/'_/\ /'_/| | \ `\ | | | ______ | `\ `\ | | | ______ /'______/\ | |\ `\ `| | | /______/\ | ___ \/| | | |\ `\| | | | ___ \ \ | /'/ \_|/ | | | `\ | | | | | \ \/| | | | __ |_|/' `\__|/' | | | | | | | | \__/_/| | | |__| | | | \/___| |/ 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 june4-89.09t # of Lines --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. HEADLINE: Assault on the square: a chronology ........................88 2. HEADLINE: Turmoil in China; protests for democracy; rallies across U.S. echo protest of crackdown; crowd in L.A. urges end to Beijing bloodshed ...........................................................102 3. HEADLINE: U.S. Congressmen demand halt to military sales to China On Sunday, Senate Democratic Whip Alan Cranston and Conservative Republican Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina said they would seek bipartisan support for a measure to stop the sales ...................81 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. HEADLINE: Assault on the square: a chronology ........................88 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BYLINE: From Associated Press SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, June 4, 1989, Sunday, Home Edition DATELINE: BEIJING Key events in the student pro-democracy movement that led to the assault by soldiers on protesters in Tian An Men Square: April 15 -- Former Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang dies. Beijing University students put up posters praising him and indirectly criticizing opponents who forced his resignation in early 1987 after student demonstrations in 1986-87. April 17 -- Thousands of students march in Beijing and Shanghai, shouting, "Long live Hu Yaobang! Long live democracy!" April 22 -- While official memorial ceremonies are held for Hu at nearby Great Hall of the People, students defy police orders to leave the square. April 26 -- People's Daily publishes major Communist Party attack on protesters, angering students. April 27 -- More than 50,000 students, with wide support from people on the street, surge past police lines and fill Tian An Men Square, chanting slogans for democracy and freedom. April 29 -- Officials meet with student leaders, but independent student groups are not satisfied and continue a class boycott at 41 universities. May 4 -- About 100,000 students and supporters march on Tian An Men Square to celebrate the 70th anniversary of China's first student movement. Demonstrations are held in Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities. About 300 journalists protest outside the official New China News Agency. May 13 -- About 2,000 students begin a hunger strike in Tian An Men Square. Number later grows to 3,000. May 15 -- The government deadline for students to leave the square passes. Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's welcoming ceremony must be moved from the square to the airport. May 17 -- Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang pleads for students to leave the square. Students reject his appeal and hold marches that generate 1 million supporters in Beijing. May 18 -- About 1 million people, including many workers, again take to the streets to show their support for the hunger strikers. Premier Li Peng issues a stern lecture to student leaders and refuses to discuss their demands. May 20 -- Martial law is declared in parts of Beijing after Zhao reportedly fails to persuade Li and other hard-liners to compromise. Students resume their hunger strike, then abandon it, saying they need strength for the struggle ahead. May 21 -- Students reject an order by Li Peng to leave Tian An Man Square or face military action. Defying martial law, hundreds of thousands of people remain in the square or block intersections to prevent troops from reaching it. May 25 -- Li makes his first appearance since declaring martial law. State-run radio says 27 of 29 provinces support martial law, and military units announce they support martial law. May 27 -- Beijing student leaders propose that students end their occupation of Tian An Men Square. Non- Beijing students resist and the sit-in continues. May 30 -- Students unveil their "Goddess of Democracy," a replica of the Statue of Liberty, on the square. The government calls it an insult to the nation. June 1 -- The Beijing municipal government warns foreign journalists that under martial law they must receive approval for all press coverage. Coverage of the demonstrations is banned. June 3-4 -- Tens of thousands of troops make several attempts to move on the square but are driven back by crowds of hundreds of thousands of people supporting the students. Riot squads beat and fire tear gas at demonstrators. A final push is made the evening of June 3, and soldiers begin firing on crowds. Troops surround and enter the square in the early morning hours of June 4 and thousands of protesters flee. Many are killed and hundreds are wounded. Chronology; Sidebar; Wire DEMONSTRATIONS -- CHINA; DEMOCRACY; CHINA -- MARTIAL LAW; MASSACRES -- CHINA; CHINA -- GOVERNMENT; CHINA -- ARMED FORCES; PEKING (CHINA); TIAN AN MEN SQUARE; STUDENTS -- CHINA --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. HEADLINE: Turmoil in China; protests for democracy; rallies across U.S. echo protest of crackdown; crowd in L.A. urges end to Beijing bloodshed ...........................................................102 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BYLINE: By JOHN KENDALL, Times Staff Writer SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, June 4, 1989, Sunday, Home Edition As troops smashed the pro-democracy forces in Beijing with brute force, Chinese students and Chinese-Americans gathered on the steps of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles on Saturday calling solemnly -- and in some cases tearfully -- for an end to the bloodshed in China. The group of more than 100 showed their support for pro-democracy forces in China with speeches, chants, tears, songs and a call on President Bush, Congress and the United Nations to condemn the massacre and pressure the Chinese leaders to stop the killing. 'Horrible Incident' "This is the most horrible incident of government brutality in history," said a declaration distributed by the students. "In addition to being sad and angry, we should do our best to support our suffering Chinese countrymen." They sat on the steps and sidewalk and listened quietly as a recording of a phone call from Beijing to UCLA was played. Paul Yin, 25, a former Beijing University student now studying psychology at Cal State Los Angeles, covered his eyes as the voice on the phone reported that "blood is flowing in Tian An Men (Square)" and heard the names of some of those killed. Yin said he knew one of the dead. In San Francisco's Chinese community -- the largest concentration of Chinese-Americans in the United States -- leaders called on people of Chinese ancestry from throughout the world to join in opposition to the Beijing government. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" cried Choi Soon, 32, listening to radio reports from China as she sat across from City Hall. "How can the government kill? Those are my brothers and sisters in the square, and they are being murdered." In New York, Mayor Edward I. Koch led a small rally in Battery Park in Lower Manhattan to protest the military action in China. With the Statue of Liberty in the background, Koch called for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council. He cried: "Shame! Shame!" and a small crowd picked up the chant. In Los Angeles, the demonstrators -- organized by a group of Hong Kong students and professionals -- wore blue ribbons, signifying democracy, peace and freedom, as they gathered at the Chinese Consulate in the Mid-Wilshire district for the two-hour rally. Different Mood Such groups have been gathering for the past several weeks, but the mood Saturday was quite different. Someone had taped a banner on the glass doors, reading "United Nations. U.S. Congress. President Bush. Take Your Stand. Stop Bloodshed." The rally was led by Richard Leung, 27, a computer science student studying for his master's degree at UCLA, and Jacqueline Cheng, also a Hong Kong student. They took turns calling for action to stop the killing in China and led chants in Chinese and English. "No more bloodshed! Long live freedom! Long live democracy! Victory belongs to the people!" they cried, and the others joined in. Some in the crowd also spoke. Yao Xiaotian, an engineering student wearing a USC sweatshirt, said the news had upset him. "We cannot keep silent," he said. "It is time for us to stand up." Most of the rhetoric seemed to be offered with more concern than fury, but Yin declared that he was angry because the tens of thousands of protesters in Tian An Men Square are "our brothers and sisters." 'Digging Their Own Grave' "This government is capable of anything," Yin said. "They're only digging their own grave. Someday we'll achieve victory." A sign scrawled on a piece of cardboard hanging from a light fixture declared, "Blood will be paid by blood." At the end of the rally, members of the crowd joined hands, raised their arms and sang "We Shall Overcome." Then, they cried, "No more bloodshed! Long live democracy! Long live freedom!" GRAPHIC: Photo, Paul Yin listens to recorded phone message from China during demonstration held outside Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles. In New York, Mayor Edward I. Koch led a small rally in Battery Park in Lower Manhattan to protest the military action in China. JOSEPH GARCIA / Los Angeles Times DEMONSTRATIONS -- CHINA; DEMONSTRATIONS -- LOS ANGELES; DEMONSTRATIONS -- UNITED STATES; CHINESE -- UNITED STATES; CHINESE AMERICANS; DEMOCRACY; MASSACRES -- CHINA; CHINA -- GOVERNMENT; CHINA -- ARMED FORCES; PEKING (CHINA); TIAN AN MEN SQUARE --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. HEADLINE: U.S. Congressmen demand halt to military sales to China On Sunday, Senate Democratic Whip Alan Cranston and Conservative Republican Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina said they would seek bipartisan support for a measure to stop the sales ...................81 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: The Reuter Library Report, June 4, 1989, Sunday, AM cycle Democratic congressman Stephen Solarz of New York declared: "It would be politically unacceptable and morally unthinkable for us to continue selling arms to a country which is engaged in the wanton slaughter of its own people." In Washington and New York, thousands of demonstrators massed outside the Chinese consulates to protest the military action. In a seven-hour battle, Chinese tanks and troops stormed into Tiananmen Square, the centre of Chinese communism, to expel protesters who had camped there since mid-April to press demands for democratic reforms. Diplomats said at least 1,000 people were killed. Cranston, chairman of the Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific affairs, said the incident had brought the United States closer to the Chinese people. "Our relations with the Chinese people will be strengthened and grow as they struggle for freedom but our relations with the authorities who perpetrated these crimes have been dealt a bloody blow," he said in a statement. Helms, also a member of the subcommittee, said that halting a 700 million dollar U.S. agreement to jointly build F-8B fighters and submarine torpedos would show China there were were consequences to its actions. Speaking on U.S. television, Solarz went even further, saying President Bush should also halt U.S. technology exports and recall the U.S. ambassador for consultations. He said Chinese students now in the United States should be permitted to stay beyond the period of their visas. But Solarz doubted the United States had much leverage over the decisions of Prime Minister Li Peng. "I think our ability to influence the course of events in China is very limited," he said. The United States did not have relations with China from 1949, when the communists took over, until 1973, after former president Richard Nixon made a trip there. Until now, relations between the two have been good. Bush served as ambassador to China in the mid-1970s and speaks fondly of that period. Ex-secretary of state Henry Kissinger, who negotiated the resumption of ties between the two nations, warned against overreaction by the White House, saying that the crackdown against the protesters was an internal matter. "I don't think we should make ourselves a party to this -- to this internal Chinese affair," he said. Kissinger said on television the use of force by the Peking government, which had fostered ties with the West and encouraged more liberal attitudes among Chinese citizens, would have "a major impact in the rest of China. "At any rate, they have killed the forces -- individuals representing the forces -- that they themselves encouraged over the last 10 years. And that must have an impact on their political legitimacy. "I think we cannot afford -- the president and the secretary of state cannot afford -- emotional outbursts, such as private citizens can afford," Kissinger said. Republican Richard Lugar of Indiana, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recommended that Bush wait a while before taking any action. He said the president should keep the U.S. ambassador in China "because things are in flux. We need representation. We ought to maintain our agreements, at least for the time being, until we sort out who the military are in China now and what role they're going to play," he 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 | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+