__ __ /'_/\ /'_/| | \ `\ | | | ______ | `\ `\ | | | ______ /'______/\ | |\ `\ `| | | /______/\ | ___ \/| | | |\ `\| | | | ___ \ \ | /'/ \_|/ | | | `\ | | | | | \ \/| | | | __ |_|/' `\__|/' | | | | | | | | \__/_/| | | |__| | | | \/___| |/ China News Digest | |/__/ |/ \_______/(InfoBase June 4 Collection)|_______/ May 16, 1994 **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 june5-89.05t # of Lines --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Firing Convoys Roam Beijing; More Tanks Are Sent into Square ........200 2. 1,500 at Consulate in L.A. Mourn Beijing Dead ....................... 50 3. Use of Force Protested Worldwide .................................... 80 4. It`s "Live Fire! Live Fire!" in Muxidi Battle .......................100 5. Despair, Anger over Killings Engulf Beijing Residents ...............105 6. On Shanghai Train, Idealism vs. Grim Reality ........................120 7. Scene at Clinic: A Chorus of Outrage and Cries of Pain .............. 80 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Firing Convoys Roam Beijing; More Tanks Are Sent into Square ........200 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1989 By: JIM MANN and DANIEL WILLIAMS, Times Staff Writers A new wave of fear swept Beijing today as military convoys rumbled through the Chinese capital, firing repeatedly into the air and sometimes at pedestrians, while more armor was sent to reinforce the army's hold on Tian An Men Square. About 400 tanks, armored vehicles, troop and munition trucks moved into the square early today following a second day of bloodshed in central Beijing, while other convoys roamed the city around noon. Gunfire rocked the city's embassy section at about 1 p.m. as troops moved north past the compound housing the American ambassador's residence and the press and cultural section of the U.S. Embassy. During periodic skirmishes near Tian An Men Square and at key intersections Sunday, Chinese troops fired on unarmed residents for the second day and, according to hospital and witness reports, killed scores more people who, seemingly oblivious to the danger, had approached the soldiers. Hundreds of people were reported killed and many more wounded Saturday night and early Sunday as the government ordered the People's Liberation Army to crush the student -led pro-democracy protest movement that had occupied the square for weeks. An exact toll of the casualties in the two days of violence could not be ascertained. The latest estimates, by local medical and diplomatic spokesmen, of the dead in the army's seizure of the square range from 200 to more than 1,000. Japan's Kyodo News Service, quoting Red Cross sources, put the total at 2,600 dead and 10,000 wounded. Various military convoys were moving through the city around noon. Shooting Near Embassy "They're shooting right outside my office!" U.S. Embassy spokesman Andy Koss suddenly shouted in the midst of an early afternoon telephone interview. "They're army trucks. They're heading north on the road next to my office. Oh goddam it! It's unbelievable. They've got guns ready, they're shooting up into the air." Before the troops drove by, Koss said the U.S. Embassy was sending officials to Beijing area universities this afternoon "to make contact with American students and see what the situation is." Other embassies had already begun evacuating their nationals from university campuses to safer locations in Beijing. Beijing Mayor Chen Xitong said on the radio this morning that 1,000 troops were injured during Sunday's violence, in incidents he called "unprecedented" in the 40 years of Communist rule in China. As the additional tanks and armored personnel carriers were sent to the square between midnight and dawn today, Beijing residents lying in ambush hurled half a dozen firebombs at them near the intersection of Changan Avenue and Dongdan Street. During one ambush at about 3 a.m., an armored personnel carrier briefly caught fire, but soldiers rushed to douse the flames. There was also sporadic firing during the night around Beijing where people had set up little barricades of vegetable stalls and debris. Crude barriers put up by citizens this morning along Changan Avenue seemed inadequate to stop troop trucks and tanks: An army jeep easily circumvented one of them. As the death toll mounted, individual citizens continued to display extraordinary physical bravery in acts of defiance. Man Stops Tanks A column of 10 tanks and 10 armored personnel carriers that headed east out of Tian An Men Square around noon was stopped by a single man who stood in front of the lead tank, according to a Western witness. He climbed up on the tank, talked with someone inside, then climbed down and walked away alive. The column continued on its way, firing randomly. It could not be determined whether the shots were going in the air or toward the sidewalk, but about 100 bicyclists followed along beside and behind the convoy. About an hour later, 90 troop trucks and an equal number of support vehicles rolled past the Beijing Hotel, a famous tourist and business center, and into the square, the witness said. Troops were firing into the air, and some bullets hit the hotel. Soldiers Surrounded Late Monday morning, a crowd stood surrounding soldiers at the Jianguomen Bridge, where some people have been shot to death. "Running dogs!" screamed a woman standing no more than 50 feet from soldiers armed with automatic weapons. Beginning around 1 p.m., gunfire was heard near the bridge. It was not immediately known whether people were injured or killed, but shortly after 1:30 p.m., an army truck was set on fire on the main highway near the bridge, and ammunition on the truck could be heard exploding. A witness said the truck had broken down and been left behind when a convoy of about 100 vehicles passed by. Someone took a crowbar, forced open the gas tank and dropped in the burning stuffing from a captured helmet. Protesters then moved on to at least seven other nearby abandoned army trucks and methodically set them on fire. Gunfire Continuing Rifle fire continued off and on through Sunday night. Soldiers were reported to have surrounded two colleges -- Beijing Teachers University and Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics -- but there were no reports of any raids on the campuses. The continued bloodshed seemed aimed at forestalling resistance to the military clampdown on the city. Still, the randomness and cold-blooded nature of the shootings sometimes made the incidents seem to be acts of pure terror. 50 Bodies on Pavement Sunday morning, one foreign witness saw the bodies of at least 50 dead on the pavement when troops near the landmark Beijing Hotel fired four volleys of AK-47 rifle fire into youthful throngs. In a single incident in the afternoon, witnesses reported seeing troops gun down at least 20 people on Tian An Men Square after troops and tanks opened fire on a gathering crowd. The anonymity of the violence added a sense of unreality. The soldiers wore no unit identifications. No one was sure exactly who had ordered the army to move in crushingly and seize control of Tian An Men Square from pro-democracy protesters. No government official made any statement of explanation. Announcers on government television repeatedly read news reports that blamed the violence on "a counterrevolutionary rebellion," asserting that the student movement for democracy was trying to overthrow the Communist Party. Regime Charges "Thugs" "Thugs in a frenzy attacked People's Liberation Army troops, seizing weapons, erecting barricades, beating soldiers and officers in an attempt to overthrow the government of the People's Republic of China," said the announcement, which was issued in the name of the Beijing Martial Law Headquarters. Stunned students at Beijing University, the seat of the pro-democracy movement and focus of countless other protest campaigns in modern Chinese history, held memorial vigils on the sprawling campus. One female student told of seeing classmates crushed beneath the treads of army tanks when they rolled into Tian An Men Square early Sunday to rout protesters who had occupied the enormous square for most of the past seven weeks. Rail Car of Corpses Reported One Chinese army officer told a Western colleague that he had seen a freight car piled high with corpses. An unsubstantiated report circulated among students at Beijing University that four truckloads of dead were moved from Tian An Men Square to the main crematorium at Babaoshan Cemetery in western Beijing. The students at Beijing University hung pictures of the known dead on walls around the campus. Some students scrawled defiant graffiti on the walls. "A debt of blood has to be paid back in blood," said one. Another read: "Now we should fight back." In Tian An Men Square, where dozens of tanks and other armored vehicles were parked, blood stained the pavement stones. Ancient gates near the Forbidden City were pocked with bullet holes. Barricades at Square Soldiers manned barricades at all the entrances to the square, which is also the site of Mao Tse-tung's tomb and the Great Hall of the People, Chinese officialdom's main ceremonial meeting place. Crowds gathered Sunday afternoon at each approach to the square, only to be driven away by gunfire, sometimes aimed directly at them. The crowds fell back, regrouped and returned in what became acts of almost ritualized, but futile, defiance. Innocent bystanders also were injured. At Jianguomen, the old eastern entrance to the city, a 65-year-old woman practicing tai ji quan exercises on a highway overpass was hit by gunfire and killed. As night fell Sunday, protesters gathered on Xidan Street to the west of Tian An Men Square to set abandoned army trucks ablaze. There and elsewhere at major intersections, residents set up makeshift barricades of overturned vegetable stands. According to one military source here, the unit responsible for much of the shooting has been the PLA's 27th Army, which is ordinarily based in Hebei province, south of Beijing. That unit is said to be allied with Chinese President Yang Shangkun, top aide to senior Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping on the Central Military Commission. In contrast, troops from the 28th Army, based west of Beijing, were said to have entered the city but then held back from the random violence. Most of the army units from the Beijing Military District are aligned with Defense Minister Qin Jiwei, who reportedly sided with Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang in his effort to head off the declaration of martial law in the capital. Theories on Crackdown Various theories were advanced here to explain the army's entry into Beijing and the massive use of lethal force against the demonstrators. One suggested that a virtual coup d'etat was under way. Another suggested that the random violence reflects a struggle for control of the Chinese capital by competing units of the People's Liberation Army and their commanders. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. 1,500 at Consulate in L.A. Mourn Beijing Dead ....................... 50 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1989 By: CHARISSE JONES, Times Staff Writer Chinese students in Los Angeles replaced the blue ribbons they have worn to support the struggle for democracy in their homeland with black and white ones of mourning Sunday when 1,500 demonstrators gathered at the Chinese Consulate to grieve for the dead in Beijing and to condemn the government that carried out the violence. It was an emotional gathering in front of consulate headquarters in the mid-Wilshire district -- one that united students from China, who had only recently arrived here to attend college, with Chinese-Americans who have lived in the United States all their lives. During the course of the five-hour demonstration, the students staged a mock funeral procession in memory of those killed, played a tape-recording of a telephone conversation that took place on Saturday between students in China and the United States, then read a "letter to the world" condemning the actions of the Chinese government and calling on the world community to investigate the Beijing massacre. Although many of the songs, chants and speeches used during the protest were in Mandarin, the emotions and actions of the demonstrators spoke a universal language. There was the quiet sobbing that permeated the stillness when six men, in the center of a small procession, carried a gray coffin through the crowd, laid it on the steps of the consulate and covered it with a red, white and blue flag symbolizing Chinese solidarity. There were the solemn expressions and tears of the protesters as they listened to a 12-minute tape in which a student at Beijing University told students at Caltech in Pasadena to let the people know "that the darkest and bloodiest tragedy in human history is happening in China. But . . . the final victory belongs to the people." There were also moments marked by bursts of applause and song. The crowd clapped when Weichang Li, 32, a UCLA graduate student and lifelong Chinese Communist, stood up and, with tears in his eyes, denounced his party. They clapped when a student representative, speaking for the Southern California Chinese Student and Scholar Assns., asked for all Chinese people to unite and told China's leaders that "in the heart of 1 billion Chinese people, you are dead." And they sang. The song was called "If We Unite, We Will Have the Power," said Chang Lei, a 29-year-old student at USC. The tune was appropriate, the students said, in an ironic way. It was the song the Chinese people sang during the Communist revolution, which triumphed 40 years ago. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Use of Force Protested Worldwide .................................... 80 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1989 Amid chants and tears, hundreds of thousands of shocked and angry supporters of China's pro-democracy movement rallied Sunday in Hong Kong, New York, Washington and San Francisco to condemn the use of military force in Beijing that crushed student protesters with a warlike violence. The bloodshed also sparked denunciations from Western and Communist countries alike. The biggest show of support took place in Hong Kong, where more than 200,000 people staged a protest march, waving black banners -- some of which said "Down with the killer warlords!" -- and shouting, "Down with (Chinese Premier) Li Peng's fascist government! We will fight until the Li Peng government falls!" Police said the crowd marched to the central business district, where union leaders called for a general strike to show solidarity with the Chinese people. "We will ask all shops to close their doors, all factories to strike and all schools to cancel classes," said Hong Kong legislator and teachers' union leader Wah Szeto, calling for the stoppage to take place Wednesday. The bloodshed also heightened fears over the British colony's transition to China's control in 1997 under an agreement signed by London and Beijing five years ago. "I won't work with an administration that doesn't have the mandate of the people," legislator Martin Lee told the marchers, many of whom wore black or the traditional Chinese mourning color of white. In New York, about 3,000 demonstrators, many wearing white headbands and black armbands, waved banners bearing messages like "Death to Tyrants!," "Punish the Murderers!" and "Long Live Democracy!" rallied outside the Chinese consulate in New York. "It so very sad; we feel so angry," said Yin Yichun of Brooklyn College, one of about 40 universities or colleges represented at the rally. "It's a shame for the Chinese people and the government." The students chanted "Don't Forget Bloody Sunday!" and "Stop Slaughter!" before marching to the United Nations with a letter to Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar urging an emergency meeting of the Security Council. In Washington, about 4,000 people held a peaceful but noisy rally outside the Chinese Embassy. They carried posters saying "The Whole World Is Watching!" and "Honk for Freedom!" Drivers on the busy Connecticut Avenue honked their horns outside the embassy for about four hours. In Vancouver, Canada, more than 500 demonstrators rallied in front of the Chinese consulate there chanting "We support democracy!" and "Shame to the government!" In San Francisco, police said between 5,000 and 10,000 demonstrators, with clenched fists raised, marched from the Chinese consulate to Chinatown, a haven for thousands of Chinese immigrants and one of San Francisco's chief tourist attractions. "They just killed the people. And then they tried to burn the bodies so we don't know what happened," said Larry Lou, a Taiwanese nationalist who joined the protest. "Those people -- our brothers and sisters -- are now sacrifices for democracy and freedom." The condemnations from world leaders poured in through the day. In London, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said Britain is "appalled by the indiscriminate shooting of unarmed people." Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui ordered the army to brace against possible military action by China in case the mainland government collapsed from opposition to the "mad action" by its leaders. Labor Minister Norbert Bluem of West Germany, a member of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's conservative Christian Democrats, called for a U.N. special session to protest the Chinese government's action. In Paris, French President Francois Mitterrand said he hoped the Chinese would solve the crisis through dialogue. "A regime which is reduced to firing on its youth to survive, when the youth it has educated rises up in the name of freedom, has no future," he said. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. It`s "Live Fire! Live Fire!" in Muxidi Battle .......................100 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1989 By: JOHN POMFRET, Associated Press The sky flickers orange and black over the bridge at Muxidi as flames roll through two buses. Bullets whistle and zing. Tear gas canisters boom. "Fascists! Fascists!" chants the crowd. The People's Liberation Army has entered Beijing to liberate the city from the people. Saturday evening and into Sunday, Muxidi Bridge, a gateway to the inner city, was the site of pitched battles. Local citizens sought to defend themselves from heavily armed Chinese troops instructed to quell the unrest. Soldiers with Chinese-made AK-47 rifles fired indiscriminately into crowds of demonstrators and onlookers. Many died, one at the feet of this reporter. The local hospital laid out 21 bodies in a makeshift mortuary Sunday afternoon to commemorate the heavy loss of life. Soldiers also were hurt. Two from a tank crew were beaten senseless by a crowd that attacked the tank with Molotov cocktails. Civilians briefly commandeered the tank before setting it ablaze. Red flags reading "Democracy" and "Freedom," flapped from its turrets. This is how one battle unfolded: Saturday, 8 p.m.: Two buses stand as barricades on the bridge. A steelworker who has joined the uprising stands nearby. Blood soaks his shirt. A bandage covers one eye. "We moved those two buses on the bridge to block it good," he says. "I was in the front waiting to fight them. The troop trucks were west of the bridge, about 100 (meters) away. (They) had their lights on so we couldn't see anything. When they hit me I didn't know what was happening. Three guys with sticks and a rifle just moved in on me and smashed away." 10 p.m.: Workers and students have pushed back the first wave of incoming troops, who charged them with sticks and tear gas. Burning rugs from a nearby apartment have been chucked onto the buses. One gas tank explodes and then another. 11 p.m.: "Live fire! Live fire!" a student shouts moments after he's hit in the leg by a bullet. Soldiers fire into the crowd. They are shooting low, hitting many in the legs and stomach. Blood, pooling on the pavement, splatters the bridge at Muxidi. The night, balmy with a calm breeze, echoes with the explosion of blank shells. The blank rounds send the crowds fleeing up a nearby side street. They quickly return, rocks in hand to face the oncoming troops. Midnight: Armored personnel carriers are smashing through buses. Soldiers fire into the crowd. "Clear the street, clear the way!" yells a medic. Li Fengde, a 28-year-old electrical worker, has been hit in the stomach. "Look at me and think," he says as he lies groaning on a three-wheeled pedicab with another wounded man who is silent. "I love the student movement and democracy. This is what I get." The troop trucks have come. A row of 50 storm through the crumpled roadblock. Stones still fly from the citizens, huddled now in bushes and behind walls near the bridge. A housecleaner on the 14th floor of one building is killed by gunfire as she looks out the window. Another woman is hit by a shell as she looks out from an eighth-floor balcony. Sunday, 5 a.m: With a huge explosion, an electric trolley, driven by a man in a white headband, crashes into a tank as it crosses Muxidi Bridge. "Running dogs!" the people scream as they attack fleeing soldiers. Machine-gun fire crackles as troops react to rocks with deadly fusillades. Many fall. A youth jumps on an abandoned tank. "I can drive this thing!" he shouts. "I can drive anything!" Comrades join him, placing their flags in its machine gun turrets. Haltingly, the tank begins to move. People in the crowd emerge from their hiding places to cheer. "Stand up and fight!" they yell. "Blood for blood, avenge the deaths." Under attack from soldiers, the youths withdraw. A gasoline bomb explodes. Through the yellow flames, the outlines of hundreds more troop trucks, each carrying upwards of 50 soldiers, move steadily toward the bridge at Muxidi. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Despair, Anger over Killings Engulf Beijing Residents ...............105 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1989 By: DANIEL WILLIAMS, Times Staff Writer Bewildered Beijing residents, venturing out Sunday to view the damage or huddled nervously in darkened homes, despaired over a feeling that the clock had been turned back to earlier oppressive times. Many were angered and sickened by the extent of the bloodletting early Sunday at Tian An Men Square. They railed at the government for its cruelty and for disgracing China. "This is a crime that cannot go unpunished. We in China have let these things happen too often. There is never an end," said Song Weiming, a resident of the Qianmen district, a block south of Tian An Men Square. For many, there was a feeling of deja vu in the bleak appearance of Beijing a day after government troops gunned down hundreds of pro-democracy students and other civilians. Back to Bicycle Bells Motor vehicles all but disappeared from the streets, taking Beijing back to the days when the tinkle of bicycle bells was a dominant sound. Few stores were open; the relative abundance that had enlivened Beijing streets in recent years seemed to have evaporated at a stroke. Commerce was limited to vegetable stands set up by traveling farmers. Power went out in large sections of the city, making a gray and stormy afternoon even grayer. It was not clear whether the government had ordered a blackout or whether electricity lines had been damaged by the overnight violence. "It's like the Cultural Revolution," said Zhao Lao, an elderly resident of the Hepingmen district less than a mile from Tian An Men. "Or worse, like war." Besides the concern over the disruption of daily life, residents appeared to be burdened by a fear of chaos and repression not known for almost 20 years. Assault a "Great Victory" Government rhetoric added to the atmosphere. Official Chinese radio referred to the massacre in Tian An Men Square as a "great victory," saying that the violence was caused by a "gang of thieves bent on throwing the whole country into confusion." The army's "heroic acts and glorious exploits have won fervent praise and strong support from the masses," the broadcast concluded. In strongly worded posters, the government also ordered residents to sit at home, an order ignored by many who wanted at least to escape the heat of their crowded homes. "We hoped to leave behind the days when the Chinese people could be flogged and beaten like animals," said Zhao Yi, Zhao Lao's son, who works as a tailor. Affluence and Fear Zhao Yi lives in a hutong, the typical winding alleyway that is the characteristic style of old neighborhoods in Beijing. With the combined income of his two brothers and their wives, Zhao was able to buy a refrigerator as well as an electric fan and floor heater for his home, all goods available to many Chinese in the recent years of rising economic growth and consumption. "But what does all this mean if they are shooting people outside your door?" Zhao asked. "Our government is completely bankrupt." A few doors down the alley, Liu, who said he is a stage actor, asked a visitor how it would be possible to emigrate to the United States. "I never thought this way before, even during the Cultural Revolution, when I saw my father beaten and humiliated just because he was a teacher," Liu said, shaking his head. "Now I see there is no hope for China." Smoldering Jeep Carcass Just a block from the hutong at the corner of West Qianmen and South Xinhua streets, passers-by gaped at the smoldering carcass of an overturned jeep. Behind it, a pair of twisted buses that army tanks had pushed out of the way blocked the intersection. Some of the street crowd walked up to touch the scorched jeep. One middle-aged man put his 3-year-old child in the seat of a bus and snapped his picture. "Does this happen in foreign countries?" a young bicyclist asked a foreigner, observing the scene. "Is America going to do anything about the killing?" asked another. "What will happen next, do you think?" a third inquired. Rifle Fire Echoes in Square Just then, a sharp rat-a-tat-tat of rifle fire echoed down from Tian An Men Square. Sightseers and loiterers scurried for cover. It was the kind of scene played out all around the square: Groups of bicyclists and pedestrians would approach; some would yell at soldiers to go home; more troops would arrive and fire, spreading panic down the adjacent streets. "This is too scary," said a young father, clutching his baby daughter. "Now we do not know who is in charge. I used to follow these things but I just don't know. I am confused, totally confused." Rain began to fall, and thunder punctuated the sound of gunfire. The crowd on Qianmen Street began to disperse, exposing a line of troops looking on impassively in their rain ponchos, rifles held across their chests. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. On Shanghai Train, Idealism vs. Grim Reality ........................120 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1989 By: DANIEL WILLIAMS, Times Staff Writer The first thing one noticed about the students traveling eagerly to Beijing early Sunday was how sure they were that they would not be punished for opposing the government. "We have been promised by our teachers that the army would do nothing to harm us if we remained peaceful," said Chai Chishan, an engineering scholar from the prestigious Qinghua University in Beijing. "We are not afraid of the soldiers," added Wang Binghai, a classmate who studies nuclear engineering. The students had not heard. They knew nothing of the army assault on Tian An Man Square and other parts of the capital. They knew nothing of the tanks, the armored personnel carriers or the machine guns. Nor of the slaughter -- the seemingly random shooting of men, women and children alike. Rejoining the Movement All they knew was that they were on their way to Beijing to rejoin the student movement they had left a week ago. Chai and Wang had gone to Shanghai to whip up support among provincial college students. Campaigns run by such students had their effect; all the universities and other institutes of higher learning in Shanghai were closed and trains were filled with recruits coming to Beijing. For weeks, thousands of students had been traveling from as far away as Canton in the south and Manchuria in the northeast to get a firsthand look at the turmoil, and to take part despite orders by the government to stay away. "I read a wallposter and decided it was time to come," said Wing Wei, a student of international law at Shanghai Institute of Politics and Economics. Thermos Bottles, Knapsacks Wing and two classmates came with at least a dozen other students in car seven of the nonstop overnight train that had departed Shanghai at 4:02 p.m. Saturday. They traveled with only little thermos bottles and knapsacks in hand. "I hope to spend the night in Tian An Men Square," said an English literature major who called himself Ben. "I want to see what it's like. We cannot trust what our government tells us." "Our government is a gangster government," said Wing Wei. "Our government tells lies," chimed in another student, Zhi Jen, from the East China Institute of Chemical Technology. "We want a free press!" Wang called out. "We want the English and American system of law!" yelled another student. The outcry was beginning to attract curious, silent stares from other passengers in the crowded car. The students quieted down, passing time by watching the countryside go by. In the south, the soybean harvest was under way. In the north, wheat was ripening. Sometimes the students played bridge, sometimes they sipped tea or slept. When they talked, however, the chatter always returned to politics. Premier 'Incompetent' Wang wondered whether the students had not gone too far by calling for Li Peng, the hard-line premier, to step down. "Some of us think we should ask for something less, something we can agree on. Perhaps just to enforce constitutional rights," he said. "But," argued Chai Chishan, "we asked for very little at the beginning. We only wanted a meeting and an open press. Li Peng refused." "Li Peng is incompetent," said a student from the Shanghai Foreign Languages School. "IN-competent," he repeated, with excessive elocution. Reminded that in China's recent past, such talk meant jail, the youth seemed uncomprehending. "It is not dangerous to dream," Wing Wei interjected. Curiously, of all the things the youths needed to fear, the people they were most afraid of were their parents. Not a one had told their father and mother they were going to Beijing. "My father would whip me good if he knew," said Zhi Jen. "I said that, with school on strike, I wanted to see China. My parents even gave me money!" boasted the foreign language student. Fears Mother's Wrath "I am more afraid of my mother than the soldiers," joked Ben. The train approached Beijing early Sunday morning. The loudspeaker system in the car played cha cha cha music, alternating with Chinese pop. The train crossed over a main boulevard. Something was burning at a distant intersection. The students looked at the passing image in silence. The piped-in music stopped, and a recorded announcement welcomed passengers to Beijing and listed famous sites, including Tian An Men Square. "Tian An Men is the center of national life," the bouncy announcement said. "It is there where the Forbidden City is located, as well as Mao Tse-tung's tomb, the Great Hall of the People and the National History Museum." "Tian An Men -- that's where I'm off to," said Zhi Jen. Others said they were going to Beijing University and other campuses to search for friends. The train arrived with a screech, and the students grabbed their knapsacks, joining the throng heading for the exits. Outside, there were no buses or taxis. Flatbed bicycle cart operators offered rides for $10 to points just a mile away. "What's the meaning of this?" asked Wang, using a common Beijing expression. "They have killed the people," responded a ragged cart man. The gathering students said nothing, and counted up their money to see how far it would take them in a city and situation they had never imagined. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Scene at Clinic: A Chorus of Outrage and Cries of Pain .............. 80 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1989 By: MARK O'NEILL The trauma of bloodshed showed on the faces of hundreds of Beijing citizens waiting outside emergency clinics at the city's hospitals Sunday. "I was lucky," said a middle-aged man outside the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital in northeast Beijing, his arm in a sling after being hit by a bullet. "Six came with me here in the ambulance. Four are dead, including a child and two lady students. All of us were shot about 2 o'clock this morning when we went outside our homes in Nanheyuan to see what was going on," he said Nanheyuan is a street close to Tian An Men Square, into which heavily armed troops and tanks moved before dawn to crush a seven-week student protest. Doctors Reticent A doctor at the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital said staff members have been ordered not to give information to reporters. Citizens waiting outside were not so reticent. "Now I know the real meaning of fascism," said a student at the Petroleum University who left the square before midnight Saturday, escaping the killings. "Two of my colleagues there when the soldiers moved in said they issued a warning that all should leave the square but did not give them enough time. A few minutes later they started firing into the air, then at the students. Wants to Oust Regime "We must overthrow this cruel government. We must have a general strike." A middle-aged man nearby added: "We want the United Nations to come and investigate who are these counterrevolutionary thugs the government keeps talking about." Official accounts blame the disturbances on counterrevolutionaries. "The official news is all lies. Please tell the world of what the army has done. It no longer deserves to be called the People's Army, it is the army of a few families," he said. In another hospital, a copper bullet was being extracted from the lower back of a man in his 50s, who grimaced with pain, his mouth full of gauze. "He was cycling to work this morning as usual," one of the staff said. "The troops opened fire indiscriminately." Displays Extracted Bullet When the bullet was pulled out, a nurse showed it to her colleagues. "This is the government's present to an innocent worker. Is he a counterrevolutionary too?" A more senior hospital official intervened and told a reporter to leave. At a third hospital were two corpses. One was a student; grieving friends and relatives surrounded the other, a worker, and lifted his jacket to show the bullet wounds in the heart. "He was going to work as usual," said a colleague, fighting back tears. "The soldiers were firing at anyone. (Premier) Li Peng is a murderer. He must be punished." Shock, Calls for Revenge Reaction among bystanders outside was a mixture of shock and a call for revenge. "We must punish this illegal government," said one worker. "We should strike or at least work as little as possible. This will hurt China's economy but it is necessary to get rid of this government." Another was more fatalistic. "The Beijing people will never forget this day," he said. "But what can we do? We earn little and have no power. The government has the guns. "We must eat, so we must work." +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Executive Editor: Gang Xu, Japan | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 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 | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+