/'_/\ /'_/| | \ `\ | | | ______ | `\ `\ | | | ______ /'______/\ | |\ `\ `| | | /______/\ | ___ \/| | | |\ `\| | | | ___ \ \ | /'/ \_|/ | | | `\ | | | | | \ \/| | | | __ |_|/' `\__|/' | | | | | | | | \__/_/| | | |__| | | | \/___| |/ China News Digest | |/__/ |/ \_______/(InfoBase June 4 Collection)|_______/ May 1, 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 june4-89.01t # of Lines --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. HEADLINE: Turmoil in China; half a world from home, students agonize and discuss plans to help ............................................83 2. HEADLINE: Turmoil in China; Troops kill hundreds of protesters in move to crush rebellion in Beijing; US decries China's use of force .....153 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. HEADLINE: Turmoil in China; half a world from home, students agonize and discuss plans to help ............................................83 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BYLINE: Jordana Hart, Contributing Reporter and Jerry Thomas, Globe Staff SOURCE: The Boston Globe, June 4, 1989, Sunday, City Edition KEYWORD: CHINA; MASSACHUSETTS; REACTION; MILITARY; DEMONSTRATION; GOVERNMENT Last week, Chinese students at area colleges said they felt leadership changes were guaranteed in China as long as military officials refused to use troops to end the nationwide student -led protests for democracy in Beijing. But yesterday, the students' hopes were shattered when they heard reports that scores of students and supporters had been killed and hundreds wounded by Chinese troops who stormed Tiananmen Square with tanks and machine guns. "We've got to pay back. We'll kill those fascists," shouted an angry Massachusetts Institute of Technology student, Hao Li, his fist punching toward a television set where an anchorwoman said that 93 persons had been killed. "Everybody was shocked. We had been prepared for some sort of situation, but not killing, " said Xiaolu Li, 33, a Brandeis University graduate student. "The government has made up its mind to be the enemy of the people," said Hao, president of MIT's Chinese Student Association, which has spearheaded fund-raisers for the Beijing students in Boston over the past two weeks. "The government has gone absolutely crazy." Students here, who froze in silence when they heard each news report of rising death tolls, said President Bush has done little to aid the students in China. "I don't think he has done enough," said Jing Wang, a 23-year-old MIT student from Shanghai. "He waited for the massacre. Now it has happened, and he is doing nothing. He said he is going to take a vacation, a day off." Another student, 29-year-old Ling Zheng, said yesterday he contacted the International Red Cross in Geneva when he was told by students at Beijing University that Chinese officials had told hospital and ambulance staffs not to aid wounded protesters. "They said they will send people from Hong Kong to Beijing to assist the students, " said Ling. A Geneva-based Red Cross official, Taul Grossreider, said last night he was attempting to verify Ling's information. "We will send help if what the student told me is accurate," he said. Ling said: "The situation is really out of control. We thought the government would just let the students alone. We did not expect total violence." At an emergency meeting yesterday afternoon in the television room of an MIT dormitory, about 50 students of the May 4 Foundation watched news specials about the slayings and discussed ways to assist their countrymen in overthrowing the government. The foundation is a group of local student activists who have raised thousands of dollars for their peers in Tiananmen Square. Hao said the approximately 40,000 Chinese students studying in the United States should go to United Nations headquarters in New York to seek an emergency Security Council meeting to protest China's use of force.. Several students also suggested that the United States government immediately close its embassy in Beijing. But they all agreed that a march on Washington would be a way to get immediate assistance. "We want to push legislation through Congress and want them to put economic sanctions on the government," Hao said. "We have heard AT&T is planning a major project, and we want to urge them to scratch that plan." Students said that before they take any action they plan to contact Chinese student groups nationwide so they will have one voice. GRAPHIC: PHOTO, Globe staff photo/Wendy Maeda / Brandeis University students Ling Zheng, Mo Cheng and Xiaolu Li have been in contact with students in Beijing. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. HEADLINE: Turmoil in China; Troops kill hundreds of protesters in move to crush rebellion in Beijing; US decries China's use of force .....153 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BYLINE: Adam Pertman, Globe Staff SOURCE: The Boston Globe, June 4, 1989, Sunday, City Edition KEYWORD: CHINA; DEMONSTRATION; MILITARY; DEATH; GOVERNMENT The Bush administration yesterday deplored the killings in Beijing as "ugly and chaotic," while experts on China predicted that the violence could have devastating political and economic consequences. Analysts in and out of government expressed surprise at the army's use of force in Tiananmen Square, saying the protests had been dissipating and a minimum of negotiation probably would have led to a peaceful resolution. "A week earlier, at the height of this thing, we would have understood an army response a little better," one administration official said. President Bush, in a statement yesterday afternoon from his retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine, used harsh language to describe the events in China. And an administration source said the Chinese ambassador, Han Xu, was called to the State Department so US officials could "express our concern." "I deeply deplore the decision to use force against peaceful demonstrators and the consequent loss of life," Bush said. Hinting that more violence could harm Chinese-US relations, he added: "I hope that China will rapidly return to the path of political and economic reform and conditions of stability so that this relationship, so important to both our peoples, can continue its growth." Earlier in the day, Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d told an interviewer on Cable News Network that "the situation is turning ugly and chaotic." Like Bush, Baker punctuated his comments with words of caution. "Let's see how this most recent and extremely deplorable development unfolds," he said. "Let's see what happens over the course of the next few days, before we start hypothesizing about what we might or might not do in the future." It was too soon to determine who made the decision to use military force against the demonstrators. Most speculation was that government hard-liners, who have gotten the upper hand in recent days, opted to try to solidify their position - or keep it from eroding - with a show of force. It also is possible that high-ranking army officers acted after deciding that the civilian leadership was unable to deal adequately with the situation, which has been building since the first demonstrations in mid-April, analysts said. Whoever made the final judgment to send in armed troops, the result probably will be a growth in the army's influence, at least in the short term. "The military's power within the leadership configuration certainly becomes more apparent, and in fact may have been increased," said Nicholas Eberstadt, a China specialist at Harvard's Center for Population Studies and the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. That prospect in itself could alter the domestic situation in incalculable ways, since it is uncertain how military officials perceive the need for economic and political change. At a minimum, yesterday's killings indicated that the current civilian leadership has the stomach for very harsh measures and that the army is willing to comply. The decision to use force could backfire. Authorities in Beijing yesterday gave the student movement a political weapon it did not have before: martyrs. And, as Donald Klein, a professor of Asian politics at Tufts University, put it, "They created a famous day in Chinese history." The Bush administration's response was marked by caution, reflecting both the unsettled nature of events and the US view that it has little alternative but to deal with the leaders in place. A wait-and-see attitude was evident in Baker's comments. He attempted to be studiously evenhanded, seemingly to keep from alienating Chinese authorities prematurely. He said, for example, that there had been reports of students inciting troops by throwing Molotov cocktails, and he noted that the government had exercised restraint until yesterday. "Unfortunately, the situation in China is turning ugly and chaotic," Baker said on the CNN broadcast. "It is a situation that is not a happy one." He said the United States "expressed its concern to the Chinese government that the utmost restraint be used." Other US officials said the State Department has set up a task force to monitor the situation. Periodic updates were being given to Bush. Baker acknowledged that a power struggle was taking place in China, but he said he would "rather not go into any details of who's up and down." If the consequences for US-Chinese policy or within China are difficult to assess, the foreign policy implications for China are not. Analysts yesterday said that for starters, political leaders around the world are likely to see their counterparts in Beijing as more repressive, less secure and less reform-minded than had been perceived. That has potential for affecting state-to-state relations. Probably more important, it could badly hurt the efforts China has been making to modernize by drawing foreign investment and technological know-how. "It seems common sense that there will be extreme care and caution by outside investors," said Klein. "China is in direct competition with the rest of Asia for investment money, and there are excellent alternatives for businessmen elsewhere," he continued. He said an investment slowdown would have "devastating effects." The same could be true of the technology improvements China wants to make, both in hardware imports and if its scientists and researchers discover they are no longer as welcome in more advanced nations, he said. Damage also could be inflicted by the approximately 60,000 students China has sent to study abroad, the anticipated vanguard of future development. If they choose not to go back or if their studies are curtailed by host countries, the lost potential could be serious. In addition, China netted about $ 2 billion from tourism last year, and it has spent enormous sums to build hotels, to train personnel and to improve its infrastructure to lure outsiders and their money. "There are a lot of alternatives for people who want to travel," Klein said. Finally, the recent easing of tensions between the People's Republic and its two neighbors, Hong Kong and Taiwan, seems certain to be undermined. That is particularly significant in regard to Hong Kong, over which China is scheduled to resume sovereignty in July 1997. The developments yesterday raised a host of short- and long-term questions. The most profound may be one that applies not only to China, but also to the Soviet Union and other nations struggling with reform. It is whether people who begin down the road to democracy can turn back. "They may effectively break up the student groups in Tiananmen Square . . . but all they're going to do is feed the demonstration movement, which is an idea that simply is not going to die," said William Taylor, vice president for political-military affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It's just a matter of when and where the students and others who get caught up in this decide to make their next move." GRAPHIC: PHOTO, 1. Reuters photo / A woman weeps in a Beijing hospital today after learning that her brother died from gunshot wounds during violence in Tiananmen Square. (Photo ran in 1st edition only) 2. AP photo / Broken army trucks and smashed bicycles attest to the violence in Tiananmen Square in Beijing this morning. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 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 | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+