/'_/\ /'_/| | \ `\ | | | ______ | `\ `\ | | | ______ /'______/\ | |\ `\ `| | | /______/\ | ___ \/| | | |\ `\| | | | ___ \ \ | /'/ \_|/ | | | `\ | | | | | \ \/| | | | __ |_|/' `\__|/' | | | | | | | | \__/_/| | | |__| | | | \/___| |/ China News Digest | |/__/ |/ \_______/(InfoBase June 4 Collection)|_______/ May 12, 1993 **The CND InfoBase Project collects, among other China-related information, materials and/or bibliographical reference to matericals about the Beijing Massacre on June 4, 1989. Please refer to the trailer for more information. No. Subject june3-89.07t # of Lines --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. HEADLINE: Hongkong; We are Chinese, if you please ................... 40 2. HEADLINE: Peking Students Turn Back Troops ........................ 69 3. HEADLINE: GOVERNMENT TO DISCIPLINE CADRES JOINING DEMONSTRATIONS .... 21 4. HEADLINE: TENSION RISES AS TROOPS, POLICE CLASH WITH STUDENTS ...... 94 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. HEADLINE: Hongkong; We are Chinese, if you please ................... 40 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: The Economist, June 3, 1989 THE nitpicking over Hongkong's Basic Law has been put off for a while. The negotiators on the Chinese side want the unrest in China to die down before turning their minds again to drafting the territory's future constitution. The way events finally unfold in Beijing will influence the thinking of the minions entrusted with the Hongkong negotiations. The hardliners now on top may take the view that even the present shape of the Basic Law draft is too liberal. China's failed revolt has created new doubts in Hongkong about the value of the Basic Law, which is supposed to come into force when China takes over in 1997. If, as is widely believed, the decision to impose martial law on parts of Beijing was unconstitutional, what hope has little Hongkong that its own constitution will be strictly observed? If some successor of Mr Deng Xiaoping decides to clamp down on a luckless Hongkong dissident, clause this or clause that in the Basic Law would, in practice, count for little. Among the minority who have followed the drafting process, there has always been this fear. Optimists assumed that the growing power of China's reformers would ensure respect for the Basic Law. Such optimism is now less common. There was optimism in Hongkong of another sort, which twice brought more than 1m people out into the streets of the colony. It sprang from a feeling of exuberance with what appeared to be going on in China. Nearly all the Chinese in Hongkong are there because they chose freedom, or their parents or grandparents did. But they continue to feel a strong tie to the mainland, even though they reject its politics. Now here were the students in Beijing choosing freedom too. The chance for the Hongkong Chinese to demonstrate their love of freedom and their love of the mainland was irresistible. The euphoria led many people to say that the idea of a separate Hongkong with its own laws was a thing of the past. Hongkong belonged to free China, and the sooner the division was ended the better. Cooler counsels have now taken over. The great demonstration of popular feeling has overshadowed a development that in normal times would have seemed a big step towards democracy in Hongkong. The colony's legislators said on May 30th that the future chief executive should be directly elected not later than 2003. this is at least four years earlier than the present draft of the Basic Law proposes. Back to you, Beijing, when you have a moment. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. HEADLINE: Peking Students Turn Back Troops ........................ 69 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: Financial Times, June 3, 1989, Saturday BYLINE: Robert Thomson, Peter Ellingsen, Peking Thousands of troops marched into the centre of Peking last night as the Chinese Government appeared finally to be moving against the protesting students holding out in Tiananmen Square. However, the 10,000 troops, who appeared to be members of the National Liberation Army, were halted and turned back just short of the square by thousands of protesters, who had commandeered buses and parked them in the path of the soldiers. The troops were apparently unarmed and marched towards the square just after 2 am Peking time. There were scuffles as the NLA soldiers met the wall of protesters, and the barricade of buses. Without clear directions, the troops seemed disorganised, and the massed crowd urged them to turn back. "Yoy are the people's army. Don't hurt the people," some of the protesters chanted. Other protesters roused residents and urged them to join in, while more troops joined the column which had marched in from the east of the city. The move indicated that the Chinese Government had finally lost paitence with the students, who triggered China's worst political crisis in a decade, and was intending to reassert its control after weeks of turmoil. Over the past week Li Peng, the prime minister, and Deng Xiaoping, China's paramount leader, have gained the upper hand in the power struggle with the country's reformers. The militiamen had entered the city from the east after rumours of an NLA advance from the west had sent thousands of protesting cyclists in the wrong direction, and prompted citizens to barricade the city's main streets. Earlier, police blocked the main road leading west. One officer said he had been told the military was entering the city, though he had not seen any truck convoys. The only evidence that troops were preparing for a march on the 10,000 protestors still in Tiananmen Square was the sighting of armed soldiers drilling at the nearby Peking railway station, army trucks circling the inner city and Chinese television devoting much time to film of troops camped on the outskirts of the city. Thousands of cyclists left Tiananmen Square and were rousing residents in expectation of the arrival of troops, while others planned to block the path of troop trucks. The reaction of the protesters reflected the tension in the city yesterday following an obvious increase in the military presence. An estimated 200,000 troops have been waiting on the outskirts of the Chinese capital since the declaration of martial law two weeks ago. Hours before the reports of troop movements, students and intellectuals announced a series of 72-hour hunger strikes in the square until China's parliament, the National People's Congress, meets to discuss democratic reform on June 20. Deng appeared to be struggling to maintain contorl of the group of hard-line old men he called on to shore up his position and quell demonstrations. Deng, widely rumoured to be out of Peking in his home province of Sichuan, retains the final say, but it appeared his authority was being undermined by an elderly clique led by President Yang Shangkun, who not only wants to end the student uprising, but also use the crisis to turn back the clock on Deng's economic reforms and tolerance of Western ways. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. HEADLINE: GOVERNMENT TO DISCIPLINE CADRES JOINING DEMONSTRATIONS .... 21 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: Japan Economic Newswire, JUNE 3, 1989, SATURDAY DATELINE: HONG KONG, JUNE 3 THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT HAS ISSUED AN ORDER TO DISCIPLINE CADRES WHO PARTICIPATED IN PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS DURING MARTIAL LAW, A LOCAL NEWSPAPER REPORTED SATURDAY. THE WEN WEI PO SAID LUO GAN, SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE STATE COUNCIL, CHINA'S CABINET, ISSUED THE DISCIPLINARY ORDER IN A CIRCULAR SENT TO GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTAL HEADS. LUO INSTRUCTED THEM TO DISCIPLINE OFFICIALS WITH MEMBERSHIP IN THE COMMUNIST PARTY ACCORDING TO PARTY RULES. NON-PARTY MEMBER OFFICIALS WILL BE DISCHARGED FROM THEIR POSTS, THE PAPER SAID. MANY DEMONSTRATORS WHO TOOK PART IN ANTI-MARTIAL LAW MARCHES IN THE PAST TWO WEEKS IN BEIJING WERE SEEN HOLDING BANNERS CARRYING THE NAMES OF GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS AND PARTY ORGANS. LIKE OTHER SUPPORTERS OF THE PRO-DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN, THEY SHOUTED SLOGANS DEMANDING AN END TO MARTIAL LAW AND THE RESIGNATION OF PREMIER LI PENG, WHO HAS TAKEN A HARDLINE POLICY AGAINST THE SEVEN-WEEK-OLD STUDENT CAMPAIGN. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. HEADLINE: TENSION RISES AS TROOPS, POLICE CLASH WITH STUDENTS ...... 94 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: Japan Economic Newswire, JUNE 3, 1989, SATURDAY DATELINE: BEIJING, JUNE 3 TROOPS AND POLICE FIRED TEAR GAS AND CLASHED WITH STUDENTS AND RESIDENTS SATURDAY AS AUTHORITIES SOUGHT TO DISLODGE PROTESTERS FROM TIANANMEN SQUARE BY FORCE. DOZENS OF STUDENTS AND RESIDENTS WERE REPORTED INJURED, BUT THE PRECISE NUMBER OF CASUALTIES IS UNCLEAR. THE CONFRONTATION BROUGHT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE INTO THE STREETS OF CENTRAL BEIJING TO PROTEST THE GOVERNMENT CRACKDOWN. BY LATE AFTERNOON, STUDENTS AND THEIR SUPPORTERS FILLED UP THE WHOLE LENGTH OF CHANGAN AVENUE, THE CAPITAL'S MAIN THOROUGHFARE. TENSION ROSE IN ANTICIPATION OF A RENEWED GOVERNMENT ATTEMPT TO CRUSH THE SEVEN-WEEK OLD PRO-DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT BY FORCE. IN AN EVENING NEWS BULLETIN, RADIO BEIJING WARNED THAT THE MILITARY MAY TAKE "MEASURES" AGAINST PEOPLE BLOCKING TROOP MOVEMENTS. THE FIRST CLASH CAME SHORTLY AFTER 2 P.M. WHEN A PARAMILITARY POLICE FORCE -- ABOUT 700 STRONG -- LAUNCHED A TEAR-GAS ATTACK ON CROWDS GATHERED AROUND A MILITARY BUS TRAPPING A NUMBER OF SOLDIERS INSIDE. THE VEHICLE, TOGETHER WITH SOME WEAPONS, WAS CAPTURED BY STUDENTS AND RESIDENTS WHO HAD BLOCKED TROOPS MOVING INTO TIANANMEN SQUARE SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT. THE STUDENTS PUT THE WEAPONS -- INCLUDING SUBMACHINE GUNS, AUTOMATIC PISTOLS, AND HELMETS -- ON DISPLAY ON TOP OF THE BUS AS "SPOILS OF VICTORY." THE OPEN STUDENT DEFIANCE DREW THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE TO THE SCENE AT XIDAN ABOUT 2 KILOMETERS WEST OF TIANANMEN. POLICE FIRED TEAR-GAS CANISTERS INTO THE CROWDS AND BEAT PEOPLE WITH TRUNCHEONS AND ELECTRIC PRODS, WITNESSES SAID. MORE THAN 10 STUDENTS AND CITIZENS WERE REPORTED INJURED. THE POLICE RETREATED INTO ZHONGNANHAI -- THE WALLED COMPOUND WHERE TOP CHINESE LEADERS WORK AND LIVE -- AFTER FREEING THE SOLDIERS AND RECAPTURING THE WEAPONS. SHORTLY AFTERWARDS, TROOPS USED TEAR GAS TO REMOVE A GROUP OF 20 STUDENTS WHO HAD BEEN STAGING A LONG-RUNNING SIT-IN IN FRONT OF ZHONGNANHAI. SEVERAL STUDENTS WERE REPORTEDLY INJURED DURING THE CLASH IN WHICH WITNESSES SAID THEY SAW THE MILITARY FIRING FOUR ROUNDS OF TEAR GAS. IT WAS THE FIRST TIME TEAR GAS WAS USED BY AUTHORITIES SINCE MARTIAL LAW WAS CLAMPED DOWN ON BEIJING TWO WEEKS AGO TO END THE STUDENT -LED PRO-DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN. ABOUT 30,000 TROOPS FROM THE PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY WERE BLOCKED FROM MOVING INTO TIANANMEN SQUARE BY STUDENTS AND THEIR SUPPORTERS IN THE POST-MIDNIGHT ASSAULT AND MOST OF THE TROOPS RETREATED BEFORE DAWN. BUSES CARRYING FIREARMS AND TROOPS AS WELL AS OTHER VEHICLES WERE SEIZED BY CROWDS AND THEIR TIRES DEFLATED. ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, TROOPS WERE CONFIRMED TO HAVE BEGUN MARCHING TOWARD CENTRAL BEIJING FROM SEVERAL LOCATIONS IN THE SUBURBS OF THE CAPITAL AT AROUND 2 A.M. MAIN UNITS EACH OF ABOUT 10,000 TROOPS WERE SPOTTED AT POINTS SEVERAL KILOMETERS EAST AND WEST OF THE MAIN STREET LEADING INTO THE SQUARE BUT THEY WERE NOT ARMED, WITNESSES SAID. TWO OTHER UNITS OF THOUSANDS OF TROOPS WERE ALSO SEEN MARCHING TOWARD THE SQUARE FROM TWO DIFFERENCE DIRECTIONS, THEY SAID. TENS OF THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS AND CITIZENS TOOK TO THE STREETS AND LINED UP AND ERECTED BARRICADES WITH TRUCKS AND OTHER VEHICLES TO BLOCK THE MAIN ENTRANCE TO THE SQUARE. TWO OTHER STREETS LEADING INTO THE SQUARE WERE ALSO BLOCKED BY STUDENTS AND CITIZENS TO HALT THE ADVANCING TROOPS. IN FRONT OF THE BEIJING HOTEL EAST OF THE SQUARE, STUDENTS AND CITIZENS BERATED THE TROOPS, CHANTED SLOGANS AT THEM AND FORCING THEM TO RETREAT. IN A NOON NEWS BULLETIN, RADIO BEIJING SAID THE TROOPS WERE SENT IN TO ENFORCE MARTIAL LAW AND RESTORE SOCIAL ORDER. A BEIJING MUNICIPAL SPOKESMAN QUOTED BY THE RADIO SAID THAT TROOPS WERE NOT DIRECTED AGAINST THE STUDENTS AND CITIZENS. THE BROADCAST ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THE TROOP MOVEMENT HAD BEEN BLOCKED BY WHAT IT DESCRIBED AS "BARRIERS ERECTED BY A VERY SMALL NUMBER OF PEOPLE." THE TROOPS ACTED WITH SELF-RESTRAINT AND WERE ATTACKED BY A SMALL NUMBER OF PEOPLE. SOME WEAPONS WERE ALSO "SEIZED AND TAKEN AWAY" DURING THE CONFUSION, THE RADIO SAID. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Executive Editor: Bing Wen in Ottawa, Canada | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | China News Digest (CND) InfoBase covers the following areas: | | History : WWII, Cultural Revolution, June 4, Olympics | | Service : visa/PR, PRC-doc, tax, insurance, travel/living | | Academics : job, conference/workshop, societies, projects | | Other : org intro, book review, community activities | | ------ * ------ * ------ | | To contribute, please send to CND-IB@CND.ORG | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+