassy in Beijing over NATO Bombing
05/10/1999 China Strongly Condemns 'Barbarian' NATO Strike on Belgrade Embassy
05/10/1999 Embassy Bombing Comes at Worst Time for China-West Relations
05/10/1999 Iran Condemns NATO Bombing of Chinese Embassy in Belgrade
05/10/1999 Iraq: NATO Attacked Chinese Embassy on Purpose
05/10/1999 Chinese Students in Tokyo Protest NATO Bombing
05/10/1999 Vietnam Condemns NATO Bombardment of Chinese Embassy
05/10/1999 China Seeks To Calm Foreigners' Nerves
05/10/1999 Anti-NATO Protestors Keep Pouring into Beijing Embassy District
05/10/1999 Chinese Democracy Party Warned to Stay Away from Protests
05/10/1999 Authorities Admit Orchestrating Raging Protests
05/10/1999 China Demands Apology Amid More Protests
05/10/1999 China Suspends Certain Links With U.S.
05/10/1999 Schroeder's China Visit To Be Downgraded
05/10/1999 U.S. Ambassador Describes Security Fears
05/10/1999 China Suspends U.S. Dialogue
05/10/1999 Asian Papers Urge Restraint After Embassy Bombing
05/10/1999 China Suspends Human Rights Dialogue
05/10/1999 China Suspends Military Ties With U.S.
05/10/1999 Clinton Writes To Jiang Offering Regrets
05/10/1999 Beijing Embassies Quiet On Monday Morning
05/10/1999 Yugoslav Minister Meets Chinese Delegation
05/10/1999 Dalai Lama: "West Should Forgive Milosevic"
05/10/1999 Conspiracy Theories Abound After Bomb Attack
05/10/1999 Americans Become Beijing's Public Enemy No. 1
05/10/1999 Anti-US Demonstrator Attacks CNN Journalist in Beijing
05/10/1999 Chinese Anger at NATO Bombing Being Channeled by Communist Leadership
05/10/1999 Marchers try to break down consulate door
05/10/1999 Editorial: Relieving tension
05/10/1999 Urgent US action needed to soothe Beijing and prevent collapse of ties
05/10/1999 Consulate in SAR pelted with eggs
05/09/1999 Chinese vice president's speech on embassy bombing
05/09/1999 Britain advises against non-vital travel to China
05/09/1999 Up to 20,000 Chinese protest embassy bombing
05/09/1999 Chinese in Belgrade, Beijing protest NATO embassy bombing
05/08/1999 Embassy Bombing Comes at Worst Time for China-West Relations
05/08/1999 Taiwan's main opposition softens pro-independence stance
05/08/1999 China protesters set fire to U.S. official's home
 Americans in Beijing warned to 'raise security awareness'
05/08/1999 Anti-NATO protests flare in Beijing for second day
05/07/1999 TREMORS OF DISCONTENT
A demonstration by a quasi-religious sect shakes Beijing's leaders and heightens their worries about social unrest

../images/line3.gif

US Senate Debates On China Derailed By Dispute

WASHINGTON, May 30, 1999 -- (Reuters) The U.S. Senate on Thursday adopted its first measure to counter allegations of Chinese espionage, but broader debates on the issue were derailed by partisan disputes in both chambers of Congress.

Senate Republican leaders pulled a proposal to reorganize the Energy Department's counterintelligence and nuclear security operations after a Democratic filibuster, promising to bring it back in June.

The dispute erupted after the Senate adopted on a voice vote Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott's package of proposals to tighten safeguards at nuclear labs and improve export controls on sensitive military technology.

Earlier, a House of Representatives debate on a series of proposals to counter allegations of Chinese spying was abruptly postponed after a dispute over which measures would be considered.

The House immediately adjourned for its week-long Memorial Day recess, putting off consideration of the China proposals until it resumes work on June 8.

The measures followed release of a congressional report finding that China obtained a wealth of nuclear secrets from the United States during two decades of concerted espionage at U.S. nuclear labs and through lax export controls.

"I'm very disappointed," Lott told told reporters after the dispute on the proposal to reorganize the Energy Department to improve nuclear security, offered as an amendment to a $288 billion defense authorization bill.

"This does not bode well for us being able to deal with the China problem and security in a bipartisan way," Lott said.

Lott's proposals, adopted without debate after they were cleared by Democratic leaders, would improve procedures for conducting security checks on nuclear laboratory employees and boost counter-intelligence training at the labs.

The measures also address security problems with the overseas launches of U.S. commercial satellites, requiring the secretary of defense to enhance Pentagon monitoring and boost the intelligence community's role in the launches.

Under the amendment, the president would notify Congress when an investigation begins of a possible violation of export control laws in connection with a commercial satellite launch.

At the urging of Democrats, Lott's language was modified to allow exceptions if the president determined the notification would jeopardize a criminal investigation.

Those measures were in response to the report's finding that Beijing took advantage of security lapses during the failed launches of U.S. satellites in China to obtain advanced technological information.

But Lott said they were only a first step, with more proposals expected during the summer. He said the Energy Department bill would be offered when the Senate authorizes spending for intelligence programs.

"This is probably long overdue. We need to take a look at how that department is run," Lott said.

Democrats warned against a rush to judgment in the wake of the spying allegations, saying now was not the time for a debate and vote on a reorganization plan that had not been subject to any congressional hearings or scrutiny.

They said the measure was opposed by the Energy Department and could prompt a White House veto of the bill.

"This is not the appropriate way to legislate," Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said.

In the House, Republican leaders put off debate on a dozen proposals spurred by the China spying charges when they realized they did not have enough support to pass the rules governing the debate.

They had angered both Democrats and Republicans by refusing to debate an amendment by Washington Representative Norman Dicks, the ranking Democrat on the select China panel, and a measure approved by the House Armed Services Committee that cut off funding for Kosovo military operations after Sept. 30.

"I view this as an opportunity," Representative Christopher Cox, chairman of the select panel, said after the bill was pulled. He said he had been unable to coordinate with Dicks on the amendments but more would be allowed for debate when the bill was reconsidered.

A member of his committee, Republican Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, abandoned the panel's bipartisan stance on Thursday, charging the Clinton administration deliberately relaxed security controls and export policies in exchange for political and financial support from Chinese nationals and U.S. companies.

Weldon said White House claims the security lapses also happened during earlier administrations was "hogwash." He pointed to a string of White House decisions -- including the relaxing of controls to export high performance computers -- beginning in 1993 that helped China acquire military technology.

"The broader and more damaging issue is the wholesale auction of sensitive American technology to the highest bidder," Weldon told a news conference.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Blasts US Senate Resolution On Tiananmen Anniversary

BEIJING, May 29, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) China on Friday blasted a non-binding resolution passed by the US Senate commemorating the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, expressing "strong displeasure."

"China expresses its strong displeasure and resolute opposition to this," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"This motion wantonly distorts the facts of the human rights situation in China, and has totally exposed the ulterior anti-China motives (of a small number of congressmen)," it said.

"China has long seen through their tricks. Their conspiracy to use human rights as an excuse to interfere in China's internal affairs is doomed to failure."

The Senate resolution called on China to free political prisoners and end oppression of peaceful dissidents.

"We must never forget" the hundreds and possibly thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators slain by Chinese troops June 4, 1989, said Republican Tim Hutchinson, the measure's principal backer in the senate.

"The Chinese government knows what it has done, and it is afraid, afraid of its own people," Hutchinson said on the Senate floor, adding that he would introduce the measure annually.

The motion -- which passed without a vote, by unanimous consent -- condemns "ongoing and egregious human rights abuses," expresses sympathy for the victims' families, calls on China to compensate them as well as ratify the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights.

The House of Representatives passed a similar measure Tuesday.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


US Senate Debates On China Derailed By Dispute

WASHINGTON, May 29, 1999 -- (Reuters) The U.S. Senate on Thursday adopted its first measure to counter allegations of Chinese espionage, but broader debates on the issue were derailed by partisan disputes in both chambers of Congress.

Senate Republican leaders pulled a proposal to reorganize the Energy Department's counterintelligence and nuclear security operations after a Democratic filibuster, promising to bring it back in June.

The dispute erupted after the Senate adopted on a voice vote Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott's package of proposals to tighten safeguards at nuclear labs and improve export controls on sensitive military technology.

Earlier, a House of Representatives debate on a series of proposals to counter allegations of Chinese spying was abruptly postponed after a dispute over which measures would be considered.

The House immediately adjourned for its week-long Memorial Day recess, putting off consideration of the China proposals until it resumes work on June 8.

The measures followed release of a congressional report finding that China obtained a wealth of nuclear secrets from the United States during two decades of concerted espionage at U.S. nuclear labs and through lax export controls.

"I'm very disappointed," Lott told told reporters after the dispute on the proposal to reorganize the Energy Department to improve nuclear security, offered as an amendment to a $288 billion defense authorization bill.

"This does not bode well for us being able to deal with the China problem and security in a bipartisan way," Lott said.

Lott's proposals, adopted without debate after they were cleared by Democratic leaders, would improve procedures for conducting security checks on nuclear laboratory employees and boost counter-intelligence training at the labs.

The measures also address security problems with the overseas launches of U.S. commercial satellites, requiring the secretary of defense to enhance Pentagon monitoring and boost the intelligence community's role in the launches.

Under the amendment, the president would notify Congress when an investigation begins of a possible violation of export control laws in connection with a commercial satellite launch.

At the urging of Democrats, Lott's language was modified to allow exceptions if the president determined the notification would jeopardize a criminal investigation.

Those measures were in response to the report's finding that Beijing took advantage of security lapses during the failed launches of U.S. satellites in China to obtain advanced technological information.

But Lott said they were only a first step, with more proposals expected during the summer. He said the Energy Department bill would be offered when the Senate authorizes spending for intelligence programs.

"This is probably long overdue. We need to take a look at how that department is run," Lott said.

Democrats warned against a rush to judgment in the wake of the spying allegations, saying now was not the time for a debate and vote on a reorganization plan that had not been subject to any congressional hearings or scrutiny.

They said the measure was opposed by the Energy Department and could prompt a White House veto of the bill.

"This is not the appropriate way to legislate," Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said.

In the House, Republican leaders put off debate on a dozen proposals spurred by the China spying charges when they realized they did not have enough support to pass the rules governing the debate.

They had angered both Democrats and Republicans by refusing to debate an amendment by Washington Representative Norman Dicks, the ranking Democrat on the select China panel, and a measure approved by the House Armed Services Committee that cut off funding for Kosovo military operations after Sept. 30.

"I view this as an opportunity," Representative Christopher Cox, chairman of the select panel, said after the bill was pulled. He said he had been unable to coordinate with Dicks on the amendments but more would be allowed for debate when the bill was reconsidered.

A member of his committee, Republican Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, abandoned the panel's bipartisan stance on Thursday, charging the Clinton administration deliberately relaxed security controls and export policies in exchange for political and financial support from Chinese nationals and U.S. companies.

Weldon said White House claims the security lapses also happened during earlier administrations was "hogwash." He pointed to a string of White House decisions -- including the relaxing of controls to export high performance computers -- beginning in 1993 that helped China acquire military technology.

"The broader and more damaging issue is the wholesale auction of sensitive American technology to the highest bidder," Weldon told a news conference.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


NATIONAL INSECURITY
U.S. muscle-flexing is spawning a new Sino-Russian entente

May 28, 1999

RELATIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND Russia have always been difficult. The Mongol invasions of the 13th century implanted in the Russian psyche a deep fear - and suspicion - of "Asiatic hordes." The ups and downs of the subsequent centuries gave way after Russia's Bolshevik Revolution to a period in which the victorious Soviet Communists tutored their fledgling Chinese counterparts in the ways of revolt and warfare. But the prescription proved wrong: While the Soviets pushed their own model of urban uprising, Mao Zedong knew China's revolution had to be won from the countryside. Mao prevailed - over both the Chinese Nationalists and his Soviet advisers.

After the birth of the People's Republic in 1949, the Cold War helped nurture a period of comradeship. But it ended within a decade, when Russian specialist advisers were withdrawn. Mutual suspicions were fueled by Russia's intrigue in Mongolia and designs on Xinjiang. Ties plumbed a nadir in 1969 when troops clashed over a disputed island in the Ussuri River at the nations' border. In recent years, however, things have begun to turn around. Now, the Sino-Russian détente has been given a big push by NATO's military assault on Moscow ally Yugoslavia and the Western alliance's destruction of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The main catalyst - as it was during the Cold War - is growing U.S. power and Washington's readiness to use it abroad. With the touted "strategic partnership" between China and America now in limbo, is a new one arising between Beijing and Moscow?

In many respects, yes. Since Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev broke the ice by visiting Beijing ten years ago, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin have each made three trips to the other's country. Another summit is scheduled for November. A hotline has been established. Sales and licensing of Russian arms to China have risen substantially, as has civilian trade. Russian energy can help propel Chinese economic growth. And six months ago, the two sides resolved a longstanding border dispute.

There are question marks, of course. In recent years, China's leaders have recoiled in horror at the chaos in Russia, which they see as a potential source of instability. They congratulate themselves on having focused on economic rather than political reform - one reason, they believe, their economy is still growing while Russia's is in tatters. Yeltsin's latest dismissal of his government and his brush with impeachment have reinforced Chinese doubts about Russian stability and reliability. Moreover, Beijing still frets about how easily Moscow allowed the old Soviet republics to go their own way, setting a possible example for China's own non-Han regions.

But compelling factors are pushing the two together. Just as China frets about its territorial integrity, Russia worries about growing Western encroachment on its sphere of influence. Moscow has long lost its East European satellites, some of whom have even joined its nemesis, NATO. And Beijing knows the U.S. is the only power likely to challenge it on Taiwan. It is not hard to foresee a de facto accord: Russia would support China on Taiwan, while Beijing would back Moscow not only on Kosovo, but also in opposition to the continued expansion of NATO or of its mission to police the world.

Moreover, the Communists and ultra-nationalists who dominate Russia's parliament are increasingly entranced by the old idea of a strong Eurasian "heartland," centered around the former Soviet Union and neighboring Slavic and Islamic lands such as Yugoslavia, Iran and Iraq. Such a bloc would have the political heft to test the Atlantic alliance, led by the U.S. and Western Europe, as well as its values. NATO recently fed such sentiments by striking at the perimeter of this heartland, in its air campaign against Yugoslavia, and by incorporating Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into its ranks.

Russia's Communists can easily find common geopolitical grounds with hardline leaders in the Chinese Communist Party. Russian Premier Yevgeny Primakov, so unceremoniously dumped last week, is a top advocate of close ties with Asia, including Iran and Iraq. It may not be coincidental that China has made noises about resuming its nuclear and other military cooperation with Iran and Pakistan, which it had curtailed in order to win favor in Washington. In the wake of the embassy bombing, Beijing will want to put more distance between its own foreign policy and that of the U.S. Rising tensions between China and Russia on the one hand, and the U.S. and Japan on the other, will be unsettling in East Asia. Taiwan aside, potential flashpoints include the Korean peninsula and the Kurile islands, claimed by both Japan and Russia.

Still, there are limits to the budding Sino-Russian romance. China's leaders know that the help they need to develop a world-class economy will more likely come from the U.S. than Russia. True, the volume of China-Russia trade has nearly doubled during the 1990s to $6.8 billion. But that remains just 12.3% of Sino-U.S. trade. Beijing still wants to join the World Trade Organization, and Russia, a non-member, will not be able to help. Yet nationalism and national insecurity can produce a heady, irrational mix. Unless the U.S. takes steps to temper their concerns about its behavior as a "rogue superpower," China and Russia are likely to move closer still.

From Asiaweek

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


TEN YEARS ON
While the world fixates on Tiananmen, in Beijing citizens and cadres alike are far too busy building a modern China to dwell on the T word

May 28, 1999

By Ron Gluckman

I'M STANDING AT THE Gate of Heavenly Peace, where a half-century ago Chairman Mao Zedong launched Red China. Or at least that's what we called the place when I was growing up in America. (Sadly, that's what a lot of my compatriots still call it.) For a long time, though, it's been the People's Republic. In some ways, it is still red, especially at the Chairman's palace in the middle of People's Square. Go there on an average day and the People's people mob the place. Two by two, they storm up the steps, into Mao's mausoleum. The Great Helmsman's body lies like the Party's crown jewel on a red cushion in a huge glass case - glowing red in the velvet light. Mao is in an eternal sleep, blissfully unaware that once again foreign barbarians are bad-mouthing the nation he invented. Having heard quite a lot of that myself lately, I am in Beijing to take the pulse during a year of poignant anniversaries.

Not far from Mao's mausoleum is the People's Scoreboard. Blinking red lights declare less than 24 million seconds till the end of the millennium - and some of the biggest people's parties People's Square has seen. This same clock counted down Hong Kong's return to China. Now, it is reset to record the score on Dec. 20, when Macau returns to the motherland. A small triumph maybe, but in this banner year of big anniversaries - the 50th of the People's Republic among them - Beijing is beaming about even the dullest red-letter days, all the while side-stepping more troublesome dates.

When the clock clicks down to Day 199, don't expect any parties from the Party. June 4 is one anniversary China would just as soon forget - if only the world would let it. Ten years ago, tanks rolled into People's Square, which became forever a name of infamy - Tiananmen.

The square is completely sealed off behind a two-meter blue fence. Red Army troops guard each entrance and discourage crowds. The authorities are understandably jittery. A few weeks ago, thousands of followers of the Falungong cult staged a silent protest right outside the leadership compound. Then, earlier this month, a U.S. missile strike on China's embassy in Belgrade set off perhaps the most vociferious anti-foreign protests since the Boxer Rebellion.

Beijing has banned gatherings around the square, which, in any case, will remain closed June 4 as refurbishment continues for the Oct. 1 party, when half a million people will mob Tiananmen. The closure's timing has prompted renewed bad press. Western journalists are as Tiananmen-obsessed as any cadre. And nobody need dispatch correspondents to write anniversary articles. They can be penned by old China hands, lodged at Hong Kong's Mandarin Oriental Hotel, where they can discuss the dreadful circumstances in China with dissidents who haven't set foot on the mainland in 10 years.

For an alternative take on Tiananmen, taxi half an hour northwest of the square. Clothing boutiques, music shops and Game Boy stalls line the streets around a cluster of universities in Haidian. Earlier this month, students were busy protesting outside NATO embassies. Normally they congregate in the Hopeful Cafe and Stranger Bar. They slurp noodles beneath pictures of American football teams and talk cars, clothes, music, movies, relationships - like college kids anywhere. Tiananmen may be flavor-of-the-month around the globe. But not here. "We want democracy, but not like Tiananmen," says one student. "We want change with order. Tiananmen was important, but everyone says it was a mistake. Change should come from reform, not protest." The buzzword among college students these days is economy, not democracy. Jobs are what they worry about.

Unlike the Beijing leadership and foreign media, today's students aren't locked in a Tiananmen time capsule. With good reason. They are far better informed than a decade ago. In Haidian, Internet cafes proliferate. Online time costs under 25 cents for 10 minutes. Inside, I check the reliability of widely printed accounts that document strict Internet control.

Service is fast and I easily access various human-rights sites. Some are blocked, but students steer me to overseas pathways that circumvent the state's feeble attempt to filter information. Not that many students themselves bother. They are too busy exchanging e-mails about business opportunities, surfing sites displaying PC prices or downloading Spice Girls clips.

China is attempting a Great Leap Online. With 1.2 billion people, it boasts only 2.1 million Internet users - half a million of them in Beijing. By another measure, there are just 1.6 Internet hosts per 100,000 people - one-hundredth the rate in Malaysia, and less than a third that of Indonesia. China has tackled this shortcoming in novel ways. Eighteen months ago, Beijing Telecom launched Capital Online. Customers dial 2631, type 263 for user and password, and, viola, instant access. No forms, no sign-up stigma, no server. Perhaps the freest connection anywhere.

Not that China will get much credit in the West. For this, or more sublime achievements. Like talking. That's the rage these days. Hop in a cab and the driver immediately launches into a tirade. Politics, rules and reforms; no topic is off-limits. In street stalls, too, people are talking. Loud, spunky, outspoken. Non-stop. A few years ago, silence was golden, and the walls had ears. Among the most popular programs on television these days is Say What You Think. Television crews roam the streets and urge people to do just that.

And check out the music. Not so long ago the nation's repertoire was regime-limited to a handful of classical movements and one opera. Now punk bands rage at Scream Club near Peking University. "The younger generation is much more sophisticated than 10 years ago," Cui Jian tells me. The fabled rock star and Tiananmen hero adds: "They have different tastes. Things are freer. They are exposed to way more influences than we ever knew."

But are free tunes and free thinking the same, I wonder? Just how far has Beijing really come in the 10 years since Tiananmen? It's time to tap two sources from opposite ends of the political spectrum - a senior Party official and a Tiananmen radical. Read on and guess who is who.

The first session takes place in a five-star hotel, where we exchange stiff greetings before moving upstairs to a pretentious restaurant. There, I have my worst (and priciest) Beijing meal. And talk about a stilted conversation. I ask questions through a translator and receive for my pains a stream of self-righteous dogma.

My next interviewee is quite a contrast. He suggests an eatery that serves cuisine from Xinjiang, the northwestern Muslim region battling for autonomy. We're quaffing beers, listening to lively Turkic music, while my source rails about the system. "The Communist Party is totally corrupt!" he shouts. "Even they know it. Corruption is our worst problem. But they can do nothing about [it]." He's outspoken, eloquent and only slightly drunk. The Tiananmen radical, right? Wrong: He's the ranking Communist official.

Now meet Ren Wanding, a man truly trapped in time. Ren is dressed in a green sweater and brown, leather coat. He looks deep and introspective. You guessed it. Ren is a dissident. Boy is he ever. "The rights problem hasn't changed much in China in the last 10 years," he says severely. And reforms? Shams to fool the West. Hmm. Something doesn't add up here. But never mind, because Ren's credentials are impeccable: a total of 11 years in prison.

He begins his discourse with a rant about his more famous overseas colleagues - the ones in New York who spend more time bickering among themselves than getting things done. I have a sneaking suspicion that Ren resents their notoriety; hardly anyone pays him any attention in China - unless a Western reporter needs a quote about Amnesty International's annual human-rights roundup. "I'm not allowed to meet journalists, but I do anyway." Then he adds: "Things have become a bit more relaxed." He can say that again.

Two nights later I'm with my new Party pal. "The dissidents have been bad for China," he says. "Look at them. They aren't good politicians. None of them. Some are clever and good thinkers, but the best went abroad." This really bugs him. "China must come up with new ideas, new approaches. The government knows this, but where will we find the new thinkers? Where will we find individuals who know how to think for themselves? After all these years in this system, how are we ever going to come up with a China Bill Gates?"

Then he orders more beer and quizzes me relentlessly about America. Not casual, but probing, questions. He wants to dissect how decisions are made in the U.S political system, as if I have a pipeline to Clinton. Even over drinks, he is no nine-five Commie. He's part of a team of advisers reshaping China into a future powerhouse. He looks at politics the same way the Japanese did the electronics industry after the war, or the Koreans shipyards. Take them apart, copy and reassemble.

"It's a big problem," he adds solemnly. "We want to be opening up, but want to see something new develop. We don't want communism. That's over. But we don't want capitalism either. We see how it has developed in America and see the problems with that. We don't want that model. We want something new."

Perhaps the Party is right to look ahead - not back. And to challenge the naysayers. After all, what nation on earth has moved forward so fast in the last decade. Still, the world's attention remains riveted on Tiananmen. Even the People's people have their own misgivings. Singer Cui Jian, who recorded Get Over That Day, tells me: "Tiananmen is still so sensitive, even after 10 years. People are making so much money, you might not think it's important anymore. But some people have deep pain. Some people will remember forever." My Party pal is surprisingly flexible on most subjects, but not this one. "China won't apologize for Tiananmen. Not now. Maybe not ever. It's certainly too early now."

So, the ghosts continue to roam the square, where a clock ticks off Red China glories as the Gate of Heavenly Peace overlooks a scene that is anything but peaceful. Construction chaos fills Tiananmen as its only resident, Mao, commutes to work each day. His body moves by conveyor from earthquake-proof chamber to the viewing stand at 8 a.m., then back inside by noon. Mao reportedly received a new nose recently, and soon his square will have a new floor. Plus greenery. There also will be period street lamps glowing on boulevards leading to Mao's house, as Beijing restores the area to its 1949-era glory for the 50th anniversary party on Oct.1.

Where it goes from there is anyone's guess. But some time before midnight, in secret, a new portrait of Mao will be hung from the Gate of Heavenly Peace. This much is certain: The Chairman will look over People's Square in fresh shades of Red radiance, but the China he sees before him, he will not recognize.

From Asiaweek

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China's Kosovo Problem
A stray NATO missile hits the wrong building in Belgrade and sets off angry protests in Beijing

David McIntyre/Black Star for TIME

By ADI IGNATIUS

May 17, 1999

Accidents happen. We know that from our everyday lives, also from watching wars on CNN. But if NATO missiles had to go astray over Belgrade, it's hard to imagine a worse target than the Chinese embassy. With the NATO military alliance trying to win broad international support for a plan to end the bloodshed in Yugoslavia and establish a Kosovo peacekeeping presence, the last thing it needs is an angry permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

But that's what it's got. While it is highly unlikely that NATO planes hit the embassy intentionally, many Chinese believe it was no accident. Beijing's official responses condemned the bombing as a "barbaric attack" and "a gross violation of Chinese sovereignty ... seldom seen in diplomatic history." At least three Chinese died in the bombing, including a pair of journalists. Another was missing, and more than 20 were hurt. The embassy compound, located near the Hotel Yugoslavia--which NATO did have in its sights--was hit before dawn on Saturday during one of the heaviest bombing attacks since the campaign began more than six weeks ago.

As news of the embassy blast spread through Beijing, a general sense of anger quickly erupted into action. More than a dozen "big-character" protest posters were tacked up to the walls at Peking University, traditionally a hotbed of student activism. On Saturday afternoon 3,000 students descended on the U.S. embassy, arriving in a convoy of buses from campuses outside the city center. They surrounded the compound and chanted angrily in unison. Hundreds of onlookers gathered, cheering them on. "The Americans have gone crazy," said Chen Feng, a Chinese photographer who chanced upon the protest.

The demonstrations quickly gathered steam, and rallies were reported in several other cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. In Chengdu, protesters set the American consul-general's home ablaze. In Beijing, several hundred students from one university raised their fists and shouted, in English: USA f--- off! They sang China's national anthem, unfurled banners condemning U.S. "imperialism" and screamed denunciations of Americans as the "new Nazis." One group burned a mock American flag; others threw bottles, rocks and tomatoes, shattering many embassy windows. "We'll keep protesting until the attitude of the U.S. changes," said Song Gang, a political-science major at Peking University. He held a banner that said pay back the debt in blood. Late Saturday a rougher group of demonstrators, including many workers, took to Beijing's streets. They attacked both the British and American embassies with chunks of concrete; many smashed diplomatic cars. Further rallies were held Sunday.

From Time Magazine

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


CLOSE CALL
Beijing's Falungong protest is a stark reminder of lurking dangers

THOUGH IT SEEMS LIKE a contradiction in terms, what assembled in Beijing on April 25 was a disciplined mob. The silent sit-in outside the compound housing China's political elite was widely described as the largest protest in Beijing since students gathered in Tiananmen Square exactly ten years ago. Many observers also remarked upon the forbearance of the authorities in permitting the 10,000-strong crowd to carry out its dramatic defiance and then to disperse quietly. But China's leaders were clearly rattled by the Falungong (Buddhist Law) sect, a group that combines qigong, or traditional breathing exercises, and Buddhism. In a year of unusual economic and social hardship, they have many reasons to worry.

One is the sheer number of Falungong followers. Li Hongzhi, the sect's U.S.-based leader, claims that there are 70 million in China - that's over 10 million more than Communist Party members. The group has shown it can readily put large crowds on the streets. In a less-publicized incident in Tianjin, thousands of adherents reportedly surrounded the offices of a science magazine that had criticized the sect. (One of the Beijing protesters' demands was the dismissal of the editor.) Members aside, tens of millions of ordinary Chinese practice qiqong.

Then there is history. This year is studded with important Chinese anniversaries. Just past is the 80th year of the May 4 Movement, and coming soon is the tenth of the Tiananmen protests. Those events, led by university students, were secular, modernist, democratic and even scientific in nature. Falungong represents something entirely different. Mystical and mass-based, it goes even deeper into China's psyche and history. Beijing's leaders are mindful that the Han Dynasty fell in the 3rd century after revolts led by faith-healing cults known as the Yellow Turbans. Similarly, the bloody Taiping rebellion of the last century was headed by a cult figure who claimed to be the brother of Jesus Christ. And unlike the activism for democracy, Falungong has purely indigenous roots, uncontaminated, in the eyes of many Chinese, by foreign influences.

Moreover, sect members include the unhappy and the disenfranchised - from people rendered jobless by economic reform to those cast into a moral vacuum by the demise of Marxism. They harbor grievances that resonate deeply in Chinese society. In the countryside, peasants have besieged local government offices, complaining about corruption or unfair taxes. Beijing will now wonder who might emulate the Falungong's direct, if peaceful, manner of protest - and with what consequences for stability.

The sect claims that what it wants is respect for its views and practices. Fair enough. But adherents must also accept that they cannot just intimidate or threaten writers, academics and others who publicly take issue with their beliefs. The group must learn to coexist peacefully with others in a secular and increasingly pluralistic society. Members deny any intention to mix mysticism and politics - a wise position they should stick to. For their part, Chinese authorities must expand their tolerance of expression and broaden avenues through which the disgruntled can let off steam. One way is to push ahead with efforts to expand elections at village and township levels. The Falungong face-off is a stark reminder of the dangers that lurk when public grievances have few outlets.

From Asiaweek

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


E-mail attack blamed on SAR

Thursday  May 13  1999

ANNE STEWART and Agencies

Hong Kong hackers are believed to be behind an e-mail attack on the White House Web site which closed it down.

The site was shut down after the hackers, angered by the Nato bombing, broke into the system and left "cyber graffiti" critical of Nato's Kosovo operation.

"An attempt was made . . . to break into the system that operates the White House Web page," said White House spokesman Barry Toiv.

Another spokesman said: "The website has been overwhelmed by a number of e-mails sent from China."

US media reported, however, that most of the hackers were Hong Kong-based.

The problem was discovered when White House aides could not log on to the Internet late on Monday afternoon.

However, no other computer systems at the White House were affected because the Web site runs on an independent system, spokesman Mike Hammer said.

Hong Kong police said last night that they had not been asked by US authorities to investigate.

The Web site for the US embassy in Beijing was also attacked and defaced by hackers, an official at the US consulate in Shanghai said.

According to the official China Daily, the hackers inserted the slogan "Down with the barbarians" into the embassy's main page and replaced an image of ambassador James Sasser with the same slogan in Chinese characters.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Condemnation by Legco turns into war of words

JIMMY CHEUNG

Thursday  May 13  1999

Anti-American sentiments reached boiling point last night as lawmakers condemned the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

Patriotic speeches erupted into attacks among rivals when the motion was carried unanimously at the end of a 3.5-hour debate in a sitting which began with a minute's silence for the victims.

Dr Leong Che-hung, who moved the motion on behalf of the Legco House Committee, said Nato's attack was an obvious invasion of Chinese sovereignty and showed disrespect for the Chinese people's lives.

Legislators were especially dissatisfied with the US explanation that the mistake was due to an outdated map.

"I think it is really ridiculous for the United States to do that," Dr Leong said.

He also said the apology made by US President Bill Clinton was not sincere enough and was probably forced by the nationwide demonstrations in China rather than by his own conscience.

Democratic Party leader Martin Lee Chu-ming mourned the tragedy but said atrocities committed by Yugoslavia should not be overlooked because of what he termed "Nato mistargeting".

Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) chairman Tsang Yok-sing said he was shocked that Mr Lee echoed the position of the US and Nato. DAB vice-chairman Cheng Kai-nam said: "Those who speak of American democracy and freedom should wake up."

Liberal Party vice-chairwoman Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee criticised the US for having double standards.

"On one hand, they [the US] always talk about human rights, but on the other hand they are killing innocent people."

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Nato-supporting Japanese student expelled

Thursday  May 13  1999

A Japanese student was expelled from Zhejiang University yesterday after thousands of his Chinese schoolmates staged a demonstration demanding that he apologise for vandalising an anti-Nato poster and allegedly assaulting a student, a rights group says.

The demonstration happened on Monday night when more than 2,000 students surrounded a dormitory where Shibayama Takahare was hiding. He had allegedly attacked a female student who tried to stop him from tearing down the poster, the Hong Kong Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.

Police were called to control the crowds. Students became agitated after waiting for six hours and tried to enter the dormitory to confront Mr Takahare. They were stopped by teachers and police.

A broadcast urging students to disperse was ignored and, fearing the situation could get out of control, police moved in early Tuesday morning and removed the protesters, the centre said.

Partly confirming the incident, Xinhua reported yesterday that the university expelled Mr Takahare, who later apologised for his "wrongdoing".

There are about 20 Japanese students at Zhejiang University.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Taipei arsenal stays closed to UN team

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Thursday  May 13  1999

Taiwan's Defence Ministry yesterday reiterated its pledge not to develop chemical weapons but said it would not open its arsenal for United Nations inspection.

The island's China Times Express had quoted an unidentified Defence Ministry official as saying the ministry might open up its arsenal for inspection so that the UN Chemical Weapons Convention would not impose a ban on chemical sales to Taiwan.

Four delegations from the convention arrived in Taipei yesterday to discuss with chemical industry representatives the ban that might take effect next April, the paper said. The ministry said the report was not true.

"We are not a member of the treaty and it would be impossible for us to agree to an inspection by the UN weapons inspection team," it said.

"But as a member of the international community, we will observe the treaty."

The UN convention bans members from exporting potential components of chemical weapons to non-signatory countries.

Taiwan will fall under the ban because, having been ejected from the UN in 1971, the island has not been allowed to sign the convention.

Taipei's attempts to join the convention have been blocked by Beijing.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


I feared for safety: US Ambassador

MARK O'NEILL in Beijing

Thursday  May 13  1999

US Ambassador James Sasser held fears for his safety during the four-day siege of the embassy, he admitted yesterday.

Mr Sasser said that during the ordeal he survived on combat rations, chocolate doughnuts and pizza.

He was speaking after leaving the embassy, which was covered in red, blue and black paint and had its windows smashed. Hundreds of police officers had kept demonstrators from entering the diplomatic compound.

Mr Sasser had been trapped inside since Saturday afternoon, when thousands of protesters stoned the building after Nato's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

"We feel good. It is terrific to be outside the embassy and we are delighted to have all this behind us," he said. "It has been a terrible time and a very tragic time in Sino-US relations. We hope the protests are over but they may not be. Things appear to be returning to normal except for the great number of police."

The most serious protests took place on Sunday when tens of thousands of demonstrators marched past the embassy, pelting it with bricks, stones and paint. Watching police made no attempt to stop them.

"There were times, especially on Sunday, when it appeared the police lines might not hold. We were very anxious and very worried," Mr Sasser said.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued to tell us they would ensure our personal safety. I guess our real question was whether or not they were fully aware of the magnitude of the crowds and the intensity of the crowds."

Mr Sasser said he spent most of the four days on the telephone and lived off combat rations. Staff from the Irish Embassy, which adjoins the US building, passed chocolate doughnuts, chili kidney beans and other food over the wall to American diplomats who ordered pizzas that were delivered to the edge of the police lines, with officers handing them through the embassy gates.US diplomats used the Irish Embassy as an escape route. By jumping over the wall, two metres at its lowest point, they were able to enter the Irish Embassy and leave by its entrance, unnoticed by the thousands of demonstrators 30 metres away.

Mr Sasser said he felt no anger at having been a virtual prisoner in his own embassy.

"Many of us who are here and have talked to our Chinese friends understand their feeling of anguish and grief and rage that this could have occurred," he said.

"It was a terrible, tragic mistake. I am not the one feeling the anger, I am not angry at anyone. We are greatly saddened by what occurred and we want now to look ahead after we are through grieving over this tragic event.

"Wise heads will say that it is in the interests of both nations to try to mend this rift and to co-operate and work together. That is what we want to do."

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Beijing vows to beat back Nato

WILLY WO-LAP LAM

Thursday  May 13  1999

Beijing is to abandon Deng Xiaoping's low-profile foreign policy to beat back the challenges of a fast-expanding Washington-led Nato.

The rethink came about since the bombing of the Belgrade Embassy, when leading Politburo members and their advisers discussed how to counter what they regarded as a deliberate trampling of Chinese sovereignty.

"The Politburo Standing Committee has decided that if the Washington-led Nato has its way in Europe, it will next target China," a diplomatic source in Beijing said.

"The elite body has endorsed a number of measures to seize the initiative through asserting itself in foreign policy."

Among the recommendations given preliminary approval are:

Playing a more aggressive role in the United Nations. Sensing that President Bill Clinton is considering using a UN-backed peace plan as a face-saving measure to retreat partially from Yugoslavia, Beijing has insisted Nato ends air strikes before endorsing the scheme.

But should a UN peace-keeping force that meets Beijing's approval be formed, the Jiang leadership has signalled its willingness to dispatch PLA officers.

Analysts said this was a rare gesture of commitment given Beijing's traditional reluctance to join international peace-keeping efforts.

Developing a world-class arsenal, particularly missiles, to counter the "Nato military machine". Beijing has served notice on the US that unless Nato reins in its aggressive tendencies, it will delay ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Diplomats said Chinese strategists had engaged in vague talk about the resumption of an active nuclear development programme.

Forming a potential anti-Nato alliance. Beijing is working with Moscow to ensure the "multi-polar nature" of the new world order. Further "anti-hegemonistic" plans are to be worked out in a November summit between President Jiang Zemin and President Boris Yeltsin.

A Western diplomat said Beijing had made veiled threats about resuming or upgrading "nuclear co-operation" with Iran and Pakistan.

Serving warning on America's Asian allies not to abet a Nato-initiated anti-China containment policy. It is understood Beijing recently warned Japan not to provide a launch pad for US or Nato weaponry should the alliance target China.

A Chinese source said Mr Jiang, who is de facto diplomat-in-chief, had, in effect, jettisoned Deng's well-known dictum.

In the wake of the post-Tiananmen Square embargoes, the late patriarch said that in foreign policy: "China will keep a low profile, maintain a cool head, and never take the lead."

The source said the outburst of anti-Nato feelings since the embassy bombing had put pressure on Beijing.

"National People's Congress deputies and students have written to the leadership asking why China always abstains in the UN Security Council," the source said.

"In internal talks, Politburo members expressed the fear that the students would next stage protests against a 'weak central Government' unless Beijing counters threats to national security."

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Says Won't Accept Embassy Attack a Mistake

BEIJING, May. 12, 1999 -- (Reuters) China's Communist Party newspaper said on Wednesday it would not accept that NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by mistake.

"It won't do to vainly attempt to stall people by using 'a mistaken attack' or 'an accident'," the People's Daily said in a front-page commentary.

NATO called the bombing a tragic mistake that had resulted from faulty information. An incensed China called it a war crime and demanded the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia stop before it would consider peace negotiations.

China has demanded a formal apology from NATO, an investigation, the publication of the results of the probe and severe punishment for those responsible.

The attack on the Chinese embassy was a "gross violation of China's sovereignty and national dignity as well as a severe challenge to world peace and security", the commentary said.

It slammed NATO's bombing of Yugoslav as "a sheer gunboat policy," the same phrase President Jiang Zemin has used.

It urged the international community to work together to stop NATO's continued air attack in Yugoslav.

"If the international community doesn't stop the attacking momentum by the U.S.-led NATO as soon as possible, it will be continuously threatened and harmed in the future," it said.

NATO has vowed to press on with air attacks until Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic complies with NATO demands to pull his troops out of the Serbian province of Kosovo and let ethnic Albanian refugees return under international protection.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


U.S. Ambassador Emerges from Beijing Compound

BEIJING, May. 12, 1999 -- (Reuters) Ambassador James Sasser left the damaged and paint-splattered U.S. Embassy on Wednesday, ending an emotional four-day ordeal as a virtual hostage in his own office.

Accompanied by a small group of embassy officials, Sasser passed through the embassy gate for the first time since Saturday, when China exploded in anger at the NATO bombing of the Chinese mission in Yugoslavia.

After a short meeting with embassy staff at a nearby diplomatic residential compound, Sasser urged a mending of the wounds sparked by what NATO said was a tragic error based on faulty information.

"I think wise heads will say that it's in the interest of both nations to try to mend this rift and to cooperate and work together in a productive fashion," Sasser told reporters.

But he would not speculate on how the United States would attempt to amend for the blunder.

"It would be premature to say what could be done at this time. Chinese people today are just receiving their casualties and their dead from this terrible tragedy in Belgrade and we need to give our Chinese friends a day of grief," he said.

The strike on the Chinese embassy on Belgrade killed three journalists and injured 20 people. The ashes of the three victims arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, fuelling fears of a fresh round of protests in the capital's leafy embassy district.

But police took stringent care there would be no repeat of the weekend violence and allowed only embassy workers into the area. Not a single protester turned up and U.S. officials said they were assured by the Chinese government the worst was over.

"Things appear to be returning to normal except for the great number of police that are out and we are very hopeful that the demonstrations are behind us", Sasser said.

The envoy said he harbored no ill will toward the demonstrators who besieged and pelted his embassy with stones, bottles and paint. But Sasser admitted that fear they would storm the embassy had been high.

"There were times, certainly Sunday, when it appeared that the police lines might not hold", he said.

"We were very anxious and very worried at that time. But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued to tell us that they would assure our personal safety."

U.S. consulates in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Chengdu all came under attack. The residence of the U.S. consul-general in the southwestern city of Chengdu was destroyed by fire.

China, a veto-carrying permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has demanded a formal apology for the embassy bombing, a thorough investigation, the publication of its results and the punishment of those responsible.

U.S. President Bill Clinton and other U.S. officials have apologized repeatedly for what NATO has described as an error involving outdated maps used to guide smart bombs to their targets.

"We are greatly saddened by what occurred. This has been a terrible time and a very tragic time in Chinese-American relations", Sasser said.

"We want now to look ahead."

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Chinese Fume over U.S. Visas as Protests Ebb

SHANGHAI, May. 12, 1999 -- (Reuters) Angry Chinese gathered outside the U.S. consulate in Shanghai on Wednesday, incensed not by NATO's bombing but over delays to their American visas.

Over the weekend, demonstrators hurled bottles and curses at the consulate's walled compound in protest against the NATO air strike which killed three people at China's embassy in Belgrade.

"No matter what happened, we should be able to see relatives or do business in the United States," said a young woman who hoped to seal a deal to buy battery-making equipment from an American company.

Outside a side entrance, a soldier told small groups of hopeful applicants the consulate was closed to Chinese citizens on Wednesday and he was not sure when it would reopen.

"I want to see my daughter in New York," lamented a middle-aged women. "This is my private business. It has nothing to do with politics."

Politics, however, helped close U.S. diplomatic facilities across China this week as Beijing-sanctioned protests sparked worries over safety and security.

Demonstrators smashed windows at the American embassy in Beijing and burned the residence of the consul-general in the southwestern city of Chengdu over the weekend.

Thousands of students halted traffic along one of Shanghai's busiest streets as they shouted anti-American slogans and burned a U.S. flag.

On Wednesday, the American flag flew at half-mast at the consulate out of respect for the three Chinese reporters who were killed in the Belgrade bombing. Their ashes were returned to China on Wednesday.

Police and paramilitary forces still stood guard around the compound but the street was opened to traffic. No protesters were in sight.

"My daughter graduates from university on May 16 but I don't think I can get to the ceremony in time," said one man after being turned away at from the door of the Shanghai consulate.

Workers swept up garbage from the street but "Down with America" remained etched in black on a nearby white wall.

At least one group of students still wanted to go to the United States for study even though many believed NATO bombed the embassy deliberately.

"We have seven students who are trying to go to the United States for a nine-week program," said Richard Foristel, director for China for Webster University, which has a joint MBA program with the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

"They all want to go. They're very disappointed."

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Ashes of China Embassy Victims Back Home

BEIJING, May. 12, 1999 -- (Reuters) The ashes of three Chinese victims of the NATO bombing of Beijing's embassy in Belgrade arrived home on Wednesday, an event likely to trigger a fresh wave of grief and anger.

Police took stringent care the anger would not result in a repeat of weekend violence directed at the U.S. and British missions in Beijing, allowing only embassy workers into the area.

Chinese flags across the nation flew at half mast.

The remains of the three journalists were brought home on a special flight from Belgrade and were met by Vice President Hu Jintao, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

State television showed bereaved relatives wearing black and carrying the ashes in wooden boxes wrapped in red silk.

Two honor guards carrying rifles with bayonets attached marched in a slow goosestep down a red carpet, followed by relatives carrying portraits of the victims, a husband and wife who worked for the Guangming Daily and a Xinhua correspondent.

Weeping colleagues carrying bouquets lined the tarmac.

"Strongly condemn the barbaric, violent attack on our embassy in Yugoslavia by U.S.-led NATO," read one banner.

Also aboard the flight were some 20 people wounded in the NATO attack on Friday, several staff members of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and an investigation team led by a senior Foreign Ministry official.

Hu shook hands with a wounded man lying on a stretcher with his face and hands bandaged. "I welcome you back home on behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the State Council," Hu said.

The remains of the couple were taken to their Beijing home and that of the Xinhua correspondent to the news agency. The wounded were taken to hospital.

Foreign reporters were barred from the reception ceremony at the airport.

In a sign of respect, flags were flying at half mast outside the U.S. and British embassies -- and at all U.S. consulates around China, including Hong Kong.

The two missions were the focal point of government sanctioned protests against the bombing for three days, with people hurling stones, bottles and paint at them.

The government turned off the tap on Tuesday, but diplomats said they feared the arrival of the ashes could set off another wave of vehement protests.

By lunchtime, however, it appeared the tough security controls around them were deterring protests.

U.S. Ambassador James Sasser emerged from his embassy, where he had been holed up since Saturday.

Asked how he felt, Sasser said: "A feeling of relief that this is about over, but still a feeling of great sadness about recent events."

China, a veto-carrying permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has demanded a formal apology for the embassy bombing, a thorough investigation, the publication of its results and the punishment of those responsible.

U.S. President Bill Clinton and other U.S. officials have apologized repeatedly for what NATO has described as a tragic mistake, a mix-up involving outdated maps used to guide smart bombs to their targets.

But ordinary Chinese are not mollified. They believe the attack was deliberate, and state media has stoked the flames by saying the strike was a premeditated war crime.

"American and NATO leaders have only offered an 'apology' and 'regrets' and that is not enough", the Beijing Morning Post quoted prominent Chinese banker Chen Yuansheng as saying.

"NATO infringed on my country's sovereign rights and killed my country's people. One or two apologies are not enough," the paper quoted Gao Chengxing, a professor at the People's University Economic School, as saying.

Pictures of the three journalists have appeared on countless placards held aloft by crowds who besieged the embassies.

Visiting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said he would offer China's top leaders an unconditional apology.

"I will make an apology without any ifs or whens," Schroeder told journalists after arriving in Beijing on a visit cut from four days to 16 hours and intended to draw China into a positive role in the search for a solution to the Kosovo crisis.

China is demanding a halt to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia before considering any peace negotiations.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Seeking Major Concessions from U.S. - Paper

LONDON, May. 12, 1999 -- (Reuters) China wants significant U.S. concessions on sensitive military, trade and diplomatic issues before normalizing relations after NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

"It is up to the United States...to take the initiative to get the relationship back to normal," an unidentified senior adviser to Chinese President Jiang Zemin was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

China has demanded a formal apology for last Friday's bombing, a thorough investigation, the publication of the findings and the punishment of those responsible.

But the Financial Times quoted the adviser as saying China was seeking other conciliatory measures from the United States.

These included:

-- abandoning the idea of including Taiwan in the proposed development of a U.S.-backed missile defense umbrella in Asia;

-- approving China's bid to join the World Trade Organization without demanding any substantial further opening of Chinese markets;

-- and dismissing allegations that a Chinese spy stole U.S. nuclear secrets.

Russia's Balkans envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin returned to Moscow on Tuesday after talks with the Chinese leadership in Beijing on the Yugoslav crisis and said he had new peace proposals to make to Washington.

Chernomyrdin said Moscow and Beijing were united in their demand for an end to NATO air strikes.

NATO's accidental strike against the Chinese embassy in Belgrade last Friday has catapulted China -- like Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council -- into the thick of efforts to find a settlement.

Three Chinese citizens were killed and more than 20 people were wounded in the bombing, which triggered furious student protests outside the U.S. and British embassies in Beijing.

Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Chernomyrdin as saying China might be willing to take part in an eventual international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, provided it had Belgrade's support and was organized by the United Nations, not NATO.

One of NATO's key demands on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is that he withdraw his security forces from Kosovo and allow the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees to their homes under the protection of an armed international force.

In a separate report on Wednesday, the Financial Times said major Western powers were likely to pursue negotiations for a United Nations Kosovo resolution with Russia in a Group of Eight meeting later this week, probably Friday.

The newspaper, quoting an unidentified British official for its information, said the thrust of Western policy now appeared to be a redoubling of efforts to try to use Russia as a diplomatic bridge not only to Belgrade but also to Beijing.

British officials could not be reached immediately for comment.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Schroeder to Urge China to Help End Kosovo Crisis

BEIJING, May. 12, 1999 -- (Reuters) German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder flew into Beijing on Wednesday to urge China's leaders to take a positive role in helping to end the Kosovo crisis.

Schroeder's planned four-day journey to China was scaled back to 16 hours after a NATO strike hit China's embassy in Belgrade on Friday, killing three Chinese journalists.

NATO called last week's bombing a tragic mistake which resulted from faulty information.

Schroeder, representing the European Union's rotating presidency, was scheduled to meet President Jiang Zemin, Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and hold a pre-departure news conference, officials said.

He was originally due to attend a Sino-European Union summit, but that became a casualty of the embassy bombing.

The German chancellor is the first Western leader to visit China since then.

"The aim is to bring China into the various diplomatic efforts that are currently going on," a German government spokesman quoted Schroeder as telling his Cabinet at a meeting on Tuesday.

Schroeder, facing increasing domestic pressure for peace since the embassy was hit, has demanded a full inquiry into the incident, which has opened rifts in his center-left government.

But NATO has vowed to press on with air attacks until Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic complies with NATO demands to pull his troops out of Kosovo and let refugees return under international protection.

China whipped up anti-U.S. fury by declaring the NATO bombing deliberate and suspended military cooperation and dialogues on arms control and human rights with the United States.

China has demanded a formal apology from U.S.-led NATO, an investigation, the publication of the results of the probe and severe punishment for those responsible.

Tens of thousands of incensed Chinese took to the streets nationwide. Calm returned to the diplomatic district in Beijing on Tuesday after three days of violent anti-U.S. protests.

Schroeder had hoped China would back Western efforts to secure a U.N. mandate for an international peacekeeping force in Kosovo.

But he told the cabinet he did not expect to win Beijing's support during his trip for a U.N. resolution to this effect.

Schroeder is following Russia's Balkans envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin, who said in Beijing on Tuesday that China was demanding NATO halt its bombing of Yugoslavia before it would consider a peace plan proposed last week by the Group of Eight -- seven major Western powers plus Russia.

NATO's strike against the Chinese embassy has catapulted Beijing into the middle of efforts to negotiate a settlement and the incident could strengthen Moscow's hand as a mediator.

At a meeting in Germany last week, the G8 countries called for a withdrawal of Belgrade's forces from the southern Serbian province of Kosovo.

It also called for "international civil and security presences" to protect the region's ethnic Albanians.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Beijing and European Union Resume Talks on China's WTO Entry

BEIJING, May. 12, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) China and European Union (EU) trade negotiators have resumed talks on Beijing's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), an EU spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Gerard Depayre, who is leading the European Commission delegation, and Long Yongtu, chief negotiator for the Chinese side, held WTO discussions on Tuesday, she said.

China has called off many other international meetings and events because of the storm over the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade last weekend.

But the EU talks were expected to continue Wednesday, the spokeswoman said.

Depayre, deputy director-general of the European Commission, returned to Beijing on Tuesday. He left China last week after leading 10 days of discussions with Chinese trade negotiators.

Last Thursday, visiting European Commission vice president Sir Leon Brittan said China had offered some provisional tariff improvements and talks between China and the EU would resume if these were confirmed by Beijing.

The EU said outstanding issues with China included reducing tariffs and eliminating tariff peaks on products ranging from automobiles to cognac and gin, cosmetics, leather furniture, glass and ceramics.

The EU also wants the right to establish branches for life insurance, majority foreign ownership in basic telecoms, and firm commitments to enable European banks to trade in the local currency and securities.

The annual EU-China summit that was scheduled for May 13 was called off because of the embassy bombing backlash.

WTO issues were also amongst the topics up for discussion at the summit, said the spokeswoman.

Talks between the United States and Beijing on China's WTO entry were scheduled for May 16 but reports out of Washington indicate it is unlikely U.S. trade representative Robert Cassidy will visit China.

However, Chinese officials said Tuesday that U.S.-China WTO talks could still continue.

NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade last weekend, which killed three Chinese journalists, has sparked furious anti-US, anti-NATO protests.

China has cut off military cooperation ties and talks on human rights with the United States. It says apologies by NATO leaders are not enough and has demanded a full and open investigation into the incident.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


North Korea Renews Condemnation of Chinese Embassy NATO Bombing

SEOUL, May. 12, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Communist North Korea on Wednesday again condemned the "unpardonable" NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

"An open missile attack on a diplomatic mission representing a sovereign state is unprecedented in the diplomatic history of the world," said the Korean Central News Agency.

"The U.S. and NATO should bear full responsibility for their unpardonable crime and stop such brutal air raids at once," it said.

On Tuesday the news agency quoted a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman as saying the United States and NATO were "recklessly and arrogantly applying the strong-arm and arbitrary policies" in Yugoslavia.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Malaysia Expresses Shock at Bombing of Chinese Embassy

KUALA LUMPUR, May. 12, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Malaysia expressed shock and deep regret over the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and urged a political solution to the Kosovo crisis, reports said Wednesday.

"Wisma Putra (the Foreign Ministry) is greatly distressed over the incident which clearly emphasizes the need for a political solution on the Kosovo crisis," Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times newspaper.

Syed Hamid, who conveyed condolences to the families of the three dead, said an investigation should be conducted into the bombing.

NATO said its missiles accidentally hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade early Saturday, killing three Chinese and injuring 20.

Malaysia had previously supported the NATO air strikes in a bid to force Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end repression of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population.

Syed Hamid expressed hope that UN efforts to find a peaceful end to the Kosovo crisis would not undermine efforts by the United States and other NATO members to win UN endorsement of an international peacekeeping force for Kosovo.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Hong Kong Hackers Leave Graffitti on U.S. Government Websites: NBC

WASHINGTON, May. 12, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Several U.S. government websites, including the one run by the White House, have been defaced by hackers from Hong Kong in protest of NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, NBC television reported Tuesday.

The hackers left behind graffitti, some in Chinese, protesting the bombing, NBC reported.

None of the websites contained classified information, and no secrets were lost, according to US government officials quoted by NBC.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Hong Kong Lowers Flag in Respect for Bomb Victims

HONG KONG, May. 12, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Flags at U.S. diplomatic missions throughout China and all Hong Kong government buildings flew at half mast Wednesday in a sign of respect for the three dead from the Chinese embassy bombing in Belgrade whose ashes were returned to Beijing.

A government spokesman said the flags were at half mast "in commemoration of those who died in the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia."

The ashes of Zhu Ying and his wife Xu Xinghu, and Shao Yunhuan -- all of them journalists, arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, along with 20 Chinese nationals wounded in the raid.

Anti-U.S. protests in Hong Kong mounted Tuesday as more than 2,000 people demonstrated outside the U.S. consulate.

The protest was the largest since the bombing over the weekend.

NATO and the United States have apologized for the bombing, which it said was the result of "faulty intelligence."

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


US missions to fly half-mast flags as gesture of condolence to nation

STELLA LEE

Wednesday  May 12  1999

Flags at the United States Consulate in the SAR and its Beijing Embassy will fly at half-mast as a sign of condolence for the Chinese nation under an order from President Bill Clinton.

The consulate said the flags would be lowered for 24 hours following the arrival in Beijing this morning of a plane carrying the remains of the three mainland journalist victims killed in Belgrade.

Flags will also be lowered at the consulates-general in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenyang.

The move came as a 2,000-strong demonstration - the largest yet - was staged yesterday afternoon outside the SAR consulate. The protesters demanded a full apology from the US and compensation.

Some demonstrators said Monday's apology by President Clinton for the bombing came too late and lacked sincerity.

The Liberal Party's Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee said: "They only responded gradually after seeing the Chinese people were shocked by the incident."

The Yau Tsim Mong Federation of Associations demanded Nato halt all military action against Yugoslavia.

About 20 people joined a candlelight vigil at Chater Garden last night. Participants offered prayers and a minute of silence for the victims of the conflict.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Schroeder due to meet Chinese leaders

DAVID MURPHY in Beijing

Wednesday  May 12  1999

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder arrives in Beijing today for crisis talks with the Chinese leadership.

With tomorrow's European Union-China summit abandoned, Mr Schroeder will meet Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, Premier Zhu Rongji and, in the evening, President Jiang Zemin before departing for Bonn at midnight. The talks are expected to be dominated by Kosovo and the Nato bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade.

The Europeans are working to prevent the emergence of a China-Russia alliance in support of Yugoslavia which, they fear, would encourage Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to hold out against Nato and prolong the war.

Speaking to his Cabinet in Bonn yesterday before he departed for Beijing, Mr Schroeder said he would urge Chinese leaders to take an active role in ending the Kosovo crisis.

"The aim is to bring China into the various diplomatic efforts that are currently going on," he said.

But he told the Cabinet he did not expect to win Beijing's support during his trip for a UN resolution to this effect.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


National figures expected to attend journalists' funeral as ashes flown home

MARK O'NEILL in Beijing

Wednesday  May 12  1999

The ashes of the three journalists killed in the Nato attack on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade were being flown to Beijing last night for a large-scale funeral that is likely to be attended by national leaders.

Two of the dead, husband and wife Xu Xinghu and Zhu Ying, worked for the Guangming Daily. The other, Shao Yunhuan, worked for Xinhua.

An official of a special "martyrs" office set up by the Guangming Daily said the time and place of the funeral had not been fixed "but it should happen soon, this week".

"It should be a large-scale event but we are not clear yet," he said.

A spokesman for Xinhua declined to comment.

Diplomats expected the funeral to be a national event, saying it could be held in the Great Hall of the People.

Students demonstrating outside the US Embassy since the attack have carried portraits of the three, whom they see as innocent victims of Nato aggression. Diplomats believe the funeral will mark a turning point in the government-orchestrated protests.

"The authorities do not want them to go on indefinitely," one said. "They want to use it as an outpouring of grief for the three dead and then get on with normal business."

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Strikes must be halted before negotiations start, envoy told

AGENCIES

Wednesday  May 12  1999

China insisted during talks with Russian special envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin yesterday that Nato air strikes on Yugoslavia must be halted before it considers last week's Group of Eight peace initiative for the Kosovo crisis.

However, Beijing signalled a readiness to work closely with Moscow over the Balkans and other issues by agreeing to another summit between the leaders in November.

"The Chinese side is clear that it is necessary to stop the bombing and then [start] peaceful negotiations," Mr Chernomyrdin said at the end of his one-day visit.

He said China was "studying" whether the G8 plan could be the basis of future negotiations.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said that, without a halt to the bombing, "there is nothing to discuss".

Russia and China hold "largely similar positions" on a settlement of the Kosovo crisis, Vice-Premier Qian Qichen reportedly told Mr Chernomyrdin.

Asked if China thought the bombing of its embassy in Yugoslavia was intentional, Mr Chernomyrdin said: "The position to China is clear and professed all over the country."

Mr Chernomyrdin held talks with Premier Zhu Rongji, President Jiang Zemin and Vice-Premier Qian Qichen.

Xinhua reported that during a telephone conversation between Mr Jiang and Mr Yeltsin on Sunday, the two agreed to hold informal talks at the end of November.

At the United Nations in New York, Chinese Ambassador Qin Huasun made it clear that Beijing's opposition to the Nato campaign against Yugoslavia went beyond the embassy strike.

He warned that China would not even consider discussing a Kosovo peace plan unless Nato halted bombing.

"Anything short of that - it is impossible for the United Nations Security Council to discuss any plan to solve the problem," Mr Qin said.

Deputy Ambassador Shen Guofang added: "It doesn't make any sense to discuss the peace plan while the bombing is still going on and the people are being killed."

But yesterday, China failed in its second attempt to have the Security Council condemn Nato's missile strike because Nato members refused to have the alliance's mistake classified as a violation of international law.

Security Council members did, however, appear willing to discuss a more formal response to the strike than the press statement issued on Saturday.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China mourns victims of Belgrade embassy bombing

May 12, 1999

BEIJING (CNN) -- As China's leaders shed tears Wednesday for those killed in NATO's errant attack on its embassy in Yugoslavia, Chinese diplomats called on the U.N. Security Council to demand a halt to the airstrikes.

A special Air China flight arrived from Belgrade with the remains of the three journalists killed along with 20 embassy staff members who were wounded in the attack early Saturday.

Flag-waving children, factory workers and soldiers turned out for the solemn welcoming ceremony. Weeping family members carried pictures of their loved ones and urns bearing their ashes down a red-carpeted stairwell to the airport's tarmac.

Offices were closed and thousands lined the streets of Beijing to watch the enormous motorcade pass by.

President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and legislative Chairman Li Peng were shown holding back tears on national television as they expressed condolences to the family members of the three journalists.

The bombing killed Shao Yunhuan, 48, of the state-run Xinhua News Agency, and Xu Xinghu, 29, and his wife, Zhu Ying, 27, both with the national newspaper Guangming Daily.

Germany's Schroeder apologizes on behalf of NATO

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was in Beijing on Wednesday on a brief 16-hour visit and apologized "unconditionally" on behalf of NATO.

During the visit, Zhu reiterated Chinese demands for a full investigation into the bombing and the punishment of those found responsible.

"The Chinese government and people are utterly indignant about this barbarous conduct," The Xinhua news agency quoted Zhu as telling Schroeder.

NATO has said that outdated intelligence information resulted in NATO missiles targeting the wrong building, leading to the bombing of the Chinese Embassy.

NATO said it believed the building was a Yugoslav army supply facility.

China threatens to block U.N. resolution

China has threatened to block progress on a U.N. Security Council humanitarian resolution on Kosovo unless the measure specifically calls for a halt to NATO airstrikes and acknowledges casualties and damage caused by the embassy bombing.

The resolution expresses concern over the "escalating human catastrophe" in Kosovo. It was introduced April 30 by non- NATO members of the Security Council.

China and Russia, both opposed to the NATO campaign, had voiced opposition to the resolution because it did not assign any blame on NATO for the humanitarian crisis in Kosovo. China attempted to include language calling for an end to NATO airstrikes, but other council members rejected the measure.

But a Chinese diplomat told CNN on Wednesday that in light of the embassy bombings, his country would once again seek to introduce new amendments to the resolution that called for NATO to halt airstrikes.

Also: Presidential statement in the works

In addition, diplomats said that China implied in closed consultations Wednesday that it would also not accept any resolution involving the humanitarian crisis in Kosovo until council members approved a presidential statement deploring the embassy bombing.

A presidential statement, unlike a press statement, is an official Security Council document.

On Saturday, after hours of closed-door negotiations, the council issued a mildly worded press statement that did not specifically blame or condemn NATO for the attack.

Diplomats from China and NATO countries are expected to meet late Wednesday to work on a presidential statement. After it is circulated in capitals overnight -- and deemed acceptable -- the council could adopt it on Thursday.

The initial draft statement proposed by China condemned the embassy bombing and called it a violation of international law.

In the latest version, the word "condemns" has been dropped. Instead, the council says it "strongly deplores" the incident.

Correspondent Rebecca MacKinnon and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From CNN

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Chinese Embassy bombing exposes raw historical nerve

May 12, 1999 Web posted at: 2:10 p.m. EDT (1810 GMT)

BEIJING (CNN) -- As China mourned its dead from the accidental NATO bombing of its embassy in Yugoslavia, China's state media continued to condemn the attack Wednesday in words that reflected the country's historical resentment toward the West.

Vice President Hu Jintao met the jet carrying the remains of three journalists -- two men and a woman. Their remains and the most seriously wounded survivors were flown from Belgrade to Beijing on Wednesday, and the procession to and from the airport brought out more anger against NATO and the United States.

NATO said faulty intelligence led to pilots attacking the building, believing it to be a Yugoslav military supply office. NATO leaders' repeated apologies for the bombing were not published in Chinese newspapers until Tuesday.

Chinese news reports had called the strike a premeditated war crime, and demonstrators besieged the U.S. Embassy in Beijing for four days.

The intensity of those demonstrations illustrated how the days of Western intervention in China during the colonial era are sorely remembered by many Chinese.

"It's the same old story," one student demonstrator said. "When hegemonist powers unite to bully China, it's always the same. They are afraid of China and want to keep us down."

A litany of grievances

Chinese state media stoked public outrage by drawing parallels between the embassy attack and the "gunboat diplomacy" of the 19th and early 20th centuries. A commentary in the People's Daily warned NATO countries, "This is 1999, not 1899."

"U.S.-led NATO must understand that the wheels of history cannot turn back," the Communist Party newspaper said.

The list of Chinese historical grievances is a long one, including the seizures of Hong Kong and Macau by Britain and Portugal; Britain's Opium Wars of the 1840s; the sacking of the emperor's residence in Beijing by European troops in the 1860s; and the draconian suppression of the anti-Western Boxer Rebellion in 1900 by U.S. and British-led troops.

Anti-Western movements sprang up in the 1920s and 1930s, and the Communist Revolution that created the People's Republic of China in 1949 promised an end to international humiliations.

Communist leader Mao Tes-tung declared "The Chinese people have stood up." And while China, the United States and European allies fought side-by-side against Japan in World War II, Chinese troops fought bitter battles against U.S.-led soldiers in the 1950-53 Korean War.

Westerners describe Beijing hassles

China's inflamed national pride has touched some Western expatriates in a more-than-figurative manner in recent days. Many Westerners who braved the crowds during demonstrations were jostled and screamed at by angry mobs.

Others, particularly Americans, kept a low profile. Some U.S. nationals in China describe taxi drivers demanding double fares, marketplace vendors cursing at them or students lecturing them on the evils of U.S. President Bill Clinton.

The U.S. State Department has issued a travel advisory for Americans. Several U.S. businesses have closed their offices this week, and some cultural events -- including concerts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and blues musician Robert Cray -- have been postponed or canceled.

But not all Chinese have been hostile, and at least one American in Beijing says tempers have eased.

"I still get dirty looks, but there's a difference in the vibe today," said David Janowitz, a graphic design artist from New York.

Some of China's historical insularity has faded, and the People's Republic considers its integration with the world economy a key priority. But hostility to outsiders may remain part of China's politics for some time.

Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon, Hong Kong Bureau Chief Mike Chinoy, and Reuters contributed to this report.

From CNN

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Kissinger: 'Chinese Behavior is Excessive and Really Unacceptable'

Aired May 11, 1999 - 7:41 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get more on the diplomatic strains between the U.S. and China over the NATO bombing of Beijing's embassy in Belgrade.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger now joins us from a New York.

Good morning, Mr. Kissinger. Thanks for joining us.

HENRY KISSINGER, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Good morning, how are you?

LIN: Very will, thank you.

Getting back to our top story here, by all accounts on CNN, if there have been strains brewing between China and U.S. and relations are strained, why do you think the Chinese officials have chosen this time and this particular bombing to stir this anti-American sentiment?

KISSINGER: Well, first of all, I want to stress that I think the Chinese behavior is excessive and really unacceptable, even for those of us who have always advocated the closest relations between China and the United States.

But to give an explanation, I believe that over a period of months, and maybe more than that, strains have been building up. The administration, on the one hand, has conducted a policy with which I generally agree, on the need for cooperative relations with China, which has the largest population in the world and impact on its neighbors.

At the same time, it has thrown bones to its domestic opposition on a number of cases. So I think the cumulative impact has been a considerable humiliation for the Chinese, such as the Chinese prime minister coming here expecting to sign an agreement and being told about 12 hours before that it wouldn't be signed, after he had already arrived. And a number of other incidents like this.

And I think this gave them an occasion to blow off their frustrations on an issue on which they didn't look as if they were begging us for help. That's my interpretation.

In addition, I think that probably domestic forces in China are opposed to a policy of closer ties with the United States, and they may fuel this is occasion.

But, whatever explanation one gives, this is a very unfortunate development.

LIN: So after four very public apologies to China, what do you think China really wants now?

KISSINGER: First, I think we should stop apologizing. We have made it absolutely clear that this was an accident. I believe it was an accident, and there's nothing more we can do about this particular issue.

China is opposed to what we're doing in Yugoslavia because it looks at it as a precedent for what might happen to its own minorities, outside intervention with respect to its own minorities.

So I expect diplomatic opposition by China on the face of negotiation that is now going on.

LIN: Do you agree with "The New York Times" op-ed peace today that China is making a political bet that the United States is willing to engage them at any cost at this point?

KISSINGER: No, I do not think the Chinese have that. I think that the Chinese believe, first of all, they believe that they are entitled to have their opinion on the Yugoslav issue, and I believe they will probably try to slow down the negotiations.

LIN: And that is certainly what they are trying to do at this point. They have the veto power of the U.N. Security Council, China is making demands that the NATO bombing stop before any consideration of this peace plan go before the council. Do you agree?

KISSINGER: I believe that that is what they are doing. But I think we should think twice about rushing headlong into a confrontation with a country of this magnitude. I think we should stop apologizing and we should also stop taking a great macho posture. We should pursue our own policy in Yugoslavia. I don't think we can make any significant concessions with respect to the NATO program. And then we will just have to tough it out.

LIN: So, Mr. Kissinger, what does that mean then with the peace plan on the table now and the bombing continuing, where does NATO go at this point then?

KISSINGER: NATO will have to -- actually, no, I did not favor getting into this war. But now that we are in it, I think we have to prevail; the future of NATO is at stake.

And I think also, or the issue itself, we have a strong argument. NATO's goal is to continue its military operation which, sooner or later, will prevail. And continue on the track of the negotiations of last week and I think that will lead to a conclusion.

LIN: Do you think that this diplomatic rift with China then is just really a political pause in the ultimate goal of NATO to get these refugees back into Kosovo, and that, ultimately, Slobodan Milosevic, with this partial withdrawal of troops from Kosovo, is capitulating?

KISSINGER: I think he is trying to drag out the negotiation, and to raise doubts about the need to continue the bombing. I am strongly opposed to a bombing halt because it will be very difficult to start it again and it lead to demand after demand to extend it.

I think that Milosovic is weakening. I think we can get the refugees back into Kosovo. And we should insist on some kind of international regiment for Kosovo, and I do not see how we can reach those demands. You cannot expect Kosovars to live under Serbian rule after what has happened.

LIN: Mr. Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state, thank you for joining us on

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

From CNN

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Americans lie low as China seethes with anger

May 12, 1999 Web posted at: 6:52 AM EDT (1052 GMT)

BEIJING (Reuters) -- As anti-U.S. anger boils over in Beijing, it's not smart to admit being an American.

Martha Rhode has switched nationalities three times.

"I've been Canadian and Australian and Irish this week," said the U.S. business consultant on the fake identities she has used to dupe Chinese strangers who demand to know her nationality.

Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of Chinese took to the streets over the weekend in protest against NATO's deadly bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

Students pelted U.S. and British diplomatic missions with stones, paint-filled bottles and flaming projectiles.

Several foreigners who braved the crowds were jostled and screamed at by angry mobs. Some foreign journalists were punched and kicked.

Order was restored to the streets on Tuesday, but many Americans and other Westerners are lying low, well aware that most Chinese believe the bombing was a deliberate act of war.

NATO said it mistook the Chinese embassy for a Yugoslav government building.

Americans have spoken of Chinese women spitting in their path, stall-keepers cursing at them, taxi drivers demanding double fare and students lecturing foreigners on the evils of U.S. President Bill Clinton.

But hostility towards American expatriates in Beijing is not universal.

Rhode, the business consultant, said she had been inundated with calls from Chinese friends concerned about her safety.

"Everyone has called asking to see if I'm okay," she said. "People in the office have said jokingly 'Hey, do you want a bodyguard'?"

An American freelance journalist walking her dog said angry Chinese came up and asked if the pet was American.

"Do dogs even have nationalities?" she asked.

"What were they going to do -- take it out on my dog?

Several U.S. businesses, including Boeing Corp, have closed their offices this week.

The anti-American mood also put a damper on several foreign-organized events, including postponement of a three-day music festival in Beijing featuring blues guitarist Robert Cray and cancelled performances by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Most international schools in Beijing remained closed, with principals worried that anti-U.S. feeling would flare up against the students.

"With the emotion running high, the safety of the children is very important," said the Western Academy of Beijing's deputy director, Neil Hugo. He hoped to resume classes on Thursday.

David Janowitz, a graphic design artist from New York, said he sensed a cooling of tempers after a tense few days.

"I still get dirty looks, but there's a difference in the vibe today," he said while perusing Beijing's Sanlitun market, conspicuously absent of the usual droves of foreigners.

He said his parents were considering whether to heed a U.S. State Department travel advisory and cancel a planned trip in two weeks. "I'm telling them it's not that bad," he said.

By Reuters

From CNN

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Avoids Direct Response To Clinton's Apology

BEIJING, May. 11, 1999 -- (Reuters) China's Foreign Ministry avoided saying on Tuesday whether U.S. President Bill Clinton's apology for the NATO strike on Beijing's embassy in Belgrade was adequate.

"We've taken note of the relevant statement of President Clinton," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told reporters a day after China demanded a formal apology for Friday's bombing, which killed three Chinese journalists.

"China will continue to closely follow the developments of the situation there," Zhu added without elaboration.

Clinton's apology was aired on Chinese television news on Tuesday, with subtitles. It was the first time any of the several apologies by U.S. and NATO leaders had been published in China.

China also demanded a thorough investigation of the incident, the publication of its results and the punishment of those found responsible.

Major Chinese cities erupted in rage on Saturday after news of the bombing was announced and the U.S. and British embassies were showered with stones for three days during officially sanctioned protests.

On Tuesday, Beijing's diplomatic quarter was calm, with only a few hundred protesters still in the area. The heavy police presence in the district had been scaled down.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Demands NATO Bombing Halt

BEIJING, May. 11, 1999 -- (Reuters) China is demanding that NATO halt its bombing of Yugoslavia before it will consider backing the G8 peace proposal, Russian special envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin said on Tuesday.

"The main principle is to stop the bombing and that is the main position," Chernomyrdin said of China's position after talks with President Jiang Zemin.

"It goes without saying that it is necessary to accept," the G8 proposal, Chernomyrdin told reporters shortly before leaving Beijing for Moscow after a brief visit to Beijing.

The Group of Eight powerful nations met last week in Germany and insisted an international force be sent into the southern Serb province of Kosovo.

It also said Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic must withdraw his forces from the region and allow the return of the several hundred thousand ethnic Albanians who have left it.

Chernomyrdin, President Boris Yeltsin's special Balkans envoy, flew to Beijing on Monday evening.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Taiwan Right-Wing Group Protests Against NATO Embassy Bombing

TAIPEI, May. 11, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Dozens of members of a pro-reunification Taiwanese political party threw eggs and paint at the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei to denounce the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

Holding placards reading like "Down with American Imperialism" and "Paid in Blood," demonstrators from the Alliance for the Reunification of China also set fire to the American flag.

"Any aggression against any embassy representing Chinese people constitutes an invasion of the national sovereignty of the Chinese people," the group said in a statement released outside the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).

Despite the fact that Taiwan and the mainland have been separated since 1949, the alliance said: "The people of Taiwan are also Chinese."

It said "we are not willing to allow the war in Yugoslavia to become another obstacle to cross-strait détente and peaceful reunification."

It said the bombing "should be treated as a war crime."

Tens of thousands of mainland Chinese have staged demonstrations since the bombing at the weekend.

The Taiwan public has been largely cold to the incident though.

Asked to comment, a Taiwan foreign ministry official said "Taiwan is a free society and people have the right to voice their opinions."

The ministry in a terse statement Saturday simply said it would "regret any identical incident that causes casualties anywhere in the world."

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


HK Pro-Democracy Leader Condemns Embassy Bombing

HONG KONG, May. 11, 1999 -- (Reuters) Hong Kong pro-democracy leader Martin Lee on Monday condemned the NATO strike that devastated the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia and called for compensation and an apology.

Lee was leading a protest march by dozens of members of his Democratic Party which stopped at the U.S. and British consulates to turn in a letter calling for a halt to the NATO bombing.

He said he hoped the deadly missile strike, which NATO said was an accident, would not hurt U.S.-China relations. "I hope in the long term it will not damage the good relations between China and the United States, which both governments took many years to foster," he told reporters.

"It would be a very sad thing indeed if such good relations were to be ruined by a single act of atrocity. That's why we call upon the U.S. government, the leader of the NATO forces, to apologize unreservedly and pay compensation," Lee said.

While the protest was taking place, one of several planned outside the U.S. consulate on Monday, a passerby hurled a beer bottle at the American offices. Police took a man into custody.

Lee said his Democratic Party, which took the largest share of the popular vote in elections last year, wanted an immediate halt to NATO bombings and the United Nations to take the lead to ensure a peaceful resolution in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

"We don't see any advantage coming from this continued bombing," he said.

The Hong Kong government on Saturday strongly condemned the hit on the Chinese embassy.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Stops Showing U.S. Films

SHANGHAI, May. 11, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Cinemas across China have all stopped showing U.S.-made films to protest NATO's accidental missile attack on the country's embassy in Belgrade, the state-run Xinmin Evening News reported Monday.

The report indicated that local film authorities in cities throughout the country issued orders for the temporary halt, not the central government.

The southern province of Guangdong was preparing to begin screening the films "Saving Private Ryan" and "Enemy of the State," but has now shelved the plan, the newspaper said.

U.S. films disappeared from big screens in Beijing on Sunday and in Shanghai on Monday, it said.

An official with major domestic film distributor Yongle said the bombing -- which China says killed three and injured 20 -- had created great sadness and anger in the country.

"Under this kind of situation, continuing to show U.S. films is not appropriate," he said.

"We do not oppose cultural exchanges but at the same time can see many U.S. films spread propaganda of hegemonism and the United States in the role of world's policeman," he added.

In a separate report, the daily said state television stations in Shanghai would begin showing "patriotic" films highlighting Chinese troops' combat against the U.S. during the 1950-53 Korean War and Yugoslavian films.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Taiwan Right-Wing Group Protests Against NATO Embassy Bombing Media Ignore Ongoing Anti-NATO Protests

BEIJING, May. 11, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) China's nightly news broadcast Monday ignored ongoing protests paralyzing Beijing's embassy district, focusing their coverage on official reaction to NATO's weekend bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

China Central Television (CCTV), in its evening news broadcast beamed across the country, began Monday's program with the full text of a conversation between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Jiang Zemin, in which Jiang slammed U.S. "gun-boat" policies.

People's Liberation Army (PLA) officers were shown expressing their indignation at the NATO attack and studying copies of the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party.

Although thousands of students and workers flooded the streets around the U.S. embassy again on Monday, CCTV showed no footage and made no mention of the ongoing demonstrations.

In contrast to broadcasts over the weekend, CCTV switched their coverage from students hitting the streets in angry mobs to campuses filled with students returning to classes after a weekend of heady demonstrations.

"Teachers and students believe that the best act of patriotism is to remain at their posts," a report by the state-run Xinhua news agency said Monday, but refrained from explicitly calling for a calming of the frenzied protests.

Apparently fearing that the popular furore over the Belgrade embassy bombardment that killed three and injured another 20 may boil over beyond their control, Chinese authorities began calling for calm Sunday evening.

But they assured demonstrators that they had the full support of the government, which had sanctioned their activities from the beginning.

In a nationally televised address, Vice-President Hu Jintao urged demonstrators to be "vigilant" in regard to uncontrolled elements "who may use the occasion to disturb social order."

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Protests Draw Monks, Priests and Artists

BEIJING, May. 11, 1999 -- (Reuters) NATO's enemies came from all walks of Chinese life on Monday: a Catholic priest lugging a wooden cross, saffron-robed Tibetan monks and art students daubed in face-paint.

Civil servants, retired soldiers and factory workers were also among the throng of anti-NATO protesters in Beijing.

They carried an assortment of projectiles -- bricks, broken paving slabs, soft drink cans and ink bottles.

But this was no spontaneous mob.

Many of the thousands of protesters venting their anger at the NATO bombing of Beijing's embassy in Belgrade appeared to have been chosen to reflect China's cultural, academic and industrial diversity.

And it was all organized by the police.

Protesters -- making no effort to conceal the missiles intended for the walls and windows of the embassies -- were waved through police roadblocks in batches of 200 or so.

They followed an approved route that also took in the residences of the British and U.S. ambassadors.

"Where are your rocks?" one policeman was overheard asking a protester who turned up empty handed outside the U.S. embassy.

Inkbottles left angry black splotches on the U.S. embassy walls. Beer bottles full of brightly colored paint made a mess of the concrete pillars at the entrance to the British mission.

The stately driveway to the U.S. ambassador's residence was piled high with cans, bottles, rocks and garbage.

Some protesters had heard the words of regret expressed by U.S. President Bill Clinton, but they were not impressed.

"Clinton's apology is not sincere. He should respect our human rights," said Meng Ningyou, a 30-year-old priest with the China Patriotic Catholic Association.

Some 80 Buddhist monks took a break from chanting prayers to shout anti-U.S. slogans such as "Annihilate the U.S." and "Down With Imperialism".

"Patriotism comes before Buddhism," said Yue Kong, 25, dressed in an orange robe. "We have come to show our love for this land."

White flowers -- the color of death in China -- were worn on pins by many demonstrators. Others sported white headbands, white face-masks and white t-shirts.

The art students had their faces painted with gun targets -- a symbol of protest in Belgrade. "I'll wash off the paint when my anger is gone," said sculpture student Xiong Shitao.

Several artists carried a painting of Clinton smoking a cigar shaped like a missile and bearing the letters "NATO".

Clinton was depicted as a skeleton wearing a black baseball hat and black t-shirt. One placard carried by China Drama Academy students depicted him as the Statue of Liberty coated with blood and carrying a missile instead of a torch.

Everyone seemed keen to display their anti-U.S. feelings. "I won't eat Kentucky Fried Chicken, I won't eat McDonald's, I won't drink Sprite," said law student Li Siying.

Said student Chen Juan: "I'm not going to watch U.S. movies, or wear jeans."

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Italy: NATO Must Do More Than Apologize

ROME, May. 11, 1999 -- (Reuters) NATO must do more than just apologize to China for mistakenly bombing its embassy in Belgrade if it does not want to ruin its credibility, Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema said on Monday.

D'Alema told German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in a long telephone conversation that "beyond the formal expressions of regret for the bombing of the Chinese embassy, the Atlantic Alliance should conduct a rigorous inquiry into the circumstances that led to this unprecedented incident".

D'Alema's office said in a statement he believed it would be "extremely serious for the alliance's credibility if it were to stop at a hasty justification and not to give public opinion the utmost transparency on the causes of such a tragic error".

Schroeder has already called for an inquiry to be launched to investigate the embassy bombing. NATO has said it mistook the embassy for another target in its air strikes against Yugoslavia.

China has demanded an official apology and has accused the West of gunboat diplomacy.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Chinese Embassy Bombing Stirs Asian Protests

SINGAPORE, May. 11, 1999 -- (Reuters) NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade stirred a wave of anti-NATO sentiment in Asia on Monday, prompting protests in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Pakistan and Singapore and unnerving regional markets.

As angry students resumed demonstrations in cities across mainland China, more than 100 protesters in arch rival Taiwan threw paint and eggs at the unofficial U.S. mission, torched U.S. flags, and shouted anti-American slogans.

"Shame, Uncle Sham," read one banner outside the American Institute in Taiwan. "Clinton wanted for murder," said another.

In Hong Kong, pro-democracy leader Martin Lee led dozens of people in a march to the U.S. and British consulates condemning the NATO attack that killed three and injured 20 on Friday.

"It would be a very sad thing indeed if such good relations were to be ruined by a single act of atrocity. That's why we call upon the U.S. government, the leader of the NATO forces, to apologize unreservedly and pay compensation," Lee said.

Chinese stocks fell sharply on worries that the bombing could strike at the heart of foreign trade and economic ties. Hong Kong and Taiwan shares were also volatile.

In Islamabad, Pakistani riot police blocked about 150 Chinese marching to the U.S. embassy. They fired at least two warning teargas shells as the protesters neared the embassy chanting "down with hegemonism" and carrying a placard that read, "NATO get out of our world."

The bombing exacerbated anti- U. S. fervor in Thailand, where local media have published a chorus of calls for a review of traditionally friendly relations with Washington over Bangkok's bid for leadership of the World Trade Organization.

"Keep watch on the dangerous and ugly American who is cited as our best friend," says a tape broadcast hourly by Business Radio, a popular nationwide station.

Demonstrators in Tokyo waved Chinese flags, photos of the three victims and signs saying "NATO is killer". In Singapore, demonstrators held a peaceful protest outside the U.S. embassy.

Asian newspapers warned NATO's attack could derail Kosovo peace attempts, and Hong Kong dailies cautioned the territory's mainland Chinese rulers against fuelling protests.

Sri Lanka's independent Island newspaper said in an editorial the Kosovo crisis not only demonstrated the limits of air power but also its hazards.

"It is now quite clear that NATO's prime objective of stopping the ethnic cleansing has failed," it said, adding that "diplomacy through Russia and the U.N. appears to be the only way out" as NATO does not have the stomach to move in ground troops.

The Australian national daily said in an editorial: "The bombing might yet prove to be a disaster in its potential to derail attempts to negotiate peace for all Yugoslavians.

"China's approval for the principles of a peace settlement at the U.N. Security Council is essential."

U.S. President Bill Clinton has offered his regrets for the attack but that did not appease angry crowds around the U.S. embassy in Beijing who hurled rocks and a Molotov cocktail and screamed "Kill Americans" at the weekend.

On Monday, several hundred students chanted "Pay blood debts with blood" and "Disband NATO" outside the British and U.S. embassies in Beijing, while in southern Guangzhou city about 1,000 protesters circled the Shamian Island diplomatic district.

The Chinese government, which whipped up popular fury by declaring the NATO strike a deliberate act of war, on Monday demanded an official apology from NATO and severe punishment for those responsible.

Hong Kong newspapers urged restraint.

"Condoning and even encouraging such protests, if they remain lawful, could turn out to be a dangerous gambit," Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said in an editorial.

"The more the fury mounts, the more demands there will be from the protesters for decisive action by mainland authorities."

"And for Beijing to retaliate against the NATO bombing in anything other than a symbolic manner would be disastrous, not only to China's hopes of WTO admission, but also for the profoundly important issue of Sino- U. S. relations on the broadest front."

U.S. officials have said the attack on the Chinese Embassy was a mistake based on "faulty information" that the building was the headquarters for the Yugoslav arms agency.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Milosevic Promises China Help In Embassy Probe

BEIJING, May. 11, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has promised China all necessary assistance in helping to investigate NATO's bungled missile attack on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, state-run media reported Monday.

Milosevic made his pledge in a meeting in Belgrade with officials from a Chinese team sent to investigate the bombing, which left three dead and more than 20 injured, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Milosevic met inquiry team head Wang Guozhang and expressed his sympathies to the injured, and offered condolences to the families of the deceased, the agency said.

Wang, a senior official of the Chinese foreign ministry, said the Chinese government thanked Yugoslavia for its rescue efforts after the raid.

The Yugoslav government took effective measures in treating the injured embassy staff immediately after the raid and avoided more deaths, Wang said.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


"Embassy Was Clearly Targeted," Claims Foreign Ministry

BELGRADE, May. 11, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) The Chinese embassy in Belgrade, hit by three missiles Friday from NATO warplanes, was "clearly targeted," Sun Yu Xi, spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said Monday.

The official was speaking after a funeral service held at Belgrade's main cemetery for the three Chinese journalists who were killed in the attack.

"I cannot accept the explanation" by NATO that the embassy was mistakenly hit, the official said.

"I visited the site yesterday and I think the embassy was clearly targeted," he said.

He added that "there were several missiles, (which) hit at the embassy from different directions and they hit very precisely."

"There were two buildings and they were both hit," he said.

The three victims -- Shao Yunhuan of the Chinese state news agency Xinhua, Zhu Ying, a Guangming Daily employee and her husband Xu Xing Hu -- would be cremated later Monday and their ashes taken to China, the official said.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Assures Foreigners' Safety

BEIJING, May. 11, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) China has guaranteed the safety of foreigners and called warnings by foreign governments to steer clear of widespread street protests "misguided," the state-run press reported Tuesday.

Mass demonstrations nationwide over the past three days condemning the NATO bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade would not be a threat to foreigners in China, the China Daily said quoting government officials.

"The personal safety of foreign tourists and the safety of their property will be effectively protected," officials at the National Tourism Administration said.

Tourist activities would not be affected by the protests which appeared to be calming down on Tuesday, it said.

The paper also cited a Sunday speech by Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao who stressed that all foreign diplomatic institutions and personnel and foreign nationals working in China would be protected.

The U.S. government Sunday postponed all official trips to China and warned its citizens that they could be harassed and threatened by protesters and U.S. business undertakings impaired.

"This is misguided," the Chinese officials said.

"The current protests have all been approved by relevant government departments and are being conducted in an orderly manner," he said.

The U.S. and British embassies in Beijing have been besieged by angry rock-throwing protesters since Saturday, while the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu was stormed by demonstrators and set on fire Saturday night.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Chinese Media Calls NATO "Archcriminal"

BEIJING, May. 11, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) China kept up the pressure on NATO Tuesday with a harsh editorial in the communist party newspaper the People's Daily which accused it of being the "archcriminal of humanitarian disasters."

"This is a rare barbaric crime in the history of international relations. The inhuman atrocity of trampling on the international law has incited extreme indignation in the Chinese people and strong condemnation from the international community," said the newspaper in a commentary.

The commentary, entitled "Archcriminal of Humanitarian Disasters" said the "bloody facts have stripped the U.S.-led NATO of its mask as a humanitarian fighter and thoroughly exposed its true nature of ravaging humanity with force," the Xinhua news agency reported.

"Facts have shown that the archcriminal that produces the humanitarian disasters is no one else but the U.S.-led NATO," it added.

"NATO is not unknowing of the fact that it is an evil brutality to use bombs against peaceful people. Therefore, whenever it imposes tragedies on the civilians, NATO would stall around, saying they were 'mistakes'," it said.

It also hit out at U.S. authorities saying their apologies for the attack were "cooked up chicanery."

It claimed that one of the people killed in the embassy attack, Xinhua journalist Shao Yunhuan, had written an article just before she died called "When will NATO Stop its 'Accidental Mistakes'?"

"Because of NATO's inhuman atrocities, three Chinese mothers lost their children and a Chinese son lost his mother on Mother's Day," the commentary said.

U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen Monday confirmed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was due to an "outdated map."

Cohen said he briefed President Bill Clinton on the "series of errors" that led to the bombing, which killed at least three people and provoked violent protests in Beijing.

Clinton publicly apologized Monday for NATO's bombing but insisted the allied campaign against Yugoslavia would continue.

Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan had on Monday demanded an official apology from the United States and urged Washington to carry out a thorough investigation into the bombing.

President Jiang Zemin on Monday accused the United States of using "gunboat" politics as thousands of demonstrators held a third day of protests against the NATO bombing.

The U.S. embassy again bore the brunt of the protests where several hundred demonstrators remained throughout the night shouting slogans.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Dissatisfied With Embassy Bombing Apology

WASHINGTON, May. 11, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) China was not prepared to accept that its Belgrade embassy was bombed in error until there was a thorough investigation of the incident, a senior official told CNN Monday.

"I don't think people should regard it simply as an accident and a mistake without carrying out a substantial, thorough, comprehensive investigation," Liu Xiaoming, first minister to the Chinese embassy here, said.

And he said the apologies provided so far by NATO and the United States were insufficient.

China needed an "open and official apology," Xiaoming told CNN.

The allies also needed to make clear what action would be taken against the pilots who fired the missiles on the embassy.

Three people died and 20 more were injured during the bombing Friday after NATO pilots singled out the building in error because of an outdated map.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Ambassador: Protests Sour Sino-U.S. Relations

BEIJING, May. 11, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Three days of furious and sometimes violent anti-U.S. demonstrations outside the U.S. embassy in Beijing have diminished recent improvements in troubled Sino-U.S. ties, U.S. ambassador to China James Sasser said Tuesday.

"It's very unfortunate now that these events here in Beijing I think are diminishing some of the good work that (Premier Zhu Rongji) did in the United States (in April)," Sasser, who is virtually besieged in the embassy compound, told CNN by telephone.

Sasser has been stuck in the embassy for almost three days, surrounded by stone-throwing demonstrators furious at NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade last Friday.

But he held out some hope that traditionally rocky Sino-U.S. ties could improve once the anger and recriminations had blown over.

"This could be simply a shallow emotional reaction to a terrible tragedy that we will get over. I continue to think that among the Chinese people here that there is a deep reservoir of friendliness towards the United States," Sasser said.

"I think that there is a strong sediment in favor of closer relations with the U.S. here and once we get past this period I think that will prevail again."

The Chinese state-run media reported for the first time late Monday a public apology by U.S. President Bill Clinton for the attack, which left three Chinese people dead and 20 injured.

Sasser said he had raised the failure of domestic media to report NATO's explanations and apologies during a conversation with Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Police Promise No Fourth Day Of Embassy Protests

BEIJING, May. 11, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Police in Beijing said Tuesday there would be no fourth-day of officially-sponsored protests outside the U.S. embassy following NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

"There won't be any more today," a city police officer said after three days of protests over the bombing in which three Chinese people were killed and 20 injured.

China allows public protests to take place only under strictly controlled conditions. Participants must register with police and stick to an assigned route.

Even with thousands of people queuing up to march past the U.S. and British embassies in China during the past three days, police stuck to a semblance of the rules, asking each group for a representative with a student card to sign their name before allowing them to pass through.

Police presence in the embassy quarter remained strong Tuesday, with hundreds of officers manning intersections and lining the streets.

China's state-controlled media appeared to be lowering the emotional temperature Tuesday, with no footage of street protests on the morning news and an emphasis on more orderly chanting in classrooms, workplaces and military parade grounds.

The state-run Xinhua news agency published for the first time a list of apologies by U.S. President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other NATO leaders for the attack.

Apparently fearing that the popular furore over the Belgrade embassy bombardment may boil over beyond their control, Chinese authorities began calling for calm Sunday evening, urging students to return to class and workers to go back to work.

But they assured demonstrators they had the full support of the government, which sanctioned their protests from the beginning.

In a nationally televised address, Vice-President Hu Jintao threw the weight of the Communist Party behind the demonstrators.

But he called on them to be vigilant with regard to uncontrolled elements "who may use the occasion to disturb social order."

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Chernomyrdin Begins Whirlwind Talks In China

BEIJING, May. 11, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Russian special envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin began a whirlwind round of talks with senior Chinese officials on the Kosovo crisis Tuesday, Russian diplomatic sources said, amid outrage in Beijing over the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

Chernomyrdin, who arrived Monday evening, met first with Vice Premier Qian Qichen, and would later meet with Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and President Jiang Zemin before leaving Tuesday afternoon.

"The Kosovo crisis is central to the discussions," the source said.

The sudden visit was announced from Moscow on Monday following a telephone call between Jiang and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

The visit came amid fury in China over a blundered NATO raid overnight Friday when its war planes hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese nationals and injuring another 20.

During his hotline call to Yeltsin, Jiang angrily denounced NATO's "absolute gun-boat policy," and warned that the "U.S.-led NATO should bear all the responsibilities arising" from the bombing, Xinhua quoted him as saying.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Warnings issued on travel to mainland

JO PEGG and STELLA LEE

Tuesday  May 11  1999

Americans and Britons have been warned not to travel to China amid the continuing protests, sparking concern among expatriates in Hong Kong as well as fears that SAR tourism will suffer.

The US State Department closed its missions on the mainland yesterday, while Britain's Foreign Office and Germany's Hong Kong consulate advised nationals not to approach missions but contact them by phone.

"The Department of State strongly urges American citizens to defer travel to the PRC until the situation stabilises," a warning said.

"US citizens . . . should remain in or very close to their homes or hotels, review their security practices, stay alert to the changing situation and avoid crowds and demonstrations."

A travel advisory issued in London urged Britons to postpone any non-essential travel on the mainland.

"British nationals in China should adopt a low profile and stay off the streets and away from demonstrations," it said.

A similar line has been taken by Germany.

"The advice given by our embassy in Beijing is that people should not move close to the embassy or to places where protests are held. But there is no warning against travelling to China," a German Consulate spokesman in Hong Kong said.

Several German companies with offices in Hong Kong had called yesterday to ask about safety on the mainland, she said.

A French Consulate press attache said they had taken two calls on safety yesterday but had not received any instructions from Paris as to what advice to give.

Tokyo also has advised Japanese people to avoid the areas around Western embassies in Beijing.

A spokeswoman for the China Travel Service in Hong Kong said she could not yet tell whether people from Hong Kong were cancelling or postponing trips to the mainland.

"But we have received lots of inquiries regarding the situation," she said.

The travel warnings threaten to scare holidaymakers off visiting the SAR, the Hong Kong Tourist Association said last night.

"This is of considerable concern at a time when tourism is beginning to rebound," executive director Amy Chan Cheng Yi-yim said.

"While we do not believe American or British nationals have any cause for alarm when visiting Hong Kong, inevitably many people with itineraries that include the mainland will feel obliged to cancel their trips."

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Blame lies with old maps, says Nato official

ASSOCIATED PRESS in Washington

Tuesday  May 11  1999

Old maps were to blame for the bombing of the embassy, a senior Nato official was quoted as saying yesterday.

The Washington Post reported the official as saying: "The tragic and embarrassing truth is that our maps simply did not show the Chinese Embassy anywhere in that vicinity."

The embassy was opened three or four years ago and the old one was several kilometres away, the paper said.

A US government official said the bombing was the result of misinformation from CIA planners.

The intended target in last Friday's air attack was a military supply office. But due to faulty information provided by the CIA and reviewed by Nato and the Pentagon, the pilots mistakenly bombed the embassy hundreds of metres away, the US official said.

"They went through all these hoops, but for whatever reason it was not detected," he said.

The CIA was reviewing its information sources to find out how the error was made.

It was unusual for the CIA to be involved in target planning in the air campaign, the US official said. More often, that was up to Nato, the US European Command or the Pentagon.

US President Bill Clinton wrote to President Jiang Zemin on Sunday to offer his regrets.

"He expressed that it was unintentional, that it was a mistake and that we certainly regret the loss of life and the suffering that has been caused by this," National Security Council spokesman David Leavy said.

"The letter also made clear the importance of protecting US personnel there [in China] and guaranteeing the safety of embassy staff," he said.

Beijing's Ambassador to the US, Li Zhaoxing, refused to accept Nato and US explanations that the bombing was a mistake.

Nato's supreme allied commander, US Army General Wesley Clark, said officials had looked at the process leading to the error and "we think it's an anomaly".

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Politburo says crisis must not be allowed to damage trade ties

ANALYSIS by WILLY WO-LAP LAM

Tuesday  May 11  1999

The "mainstream faction" of the Chinese leadership has, at least temporarily, decided to separate diplomatic quarrels with the US from issues of bilateral co-operation, particularly in business and trade.

Since the crisis erupted, senior cadres including Politburo Standing Committee members have stayed in Zhongnanhai party headquarters, holding two or three meetings a day.

According to a party source, one decision made by the Politburo was that Beijing would not let Sino-US relations deteriorate, provided Washington made some genuine efforts at damage control.

Moreover, barring an unforeseen deterioration of ties over new flashpoints, exchanges in economic areas, particularly China's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), would continue, according to schedule.

"Beijing has suspended security and human rights dialogues with the United States, but these are hardly a major area of bilateral concern. The leadership's bottom line is there should be no major ruptures in ties," the source said.

Following apologies by President Bill Clinton, Beijing has made available mechanisms for the US to mend fences.

Yesterday, Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan relayed his four demands to Ambassador James Sasser on how "US-led Nato" authorities should make reparations. Diplomatic analysts said it should not be too difficult for the US to satisfy the Chinese on most of these.

A diplomatic source said Beijing hoped to continue normal discussions with the US on the economic front.

"The Chinese leadership hopes the moral high ground it has attained after the embassy accident might strengthen its hand at the WTO negotiation table," the source said.

"For example, Beijing hopes Washington would not be pushing too hard on a number of trade concessions."

Political analysts said, however, should the WTO talks break down or hostilities in the Balkans escalate, hardliners in the leadership might push their line for an overall cooling of ties.

Beijing is taking extra precautions to ensure the demonstrations do not get out of hand.

Sources in the security establishment said police were looking at possibilities that "unscrupulous elements", including pro-democracy activists, might hijack the anti-Nato protests to make trouble for the administration.

In any case, a source said, the street rallies should cease at least two weeks before the 10th anniversary of the June 4 massacre.

The authorities fear that once stirred up, the anger and emotions of the crowds might be diverted elsewhere.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


European Union-China summit scrapped

DAVID MURPHY in Beijing, FOO CHOY PENG in Shanghai and Agencies

Tuesday  May 11  1999

The European Union-China summit, due to take place in Beijing on Thursday, has been cancelled.

Instead of a three-day trip combining bilateral talks and the summit, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will pay a one-day visit to Beijing for a working-level meeting involving only political talks.

The cancellation also meant outgoing EU president Jacques Santer and vice-president Sir Leon Brittan would not visit China. "The commission will not be present," Sir Leon said in Berlin.

Reflecting heightened tensions between China and the West, the Kosovo crisis is expected to dominate the agenda between Mr Schroeder and President Jiang Zemin.

Plans to sign contracts worth about two billion marks (HK$8.52 billion) during Mr Schroeder's visit have been postponed indefinitely.

"The Chinese side clearly indicated that in the light of the circumstances, the trip by an economic delegation would be inappropriate," said a spokesman for the Chancellor's office in Bonn.

Mr Schroeder's visit would now focus on trying to win Chinese backing for efforts to draft a UN resolution mandating the use of international peacekeeping troops to enforce an eventual settlement of the conflict, he said.

"What is important now is to convince the Chinese side that, firstly, it is important to continue working on a resolution and not to veto it and, secondly, to maintain Germany's good relations with China," the spokesman said.

The summit was set to thrash out the last stumbling blocks to Beijing joining the World Trade Organisation.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Blair plays down Dalai Lama talks

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Tuesday  May 11  1999

British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday prepared for a low-key meeting with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, anxious not to anger Beijing at a time of already strained relations.

Mr Blair's official spokesman confirmed the Prime Minister would hold a "private meeting" with the Dalai Lama.

The spokesman said the two men would not pose for photographs and declined to say when the talks would take place.

London sources said Mr Blair was expected to receive the Dalai Lama later yesterday.

Mr Blair is hoping to minimise Chinese displeasure by meeting the Dalai Lama in his religious capacity rather than as a political leader.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


4 years for dissident

DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR

Tuesday  May 11  1999

Dissident Liu Xianli was jailed for four years yesterday, a human rights group said.

The Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court found Liu guilty of trying to overthrow the Government by compiling writings and interviewing dissidents, including activist Xu Wenli and Ding Zilin , the leading advocate for families of the Tiananmen victims.

Liu planned to appeal, the SAR-based Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Editorial: Unleashing furies

Tuesday  May 11  1999

Seiji Ozawa won't raise his baton in Beijing this week, flooding the Great Hall of the People with the glorious sound of Beethoven's Leonore Overture as Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji listen attentively. Instead, two Boston Symphony Orchestra performances have been cancelled in the escalating diplomatic row between China and the United States over the Belgrade bombing of the Chinese embassy.

The concerts were supposed to mark the 20th anniversary of similar ones attended by the late Deng Xiaoping as a symbol of warming ties between the two nations. This week's non-performances symbolise the exact opposite.

The cancellation is a blow to Chinese music-lovers but one which can be endured. But, more importantly, it is accompanied by the postponement of official Sino-American exchanges on human rights, military strategy, arms control and nuclear proliferation - all key to an effort to deepen relations.

This raises questions of more fundamental concern to the region and the world: To what extent is China ready to weaken its US ties and for what purpose?

The fatal attack on the Chinese embassy was a tragic mistake which hasn't yet received adequate explanation; merely calling it an intelligence error isn't enough. But the raid was so self-damaging to Nato's political cause that it is impossible to believe it happened on purpose. Yet the official China Daily, among others, chooses to call the bombing an "intolerable aggression and a war crime" against China which betrays an "ambition to dictate world politics".

In fact, the bombing was more stupid than conspiratorial, and Nato leaders have been offering abject apologies publicly and privately ever since it happened. However, none of these expressions of regret, nor a declared willingness to pay reparations, have been relayed to the Chinese public by the state-controlled media.

Instead, Beijing organised rowdy protests for reasons which go far beyond the understandable wish to vent anger over an inexcusable loss of innocent life. These apparently include a desire to warn against getting dangerously close to foreign powers. However, yesterday's demonstrations were smaller and less violent, and there were indications they will soon end as "spontaneously" as they began.

But other questions linger. Will this episode be exploited by conservative leaders who oppose exposing China to competitive economic pressures, notably by joining the World Trade Organisation? Will it erode the authority of Premier Zhu and his fellow reformers? Do the cancelled talks with US officials symbolise a pause or a more basic freeze for internal Chinese reasons?

These longer-term questions cannot yet be answered. But they point to a crucial problem: by unleashing such furies, China may have turned loose forces which can bring consequences contrary to its own national interests and those of the entire region.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Eggs, ink hurled at mission in Taipei

REUTERS in Taipei

Tuesday  May 11  1999

Taiwanese activists torched American flags and hurled eggs and red ink at the US diplomatic outpost in Taipei.

"Down with American imperialism!" shouted more than 100 supporters of the Chinese Unification Front.

"Shame, Uncle Sam!" they chanted outside the offices of the American Institute in Taiwan.

The protesters played a recording of the Internationale, the socialist anthem rarely heard in Taiwan.

Other than the protest by the front, Taiwan in general was taking the uproar in stride, with blanket media coverage but no signs of broad anger like that sweeping the mainland.

Some protesters held pictures of US President Bill Clinton captioned "Clinton: Wanted for Murder" and burned the Stars and Stripes outside Washington's de facto Taiwan embassy.

In Singapore, a group of Chinese students entered the US Embassy to deliver a protest letter, a US official said.

The students were believed to be studying technology in Singapore on an exchange programme with China.

"A group of 15 to 20 university students hand-delivered a letter to the American Embassy in protest at the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade," the spokesman said.

The contents of the letter were not available.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Guangzhou students keep up rage

MATTHEW MILLER in Guangzhou

Tuesday  May 11  1999

Student protesters threw stones and tomatoes at US consulate grounds in Guangzhou for a third day yesterday.

The Shamian diplomatic district, home to the US and German missions, was again deluged by thousands of students from local universities.

But unlike the weekend, the police presence was more evident, with Guangdong authorities calling out armed officers to guard consulate property and prevent a repeat of Sunday's violence, which saw hundreds of demonstrators break windows and force their way into the German consulate.

Students from Zhongshan University and Guangzhou College of Traditional Chinese Medicine were told by police to remain orderly.

Despite some scuffling and rock-throwing, the students moved past the grounds without incident.

Long Zhipeng, a Zhongshan University student, said: "Everyone wants to come here, but some students had classes this morning. They'll come later."

Mr Long said they were being organised by the university's students union.

Elsewhere in the city, it remained quiet, with only scattered protests at the Gitic Building, home to the consulates of Great Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

Alexander Thiel, of Pinkerton Consulting Services, said: "Private business has not seen any problems."

German Consul-General Wolfgang Runge registered a "strong protest" with the Guangdong provincial Government over the attack.

"What happened cannot be in any way justified by any events around the world," said a Guangzhou-based German diplomat.

The diplomat deplored the violence, which left consulate windows smashed and furniture broken. "The police stood idly by while all this happened. They didn't do anything," he said.

"They only went into action when some of the people tried to force their way into the consulate and intervened at a late stage."

US diplomatic personnel expressed satisfaction with protection offered by the provincial authorities.

"They've done a great job of keeping [protesters]) out of here," a US official said. The US consulate, as with other US diplomatic offices throughout the mainland, will be closed until at least tomorrow.

A Guangdong official said: "We are trying our best to protect all the property of the foreign institutions here."

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Boston off after 'barbarous' bombing

Tuesday  May 11  1999

The mainland has cancelled two Beijing concerts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, saying the "barbarous" bombing had ruined the atmosphere for the event.

"We're terribly disappointed," an orchestra spokeswoman said in Japan, where the musicians were touring.

"We'd planned this for a very long time."

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Hundreds mourn strike victims

Tuesday  May 11  1999

REUTERS in Belgrade

Several hundred people, many in tears, attended a memorial ceremony in the Yugoslav capital yesterday for the three journalists killed in the attack.

Yugoslav and visiting mainland officials addressed the crowd, gathered on a sunny afternoon in Belgrade's New Cemetery to mourn the three.

The head of a Chinese Government delegation which came to Belgrade to investigate said the three victims were heroes.

Chinese media said Xinhua reporter Shao Yunhuan was killed when one of the missiles exploded in her bedroom.

Xu Xinhu and Zhu Ying, a husband-and-wife team from the Guangming Daily newspaper were also killed. Zhu was blown out of their second-floor room into the basement by the blast, the media said.

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Milovan Bojic said: "Nato acted in a bestial fashion when it hit the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

"Such an incident has no precedent in the history of diplomacy,"

He was addressing a ceremony inside the cemetery's Orthodox Christian chapel attended by Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Sun Yuxi, head of the delegation.

The three journalists were due to be cremated later in the day and their ashes transported back to the mainland.

Mr Sun said the embassy's military attache, initially reported dead but then found alive in his bed nine hours after the bombing, was seriously wounded and still in hospital.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Chernomyrdin in Beijing for crisis talks

Tuesday  May 11  1999

Kremlin emissary Viktor Chernomyrdin arrived in Beijing yesterday to discuss the crisis, as Moscow continued to set the diplomatic pace in efforts to end the seven-week conflict. Mr Chernomyrdin was expected to brief leaders on a framework accord thrashed out last week by foreign ministers from Russia and the Group of Seven leading industrial nations.

The Bonn peace blueprint provides for an "international civil and security presence" in Kosovo, the return of displaced refugees and a search for a durable political solution. An interim administration for Kosovo was also agreed, although not detailed.

Beijing's co-operation is vital if the tentative Kosovo agreement is to receive the blessing of the UN Security Council.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Legco to debate anti-Nato motion

MAY SIN-MI HON

Tuesday  May 11  1999

Legislators will table a motion tomorrow condemning the bombing.

The Legco House Committee decided yesterday that chairman Dr Leong Che-hung should move an emergency motion to express members' anger.

A letter sent to Foreign Ministry Commissioner Ma Yuzhen yesterday says: "We are angry and astonished at the Nato bombing. It should be strongly condemned."

It also expressed condolences to the victims' relatives.

Democrat Szeto Wah demanded an apology and compensation from Nato.

Xinhua director Jiang Enzhu said: "Hong Kong people have expressed their patriotic support for the central Government's stern position."

A group of Democratic Party members, led by chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming, protested outside the US Consulate.

Mr Lee said the attacks were "a very serious tampering with Chinese sovereignty", and called for a thorough investigation.

Other groups, including local deputies to the National People's Congress, the Liberal Party, Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood, Heung Yee Kuk, Progressive Alliance and the 123 Democratic Alliance issued separate statements condemning the attacks.

Tertiary college student unions also issued statements condemning Nato. They included unions of the Chinese University, the University of Hong Kong, Polytechnic University, Baptist University, University of Science and Technology, Lingnan College and the Shue Yan College.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Police to step up mission guards after incidents

STELLA LEE and JO PEGG

Tuesday  May 11  1999

Police will step up protection for the SAR consulates of Nato allies after four people protesting against the Belgrade embassy bombing were arrested yesterday.

The four included a man who allegedly tried to smash windows after climbing into the United States Consulate in Garden Road, Central, at about 4pm.

The man, 24, who faces a criminal damage charge, was subdued and handcuffed by consulate security officers who handed him over to police.

A 45-year-old man was arrested for disorderly conduct shortly after noon after throwing a beer bottle at the consulate's main gate. The bottle did not break and did not cause damage or injuries.

Two other men, aged 30 and 38, were arrested for disorderly conduct at about 4pm after tossing plastic bottles into the consulate, which had closed early at 3pm. The four have been released on bail.

The arrests came as Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Dick Lee Ming-kwai said patrols would be strengthened around the consulates of Nato allies, including France and Germany. Frequent meetings would be held with their security offices.

The force conducted risk assessments on the consulates after the bombing sparked waves of protests on the mainland and in the SAR.

Mr Lee said protests had been orderly and peaceful but police would reassess the situation if it changed.

A US Consulate spokesman said peaceful freedom of expression was part of Hong Kong tradition.

"We respect Hong Kong people's right to demonstrate on important issues, even when it's against us," he said.

The British Consulate-General said staff were working "as usual".

Etienne Reuter, who represents the European Commission in Hong Kong, said: "I would like to express my sorrow over the tragic accident . . . in Belgrade . . . and extend my deeply-felt condolences to the victims and their families."

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Poor to gain from university's Net project

SHIRLEY KWOK

Tuesday  May 11  1999

About 2,000 students receiving financial help from the Government will be given free e-mail accounts and access to the Internet under a project announced yesterday.

The Chinese University got the biggest share of the Quality Education Fund in its second call for applications. The fund approved 587 projects involving $192 million.

The university was granted $12 million to link up with primary and secondary schools, networking the institutes into one "cyber-campus".

Chairman of the fund's steering committee Irving Koo Yee-yin said 2,160 applications had been received.

About $87.8 million will go to information technology development and $49.2 million to all-round education.

Chinese University associate professor Wong Po-choi said 250 more schools would benefit from his project.

"Some 350 schools are already included in the first phase of our project approved last year," he said. "Teachers can surf the Internet free. The project is successful as each day we have as many as two million hits.

"In our second stage we will encourage students to access the Internet. Some 2,000 poor students should benefit."

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


New Clinton apology for attack

STAFF REPORTERS in Beijing and Agencies

Tuesday  May 11  1999

President Bill Clinton last night offered a fresh public apology for the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, hours after Beijing outlined its demands for an end to the crisis.

"I apologise, I regret this," he said at the White House. "[But] I think it is very important to draw a clear distinction between a tragic mistake and a deliberate act of ethnic cleansing."

Anti-Nato protests continued across China, but the numbers thinned.

An "open and official apology" for the attack on the Belgrade embassy, which killed three people, was one of four demands presented to US Ambassador Jim Sasser by Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan earlier in the day. Mr Clinton expressed regret in a letter to President Jiang Zemin on Sunday.

The other demands were: a complete and thorough investigation of the Nato missile attack on the embassy; publication of the details of the investigation results; and severe punishment for those responsible for the attack.

Diplomats said Beijing was, in effect, separating the bombing from the more intractable problem of the overall Balkan conflict - and that the mainland would be largely pacified if the four relatively mild demands were met.

However, Beijing kept up the rhetoric, with Mr Jiang, in his first public comment on the bombing, describing it as barbaric. He was quoted as telling President Boris Yeltsin that the strike was "an utmost barbarous act, and a gross violation of Chinese sovereignty which is rare in diplomatic history". The Nato strikes, which had bypassed the UN, were "demonstration of an absolute gunboat policy".

Beijing was also playing hard-ball with threats of further worsening ties should Washington fail to take immediate action.

It said it had suspended security and human rights dialogue with the US.

Washington, in turn, said it had postponed official visits to the mainland. It was not clear whether that included trade representatives, who were due in Beijing this weekend. Negotiations were continuing on that visit, officials said.

But a Beijing source said that having made its point, the leadership was acting to cool demonstrations against US missions and Nato countries, which had shown signs of getting out of hand.

The UN Security Council was to meet last night to consider Beijing's request for a condemnation of the bombing and a call for a UN probe. Germany said it supported the demand for an inquiry.

For a third day, tens of thousands of anti-Nato activists hurled rocks and other objects at the US Embassy and consulates across the mainland with minimal interference from police.

However, the numbers were down by about half from Sunday and the national media no longer broadcast scenes of the rallies.

Xinhua said many students in Beijing had returned to their classes, even though a few thousand still tried to lay siege to the embassy district.

Some protesters set light to petrol-soaked spears and threw them at the embassy, but the fires were put out by police.

Demonstrations were also reported in cities such as Guangzhou and Chengdu, although official media shifted the focus of coverage to emphasise how people mourned the victims by "making contributions to the country" instead of through demonstrations.

In Chengdu, hundreds of police guarded the US Consulate as thousands of students continued their protests. Roadblocks were set up to prevent protesters from getting too close.

Unlike the weekend protests - which were dominated by students - civil servants, retired soldiers and factory workers were among the throngs in Beijing.

Hawkers who used to gather in the Jianguomenwai diplomatic district said police had told them they would be able to return to normal business today because yesterday was the last day the authorities would allow mass protests.

After clearing the streets near the US Embassy, police began letting protesters back in at about 9am. By early afternoon, several thousand people were shouting and throwing stones in a repeat of Sunday's protest.

But the mood was less menacing than over the weekend and demonstrators mostly confined their anger to shouting slogans.

Police set up a registration point for those wishing to join a chanting procession. Xinhua said 7,000 police officers were deployed in Beijing alone.

Protesters - making no effort to conceal the missiles intended for the walls and windows of the embassies - were waved through police roadblocks in batches of 200 or so.

Demonstrators followed an approved route also taking in the homes of the British and US ambassadors.

"Where are your rocks?" one policeman was overheard asking a protester who turned up empty-handed.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Chinese Anger at NATO Bombing Being Channeled by Communist Leadership

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) The angry nationalistic protests that have swept China this weekend following NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade come hard on the heels of a large-scale patriotic campaign organized by the Chinese authorities themselves.

The demonstrations and stone-throwing outside the US and British embassies here, while expressing very real emotions, have also ridden on the momentum generated by a campaign to commemorate a 1919 protest that led to the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

State-controlled media has for weeks been preparing for the 80th anniversary of the May 4th Movement, exhorting young people to love socialism and love China in the spirit of the 1919 demonstrations.

The influence of May 4th was apparent during the weekend protests as college students shouted "Long live China" and repeatedly sang the national anthem as they angrily stoned the British and US embassies.

In 1919, protests began when students from Beijing University marched to Tiananmen Square demanding democracy and access to science, and protesting at the carving up of China's sovereignty by global powers following World War I.

On Sunday they shouted "Down with American imperialism" and "Disband the fascist NATO."

"Chinese are furious with NATO ... the embassy in Belgrade was a part of Chinese territory," a student from Beijing University said, as other students expressed indignation at NATO's "interference in Yugoslavia's sovereign affairs."

The government has shown that it is willing to risk hard-won social stability by saturating the state-run press with angry reports refusing to accept NATO apologies and regrets, and wide press coverage of the nationalistic protests.

"We believe that today's nationwide protests of tens of thousands of student demonstrators have government approval and are organized by officials of the university student unions," the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said Sunday.

"What concerns the authorities however is that other political activists will participate in the protests and play a role in calling for the overturning of the verdict on June 4 (1989 democracy protests)," it said.

The center said several members of the outlawed China Democracy Party were rounded up by police early Sunday and told to stay away from the protests.

Before Saturday authorities had given every indication they would nip in the bud any sign of social unrest during a year which is full of sensitive anniversaries for the communist party.

Besides the May 4th anniversary, 1999 also marks the quelling of the 1979 Democracy Wall protests, the bloody crackdown by the army on the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests and -- most importantly for the party -- the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.

The extent of the party's concern over stability was seen only two weeks ago. Morning exercises by up to 70 million followers of the Falungong spiritual movement came under police surveillance after 10,000 group members demonstrated in front of the Zhongnanhai party headquarters in central Beijing.

The group had demanded government guarantees for the right to practice their beliefs. But the huge and unexpected demonstration led to a large-scale police effort to name and identify Falungong group leaders throughout China.

A preoccupation with stability has been a cornerstone of the political agenda of President Jiang Zemin, who has said only regional and domestic peace and stability can ensure China's continued economic development.

At the same time his party has been under great pressure from rising unemployment brought on by economic modernization and anger over government corruption and arbitrary fees and taxation.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


US Ambassador Expresses "Profound Sorrow"

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) The US ambassador here, under siege from an estimated 20,000 protestors on Sunday, expressed sorrow at the "tragic mistake" of NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

"Ambassador James Sasser and the entire staff of the American Embassy in China express their profound sorrow to the people of China over the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and offer deepest condolences to the families of the innocent victims of that deplorable accident," a statement to AFP said.

"As President (Bill) Clinton has said, 'it was a tragic mistake'. We must not let this mistake impede further progress in developing stronger US-China relations that are so fundamentally in the interest of our both countries," it added.

The statement came as stone-throwing demonstrators broke windows at the embassy in protest against the NATO attack, with up to five protesters scaling the compound wall and being chased by police.

The accidental strike on the embassy in the Yugoslav capital early Saturday left three Chinese people dead, according to Chinese officials.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


US Evacuates Consulate in Chengdu

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) The US has evacuated all personnel from its consulate in China's southwestern city of Chengdu after angry protesters stormed the compound and set the residence of the consul general ablaze, a western diplomat said Sunday.

"There is no one in Chengdu (consulate). I believe they have all been evacuated," the diplomat said.

Angry crowds condemning the NATO bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia stormed the consulate late Saturday.

Witnesses to the incident at Chengdu in Sichuan province said policemen and firemen were overwhelmed by the huge crowds and were unable to control the situation for several hours.

The fire was put out early Sunday. No casualties have been reported.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Chinese Press Blasts NATO Bombings, Mourns Dead Journalists

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) China's state-controlled press Sunday angrily denounced the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, with all major dailies mourning the deaths of Chinese journalists killed in the attack.

"Our government issues serious declaration" read the main headline in the communist party newspaper the People's Daily. Inside were pictures of the bloody corpses of Guangming Daily reporter Xu Xinghu and his wife Zhu Ying and Xinhua news agency reporter Shao Yunhuan.

The three were staying in the embassy in Belgrade when three NATO missiles slammed into it early Saturday.

The paper also carried smiling passport photos of the three victims next to the photos of their mangled bodies.

The official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said four people died.

Chinese television for the second day reported wide-scale student protests around the country, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu. Several dailies carried front-page photos of the protests, which are apparently condoned by the central government.

A People's Daily commentary, carried by several papers, ridiculed the NATO claim that the bombings were unintentional and a mistake, calling such claims "chicanery."

"Three missiles blasted the embassy from different angles, which completely exposed the aggressors' evil intentions and spilled Chinese blood in an act for which they must be accountable," the commentary said.

Photos and television footage of the bombed-out embassy were also widely used.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


HK Pro-Democracy Leader Condemns Embassy Bombing

HONG KONG, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) Hong Kong pro-democracy leader Martin Lee on Monday condemned the NATO strike that devastated the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia and called for compensation and an apology.

Lee was leading a protest march by dozens of members of his Democratic Party which stopped at the U.S. and British consulates to turn in a letter calling for a halt to the NATO bombing.

He said he hoped the deadly missile strike, which NATO said was an accident, would not hurt U.S.-China relations. "I hope in the long term it will not damage the good relations between China and the United States, which both governments took many years to foster," he told reporters.

"It would be a very sad thing indeed if such good relations were to be ruined by a single act of atrocity. That's why we call upon the U.S. government, the leader of the NATO forces, to apologize unreservedly and pay compensation," Lee said.

While the protest was taking place, one of several planned outside the U.S. consulate on Monday, a passerby hurled a beer bottle at the American offices. Police took a man into custody.

Lee said his Democratic Party, which took the largest share of the popular vote in elections last year, wanted an immediate halt to NATO bombings and the United Nations to take the lead to ensure a peaceful resolution in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

"We don't see any advantage coming from this continued bombing," he said.

The Hong Kong government on Saturday strongly condemned the hit on the Chinese embassy.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Taiwan Activists Torch U.S. Flags

TAIPEI, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) Taiwan activists torched American flags and hurled eggs and red ink at the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Taipei on Monday as anger over NATO's bombing of China's Belgrade embassy spilled across the Taiwan strait.

"Down with American Imperialism!" shouted more than 100 supporters of the Chinese Unification Front.

"Shame, Uncle Sham!" they chanted outside the offices of the American Institute in Taiwan.

The protesters played a recording of the Internationale, the socialist anthem rarely heard in Taiwan, an anti-Communist capitalist democracy.

Other than the protest by the front, Taiwan in general was taking the uproar in stride, with blanket media coverage but no signs of broad anger like that sweeping the mainland.

The front, a Chinese nationalist group that seeks an end to Taiwan's half-century of bitter estrangement from communist China, demanded that Washington and NATO apologize to Beijing and compensate it for the air strike that killed three Chinese and devastated the Belgrade embassy on Friday.

Some protesters held pictures of U.S. President Bill Clinton captioned "Clinton: Wanted for Murder" and burned the Stars and Stripes outside Washington's de facto Taiwan embassy.

Eggs and red ink pelted the building, but the noontime demonstration was largely peaceful.

The protesters urged the western military alliance to stop its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.

Anger over the embassy bombing triggered massive and in some cases violent protests in major Chinese cities as students, with the government's apparent blessing, laid siege to western embassies and launched sporadic attacks on Americans.

Taiwan's government was careful in its response, not going beyond its initial expressions of regret and calls for sober handling of the crisis.

"We hope the sides can handle the situation calmly and rationally to work out a peaceful, proper resolution acceptable to all sides," foreign minister spokesman Roy Wu said.

Wu would not comment on the near-rioting in the mainland.

Along with Tibet, Taiwan lies at the heart of China's opposition to NATO's attacks on Yugoslavia.

Taiwan is viewed by Beijing as China's sovereign territory, but strongly opposes being brought under communist Chinese rule.

Beijing has said that if it were to back NATO's military response to Belgrade's purge of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, this could conceivably be used to justify similar support of separatists in Taiwan or Tibet seeking independence from China.

Taiwan has been estranged from the mainland since 1949, when the Chinese Nationalist government was defeated by the communists and fled into exile on the island.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Beijing Confirms Bombing of Chinese Embassy in Belgrade

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Beijing confirmed Saturday that NATO warplanes had bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

"NATO raids hit Chinese embassy in Belgrade, setting two story building on fire," the official Xinhua news agency said in a bulletin without giving further details.

A journalist of the independent Beta news agency in Belgrade said rescue teams had begun searching for survivors in the rubble of the building in the Novi Beograd district on the left bank of the Sava river.

Hotel Jugoslavija, which is close to the embassy, was also hit and was in flames, a witness said by telephone.

It is the first time since the NATO bombing campaign began on March 24 that a diplomatic mission in Belgrade has been hit.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


US Ambassador "Urgently" Summoned to Hear Official Protest in Beijing

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) The US ambassador to Beijing was "urgently" summoned to receive an official protest from China Saturday over the NATO bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade, the state Xinhua news agency said.

"Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yingfan, on order, lodged the strongest protest against the US-led NATO attack on the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia here this afternoon," it said.

"Wang urgently summoned James Sasser, US ambassador to China, to lodge the protest."

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Protest Near US Embassy in Beijing over NATO Bombing

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) About 50 Chinese people demonstrated Saturday near the United States embassy in Beijing after NATO air strikes hit China's mission in Belgrade, sources said.

At least two people were killed and more than 20 injured in the attack.

The UN Security Council after an emergency meeting expressed "shock and concern" at the attack but noted "regrets" expressed by NATO and the US.

Truckloads of police blocked access to the embassy Saturday morning and the number of police on duty outside was increased.

Silk Street, a popular shopping area for tourists and foreigners behind the embassy quarters, was also closed.

"There will be a meeting at the embassy this afternoon to talk about how to increase arrangements in security. But there is no specific threat," a US source said.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Strongly Condemns 'Barbarian' NATO Strike on Belgrade Embassy

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) China Saturday strongly condemned the NATO attack on its embassy in Yugoslavia as a "barbarian act" rare in diplomatic history as the UN Security Council began an emergency meeting.

"The Chinese government and people express their utmost indignation and severe condemnation of the barbarian act," said a government statement carried by state media.

"The US-led NATO should bear all responsibilities arising from this," it said, adding that the Chinese government reserved the right to take further action.

"US-led NATO forces dropped three missiles from different angles on the embassy of the People's Republic of China in Yugoslavia at midnight Friday," said Xinhua news agency.

At least two people, including a Xinhua journalist, were killed and another two people were unaccounted for, it said. The building was seriously damaged.

The female journalist, identified as Shao Yunhuan, died on arrival at the hospital. The other person killed has yet to be identified, Xinhua said.

The agency said Shao, born in 1951, had been assigned to work in Belgrade in March. It described her as a "outstanding correspondent."

More than 20 people were injured in the first strike on a diplomatic mission in Belgrade since the NATO bombing campaign began on March 24.

"US-led NATO has been wantonly bombing Yugoslavia for more than 40 days, killing and wounding large numbers of innocent civilians," the Chinese government statement continued.

"The action is a gross violation of Chinese sovereignty and a random violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, and the norms of international relations," said the statement.

In New York the United States expressed deep regret and apologized to China should it be confirmed that NATO was responsible for the attack.

US ambassador to the United Nations Peter Burleigh told reporters as he arrived for the emergency meeting: "In case it was a NATO bomb, it is obviously something we deeply regret and we apologize for it."

"We never target civilians and we would never target an embassy," Burleigh said. The meeting was being held at China's demand.

However, Burleigh ignored a Chinese call for a halt to the air campaign, saying the conflict was caused by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's "horrendous" policies that had triggered an exodus of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo.

"We will continue to take action until he agrees to the NATO demands," Burleigh said.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization indirectly confirmed hitting the embassy but denied targeting it and expressed "regrets" for the incident.

The 15 Security Council members met behind closed doors but diplomats said they planned to move into open debate in a later session in the early hours of Saturday.

"We strongly condemn NATO's act and express our indignation," Qin Huasun, Beijing's UN ambassador, said in a statement to reporters.

"NATO's barbarian act is a gross violation of the UN charter, international law and norms covering international relations. It is also a violation of the Geneva Convention," he said.

"We call on NATO to stop immediately its military action so as to avoid further humanitarian disaster."

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was "shocked and distressed" to learn of the bombing, his spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

The UN chief "reiterates his conviction that an urgent political solution must be found to the present crisis in the region," Eckhard said.

Chinese state television reported the strikes in its midday news program, showing footage of the embassy and people hurt in the strike. It also carried the official government statement.

Truckloads of police blocked access roads to the US embassy in Beijing after news of the attack, witnesses said.

An embassy official said no specific threat had been received. But a meeting was due to be held later in the day to discuss strengthening security.

China's people are largely hostile to the attacks, which are condemned daily in the official media as interference in another country's affairs.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Embassy Bombing Comes at Worst Time for China-West Relations

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) NATO's missile attack on China's embassy in Belgrade comes at the worst possible time as far as relations between China and the West are concerned, with ties already strained by the six-week Kosovo campaign.

The attack, which killed at least three people and injured more than 20, was strongly condemned by Beijing as a "barbarian act" and a war crime that must be punished.

The UN Security Council, meeting in emergency session at China's request, expressed "shock and concern." It noted the regrets expressed and said NATO was investigating Friday night's attack.

NATO and the United States expressed regret at the accident but said the air campaign against Yugoslavia would continue.

The Chinese government in a statement said it "reserved the right to take other measures." It recalled its hostility to the bombing and missile attacks since they began March 24.

China, which doubts the existence of "ethnic cleansing" by Serb forces in Kosovo, is a permanent member of the Security Council with the right to veto any initiative over the province.

The accidental attack will complicate the search for a settlement at the UN. It happened the day after Russia and the other seven members of the G-8 group reached partial agreement on a deal to end the Kosovo crisis including the sending of an international force.

On Friday China expressed doubt about that accord, insisting that the Belgrade government had to be included in any solution to end NATO raids.

China, itself subject to international sanctions after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, opposes in principle all intervention in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. It also rejects Western criticism of its human rights record and its record in Tibet.

Beijing also depicts itself, since the break-up of the Soviet Union, as one of the only powers capable of resisting the "hegemony" of the US. Fearful of encirclement, it opposes both the enlargement of NATO and military cooperation between the US and Japan.

The bombardment of Belgrade came as relations with the US were already at their lowest -- almost a year after President Bill Clinton's visit to Beijing which revived top-level dialogue after nine years of tension following Tiananmen.

At the end of April China denounced the US decision to sell two sophisticated long-range defense radar systems to Taiwan.

It has also protested a US proposal to include Japan and South Korea in a theater missile defense (TMD) system. It fears the eventual inclusion of Taiwan in TMD, which it says would constitute "an attack on Chinese sovereignty and integrity and at the same time an interference in China's internal affairs."

Washington for its part criticizes Beijing's huge trade surplus with it and suspects China of having stolen nuclear secrets.

The disputes have played a part in preventing the two countries reaching agreement on China's entry to the World Trade Organization despite major concessions offered by Premier Zhu Rongji in Washington last month.

Zhu attributed this setback to an "anti-Chinese climate" prevalent in the US.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Iran Condemns NATO Bombing of Chinese Embassy in Belgrade

TEHRAN, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Iran on Sunday condemned NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade as "unacceptable" and expressed concern over the deteriorating crisis in the region.

"(Iran) is concerned over the continuation and escalation of the human catastrophe in Kosovo," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said.

"Iran hopes that the crisis and the sufferings of Kosovar Moslems in the Balkans will be settled through efforts of the international community," he said, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.

The strike on the embassy in the Yugoslav capital on Saturday left three Chinese people dead, according to Chinese officials. The official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said four people died.

NATO said the building was mistaken for a Yugoslav weapons procurement and supply office.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Iraq: NATO Attacked Chinese Embassy on Purpose

BAGHDAD, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) An official Iraqi newspaper charged on Sunday that NATO's missile attack on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was a deliberate act to punish Beijing for opposing the air strikes on Yugoslavia.

"The bombardment of the embassy came after China condemned the US-Atlantic aggression against Yugoslavia and started to show signs of irritation toward the behavior of the United States," said Al-Jumhuriya.

The attack was deliberate and "shows the sadism of the Americans who revel in killing people", it said.

The newspaper condemned "the dubious silence of the UN Security Council over the daily aggressions against Iraq and Yugoslavia by the criminal United States, Britain, Zionism and their allies".

"This silence sounds the death knell of the UN charter and threatens all the countries of the world which refuse to bow to the hegemony of the United States and their allies," it said.

The strike on the embassy in the Yugoslav capital on Saturday left three Chinese people dead, according to Chinese officials. The official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said four people died.

NATO said the building was mistaken for a Yugoslav weapons procurement and supply office. "It was a tragic mistake," said US President Bill Clinton in an apology to China.

In northern Iraq the same day, three people were killed and two wounded in a raid by US warplanes, a military spokesman in Baghdad said. The US military said anti-aircraft artillery sites were targeted in self-defense.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Chinese Students in Tokyo Protest NATO Bombing

TOKYO, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) About 100 Chinese students staged a rally in front of the US embassy in Tokyo Sunday in protest at NATO's bombing of Beijing's embassy in Belgrade.

The demonstrators accused NATO of violating Chinese sovereignty and dignity, Kyodo News said.

The students, waving Chinese flags and placards reading "Return Our Fallen Comrades," sang the Chinese national anthem before delivering a letter of protest to the embassy, the news agency said.

One of the demonstrators, a 32-year-old student at the University of Tokyo, was quoted as saying: "The air strike led by the US-led NATO is a malicious challenge to us."

The rally coincided with huge demonstrations in Beijing and several other Chinese cities over NATO's Friday bombing, which killed at least three people at the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

Angry demonstrators stoned the US embassy in Beijing Sunday and tried to storm the building as an estimated 20,000-strong crowd protested for the second day against the bombing.

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Vietnam Condemns NATO Bombardment of Chinese Embassy

HANOI, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Vietnam strongly protested at the NATO missile attack against the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, calling it a "violation of international law," the foreign ministry said in a statement received Sunday.

The ministry said NATO's continued attacks against Yugoslavia had caused grave human and material damage to the Yugoslav people and undermined peace and stability in Europe and the world.

"We wish to express our condolences for the Chinese government and the victim's families," the ministry said.

"We condemn the acts of NATO which fired missiles on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, causing several deaths and injuries, and also in serious violation of international law."

Hanoi said NATO must immediately halt attacks and settle the Kosovo issue peacefully based on respect for national independence, sovereignty and the legitimate interests of all different ethnic groups in Yugoslavia. ( (c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Seeks To Calm Foreigners' Nerves

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) After inciting angry demonstrations against the NATO bombing of its Belgrade embassy, the Chinese government appeared anxious on Sunday to limit the ferment and soothe jittery foreigners.

A televised speech to the nation by Vice-President Hu Jintao was carefully balanced.

It showed support for the "keen patriotism" of students flooding the streets of major cities but made it clear Beijing would not tolerate anarchy.

At the same time, Hu seemed anxious to dispel fears that China might be tempted to lash out in anger or turn back the clock on its economic reforms. And foreigners, including diplomats and businessmen, would be protected, he said.

"We will uphold the policy of reform and opening to the outside world," he said.

His speech gave no clue to how the bombing might affect China's policy on Kosovo but the absence of any concrete talk of reprisals reassured Western diplomats.

"Beijing understands its international responsibilities," said one envoy. He said the government was unlikely to "stick its neck out" on Kosovo.

Diplomats speculated that by whipping up street protests the leaders were trying to channel public anger that might otherwise be directed towards them.

They have fanned public fury by declaring the NATO bombing was a deliberate act of war. Universities have even laid on buses to transport students to Beijing's embassy district.

Many analysts said Beijing was playing with fire. Domestically, it was igniting passions that could be hard to contain. And the impression overseas was of China lurching towards violence.

"The danger is how do you unwind this?" said one Western envoy as tens of thousands of students surged around the U.S. and British embassies, throwing rocks and even a petrol bomb.

"The chances of things turning nasty and spinning out of control is quite high."

He said the optimistic assessment was that Chinese authorities did not really believe their own assertions that NATO deliberately aimed its missiles at the embassy.

"If they themselves believe it then we're in for trouble," he said.

An Asian envoy said the authorities were under political pressure to lead the outpouring of anger.

Otherwise, he said, "they fear demonstrators might turn around and ask 'what are you doing about it?'"

President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji have made no public pronouncement on the NATO attack and there is speculation about how anger bubbling over on the streets will affect their own standing.

Jiang is the architect of China's rapprochement with the United States after almost a decade of estrangement caused by the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Zhu is the leader most closely associated with China's efforts to win U.S. backing for its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). He visited Washington just last month but failed to clinch a deal with President Bill Clinton.

Both leaders believe China's long-term goals are best served by good ties with the United States.

But to ensure that ties stay on track and avoid personal criticism as China's popular mood turns violently anti-American, it may serve their purposes to allow people to let off steam, Beijing-based analysts said.

The future of WTO negotiations, now in the crucial final stages, has been thrown into doubt.

In the current climate, it would be unthinkable for any Chinese leader to make further trade concessions to Washington.

Analysts saw a risk that anti-NATO protests could be hijacked by other groups. Unemployed workers and disgruntled farmers are a constant threat to social order.

Hu conceded that danger by saying China "must prevent overreaction and ensure social stability by guarding against some people making use of the opportunities to disrupt the normal public order."

Ironically, the Chinese Communist leadership appears to be encouraging the very thing it once feared -- street protests at a politically sensitive moment just a few weeks before the 10th anniversary on June 4 of the army crackdown on the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement.

It is conceivable that Beijing leaders welcomed the opportunity to co-opt student support under a patriotic banner.

In the meantime, hardline members of the Chinese leadership have been handed a golden opportunity to portray the United States as an aggressor and settle old scores.

"They can say: 'We've been pushed around on human rights, we've been pushed around on Tibet, and now this'," said another Western diplomat.

"The more nationalistic side of the leadership has been handed a plum on a plate by this tragedy in Belgrade."

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Anti-NATO Protestors Keep Pouring into Beijing Embassy District

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Waves of protestors kept pouring into the diplomatic quarter here Sunday following NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade as police tried to keep angry crowds moving past the US embassy.

"More and more buses keep pouring in. There are people as far as the eye can see," an AFP photographer at the scene said.

He said the protests, originally led by students, were now being swelled by ordinary people. They had brought traffic on a main road leading to the embassy district to a standstill.

Tens of thousands of protestors, at the lowest estimate, were now bearing down on the embattled embassy district, waving banners and shouting slogans, correspondents said.

Police tried to keep order by directing students who had marched through the area back to the university district on the other side of the city.

Hundreds of armed police manned every intersection in the area, often restraining thousands of onlookers from joining the protests -- the biggest the city has seen since the 1989 pro-democracy movement.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched past the US and British embassies, throwing stones, burning US flags and shouting slogans like "Down with US imperialism."

Some protestors threw stones and broke windows in the US embassy. Others gathered outside the British embassy just a street away, throwing missiles and shouting slogans.

The US embassy area looked like a war zone, AFP correspondents reported. The embassy building, an adjacent residential building, the consular section and cars parked inside the compound all had windows smashed by flying rocks and water bottles. ( (c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Chinese Democracy Party Warned to Stay Away from Protests

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Chinese police rounded up several members of the outlawed China Democracy Party and warned them not to join in continuing student protests over the NATO bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia, a human rights organization said Sunday.

He Depu, Gao Hongmin and Cha Jianguo were all told by Beijing police early Sunday to stay clear of the protests, the Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said in a faxed statement. It said Cha was still being detained by police.

"We believe that today's nationwide protests of tens of thousands of student demonstrators have government approval and are organized by officials of the university student unions," the Hong Kong-based organization said.

"What concerns the authorities however is that other political activists will participate in the protests and play a role in calling for the overturning of the verdict on June 4," it said.

Chinese authorities describe the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests as a "counter-revolutionary rebellion." The army crushed the protests with heavy loss of life.

The center further warned that anti-American sentiment throughout China was growing and was expected to weaken the troubled democracy movement. ( (c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Authorities Admit Orchestrating Raging Protests

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) Anti-NATO protests raged for a third day on Monday outside the U.S. and British embassies in Beijing and authorities made no secret that they were organizing the action.

On the first working day since protests erupted against NATO's bombing of China's Belgrade embassy on Friday night, civil servants and retirees swelled the ranks of students.

In its first act of political retaliation, China announced it would suspend military exchanges and human rights dialogue with the United States -- prizes of U.S. President Bill Clinton's policy of engagement with China.

Police set up a registration point for people wanting to join a chanting procession, witnesses said.

Groups of 200 or so protesters marched along an approved route which took them past the British embassy and the ambassador's residence, and then on to the nearby U.S. compound in a leafy diplomatic quarter.

One of the largest groups carried a banner identifying its members as employees of the Aeronautical Design Institute. "Americans have gone too far, they are shitting on our heads," said 40-year-old designer Liu Ning.

Several groups stopped to hurl rocks, bottles and other debris at the buildings.

But the mood was less menacing than over the weekend and demonstrators mostly confined their anger to shouting slogans such as "Down With Imperialism" and "Disband NATO."

U.S. ambassador James Sasser remained trapped for the third day in his embassy compound, which was littered with rocks, chunks of concrete and splintered glass.

Sasser said he and key staff had scrambled to protect sensitive documents on Sunday, fearing students would break through police ranks and storm the embassy.

"We're taking all the necessary precautions to protect any sensitive equipment or sensitive documents," he said.

Normal procedure when embassies fear they may be overrun is to shred and burn documents and erase computer files.

"I think that clearly there's a very strong anti-U.S., even anti-Western, sentiment on the streets here in Beijing," Sasser said. "The government has appeared to have condoned and even supported the demonstrations."

Demonstrators have been whipped up to greater fury by government assertions that the bombing was deliberate. Statements of regret by Clinton have not appeared in the state media, even though students have been calling loudly for an apology.

Foreign schools in Beijing were closed for the day and NATO embassies were shut.

In an indication the ferment over the bombing may rebound on the economy, Chinese stocks plunged on Monday. There were fears about the impact on foreign trade and economic ties.

"People are worried about the Sino-U.S. relationship and trade as a result of the bombing," said one broker.

The diplomatic repercussions also grew as Moscow announced Viktor Chernomyrdin, the special presidential envoy on Yugoslavia, would head for Beijing on Monday.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's trip to China this week was being downgraded to a working visit and his program curtailed, foreign policy adviser Michael Steiner said.

The German consulate in the southern city of Guangzhou had its front windows shattered and was covered with eggs from an attack on Sunday.

German sources said demonstrators broke into the consulate, smashing through one security door but failing to break through a second.

Police stopped American tourists from leaving the five-star White Swan hotel in Guangzhou because of the threat from hostile crowds in the surrounding diplomatic quarter.

Residents there can pick up television signals from nearby Hong Kong, but they were unmoved by Clinton's words of regret. "Sorry, so what," said a missile-shaped cardboard placard carried by one of protester.

State media said a Chinese military attaché initially reported killed in the NATO strike on Beijing's embassy in Belgrade was still alive.

The death toll is now three from what NATO said was a mistaken strike based on faulty information. More than 20 people were wounded, six seriously. All three dead were reporters who moved out of their apartments and into the embassy, thinking they would be safe, the media reported.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Demands Apology Amid More Protests

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) China demanded an official apology from NATO for bombing its Belgrade embassy and severe punishment for those responsible, and it drew tens of thousands of people into protests at the U.S. and British missions on Monday.

Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan's four-point demands on "U.S.-led NATO", issued to U.S. ambassador James Sasser, also called for a complete investigation and a public announcement of the results.

It pointed the way to a possible diplomatic solution to a crisis that has brought hundreds of thousands of enraged protesters on to the streets of major cities in an anti-Western backlash that threatens the safety of foreign diplomatic missions and Western expatriates.

Sasser remained trapped in his embassy for the third day by demonstrators who hurled rocks, chunks of concrete, bottles and paint and screamed "Go Home American Pigs".

The official Xinhua news agency quoted Tang as saying "U.S.-led NATO" must make an "open and official apology to the Chinese government, the Chinese people and relatives of the Chinese victims".

Most Chinese are convinced last Friday's strike was a deliberate act of murder and are bent on vengeance. Three people were killed and 20 wounded, six seriously. State media said a Chinese military attaché initially reported killed in the bombing was still alive.

State media have not carried expressions of regret from U.S. President Bill Clinton and have dismissed NATO assertions that the attack was a mistake as a "whitewash". State television helped whip up emotion on Monday, showing the three corpses laid out in a morgue, the father of one of the victims -- a woman journalist -- sobbing uncontrollably over the body.

In its first act of political retaliation, China suspended military exchanges and human rights dialogue with Washington -- prizes of Clinton's policy of engagement with China.

President Jiang Zemin, in his first comments, lashed out at NATO's "absolute gunboat policy" and said there could be no U.N. solution of the Kosovo crisis as long as the alliance was bombing Yugoslavia.

Xinhua news agency quoted Jiang as telling Russian President Boris Yeltsin by telephone that continued NATO bombing would make it "impossible for the U.N. Security Council to discuss any plan to solve the problem".

China is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and its support is vital for any U.N. peace plan.

Moscow's Balkan envoy, former prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, was due to arrive in Beijing on Monday evening as part of the search for an end to the conflict in Yugoslavia, now complicated by the Belgrade embassy attack.

Authorities made no secret that they were orchestrating anti-NATO demonstrations, setting up a police registration point for participants and guiding protesters down an approved route running past the U.S. and British embassies.

Students were joined by Catholic priests -- one lugging a wooden crucifix -- saffron-robed Tibetan monks and art students daubed in face-paint.

Civil servants, retired soldiers and factory workers were also among the throngs who carried an assortment of projectiles from bricks to ink bottles.

Some 80 Buddhist monks took a break from chanting prayers to shout anti-U.S. slogans such as "Annihilate the U.S." and "Down With Imperialism".

"Patriotism comes before Buddhism," said Yue Kong, 25, dressed in an orange robe.

Clinton was depicted as a skeleton wearing a black baseball hat and black T-shirt. One placard carried by China Drama Academy students depicted him as the Statue of Liberty coated with blood and carrying a missile instead of a torch.

Sasser told Reuters he and key staff had scrambled to protect sensitive documents on Sunday, fearing students would break through police ranks and storm the embassy.

"We're taking all the necessary precautions to protect any sensitive equipment or sensitive documents," he said.

Normal procedure when embassies fear they may be overrun is to shred and burn documents and erase computer files.

"I think that clearly there's a very strong anti-U.S., even anti-Western, sentiment on the streets here in Beijing," Sasser said. "The government has appeared to have condoned and even supported the demonstrations."

Foreign schools in Beijing were closed and NATO country embassies shuttered. American companies stepped up security.

Chinese cinemas in several major cities stopped screening American movies. And protests reached into cyberspace with one popular chatroom jammed with 24,000 messages filled with anti-U.S. venom and profanity.

Worry over the fallout of the crisis on China's foreign trade and economic ties sent the country's two stock markets plunging.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's trip to China this week was downgraded to a working visit and his program curtailed at Beijing's request.

Schroeder, trying to secure Beijing's backing for Kosovo peace efforts, also left behind a large business delegation at China's insistence.

On Monday, Schroeder called for a full inquiry into the embassy bombing. A Bonn official said explanations offered so far were "not satisfactory".

The German consulate in the southern city of Guangzhou had its front windows shattered and was covered with eggs from an attack on Sunday.

German sources said demonstrators broke into the consulate, smashing through one security door but failing to break through a second.

Police stopped American tourists from leaving the five-star White Swan hotel in Guangzhou because of the threat from hostile crowds in the surrounding diplomatic quarter.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Suspends Certain Links With U.S.

BELGRADE, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) China suspended some links with the United States on Monday in retaliation for NATO's bombing of its Belgrade embassy, while Russia's Balkans envoy was reported to be planning to go to Beijing in a new diplomatic initiative.

In the Chinese capital, angry students resumed their siege of the U.S. and British embassies after ferocious weekend protests at NATO's bombing blunder on Friday night that killed three people.

In The Hague, the United Nations' top court was preparing to consider Yugoslav demands for an immediate end to NATO air strikes.

Russia's Balkans envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin was set to travel to China on Monday in a fresh initiative, Interfax news agency reported. It said the trip was arranged after Russian President Boris Yeltsin spoke to Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

However, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's trip to China this week is being downgraded to a working visit and his program curtailed at China's request, an adviser said.

Chernomyrdin, speaking earlier after last week's ground-breaking accord between Russia and seven Western powers on principles for peace in Kosovo, said Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was reacting positively to "new circumstances."

U.S. President Bill Clinton sent Chinese President Jiang a message expressing his regret over the embassy bombing, which has apparently led to at least a temporary curb on NATO strikes on the Yugoslav capital. Belgrade awoke on Monday from its first night without air raid sirens in 47 days of bombing.

In his message, Clinton argued that the NATO air strikes, launched after Yugoslavia rejected a Kosovo autonomy plan, were needed to reverse Serb "ethnic cleansing" of majority ethnic Albanians in the southern Serbian province.

China, whose ties with the United States were strained even before its embassy was bombed, suspended consultations with Washington on arms control and human rights -- an area where relations have particularly suffered from U.S. criticism of Beijing's record.

"China has decided to postpone its consultations with the United States in the fields of proliferation prevention, arms control and international security," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzhao said.

Beijing would also "suspend its dialogue with the United States in the sphere of human rights," he said in a terse statement issued through the state-run Xinhua news agency.

In The Hague, the International Court of Justice was to meet in emergency session on Monday to consider an unprecedented suit brought by Yugoslavia against 10 countries, including the United States and Britain, to try to end the NATO bombing.

It accuses them of bombing its territory in breach of obligations under international law not to use force against another state, basing its case on a string of international treaties including the 1949 Geneva Convention.

Yugoslavia has asked the court to declare that the 10 states stop bombing at once and provide compensation for damage.

Meanwhile, Russia's Chernomyrdin said in Moscow after weekend talks in Bonn that, just before leaving Germany, he had outlined "new circumstances" to Milosevic.

Milosevic had reacted positively to the new conditions, which Chernomyrdin declined to describe. "Well, he took them very well," the former Russian prime minister said.

He said he would speak first to Russian leaders and then early in the week to U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, on his second trip to Moscow in two weeks.

"Only after that, when I will have concrete proposals in hand, can I leave for a personal meeting in Belgrade with Slobodan Milosevic," Tass news agency quoted him as saying.

While Chernomyrdin gave few details, analysts have detected a subtle softening of Western insistence on a NATO-run security force in Kosovo to ensure return of ethnic Albanian refugees.

Milosevic has ruled out any armed, NATO-led force but there have been hints from Belgrade in the past few days that a security presence with a much stronger non-NATO -- especially Russian -- element under U.N. authority might be acceptable.

Despite the diplomatic moves and the Chinese embassy bombing, NATO kept up its air strikes on Yugoslavia -- albeit at reduced tempo -- hitting the republic's third largest city Nis.

The Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said the industrial area and apartment buildings in northwest Nis were targeted at 1:50 a.m. (2350 GMT).

As angry protests resumed in Beijing over the bombing of China's embassy, students chanted "Pay blood debts with blood" and "Disband NATO" in the faces of helmeted riot police who formed a human chain to block off the U.S. and British embassy compounds.

Police had taken up position to protect the missions following a televised promise from Vice-President Hu Jintao that embassies and their staff would come to no harm.

The death toll from the embassy bombing had been put at four, but official Chinese media said a military attaché previously thought killed had been found alive.

In a new twist to what NATO has admitted was a mistake, the Washington Post newspaper reported that U.S. intelligence officials were working from an outdated map issued before China built its diplomatic compound several years ago.

"The tragic and embarrassing truth is that our maps simply did not show the Chinese Embassy anywhere in that vicinity," a senior NATO official told the Post.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Schroeder's China Visit To Be Downgraded

BONN, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's trip to China this week is being downgraded to a working visit and his program curtailed in the wake of NATO's bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade, an adviser said on Monday.

Schroeder's chief foreign policy adviser Michael Steiner told ARD television the change to the schedule was made on the initiative of the Chinese government.

Steiner said no business delegation would now be accompanying Schroeder after the wave of demonstrations outside Western diplomatic missions across China in protest against the weekend's embassy bombing, which killed three people.

"The Chinese side made it clear that under the circumstances -- you have seen the television pictures of what has been happening on the streets of China -- it would not be appropriate for a large business delegation to travel," Steiner said.

Steiner added he hoped Schroeder would be able to persuade the Chinese government to back a U.N. Security Council resolution as the basis for a settlement to the Kosovo conflict.

He said Schroeder would not now visit Shanghai, where he had been due to visit the Vokswagen factory and a joint mobile phone venture co-run by Siemens AG.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


U.S. Ambassador Describes Security Fears

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) Fearing that angry Chinese students would storm the U.S. embassy in Beijing, Ambassador James Sasser said on Monday he and key staff holed up in the building had scrambled to protect sensitive documents.

His comments in an interview indicated how seriously the U.S. embassy views the threat from demonstrators, who have smashed most of the windows of the building in furious protests at NATO's bombing of China's diplomatic mission in Belgrade.

Sasser also said Chinese police were not able to guarantee his security and so he remained trapped in the embassy for the third day on Monday.

"We're taking all the necessary precautions to protect any sensitive equipment or sensitive documents," he said.

"We began that really yesterday when it appeared for a time that the police lines might not be able to hold the demonstrators back."

Normal procedure when embassies fear they may be overrun is to shred and burn documents and erase computer files.

"I think that clearly there's a very strong anti-U.S., even anti-Western, sentiment on the streets here in Beijing," Sasser added.

Sasser said his wife, Mary, and his son, Gray, had slipped out of the nearby ambassador's residence before dawn on Monday, taking advantage of a brief lull in the protests. They were in hiding in a safe place.

"No, we can't get out of here," he said from his embassy office.

"The place has been surrounded by demonstrators, even at night, so we can't leave until the Chinese police can guarantee our safety, and they can't do that at this juncture.

"I tried to leave the second day, but they said they could not guarantee my safety," he said.

Protests erupted outside the embassy gates on Saturday. Students have besieged the area by day and at night they have been joined by workers and menacing thugs.

"We've had to call and urge the Chinese police to increase the protection here because of occasions when the crowd nearly overpowered the police," he said.

Several students have managed to scramble over the embassy's iron perimeter fence but all have been intercepted and dragged away by members of the People's Armed Police. U.S. marines have kept out of sight.

Sasser said it was clear the demonstrations were backed by authorities.

He noted that none of the U.S. expressions of regret by U.S. President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had appeared in China's state-controlled media.

"The government has appeared to have condoned and even supported the demonstrations," he said.

"Unfortunately, the Chinese media up to this time has given little or no coverage to the apologies and expressions of condolences," he said.

Sasser said it was not clear how China's suspension of military exchanges on Monday would affect relations, but it was "very important to the security and stability of this region and of China" that they continue.

"We're all in a highly emotional state now," he said.

"As time goes on and some of the emotion drains away, then I think we have to realize that there's still an enormous community of interest between China and the United States and China and the NATO countries, and that's going to have to be addressed.

"I think our diplomatic efforts to fashion a strategic partnership should continue," he said.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Suspends U.S. Dialogue

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) China suspended dialogues on arms control and human rights with the United States on Monday in the first diplomatic retaliation for NATO's bombing of Beijing's embassy in Yugoslavia.

"China has decided to postpone its consultations with the United States in the fields of proliferation prevention, arms control and international security," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzhao said.

Beijing would also "suspend its dialogue with the United States in the sphere of human rights," he said in a terse statement issued through the state-run Xinhua news agency.

The moves exacerbate already strained Sino-U.S. ties, which have been hurt by disputes ranging from Beijing's bid to enter the World Trade Organization to allegations of Chinese theft of U.S. nuclear missile secrets.

Bilateral relations have also suffered from U.S. criticism of Beijing's human rights record.

The dispute reached a head last month at the annual meeting of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva when Washington tried to put forward a resolution critical of China's crackdown on pro-democracy activists.

China won enough support to quash the resolution and touted the victory as proof that dialogue, not confrontation, was the way to resolve disputes.

The Foreign Ministry's statement also derailed budding bilateral military exchanges which began in 1996 under an initiative to prevent misunderstandings which could lead to armed conflict.

The fledgling military relationship was stepped up after U.S. President Bill Clinton visited Beijing last June.

Since then, two consultations have been held, winning praise from Defense Minister Chi Haotian, who said they provided a much-needed "hotline" to resolve disputes.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Asian Papers Urge Restraint After Embassy Bombing

SINGAPORE, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) Asian newspapers warned on Monday NATO's bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade could derail Kosovo peace attempts, and Hong Kong dailies cautioned the territory's mainland Chinese rulers against fuelling protests.

"The bombing might yet prove to be a disaster in its potential to derail attempts to negotiate peace for all Yugoslavians," The Australian national daily said in an editorial.

"China's approval for the principles of a peace settlement at the U.N. Security Council is essential," it said.

President Bill Clinton offered his regrets for the attack that killed four people and injured more than 20 in Belgrade on Friday. Angry crowds around the U.S. Embassy in Beijing at the weekend hurled rocks, concrete and a Molotov cocktail and screamed "Kill Americans."

The Chinese government, which whipped up the popular fury by declaring the NATO strike a deliberate act of war, maintained that position on Monday. Xinhua news agency quoted China's ambassador to Washington as rejecting NATO explanations that the Chinese embassy bombing was an accident.

Hong Kong newspapers urged restraint.

"Condoning and even encouraging such protests, if they remain lawful, could turn out to be a dangerous gambit," Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said in an editorial.

"The more the fury mounts, the more demands there will be from the protesters for decisive action by mainland authorities."

"And for Beijing to retaliate against the NATO bombing in anything other than a symbolic manner would be disastrous, not only to China's hopes of WTO admission, but also for the profoundly important issue of Sino-U.S. relations on the broadest front."

Already strained over charges of Chinese nuclear spying on the United States, ties between Beijing and Washington have taken a further blow with the Belgrade attack.

Several hundred student protesters turned out in front of the British and U.S. embassies on Monday chanting slogans such as "Pay blood debts with blood" and "Disband NATO."

The Hong Kong Standard said: "Letting loose violence puts the Chinese people just where they have been accusing the United States and the NATO governments: violating another nation's sovereignty."

The Asian Wall Street Journal blamed the violence of the protests on persistent anti-U.S. propaganda in state-run media.

"Even now Chinese authorities are withholding the news of NATO's apology for its fatal targeting error," it said.

"In the aftermath of the bombing, the Communist Party may be trying to bolster its legitimacy by harnessing the raw energy of patriotism in the service of the central government."

U.S. officials have said the attack on the Chinese Embassy was a mistake based on "faulty information" that the building was the headquarters for the Yugoslav arms agency.

Australian newspapers called the embassy bombing an "appalling mistake" and possibly a "gross act of stupidity."

But The Australian said it was "not an act of barbarism" and "must not overshadow the true savagery within Kosovo."

The Sydney Morning Herald warned the incident could weaken Clinton's resolve to continue with the Yugoslav campaign, and damage the prospects of a peace settlement by alienating Russia.

Both newspapers were critical of military promises of minimal casualties using "smart weapons."

South Korea's English-language Korea Times called the bombing "a profoundly disturbing development" and said NATO's denials that it had deliberately targeted the building "must be interpreted in the contexts of boasts by the U.S. Department of Defense of the accuracy of its missiles."

"The strike may well have been motivated by Washington's desperation to find an excuse in the least humiliating way possible to meet Belgrade's persistent demand for an end to bombing," the Korea Times said.

"Washington may conveniently retreat to the position of halting the strikes as an expression of its regret for its 'mistake' in bombing the embassy, not because Serbia demanded it as a precondition for holding political negotiations," it said.

Vietnam condemned the attack and urged NATO to undertake negotiations to find a peaceful solution in Kosovo. "This action seriously violates international law," the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Suspends Human Rights Dialogue

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) China has suspended its human rights dialogue with the United States in retaliation for the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao announced the cancellation of dialogue in a statement released on the state-run Xinhua news agency. The statement did not say how long the dialogue would be suspended.

China and the United States have been at odds over the thorny issue since the 1989 crackdown on democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in which hundreds of people were killed.

Last month, the United States sponsored a resolution at the annual meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva aimed at criticizing China's rights record

The resolution was not adopted by the meeting and China heralded the victory as proof of the power of dialogue over confrontation.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China Suspends Military Ties With U.S.

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) China has suspended military exchanges with the United States in the wake of NATO's mistaken bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia.

"China has decided to postpone the high-level military contacts with the United States," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said in a statement released by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

"China has decided to postpone its consultations with the United States in the fields of proliferation prevention, arms control and international security," the statement said.

It came after two days of violent protests outside the United States and British embassies in Beijing in the wake of the strike, which killed four people and injured more than 20.

China and the United States had taken tentative steps toward building stronger military ties after decades of mistrust. For Beijing, that included rebuilding the image of China's military after the 1989 army crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square.

The exchanges, which included high-level visits and a U.S. program to improve the level of Chinese officer training, peaked last October when both sides said they had increased the range of common ground.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Clinton Writes To Jiang Offering Regrets

WASHINGTON, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) U.S. President Bill Clinton wrote to President Jiang Zemin on Sunday to offer his regrets for NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade as the United States sought to quell Beijing's fury over the attack.

Clinton wrote to Jiang as angry throngs massed around the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, hurling rocks, concrete and a Molotov cocktail and screaming "Kill Americans" to protest the attack that killed four people and injured more than 20 in Belgrade.

"He expressed that it was unintentional, that it was a mistake and that we certainly regret the loss of life and the suffering that has been caused by this," National Security Council spokesman David Leavy said of Clinton's letter.

U.S. officials have said the attack on the Chinese Embassy was a mistake based on "faulty information" that the building was the headquarters for the Yugoslav arms agency.

NATO leaders apologized for the embassy bombing but insisted they will continue the alliance's air campaign against Yugoslavia while exploring diplomatic solutions.

The bombing has infuriated China. Beijing opposed the air campaign which the North Atlantic Treaty Organization launched on March 24 in an effort to stop Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's onslaught against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

Already strained over charges of Chinese nuclear spying on the United States, ties between Beijing and Washington have taken a further blow with the Belgrade attack. Long-simmering disputes over trade and human rights have also kept relations uneasy.

While expressing contrition in his letter to Jiang, Clinton was also in the ironic position of asking the Chinese leader to protect American officials barricaded inside the U.S. Embassy in Beijing for the past two days.

"He also explained the rationale behind why NATO has taken the strong action that it has to reverse Milosevic's ethnic cleansing," Leavy said of the letter, which was delivered to the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

"The letter also made clear the importance of protecting U.S. personnel there (in China) and guaranteeing the safety of embassy staff," Leavy added.

Demonstrators in Beijing, some screaming "Kill Americans" and "Get Out American Pigs," have taken to the streets by the thousands to protest against the Belgrade attack.

The U.S. ambassador to China, Jim Sasser, said on Sunday he was a prisoner within the embassy and there was evidence China's government might be encouraging the protests.

"No question that we're hostages here," Sasser told CBS's "Face the Nation" program in a telephone interview, the din of demonstrations audible in the background. "The problem is this thing could spin out of control."

Sasser described hordes of rock-throwing protesters surging around the embassy, saying they had broken almost every window in the building as well as at his residence in Beijing, forcing his wife and son to take refuge elsewhere.

"The government is certainly tolerating the demonstrations and there is some evidence that, as a matter of fact, they may be encouraging (them)," he said. "The government itself may be running a risk here to some extent, because once this thing gets started it may be very, very difficult to stop it."

Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao, speaking on national television in China, said the government backed legal protests against the bombing. But Hu also urged restraint, saying that all foreigners in China would be protected and vowing to uphold "the policy of reform and opening to the outside world."

The State Department on Sunday suspended travel by government employees to China and urged other Americans to put off plans to visit, citing the "volatile" conditions.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing, along with consulates in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang and Chengdu will be closed Monday and Tuesday, the department said in a written statement.

"The Department of State strongly urges American citizens to defer travel to the PRC (People's Republic of China) until the situation stabilizes," it said.

"Official travel by U.S. government employees to the PRC has been temporarily suspended and all official U.S. government personnel have been instructed to remain at home until the situation calms," the statement added.

Sasser said a homemade firebomb was flung through a window at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, causing a brief fire but no injuries. Other U.S. buildings in China had been damaged by demonstrations, including the consular residence in Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan.

A White House spokesman said that Clinton spoke to French President Jacques Chirac on Sunday. The two leaders agreed the NATO air strikes must continue despite the embassy bombing, he said. They also reviewed the status of Russian efforts to negotiate a diplomatic solution to the Kosovo conflict.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Beijing Embassies Quiet On Monday Morning

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) Streets around Western embassies in Beijing were quiet on Monday morning as hundreds of Chinese police guarded missions hit by violent weekend protests after NATO missiles accidentally struck China's embassy in Belgrade.

Helmeted riot police ate their breakfast and patrolmen directed traffic around the rubble-strewn U.S. and British embassies which angry Chinese students showered with rocks and bottles on Sunday.

Apparently frightened by the weekend violence, which saw several Western journalists beaten amid shouts of "Kill Americans," small groups of foreign residents of the diplomatic district carried luggage to cars and departed. There were no protesters in sight.

The Chinese government, which whipped up the popular fury by declaring the NATO strike a deliberate act of war, maintained that position on Monday, with Xinhua news agency quoting China's ambassador to Washington as rejecting NATO explanations that the Chinese embassy bombing was an accident.

"Whoever tried to whitewash the atrocity as a mistake" was wrong, Li Zhaoxing was quoted as telling a U.S. television news program in Washington.

While U.S. diplomatic missions bore the brunt of the violence, the British Embassy in Beijing was also pelted with concrete rubble and paint as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of at least a dozen other Chinese cities.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Yugoslav Minister Meets Chinese Delegation

BELGRADE, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic and a visiting Chinese official on Sunday condemned NATO's attack on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and demanded that NATO halt its raids, Serbian television reported.

Wang Guo Zhang, leader of a visiting delegation of Chinese diplomats, called the bombing "a barbarian act" that violated international law.

NATO has said Friday's bombing of the embassy, in which four people were killed and about 20 injured, was a mistake. It has apologized to China and blamed bad intelligence for the error.

It has said it will push on with its air campaign, now nearly seven weeks old.

"China insists on an unconditional cease-fire and a diplomatic solution in Kosovo, respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," the television quoted Wang as saying.

He said the bombing "represents a barbarian act and a violation of the U.N. charter, the convention on diplomatic relations and all international agreements," RTS reported.

Wang and his team arrived in Belgrade earlier on Sunday to investigate the attack, which has sparked violent street protests in major Chinese cities.

Serbian RTS television showed pictures of the meeting and said Jovanovic had expressed Yugoslavia's "deepest condolences on the occasion of the barbarian attack of NATO aggressors on the Chinese embassy."

He pledged Belgrade would do what it could to enable the mission to resume its work, RTS said.

Wang thanked Jovanovic for rescue officials' quick response to the bombing and for their efforts to save the wounded.

Separately, Vojislav Seselj, president of the Serbian Radical Party, visited Chinese diplomats injured in the embassy bombing who are still in hospital, RTS said.

RTS quoted Seselj as saying "the Chinese victims in the NATO aggression are Serbian victims as well."

"Serbian people, who are resisting NATO criminals, know that Chinese people are truly our friends," the television quoted him as saying.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Dalai Lama: "West Should Forgive Milosevic"

LONDON, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) The West should forgive Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for alleged massacres in Kosovo but it is too late now for a diplomatic solution to the conflict, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said on Sunday .

And he saw no hope in the short-term of securing Tibet's autonomy from China, which forcibly annexed the Himalayan region some 50 years ago. He urged Western governments to give Tibet's push for self-rule more overt support.

"At the initial stage there is a greater chance to prevent (crises such as Kosovo). But then you see it was neglected. Then when things really become explosive then (it is) too late," he said in an interview with Reuters during a visit to Britain.

"There is no place (for) reasoning. Although the intention is to use limited force for the protection of the ethnic group's human rights and to stop ethnic cleansing once you commit (violence), it is unpredictable," he said.

And Milosevic, like former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet who is languishing under house arrest in Britain while he fights extradition to Spain on torture charges, should be forgiven for alleged crimes against humanity in Kosovo, he said.

"As a person I think we should give forgiveness (to Milosevic). I think it's important to make a distinction between the person and a person's actions," he said. "The person you have to give an opportunity to change."

"Whether it is the president or ex-president or anyone, under law all people...are the same," he said.

Closer to home, he was optimistic that changing attitudes and economic liberalization in China would eventually lead to Tibet's freedom from Chinese rule.

But he held out no hope for a quick solution from a country that has branded the direct descendant of Buddha a "separatist" who wants independence.

"For the immediate (term) there is no hope. In Tibet the situation is getting worse," he said, calling on Western governments to voice support for Tibetan autonomy.

"We wish for some more support. But then at a practical level how much can (the West) do?" he asked, saying that in the long run, secular moral ethics and Buddhism, Christian and Confucian principles would help solve the stand-off with China.

He said that Tibet had had a good chance for autonomy in the early 1980s, but that since China cracked down on its pro-democracy movement, talks had ground to a halt.

Formal dialogue with China came to an end in 1993, and informal talks were stopped last summer.

The Dalai Lama had been due to meet Prime Minister Tony Blair during his visit, but the meeting looked uncertain after NATO mistakenly bombed China's Belgrade embassy during its punitive air strike campaign against Yugoslavia.

Blair's office has been wary of alienating China over the Tibet issue, saying that the Dalai Lama's meeting with Blair would be on a spiritual, not political, level.

China earlier on Sunday backed domestic student protests against NATO's bombing of its embassy but urged against extreme behavior and promised to protect Western embassies there.

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Conspiracy Theories Abound After Bomb Attack

BRUSSELS, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) Was it sheer incompetence or was NATO somehow tricked into bombing the Chinese Embassy in the capital of Yugoslavia?

Could key allies conceivably have taken the huge risk of striking at the embassy grounds to neutralize some serious threat to its pilots, later apologizing for a "tragic mistake" to give NATO the cover of deniability?

A newspaper in NATO-member Turkey said China was suspected of giving Yugoslavia vital intelligence and that the embassy was struck knowingly.

A NATO military spokesman declined comment on Sunday, saying he would not engage in speculation.

Conspiracy theorists were having a field day, suggesting the faulty intelligence blamed by the United States for the bombing was not the mistaken location but false assurances that the embassy was vacated at night and safe to hit "by mistake."

"Totally absurd," said a senior NATO diplomat who assured Reuters he had been fully briefed on the incident. "It was a mistake pure and simple. This is a bogus report."

"There could indeed be some information sharing but this is not how we would deal with it," he added. "We'd do that either diplomatically or through counter-measures to plug the leak."

But serious questions remain unanswered. "We are as mystified as you are," said a NATO official. "Everyone is searching for a satisfactory explanation. But no one knows if we'll ever have it."

How could the combined intelligence of the world's strongest military alliance have mistaken a large diplomatic mission in ample grounds, identified on any city map of Belgrade?

Diplomats from NATO countries once sipped cocktails in the embassy reception rooms that were gutted by alliance munitions on Friday.

Amid profuse apologies at the weekend, NATO briefers ruffled at the suggestion that they might have used "an old map."

Stopping short of admitting NATO has eyes on the ground as well as sharp-eyed satellites in space, they insisted there were "plenty of sources" of good intelligence.

But an old map could turn out to be the mundane truth.

Yet of all the buildings in Belgrade that could have been bombed in error, what amazing coincidence drew NATO guided bombs with unerring accuracy to the embassy of the country that may hold the key to Yugoslavia's ultimate political isolation?

The United States, indirectly admitting its aircraft were involved, issued a statement on Sunday saying neither pilot nor mechanical error was to blame.

It was "faulty information" not detected in the target validation process -- "an anomaly that is unlikely to occur again," the Defense Department and the CIA said jointly.

That would appear to indicate a basic if monumental error that slipped through the U.S. military's check-and-double-check procedures and sent NATO planes to the wrong address.

The U.S. statement did not go into what misled NATO targeters to believe that the Yugoslav Federal Directorate of Supply and Procurement was at the location that was hit.

It did not say which of the 19 NATO allies, if any other than the United States, was involved in providing information that turned out to be so dramatically "faulty."

Could there be a weapons bunker under the land that Belgrade sold to Beijing a few years ago for its new embassy?

Could NATO have known about the bunker but somehow failed to register that an embassy upstairs made it impossible to strike?

NATO won't say what sort of munitions were used or what plane dropped them. If it used deep penetration "bunker-buster" bombs, the target may have been more than the embassy compound.

A cloak of national security has been thrown over the incident and, as long as it remains, such questions are unlikely to receive answers. The dagger of investigative reporting is only now being unsheathed. It is hard to imagine how a hostile agent could trick NATO into bombing the embassy of the one power whose consent it now needs in the United Nations Security Council to force a Kosovo settlement on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Even if someone deliberately fed wrong information, how could he have expected NATO not to notice it was being invited to bomb the Chinese embassy?

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Americans Become Beijing's Public Enemy No. 1

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Reuters) Hurling rocks and wielding flaming poles, students turned Beijing's diplomatic quarter into a battlefield on Sunday, declaring Americans to be enemy number one.

"Kill Americans!" the crowds roared.

U.S. President Bill Clinton was depicted on hundreds of posters with a Hitler-like moustache. Students had Swastikas daubed on their T-shirts across the letters U.S.A.

American reporters at the scene were targets of student wrath.

"What is your nationality?" they demanded to know of the handful of foreign journalists who braved the crowds. Those who admitted being American or British were jostled and given an earful of abuse.

Witnesses reported attacks on Westerners, including one man who apparently piqued demonstrators by showing up with a Chinese woman.

Several Western reporters were punched and kicked. CNN correspondent Rebecca MacKinnon was struck while delivering a live telephone report from the scene. As some students hustled her to safety others yelled "kill her!."

Frequently the students broke into English to shriek four-letter curses.

The crude language was echoed even in the normally restrained state-run media. One newspaper said that U.S. talk of humanity, democracy and freedom were "goddamned bullshit."

"Clinton is always talking about human rights. Well he is the world's number one offender!" said student Li Zehong, before hurling a grapefruit-sized chunk of concrete at the U.S. embassy.

A female student from Beijing University of Science and Technology, her face streaked with tears, screamed shrilly into a bullhorn: "Down with American Imperialism!" Hundreds of classmates joined in the chant.

Demonstrators carried Chinese signs reading "Return Blood Debts with Blood." Some brandished English signs reading "Eye for an Eye."

As bricks and hunks of concrete rained on the British embassy, a man and his adolescent son weaved through the crowds carrying a sign that read: "We beseech President Jiang (Zemin) to declare war on the United States."

A black-and-white target, worn by many protesters in Yugoslavia, has become the ubiquitous symbol of student anger in China, too. It appeared as punctuation in the headline of the Beijing Youth Daily: "Shock, Anger, Protest."

Newspapers have been fanning the emotion by calling the Belgrade attack deliberate and by publishing large pictures of bloodied Chinese diplomats. Vendors have been doing a roaring trade selling them.

In Shanghai, a man was spotted bolting out of a beauty salon, his hair still lathered in shampoo suds, to catch one passing newspaper seller on his way past.

One student handed out flyers, asking a journalist to deliver it to Clinton.

The shaky English read: "1.2 billion people on your back, Bill, we are ready to departure at any moment to Washington as soldiers!"

By Reuters

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Anti-US Demonstrator Attacks CNN Journalist in Beijing

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) An anti-NATO demonstrator on Sunday attacked a US journalist covering protests sparked by NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

"An older man in the crowd hit me on the back of the head," Cable News Network (CNN) correspondent Rebecca Mackinnon told AFP.

"He was going to go at me again but the students (stopped him). People were shouting 'Beat her, kill her'," she said.

Mackinnon said she was shaken but was not seriously hurt.

CNN is perceived in China, where the national media is strictly controlled, as being the voice of US government propaganda internationally, especially since the Kosovo crisis began.

Demonstrations continued Sunday after stone-throwing protesters broke windows at the embassy in protest against the NATO attack. Thousands of students marched around the diplomatic district, shouting "Down with US imperialism", and "Blood for blood."

The accidental strike on the embassy in the Yugoslav capital early Saturday left three Chinese people dead, according to Chinese officials.

The official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said four people died. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Chinese Anger at NATO Bombing Being Channeled by Communist Leadership

BEIJING, May. 10, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) The angry nationalistic protests that have swept China this weekend following NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade come hard on the heels of a large-scale patriotic campaign organized by the Chinese authorities themselves.

The demonstrations and stone-throwing outside the US and British embassies here, while expressing very real emotions, have also ridden on the momentum generated by a campaign to commemorate a 1919 protest that led to the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

State-controlled media has for weeks been preparing for the 80th anniversary of the May 4th Movement, exhorting young people to love socialism and love China in the spirit of the 1919 demonstrations.

The influence of May 4th was apparent during the weekend protests as college students shouted "Long live China" and repeatedly sang the national anthem as they angrily stoned the British and US embassies.

In 1919, protests began when students from Beijing University marched to Tiananmen Square demanding democracy and access to science, and protesting at the carving up of China's sovereignty by global powers following World War I.

On Sunday they shouted "Down with American imperialism" and "Disband the fascist NATO."

"Chinese are furious with NATO ... the embassy in Belgrade was a part of Chinese territory," a student from Beijing University said, as other students expressed indignation at NATO's "interference in Yugoslavia's sovereign affairs."

The government has shown that it is willing to risk hard-won social stability by saturating the state-run press with angry reports refusing to accept NATO apologies and regrets, and wide press coverage of the nationalistic protests.

"We believe that today's nationwide protests of tens of thousands of student demonstrators have government approval and are organized by officials of the university student unions," the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said Sunday.

"What concerns the authorities however is that other political activists will participate in the protests and play a role in calling for the overturning of the verdict on June 4 (1989 democracy protests)," it said.

The center said several members of the outlawed China Democracy Party were rounded up by police early Sunday and told to stay away from the protests.

Before Saturday authorities had given every indication they would nip in the bud any sign of social unrest during a year which is full of sensitive anniversaries for the communist party.

Besides the May 4th anniversary, 1999 also marks the quelling of the 1979 Democracy Wall protests, the bloody crackdown by the army on the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests and -- most importantly for the party -- the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.

The extent of the party's concern over stability was seen only two weeks ago. Morning exercises by up to 70 million followers of the Falungong spiritual movement came under police surveillance after 10,000 group members demonstrated in front of the Zhongnanhai party headquarters in central Beijing.

The group had demanded government guarantees for the right to practice their beliefs. But the huge and unexpected demonstration led to a large-scale police effort to name and identify Falungong group leaders throughout China.

A preoccupation with stability has been a cornerstone of the political agenda of President Jiang Zemin, who has said only regional and domestic peace and stability can ensure China's continued economic development.

At the same time his party has been under great pressure from rising unemployment brought on by economic modernization and anger over government corruption and arbitrary fees and taxation. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Marchers try to break down consulate door

MATTHEW MILLER in Guangzhou

Monday  May 10  1999

Protests turned violent in Guangzhou last night as demonstrators and police clashed at the German consulate.

The trouble came after more than 1,000 protesters broke through a barricade sealing off the Shamian diplomatic district and marched towards the American Consulate.

They were stopped by anti-riot police, who chased them away, and instead gathered outside the German Consulate and tried to break down the front doors.

Although dozens of police were present, they initially did not try to stop the protesters. Anti-riot police intervened half-an-hour later.

Many of the protesters appeared to be workers, in contrast to demonstrations earlier in the day.

Then, tens of thousands of students from universities in Guangzhou braved a continuous downpour to condemn the Nato bombing.

They first gathered outside the Gitic Building, home to the consulates of Britain, France, the Netherlands and Italy and then marched to the US Consulate in Shamian.

They were joined by another procession turned away from the China Hotel, home to the Danish and Canadian consulates. "Combat hegemonism", "Combat Nato" and "Blood debts are paid in blood" were among the cries of the demonstrators.

Chen Weizhong of the Guangzhou Agriculture School, said: "It's a crime of Nato and imperialism.

"Hegemonism will be defeated by the people of the world."

Police officers wearing anti-riot gear ringed the American consulate, 100 metres west of the White Swan Hotel. Groups of protesters marched past the consulate in order. Some students threw eggs at the consulate.

Guan Lihui, a man in his 60s, tried to approach the consulate but was stopped by police.

He said: "When I was 16, I took part in the Korean War and killed many invaders. I want to let them know we Chinese are heroes and are not afraid of hegemonism."

Tong Guoqiang, from Guangzhou Petroleum College, said: "This was a deliberate provocation and every Chinese should stand up and say 'no' and 'stop'. We cannot stand this."

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Editorial: Relieving tension

Monday  May 10  1999

As the Nato campaign against Yugoslavia drags on it begins increasingly to take on the characteristics of Greek tragedy. Certainly, Nato's still-stated belief that it can drive a man like President Slobodan Milosevic to capitulate through hi-tech, airborne weaponary alone, without the deployment of ground troops, is at best beginning to look like blind arrogance.

The consequences of this arrogance have already been displayed. Nato has bombed civilians in residential areas, people travelling on a train, fleeing Kosovo-Albanian refugees and bus passengers. All have been terrible mistakes and all have harmed Nato's avowed moral superiority. The effect of each misplaced bomb has been a ratcheting up of the intensity of protests against the alliance's strategy.

However, these earlier incidents are now completely overshadowed by the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Quite apart from the deaths, the fallout from this blunder could have far-reaching consequences and threaten to drive Sino-US relations into damaging territory.

Nato must explain itself.

It is hard to believe that the CIA does not know the location of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. It is even featured on simple tourist maps of the city. Nato's initial claim that the bombing was due to "faulty information" and later that it was caused by an "anomaly" seem to indicate that someone, somewhere, punched in the wrong coordinates. Perhaps, but whatever the reason, Nato should reveal it, fully and honestly and quickly.

The huge-scale, well-orchestrated protests across the mainland are understandable. Also unsurprising are the strident statements being made in many newspapers. They reflect the justified outrage that people inevitably feel. But claims that the bombing was no accident are simply ludicrous. Nato stood only to lose by its action.

For the authorities in Beijing there is a certain fortuitousness about the timing of the incident. The fury that has erupted may well serve as a distraction for those tempted to mark the approach of June 4. But the question for Beijing now is: having turned on the protest tap so effectively, can it be turned off so easily?

Condoning and even encouraging such protests, if they remain lawful, could turn out to be a dangerous gambit. The more the fury mounts, the more demands there will be from the protesters for decisive action by mainland authorities. And for Beijing to retaliate against the Nato bombing in anything other than a symbolic manner would be disastrous, not only to China's hopes of WTO admission, but also for the profoundly important issue of Sino-US relations on the broadest front.

There was in Vice-President Hu Jintao's TV appearance last night a strong indication that these dangers are recognised. While the Vice-President expressed indignation at the "criminal act", he also gave a clear warning that the protests must not be allowed to spiral out of control and threaten "social stability".

This is reassuring because what is needed now is for cool heads to take control. The US and Nato must undertake a damage-limitation exercise in earnest. A full explanation of what went wrong and why must be made so there can be no unanswered questions, nor suspicion that the targeting of the embassy was anything other than accidental.

A generous offer of compensation must be made, both to go some way towards easing the agony of the relatives of those killed and also to cover the eventual rebuilding of the embassy. Perhaps just as important, there must be a proper and public apology. Not words of sadness, but a formal expression of apology.

On its part, Beijing must dampen the ardour of the anti-US protests before they threaten to damage Sino-US relations in a way that would benefit no one.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Urgent US action needed to soothe Beijing and prevent collapse of ties

WILLY WO-LAP LAM

Monday  May 10  1999

Sino-US ties could take a leap backwards if Washington does not take substantial action to mollify Beijing.

Senior cadres, including Politburo Standing Committee members, who met in emergency sessions on Saturday and yesterday, have ordered an overall assessment of relations.

A Beijing source said the "minimum requirements" set forth by relatively moderate cadres was that the US and Nato authorities issue a full apology, pay adequate compensation and allow China a bigger role in the resolution of the Balkans conflict.

However, the hawks, including PLA generals, were pushing for more pressure to be applied to the US - and overall scaling down of relations - unless Nato agreed to halt hostilities against Yugoslavia.

The hardliners, one of whose leaders was PLA Vice-Chief of Staff General Xiong Guangkai, have held meetings in which they insisted the embassy strike was a pre-meditated attempt to trample on Chinese sovereignty.

Pointing to Beijing's line that it reserved the right to take "further action", the generals indicated they would do their best if that "action" contained a military component.

The source said that while Vice-President Hu Jintao had yesterday warned against anti-US protests deteriorating into lawlessness, government-organised protests would continue at least through this week.

In an effort at social mobilisation not seen since the first months after the Tiananmen Square crackdown, Beijing has asked most official units and social and "mass" organisations to hold meetings to voice support for its tough line on Kosovo.

One reason why the hardliners have the upper hand is that drumming up patriotism is seen by Beijing as a means to divert attention from social problems, such as unemployment.

The source said that if the Sino-US quarrel over Kosovo remained unresolved, a broad array of ties would be affected. These included the talks on China's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Members of the pro-WTO and pro-US faction of the leadership were quick to pre-empt criticism from hardliners that they had "sold out" to US interests.

Foreign Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng, already faulted for yielding too many trade concessions to the US, was among the first ministers to call a meeting of his staff to denounce "US hegemonism and power politics".

It is expected that Mr Shi and his boss, Premier Zhu Rongji, will reverse some of the concessions they granted to US trade negotiators over the objections of many ministries and regional administrations.

Isolated attacks on US businesses in Guangzhou and other cities yesterday showed anti-Americanism could affect business.

Foreign diplomats said that even if Washington and Nato were to meet some of Beijing's demands, a pall would still be cast over relations.

"Many cadres think Kosovo heralds a new wave of 'neo-imperialism' which will cut into Chinese interests sooner or later," a Western diplomat said. "Beijing cannot live with Nato's ideal that humanitarianism is above national boundaries."

A Beijing University expert said last night Nato had become a "military machine" that might one day use Tibet or Taiwan to interfere in Chinese affairs.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Consulate in SAR pelted with eggs

ELLA LEE

Monday  May 10  1999

Demonstrators threw eggs and tomatoes at the United States consulate in Hong Kong and burned American and British flags.

"We demand an apology and compensation from Nato. They want to be the international police but they should not kill civilians," said Tsang Kin-shing at an April 5th Action Group protest.

At about 2pm, about 100 students staged another protest outside the consulate.

Kenny Yuen Kin-chung, president of City University students union, described the bombing of the embassy in Belgrade as "a tragedy of an unnecessary war".

"We want to send an anti-war message to all schools," he said.

He said the protesters planned to contact students from all local universities for a large march in the coming days and also to keep close contact with mainland student unions.

About 30 Serbs also joined the protests.

Jelena Misic, a Serb from Belgrade who has lived in Hong Kong for more than four years, said she was not convinced that the strike was a mistake.

"I am shocked. I am shocked with all other casualties, but this bombing of the Chinese Embassy is an act of terrorism," said Ms Misic, a professor in computer science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

"Everyone [in Belgrade] knows where the Chinese Embassy is. It is impossible to make a mistake."

About 50 mainlanders at the University of Macau staged a noisy protest in the city centre. Dozens of residents supported the half-hour demonstration staged at the Largo do Senado.

From South China Morning Post

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Chinese vice president's speech on embassy bombing

May 9, 1999 Web posted at: 9:23 a.m. EDT (1323 GMT)

BEIJING (Reuters) -- The following is the full text of a speech by Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao about NATO's strike on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and the widespread protests against it. The text of the televised speech was released Sunday by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.

"Comrades, friends:

"Early on the morning of May 8, U.S.-led NATO wantonly used missiles to attack the Chinese embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, causing casualties and leaving the embassy buildings devastated.

"The criminal act, which is in violation of the international laws and norms of international relations, has aroused the utmost indignation of the Chinese people.

"As of yesterday, people across the country have held forums and gatherings and issued letters or telegrams of protest to voice their support to the solemn statement of the Chinese government and to condemn the barbaric acts of the U.S.-led NATO.

"Students and other citizens in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Shenyang cities have also held demonstrations near the U.S. diplomatic missions in China. All those activities have reflected their strong indignation at U.S.- led NATO's attack on the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia and the keen patriotism of the Chinese people.

"The Chinese government firmly supports and protects, in accordance with the law, all legal protest activities. We believe that the broad masses will, proceeding from the fundamental interests of the nation and taking the overall situation into account, carry out the activities in good order and in accordance with law.

"We must prevent overreaction and ensure social stability by guarding against some people making use of the opportunities to disrupt the normal public order.

"The Chinese government unswervingly upholds the independent foreign policy of peace, firmly safeguards state sovereignty and national dignity and resolutely opposes hegemony and power politics.

"We will uphold the policy of reform and opening to the outside world. We will protect, in accordance with relevant international laws and norms of international relations as well as relevant laws of China, foreign diplomatic organs and personnel, foreign nationals in China and those who have come to China to engage in trade, economic, educational and cultural undertakings, and reflect the civilization and fine traditions of the Chinese nation.

"The Chinese people are people who uphold justice and love peace. We are willing, together with the people of other countries across the world, to support each other and strengthen cooperation and work in concerted efforts for mankind's great cause of peace and development.

"Let us unite closely around the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China with Comrade Jiang Zemin at the core, hold high the great banner of Deng Xiaoping theory, be inspired with enthusiasm and work with concerted efforts to push forward into the 21st century the great cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics."

By Reuters

From CNN

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Britain advises against non-vital travel to China

May 9, 1999 Web posted at: 8:09 PM EDT (0009 GMT)

LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) -- The British Foreign Office said on Sunday it was advising Britons against non-essential travel to China.

The British embassy in Beijing was pelted with concrete rubble and paint at the weekend as Chinese demonstrators vented their anger over the NATO missile attack that killed four people in China's diplomatic mission in Belgrade.

"In view of recent developments, we advise against non-essential travel to China," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

Demonstrators also attacked the U.S. embassy in Beijing, hurling rocks and bottles and screaming "Kill Americans." Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of at least a dozen other Chinese cities.

But after whipping up the popular fury by declaring the NATO strike a deliberate act of war, Chinese authorities pulled back from the brink, issuing a statement intended to limit the violence and soothe jittery foreigners.

Vice President Hu Jintao said in a special television broadcast that while he supported the "keen patriotism" of students, demonstrations should not go too far. He insisted that foreigners, including diplomats and businessmen, were safe.

"We must guard against extreme behaviour and be vigilant against people taking advantage of the opportunity to disrupt normal social order," Hu said.

NATO has said Friday's embassy bombing, occurring more than six weeks into an air war against Yugoslavia's military, was a tragic mistake.

By Reuters

From CNN

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Up to 20,000 Chinese protest embassy bombing

May 9, 1999

BEIJING (CNN) -- Enraged over the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, protesters thronged toward the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Sunday, while military and riot police carefully watched.

While the majority of protesters were nonviolent, CNN's Rebecca MacKinnon said some protesters threw lighted wood, shoes and rocks toward the embassy, and that the mood was increasingly tense.

MacKinnon said she was struck by a protester, while others pulled her to safety.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman said Sunday that protesters broke into and severely burned a U.S. consulate building in southwest China.

A large number of people broke into the consulate compound in Chengdu and severely burned the consulate general's residence, said Tom Cooney, an embassy spokesman in Beijing.

No U.S. staff were injured and Chinese police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, he said. The demonstrators were protesting the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.

All U.S. diplomatic offices in China, except in Hong Kong, were to be closed Monday and Tuesday, Cooney said.

"We feel that we are under a state of siege here. We don't have adequate security," Cooney said in Beijing. The embassy had made a strong protest to Chinese authorities Saturday to provide better protection.

Cooney said the U.S. offered its "deepest condolences" to the families of those killed or injured in the Belgrade attack.

More than 20 people were injured and one person was missing in Belgrade following the attack on the embassy, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency said. A Xinhua reporter and two reporters for a national newspaper, Guangming Daily, were killed, it said.

Five people were reported still hospitalized under intensive care on Sunday.

U.S. and NATO officials have said the embassy attack was a "tragic mistake" -- the result of faulty information, and have said that the embassy was not a target of NATO airstrikes.

NATO and U.S. officials apologized to China for the loss of life, injuries, and damage.

On Saturday, U.S. officials in Beijing advised staff and other Americans in the Chinese capital "to raise their security awareness," said spokesman Bill Palmer.

An embassy notice warned of "the possibility for acts of retaliation against Americans and American interests worldwide."

Students said they were outraged because they believed NATO intentionally targeted the Belgrade structure.

Buses carrying thousands of student protesters arrived in Beijing for the second day in a row Sunday morning.

Students marched down a main street in the embassy district and shouted anti-American and anti-NATO slogans as they passed the British compound.

Police made the demonstrators, who are angry over NATO'S bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, move to another street about a block from the two embassies, where they continued to protest.

As they marched past the home of the U.S. ambassador, students yelled "Down with American devils" and "Oppose U.S. hegemony."

The morning rally followed a night of rampages in cities across China.

The People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, reported NATO had deliberately "spilled Chinese blood," fueling the protesters' belief that the NATO airstrike on the Chinese embassy was not accidental.

From CNN

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Chinese in Belgrade, Beijing protest NATO embassy bombing

May 9, 1999

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Chinese citizens and government officials Sunday intensified protests over a NATO bombing that claimed three lives at China's embassy in Belgrade, despite apologies from the alliance which called the attack an accident.

The father of one victim broke down as he held the bloodstained bed covers inside the room where his daughter and son-in-law died. The couple were both journalists and had moved from an apartment to the embassy because they thought it would be safer.

Hundreds of Chinese gathered for a second day of protests at the Chinese Embassy, where bouquets of flowers poked through the bars, resting on a sign with Chinese characters, a memorial for the victims.

A 34-member Chinese delegation, including Deputy Foreign Minister Wang Guozhang, inspected the heavily damaged compound on Sunday. Wang denounced the attack and called for an end to the entire NATO bombing campaign.

Besides investigating the incident, the Chinese delegation is arranging to take the dead and wounded back to China.

Twenty people were hurt in the Saturday morning attack. Six were injured seriously and remain in intensive care at a Belgrade hospital.

Clinton, NATO give apologies, explanations

U.S. President Bill Clinton sent a letter to Chinese President Jiang Zemin on Sunday expressing regret over the bombing, which he called an unfortunate accident, White House officials said.

Defense Secretary William Cohen and CIA Director George Tenet in a joint statement had called the attack the result of "faulty information."

NATO believed the building housed a Yugoslav military facility, not the Chinese Embassy, officials said.

"Those involved in targeting mistakenly believed that the Federal Directorate of Supply and Procurement was at the location that was hit," the statement said.

On Sunday, however, protesters intensified their demonstrations against numerous U.S. embassies and consulates in China, adamantly rejecting apologies offered by U.S. and NATO officials for the bombing.

"Apology is not enough," one man shouted. "Clinton must be tried for war crimes."

Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao, lending support to the protesters, condemned the bombing and said all legal demonstrations will be allowed to continue.

The protests, Hu said, "fully reflect the Chinese people's great fury at the atrocity of the embassy attacks by NATO and the Chinese people's strong patriotism."

But demonstrators must obey the law and take China's interests into account, he said.

U.S. ambassador holed up in Beijing embassy

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Beijing on Sunday near the U.S. Embassy, many students bused in for a second day of protests. Police cordoned off the site after protesters pummeled it with bricks and rocks.

U.S. Ambassador to China Jim Sasser, inside the embassy, said the Chinese government had guaranteed his and his staff's safety.

"The problem ... is that this whole thing could spin out of control," Sasser told CBS's "Face The Nation" by telephone. "We're just hoping that the police can continue to control them."

Sasser reported extensive damage to the embassy, including his personal residence. He said he has been confined to the embassy for 48 hours, separated from his family.

"We are essentially hostages," he said.

Several journalists, including CNN's Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon, were assailed by protesters.

Protesters threw stones at the British embassy. Nearby, people visited a candle-lit shrine for the victims.

Also under siege was the Albanian embassy, where diplomats said they had been trapped for more than a day with little help from Chinese police.

Tens of thousands of Chinese have taken to the streets of provincial capitals across China, marching on the embassies of NATO countries, particularly U.S. facilities.

In the southern city of Chengdu, protesters set ablaze the U.S. consul's residence. The residence was badly damaged, but no one was hurt. Police dispersed the protesters with tear gas.

The U.S. State Department announced that the embassy in Beijing and consulates in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shengyang and Chengdu will be closed at least until Tuesday.

Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon and Correspondents Brent Sadler, Chris Black and Andrea Koppel contributed to this report.

From CNN

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Embassy Bombing Comes at Worst Time for China-West Relations

BEIJING, May. 08, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) NATO's missile attack on China's embassy in Belgrade comes at the worst possible time as far as relations between China and the West are concerned, with ties already strained by the six-week Kosovo campaign.

The attack, which killed at least three people and injured more than 20, was strongly condemned by Beijing as a "barbarian act" and a war crime that must be punished.

The UN Security Council, meeting in emergency session at China's request, expressed "shock and concern." It noted the regrets expressed and said NATO was investigating Friday night's attack.

NATO and the United States expressed regret at the accident but said the air campaign against Yugoslavia would continue.

The Chinese government in a statement said it "reserved the right to take other measures." It recalled its hostility to the bombing and missile attacks since they began March 24.

China, which doubts the existence of "ethnic cleansing" by Serb forces in Kosovo, is a permanent member of the Security Council with the right to veto any initiative over the province.

The accidental attack will complicate the search for a settlement at the UN. It happened the day after Russia and the other seven members of the G-8 group reached partial agreement on a deal to end the Kosovo crisis including the sending of an international force.

On Friday China expressed doubt about that accord, insisting that the Belgrade government had to be included in any solution to end NATO raids.

China, itself subject to international sanctions after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, opposes in principle all intervention in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. It also rejects Western criticism of its human rights record and its record in Tibet.

Beijing also depicts itself, since the break-up of the Soviet Union, as one of the only powers capable of resisting the "hegemony" of the US. Fearful of encirclement, it opposes both the enlargement of NATO and military cooperation between the US and Japan.

The bombardment of Belgrade came as relations with the US were already at their lowest -- almost a year after President Bill Clinton's visit to Beijing which revived top-level dialogue after nine years of tension following Tiananmen.

At the end of April China denounced the US decision to sell two sophisticated long-range defense radar systems to Taiwan.

It has also protested a US proposal to include Japan and South Korea in a theater missile defense (TMD) system. It fears the eventual inclusion of Taiwan in TMD, which it says would constitute "an attack on Chinese sovereignty and integrity and at the same time an interference in China's internal affairs."

Washington for its part criticizes Beijing's huge trade surplus with it and suspects China of having stolen nuclear secrets.

The disputes have played a part in preventing the two countries reaching agreement on China's entry to the World Trade Organization despite major concessions offered by Premier Zhu Rongji in Washington last month.

Zhu attributed this setback to an "anti-Chinese climate" prevalent in the US. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

By Agence France Presse

From Inside China Today

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Taiwan's main opposition softens pro-independence stance

May 8, 1999

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan's main opposition party softened its pro-independence stand Saturday by voting to adopt a more pragmatic policy toward China ahead of the March presidential elections.

With overwhelming support from the 500 delegates attending the two-day congress, the Democratic Progressive Party passed a resolution that calls for peace with China and tones down the party's support for formal independence from China to help allay voters' fears of a Chinese invasion.

The party's pro-independence stand was widely blamed for its setback in legislative elections last year as China has repeatedly threatened to use force against the island if it declares independence.

Former Taipei mayor Chen Shui-bian, who is expected to be named the party's presidential candidate, urged party members to cast aside the lingering pessimistic mood resulting from the setback.

"To prepare for the next election, we must unify and rebuild confidence in our party, in our multi-party system ... and in the land of Taiwan," Chen told reporters at the opening of the congress in the southern port city of Kaohsiung.

While keeping its pro-independence platform intact, the party resolution drops calls for a referendum to declare independence from China and instead stresses the need to maintain the island's de facto independence.

It argues Taiwan has effectively transformed itself into a sovereign state following the past decade of democratic and constitutional reforms.

"Any changes of the status quo requires a plebiscite by all Taiwanese residents," it says.

"Our ultimate goal is to establish peaceful, non-biased, non-confrontational and equal relations with China," it says.

In an address to the delegates, party Chairman Lin Yih-hsiung said the party has progressed from advocating independence to "taking concrete steps to protect Taiwan and safeguard its sovereignty."

The resolution also moves a step further to recognize the political reality that "under the current constitution, Taiwan is officially called the Republic of China."

Until now, the opposition party has refused to recognize Taiwan's official name, adopted before the ruling Nationalists were ousted from China and retained since as a symbol of eventual reunification.

Taiwan and China separated politically following a civil war in 1949. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and refuses to renounce the use of force against it.

By The Associated Press

From CNN

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


China protesters set fire to U.S. official's home
Americans in Beijing warned to 'raise security awareness'

May 8, 1999

BEIJING (CNN) -- Protesters furious over a NATO airstrike on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, set fire to the home of a U.S. official in China on Saturday, witnesses said.

Witnesses said the demonstrators first stormed the U.S. consulate office building in Chengdu, southwest of Beijing. Then, when police chased them out, they set the top official's residence ablaze.

Police stationed at the consulate's front gate were outnumbered by protesters who swarmed over a side wall.

"It was a pretty severe attack," observers said.

The house was seriously damaged before the fire was put out, witnesses said. One guard was injured.

Demonstrators wreck U.S. embassy

Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters clashed with police at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, smashing cars and windows and burning American flags.

The protesters pushed toward the embassy, demanding to be let in and calling U.S. President Bill Clinton obscene names, CNN Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon said.

Police pushed back demonstrators who tried to ram a van and hurl a burning American flag through the embassy gate. Protesters used pieces of concrete that had been left by workers rebuilding sidewalks to break many of the windows in embassy buildings.

A group of protesters tried to flip a car and started shoving police who stopped them. Several cars were smashed with chunks of concrete.

Protests also were held in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. The Guangzhou demonstrations in southern China involved tens of thousands of students from more than 10 universities who converged on the U.S., British, French, Italian and Dutch consulates, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

The Beijing demonstrations were more peaceful earlier Saturday, when hundreds of students arrived at the embassy with banners. Those students, MacKinnon said, were mostly gone when the more violent protests began.

After the students dispersed at dusk, hundreds of others -- including families with children, young couples and workers in hard hats -- gathered in front of the embassy.

One protester told police many in the crowd were laid-off workers who had nothing to eat, and that police should let them vent their anger.

Earlier, police in large numbers watched as students marched in front of the embassy in well-ordered ranks. The students represented at least five universities.

Some of the protesters sang the Chinese national anthem; others shouted "Protect sovereignty, protect peace" and "We don't want war." Signs on a bus that brought students to the embassy read "NATO Nazis."

Unusual protest

The protest was highly unusual for China, where authorities generally have banned any large gatherings or demonstrations for fear of unrest.

Not since the government crushed democracy protests at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, have students and other Chinese marched through the streets en masse.

This time, though, the students and government were in accord. The Chinese government has strongly opposed the NATO airstrikes in Yugoslavia since they started.

At least three people were killed and more than 20 were injured when NATO missiles struck the embassy in Belgrade, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said. One person was missing. A Xinhua reporter, Shao Yunhuan, was among the dead, it said.

NATO said the embassy bombing was accidental.

In a statement, China's government said NATO fired three missiles from different angles at its Belgrade embassy, in "a gross violation of Chinese sovereignty."

"The Chinese government and people express their utmost indignation and severe condemnation of the barbarian act and lodge the strongest protest," said the statement reported by Xinhua and broadcast on nationwide television.

"U.S.-led NATO should bear all responsibilities," it said.

Beijing said it reserved the right to take further action over the embassy bombing but gave no details. China called an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Saturday to condemn the attack. It wants the United Nations to investigate the bombing and for NATO to provide an explanation.

U.S. warns of 'possible acts of retaliation'

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing advised staff and Americans living in the Chinese capital "to raise their security awareness," said spokesman Bill Palmer.

An embassy notice said there was "the possibility for acts of retaliation against Americans and American interests worldwide."

A U.S. official walked out of the embassy several times to receive protest statements from the demonstrators.

China has been outspoken in its criticism of the NATO campaign, accusing NATO of killing innocent civilians and repeatedly demanding that the alliance immediately stop bombing.

Chinese news media, all controlled by the government, have reported virtually none of the alleged Serbian attacks on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

From CNN

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


Anti-NATO protests flare in Beijing for second day

May 8, 1999

BEIJING (CNN) -- Buses carrying thousands of student protesters arrived in Beijing for the second day in a row Sunday morning.

Students marched down a main street in the embassy district and shouted anti-American and anti-NATO slogans as they passed the British compound.

Police made the demonstrators, who are angry over NATO'S bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, move to another street about a block from the two embassies, where they continued to protest.

As they marched past the home of the U.S. ambassador, students yelled "Down with American devils" and "Oppose U.S. hegemony."

The morning rally followed a night of rampages in cities across China.

The People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, reported NATO had deliberately "spilled Chinese blood," fueling the protesters' belief that the NATO airstrike on the Chinese embassy was not accidental.

Demonstrators set home ablaze

Protesters set fire to the home of a U.S. consul-general in China on Saturday, witnesses said.

Witnesses said the demonstrators first stormed the U.S. consulate office building in Chengdu, southwest of Beijing. Then, when police chased them out, they set the top official's residence ablaze.

Police stationed at the consulate's front gate were outnumbered by protesters who swarmed over a side wall.

"It was a pretty severe attack," observers said.

The house was seriously damaged before the fire was put out, witnesses said. One guard was injured.

Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters clashed with police at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, smashing cars and windows and burning American flags.

The protesters pushed toward the embassy, demanding to be let in and calling U.S. President Bill Clinton obscene names, CNN Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon said.

Police pushed back demonstrators who tried to ram a van and hurl a burning American flag through the embassy gate. Protesters used pieces of concrete that had been left by workers rebuilding sidewalks to break many of the windows in embassy buildings.

A group of protesters tried to flip a car and started shoving police who stopped them. Several cars were smashed with chunks of concrete.

Protests also were held in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. The Guangzhou demonstrations in southern China involved tens of thousands of students from more than 10 universities who converged on the U.S., British, French, Italian and Dutch consulates, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

Unusual protest

The protests were highly unusual for China, where authorities generally have banned any large gatherings or demonstrations for fear of unrest.

Not since the government crushed democracy protests at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, have students and other Chinese marched through the streets en masse.

This time, though, the students and government were in accord. The Chinese government has strongly opposed the NATO airstrikes in Yugoslavia since they started.

At least three people were killed and more than 20 were injured when NATO missiles struck the embassy in Belgrade, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said. One person was missing. A Xinhua reporter, Shao Yunhuan, was among the dead, it said.

NATO said the embassy bombing was accidental.

In a statement, China's government said NATO fired three missiles from different angles at its Belgrade embassy, in "a gross violation of Chinese sovereignty."

"The Chinese government and people express their utmost indignation and severe condemnation of the barbarian act and lodge the strongest protest," said the statement reported by Xinhua and broadcast on nationwide television.

"U.S.-led NATO should bear all responsibilities," it said.

Beijing said it reserved the right to take further action over the embassy bombing but gave no details. China called an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Saturday to condemn the attack. It wants the United Nations to investigate the bombing and for NATO to provide an explanation.

U.S. warns of 'possible acts of retaliation'

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing advised staff and Americans living in the Chinese capital "to raise their security awareness," said spokesman Bill Palmer.

An embassy notice said there was "the possibility for acts of retaliation against Americans and American interests worldwide."

A U.S. official walked out of the embassy several times to receive protest statements from the demonstrators.

China has been outspoken in its criticism of the NATO campaign, accusing NATO of killing innocent civilians and repeatedly demanding that the alliance immediately stop bombing.

Chinese news media, all controlled by the government, have reported virtually none of the alleged Serbian attacks on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

From CNN

Back to Top
Back to Article Index


TREMORS OF DISCONTENT
A demonstration by a quasi-religious sect shakes Beijing's leaders and heightens their worries about social unrest

By Todd Crowell and David Hsieh / Beijing

THEY BEGAN TO CONGREGATE along Fuyou Street in Beijing around 3 a.m. on Sunday, April 25. Locals were joined by people from Shandong and Hebei provinces and as far away as Dalian in China's economically depressed northeast. Dressed plainly and often looking like they were fresh off the farm, they stood or sat quietly on the curb. Some nibbled on food, while others drank water from plastic bottles.

If any of them had shouted slogans, put up wall posters or unfurled banners denouncing the government, they would no doubt have been taken away by the policemen and plainclothes security officers keeping a careful watch. For Fuyou Street is no ordinary neighborhood. Beyond the walls fronting the thoroughfare lies the sprawling Zhongnanhai compound where China's leaders live and work.

Something unusual was clearly afoot. By 8 a.m., thousands of people were crowding the street, forming a line that stretched fully two kilometers along the walls of Zhongnanhai. Authorities were faced with the largest demonstration in Beijing since student protesters first gathered in Tiananmen Square exactly 10 years ago. Was there a connection?

Around 8:50, a grumpy Premier Zhu Rongji, suffering from lack of sleep and jet lag after his recent trip to the U.S, agreed to receive a delegation to find out what the fuss was about. By then, the size and aim of the crowd were becoming clearer. The protesters, numbering more than 10,000, belonged to the Falungong (Buddhist Law), a quasi-religious sect. Its beliefs are based on both qigong, traditional Chinese breathing exercises, and Buddhism.

The amorphous sect is supposed to have no real leadership, other than its founder Li Hongzhi, formerly of Changchun, Jilin province. He has been living in the U.S. since last year. But in recent months, Falungong has shown an impressive ability to marshal large numbers of followers. Just the week before, thousands of adherents reportedly surrounded the compound of a small science magazine in Tianjin. Angered by an article deprecating their beliefs and practices, they loudly demanded that the editor be sacked.

The police dispersed the crowd and detained five members. So last week, the devotees took their complaints directly to the top, demanding to meet with the country's central leaders. After making a brief personal appearance, Zhu assigned two people from the State Council's Complaints Office and a personal secretary to hear them out in detail. Falungong delegates took turns in the central government compound throughout the day. Their chief demands: release of the Tianjin detainees, dismissal of the science-magazine editor and some "respect."

By 9 p.m., the crowd outside Zhongnanhai had dispersed as quickly and efficiently as it gathered earlier. Within two hours, most of the out-of-towners had been bused to the railway station and given tickets home. They warned, however, that even bigger gatherings could take place if the government did not address their concerns. They hinted that they might invite followers from other countries.

So far, the authorities have treated the group with a notably light touch. They are keenly aware of the traumatic crackdown 10 years ago - and that China has perhaps tens of millions of qigong devotees. "The police were very tolerant," says an eyewitness of the demonstration. "They treated the protesters politely and were careful not to provoke a confrontation." The government quickly asserted that it had never banned the group or proscribed qigong exercises. Indeed, Li's books are available, even in state-run bookstores. But authorities later warned the sect not to undermine "social stability."

What exactly is Falungong? Its founder, now 47, says he began studying under a qigong master at the age of four. Later, he became one himself and propagated his own brand of the discipline, which combined the traditional exercises, meditation and breathing techniques with Buddhist concepts. Said Li: "We practice cultivation [of the soul] based on the principles of evolution and of the universe taking the qualities of zhen (truthfulness), shan (benevolence) and ren (forbearance)."

Falungong literature claims there are about 70 million adherents in China - and 100 million worldwide. Supposedly, they come from all walks of life and include intellectuals as well as officially atheist Communist Party members. Most believers, though, seem to be older people with much time on their hands, and those with lower educational levels.

The sect says it is entirely apolitical and non-confrontational. According to some non-believers, it serves a useful social purpose by helping rebuild individual self-esteem and maintain stability at a time of rapidly changing values in China. But the group is not above intimidating opponents or branding rivals as "demons." Sensing that his movement might be growing too fast for the comfort of the authorities, Li emigrated to the U.S. last year. He has since been working to attract followers in North America and Europe.

Initially, what drew most adherents to the group were probably the exercise and the camaraderie of group activity. Later they began to absorb the spiritual and more esoteric aspects of Li's philosophy. These apparently include belief in faith healing, reincarnation, the supernatural, mental telepathy, communication with aliens and "opening an eye to the universe." Such credos have invited criticism and ridicule from some rationalists. "Some of it is really wacko," says one academic.

Falungong believers are highly sensitive to any suggestion that they belong to a "cult," which the government might consider the group to be, given its refusal to register officially. Last June, more than a thousand adherents held a silent demonstration outside the Beijing Television Station after a member of the Academy of Sciences publicly labeled them "cultists." Similarly wounded feelings were behind the demonstration in Tianjin.

But the government has good reasons to treat the protesters with kid gloves. Behind the stranger beliefs lie widespread grievances that are rooted in the insecurities inherent in modern Chinese life. Intellectuals are unhappy about "money worship" and official graft, laid-off state-enterprise workers hate their corrupt bosses, and many older women feel left to fend for themselves after divorces. In fact, people are searching for a new philosophy of life as traditional verities - including Marxism - lose their meaning.

Authorities know that if they are not careful, the Falungong protest could turn into something bigger and more dangerous, despite believers' claims that they have no political aims and do not oppose the party. As China's chief implementor of reform, Zhu Rongji is acutely attuned to such simmerings. It is no surprise that he should have gotten out of bed in a personal bid to defuse the budding crisis.

From Asiaweek

Back to Top
Back to Article Index

../images/line3.gif

Previous Month | News | Next Month

../images/line4.gif

BackHome

../images/line4.gif

Copyright DateRichard R. Wertz