__ __ /'_/\ /'_/| | \ `\ | | | ______ | `\ `\ | | | ______ /'______/\ | |\ `\ `| | | /______/\ | ___ \/| | | |\ `\| | | | ___ \ \ | /'/ \_|/ | | | `\ | | | | | \ \/| | | | __ |_|/' `\__|/' | | | | | | | | \__/_/| | | |__| | | | \/___| |/ 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 june5-89.06t # of Lines --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. President Bush's Statement At The White House Press Conference ...... 57 2. The Peking Massacre; 'Near Me Two Youths Crumpled' .................. 90 3. Parts of China's capital city now look like a war zone ............. 100 4. Beijing Bloodbath Outrages Hong Kong ............................... 205 5. Shanghai Students Dig In For Battle ................................ 100 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. President Bush's Statement At The White House Press Conference ...... 57 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: Christian Broadcast, White House, June 5, 1989, MONDAY By: President Bush Well, during the past few days, elements of the Chinese army have been brutally suppressing popular and peaceful demonstrations in China. There's been widespread and continuing violence, many casualties, and many deaths. And we deplore the decision to use force, and I now call on the Chinese leadership publicly, as I have in private channels, to avoid violence and to return to their previous policy of restraint. The demonstrators in Tiananmen Square were advocating basic human rights, including the freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of association. These are goals we support around the world. These are freedoms that are enshrined in both the US Constitution and the Chinese constitution. Throughout the world, we stand with those who seek greater freedom and democracy. This is the strongly felt view of my administration, of our Congress, and most important, of the American people. In recent weeks, we've urged mutual restraint, nonviolence, and dialogue; instead, there has been a violent and bloody attack on the demonstrators. The United States cannot condone the violent attacks and cannot ignore the consequences for our relationship with China, which has been built on a foundation of broad support by the American people. This is not the time for an emotional response, but for a reasoned, careful action, that takes into account both our long-term interests and recognition of a complex internal situation in China. There clearly is turmoil within the ranks of the political leadership, as well as the political -- the People's Liberation Army. And now is the time to look beyond the moment to important and enduring aspects of this vital relationship for the United States. Indeed, the budding of democracy which we have seen in recent weeks owes much to the relationship we have developed since 1972. And it's important at this time to act in a way that will encourage the further development and deepening of the positive elements of that relationship and the process of democratization. It would be a tragedy for all if China were to pull back to its pre-1972 era of isolation and repression. Mindful of these complexities and yet of the necessity to strongly and clearly express our condemnation of the events of recent days, I'm ordering the following actions: -- Suspension of all government-to-government sales and commercial exports of weapons; -- Suspension of visits between US and Chinese military leaders; -- Sympathic review of requests by Chinese students in the United States to extend their stay; -- And the offer of humanitarian and medical assistance, through the Red Cross, to those injured during the assault; -- And review of other aspects of our bilateral relationship as events in China continue to unfold. The process of democratization of communist societies will not be a smooth one, and we must react to setbacks in a way which stimulates rather than stifles progress toward open and representative systems. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. The Peking Massacre; 'Near Me Two Youths Crumpled' ................ 90 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Financial Times, June 5, 1989, Monday BYLINE: Robert Thomson A few workers and students stood on the fringe of Tiananmen, staring across at the mass of troops and tanks gathered under the portrait of Mao Zedong in readiness for the final sweep of the square. In a night of violence, of ebbing and flowing tension, this was one of the strange calm moments. There were bursts of gunfire, but, as was sometimes the case, the ammunition was not live, reports Robert Thomson. Having been through extreme brutality, we were all oddly complacent, chatting about the end, for now, of the democracy movement and the senselessness of the force used to crush it. When the next round of gunfire began, there was no panic. Then came the sound of bullets hitting concrete blocks and the twisted metal that littered the square. Two youths crumpled within a few yards of me. The firing stopped. The youths lay motionless. I don't know whether they were dead. I only know they were hit, and, when their comrades carried them away, they were not moving - shot by the People's Liberation Army in the shadow of the Great Hall of the People. In the heart of the square, the core of pro-democracy protesters began singing the national anthem, competing with an official broadcast near the Great Hall warning that the troops had been called in to "suppress a counter-revolution". Soon after, more gunfire - some live, some not - was sprayed into the students and workers, who took a quick vote and decided to walk slowly and with dignity out of the square. After more than a month of demonstrations, surrounded by their own army, about 90,000 protesters left behind their shantytown of democracy and the "goddess of democracy" - the statue that had much offended the Communist Party elders - and walked under the banners of their university or the slogan-emblazoned banners. "The people's government should serve the people," was one message. Then the tanks and armoured personnel carriers moved slowly down the square, crushing the tents in front of them, as burning buses and one burning armoured vehicle cast a glow on the face of Mao Zedong, which stared over a Tiananmen (Heavenly Peace) that had become a battleground. Panicky and inept Chinese leaders had used tens of thousands of troops and, probably, hundreds of deaths to end what had been a non-violent protest that could have been settled with a short conversation. The troops won no victory. They did not defeat the students' ideas. They did radicalise a passive group of protesters. They did violate the city of Peking and deeply scar the Chinese psyche. One had to wonder, in the heavy blue of the early dawn as the murky figures of soldiers flooded into the square, how these troops had been briefed. Perhaps they were told that a small group of conspirators, the "blackhands" as premier Li Peng calls them, had somehow incited millions to "counter-revolution". The main column, with 70 or so tanks and armoured cars, and a convoy of troop trucks, was clearly told to use whatever means to take the centre of the city - those means were bursts of machine gun fire into stone-throwing crowds, beating unarmed and retreating protesters with clubs, and a mass assault which left buses and trucks ablaze from one end of the city to the other. Yet the troops entering from the south of the city were not so well-prepared. They were raw recruits, peasant boys, who had been told to hold the rear, while the main force drove triumphantly into the square. As they approached the square from behind, they were pelted with rocks, but kept jogging on, ignoring their mates felled by stones. They were obeying orders. Unconscious troops were then treated by the protesters who had stoned them; they were carried into houses, while those dazed and left behind were surrounded by residents, who repeatedly asked: "Why are you attacking the Chinese people? We are all Chinese. Don't hurt the Chinese people." Chinese children are taught to love "the motherland, the party and the army". For the people of Peking, much of that love has been beaten into hatred. As a red sun rose to the east of the city, and buses were still ablaze, as far as one could see along Chang An Avenue, that hatred was turning passing middle-aged men and women into volatile mobs. The windows of empty buses were randomly smashed, and the "great chaos" that has much obsessed paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in the past week had come to China. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Parts of China's capital city now look like a war zone ............. 100 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Gannett News Service, June 5, 1989, Monday The following is a story by a Gannett News Service journalist, filing by phone from Beijing, whose name is not being used for fear of his expulsion. Beijing -- Sunday's morning light revealed the deadly, chaotic results of Saturday night's violent clash between Chinese troops and pro-democracy demonstrators. By dawn, the sound of machine gun fire had stopped. Broken and burning vehicles littered the roadways around Tiananmen Square, occupied for weeks by Chinese students seeking government reforms. But in mid-afternoon, a fog rolled into the city, sporadic gunfire could be heard again and ambulance sirens filled the air. An Australian tourist reported six tanks burning on the main east-west road through Beijing. People were pulling bodies of soldiers from the tanks, he said. Further on, at the Zhongnanhai complex where China's leaders live, a line of tanks was positioned protectively across the road, the tourist said. Thousands of people were in the street in front of the tanks, and helicopters buzzed the boulevard overhead. As he made his way through the debris in the streets, the Australian said he saw soldiers charging along the sidewalks as a couple of tanks moved forward toward the crowd. People fled. And then the tanks started circling as a few students began throwing Molotov cocktails. One student caught himself on fire, and his friends tried to put out the flames. The soldiers returned to their positions outside their leaders' compound. People crept closer again, appearing ready to provoke yet another lunge by the military, the tourist said. A dead soldier stripped naked was hanging from the side of a burned-out bus nearby, the Australian said. At a Beijing hotel where foreign tourists and journalists are staying, reports from the streets are plentiful. One Swiss tourist said he saw a Chinese officer shoot a woman and a child to death. A crowd then rushed the officer, took his gun, shot him and threw him over an overpass, the tourist said. Such scenes of violence were commonplace Saturday evening and Sunday morning. An American tourist who visited Tiananmen Square reported seeing through his binoculars 30 to 40 bodies lying motionless on the pavement. He said about 50 tanks and 60 trucks loaded with troops carrying machine guns had rumbled toward the square. He said a Chinese student told him that tanks rolled over students as they tried to run away. Thousands of soldiers smashed through buses and other barricades throughout Beijing that had been erected by residents to protect the students at Tiananmen. The troops regularly sprayed machine-gun fire as they went. Bursts of gunfire could be heard throughout the night as the army tried to consolidate control over a capital city in chaos. Pitched battles occurred in the central part of the city, with crowds throwing rocks and bottles at troops, who responded by marching away, firing their guns in the air or shooting at the people. Some citizens also threw Molotov cocktails, setting army vehicles afire. Another American tourist, who followed 5,000 troops as they moved toward Tiananmen Square, said they fired over the heads of people gathered in the street. The soldiers lowered their aim when onlookers refused to run. At one point, crowds doused the roads with gasoline ahead of the troops and set the gasoline afire. Soldiers waited for the flames to die down and pressed on, the tourist said. Gunfire from the troops scattered the street crowds, leaving some dead. After the soldiers passed, the crowds pressed in behind as the marching columns made their way toward Tiananmen. The American said he believes he saw three people killed almost instantly: Two men were shot in the chest, and a woman was shot in the neck. Her daughter wailed ''Momma, Momma'' as the troops marched by. Police and soldiers confiscated film from everyone who entered a nearby hotel and roughed up several journalists, the American said. A French journalist was beaten when he refused to hand over his film. At least one major advance was made from the west along the city's main boulevard toward Tiananmen Square. People who live near a major intersection about a mile from Tiananmen said troops smashed through two buses that residents had placed there. Soldiers sprayed gunfire indiscriminately at the surrounding crowds. Evidence of the violent march abounded. Army jeeps and buses littered the road, some still ablaze. Rocks were strewn everywhere. Bullet holes were visible in the sides of buses and in bus-stop windows for blocks. Near the intersection where the most fierce fighting occurred, pools of blood were encircled by rocks arranged by crowds to mark the fate of their fallen friends. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Beijing Bloodbath Outrages Hong Kong ............................... 205 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Inter Press Service, June 5, 1989, Monday BYLINE: by Yojana Sharma DATELINE: HONG KONG, June 5 Outraged and saddened by the weekend carnage in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, some one million Hong Kong residents took to the streets yesterday to morn those killed by the army. The demonstrators were also asking how Britain could hand Hong Kong back to China in 1997, now that the Chinese leadership had shown such brutal colors. Shouting "Down with suppression" and "Down with Premier Li Peng," the marchers wore black armbands or were dressed in black and white -- traditional colors of morning. Many carried wreaths. Some banners described Prime Minister Li, who is believed to be the main force in the Communist Party's hardline approach to the protests, as a mass murderer. Those who died in Tiananmen Square over the weekend -- when government troops finally opened fire and drove tanks over student protesters, killing more than 1,000 -- were hailed as heroes "who will be remembered forever." And the crowd was only too aware that the same government that brutally put down student protesters will rule Hong Kong after 1997. Many residents, already with little faith in the intentions of the Beijing government, are leaving Hong Kong at the rate of some 45,000 a year -- emigrating to Canada, Australia, and the United States. The majority, who will still be here in 1997, are now questioning the value of the 1984 Sino-British agreement on the territory's handover. The joint declaration guarantees Hong Kong considerable autonomy from Beijing and the maintenance of its own political and economic systems for 50 years after 1997 under the "one country two systems" approach. "I don't think 'one country two systems' will work, because that system will be under the Communist Party and now we can see what that party can do to its own people in its own capital," asserted Liberal legislative councillor Martin Lee. He and other Liberal colleagues who sit on Hong Kong's "Basic Law" drafting committee have refused to attend to any of the committee's work as long as Li remains in power. Work on the Basic Law, Hong Kong's post-1997 mini-constitution, which will enshrine the principles of the joint declaration, has been suspended because of events in China. Professor Xu Chongde -- a member of the drafting committee from mainland China -- said that all 33 mainland drafters were "too busy" to worry about the draft law and had not met for over one month. "I believe the content will be affected too," he added. Drafters have already been calling for major new safeguards to be written into the legislation to check Beijing's power to declare martial law in Hong Kong. They have called for greater control by the legislative council over the decisions of the post-1997 "governor," likely to be appointed by Beijing. But many others have called for a complete halt in the process. They believe there is little point in drafting the Basic Law when China does not even respect its own constitution. Richard Margolis, a former political adviser to the Hong Kong government and a key player in the 1984 negotiations, said that talks on the long-term future of Hong Kong should not continue until a "decent" government is installed in Beijing. "The terms of the 1984 treaty do stand examination provided you make the assumption that the government of China has, if not the same standards as you, then at least the minimum standards of decency," he declared. "All our hopes for democracy are now dashed," said Joseph Cheng, a China analyst at Hong Kong University. "It is hopeless to negotiate for democracy with such a leadership." More and more criticism is being levelled at Britain for agreeing to hand the territory to a "cruel dictatorship" without consulting the people of Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the territory looks set to experience a period of instability as various politicians call for a June 7 general strike, boycotts of Chinese goods, student boycotts and other protest actions. Notices have already gone up on the walls of "China Products," a chain of mainland department stores selling Chinese-made goods, urging people to shun the shops. However, not all mainland organizations are firmly behind the Beijing government's brutal action. The New China News Agency issued a statement saying many of its members were "deeply angry" and calling on all Chinese companies in Hong Kong to morn the deaths of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Shanghai Students Dig In For Battle ................................ 100 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Inter Press Service, June 5, 1989, Monday BYLINE: by Philip Smucker DATELINE: SHANGHAI, June 5 Students and millions of sympathizers appear to be digging in here for a protracted struggle against the central government in Beijing. As news trickled into China's biggest city of the weekend assault by troops on student protesters in Beijing, thousands of students headed for factories yesterday to agitate for a work stoppage. Diplomats said the government's worst fears could be realized if Shanghai saw mass industrial unrest over the next few days. Maintaining China's "open door" policy in Shanghai -- the country's principal industrial center -- while cracking down on the protests in Beijing could turn into a nightmare for the leadership, observers say. China's economy is already on the brink of a major collapse. It could crumble in the months ahead if the investment climate worsens as the government continues to suppress pro-democracy protesters, sources here say. Meanwhile, the students -- who have often been too obviously confused about what they expect their anti-government protests to gain -- have been doing some homework. At one Shanghai campus, a brain trust of young teachers has begun discussing foreign political systems with students and advising them on how to agitate among workers. Yesterday the students fanned out through Shanghai, spreading word about the shootings in the capital. Buses and trucks were used to block off major thoroughfares in case troops were sent in. At People's Square in front of the Shanghai People's Congress, thousands gathered to discuss events in the capital, while police and soldiers scurried into position to defend the symbolic center of government. However, there was no confrontation. Diplomats and students here say the central government is only pushing itself into a corner, and further alienating those party members who have toed the official line to make a living rather than out of ideological commitment. "We are in for a very long struggle," declared one political scientist here. Most observers here believe that struggle has only just begun, and that this time mass demonstrations alone will not be the most common or effective tactic. "We have the sympathy of 99 percent of the people, so why should we demonstrate?" asked a Fudan University student leader who manned one of the hundreds of blockades which brought the city to a virtual standstill. Others expressed solidarity with the beleaguered students in Beijing by making "long marches" across town to city cemeteries to commemorate the estimated over 1,000 people killed in the military assault on Tiananmen Square. A burgeoning underground press and loudspeaker systems are being used to spread news of recent events. Shanghai television itself has remained relatively sedate, with the city's traffic controller appealing yesterday for an end to the street blockades. And on June 3, the station broadcast an appeal for students to return to classes, with pictures of the diligent few still following courses working quietly in laboratories. However, most eyes and ears are turned towards the capital. Students here fear that some of their university colleagues may have died in the Tiananmen Square massacre. One said that Fudan University students who camped in Tiananmen Square had failed to contact the campus here yesterday. Anti-government tactics here and in other parts of the country are likely to shift to a more sophisticated stage intended to seal off government options rather than push for direct confrontation, analysts say. The "empty the campuses" campaign has effectively limited the number of students marching through city streets, but has allowed them to spread the seeds of protest far and wide in the provinces. Meanwhile, agitation in the cities is likely to focus on creating industrial unrest which will yield economic instability, observers here say. "The students have learned how to manipulate the media," says one U.S. observer here. "Now they are engineering the news." Demonstrators expertly timed their protests in Beijing for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's visit there, and then got maximum mileage out of media coverage of those events. But for anti-government feeling to spread throughout China it will take time and patience -- and leadership, a quality several students feel their movement lacks. However, as many more are convinced that China's troubles stem from the fact that the country itself has no strong personalities at the helm. "This is a time when we need leaders, but we have none," complained one university student here, commenting on the bitter power play still believed to be raging within the Communist Party in Beijing. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Executive Editor: Cindy Zheng, USA | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 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 | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+