China TV Shows Student Unrest

National television showed vivid film tonight of great student agitation in Shanghai, and a top Education Ministry official said student protesters must realize that attempting to challenge Communist rule is futile.

Senior Vice Chairman He Dongchang, the first high-level official to talk to reporters about the unrest, estimated at a news conference that 40,000 students this month joined protests to demand democratic reforms. The official press also kept up its weeklong blitz today, blasting those who think “only the capitalist world is a ‘human paradise’ while socialism is hopeless” and cautioning that democracy cannot be realized “by relying on disturbing acts and shouting slogans.”