Thousands Join Beijing March for Democracy

Tens of thousands of students demonstrated in central Beijing’s Tian An Men Square today in a dramatic public rejection by China’s elite youth of Communist controls.

The demonstrators finally dispersed peacefully after an intense confrontation with authorities early this afternoon, when about 15,000 students, surrounded by a sympathetic crowd of another 15,000 onlookers, stood before the Great Hall of the People screaming slogans for democracy and demanding that Premier Li Peng come out to hear their complaints.

The front line of protesters became unruly at about 1 o’clock and pressed into a line of about 4,000 police separating them from the government hall, where the country’s top leaders had just conducted a memorial service for former party head Hu Yaobang. The police responded with a counterthrust, sending thousands of students scrambling back for safety.

After the incident, student leaders decided to withdraw from the square.

Late Friday evening, at least 20,000 to 30,000 students--some estimates ran as high as 80,000--had marched to the square in a miles-long procession from university campuses in northwestern Beijing.

The marching column of students, chanting, “Long live democracy,” were greeted upon their post-midnight arrival by another crowd of about 30,000 cheering supporters already at the square or lining the street approaching it.

Earlier Friday, there had been even more people in the area, perhaps as many as 100,000. But as much as half of that crowd was composed of bystanders and the curious, although they seemed sympathetic to the protesters.

The brief clash this afternoon came moments after three student representatives had spent 15 minutes kneeling on the steps of the Great Hall of the People, with one of them raising above his head a yard-wide rolled scroll petition listing student demands.

Students in the crowd said the demands included better pay for intellectuals, greater attention to development of science, press freedom, repudiation of anti-liberal political campaigns, public release of the salaries and wealth of high officials, and accurate reporting in the official media about their own protest movement. They also demanded that Hu--who was dismissed two years ago from his post as Communist Party general secretary for failing to put down student protests--be re-evaluated and credited with contributions to democratic reform in China.

A student explained that the style of presenting the petition carried strong symbolic criticism.

“This is how petitions were presented to emperors,” he said. “What era is this? We still have to use this method! It means we have no freedom.”

Throughout Friday, protesters repeatedly sang China’s national anthem and the revolutionary socialist hymn, “The Internationale,” both of which call for revolutionary action in strong language.

The students also carried banners calling for freedom of the press and demanding that civil liberties enshrined in China’s constitution be granted in practice. Banners and chants criticized the police for allegedly using force in breaking up a demonstration early Thursday morning.

Organizers Keep Order

It took more than two hours after the midnight arrival of the head of the procession for the entire column to file into the square, where student organizers kept order among the crowd and directed a sit-down demonstration.

Students marched in university groups, and it appeared that at least two dozen schools, including a few from other cities, were represented.

Foreigners who drove through streets near the square saw dozens of army and police trucks bring at least 2,000 troops or police to the area before dawn. A thin line of soldiers stood guard before the Great Hall of the People on the west side of the square, but the security forces took no immediate action against the students.

Throughout the hours before dawn, however, many expected the police to try to clear the square.

This was partly because during the predawn hours Wednesday and Thursday, police forcibly cleared thousands of protesters from a major thoroughfare in central Beijing near Zhongnanhai, a compound that houses the headquarters of the Communist Party and government. At least a few students were roughed up by police in the second of these incidents, and many banners complained about this.

Hu, who died of a heart attack April 15 at the age of 73, was widely viewed as the most liberal of China’s leaders. As such, he enjoyed great popularity among intellectuals. The demonstrations of the past week have nominally been in his honor, but it was clear that for many students his death was an excuse to justify pro-democracy protests.

During the night, students sat or stood in groups, discussing political issues or singing. A series of speakers climbed onto the Monument to the People’s Heroes, bedecked with wreaths and a photo of Hu. Among them was Ren Wanding, an activist in the 1978 “Democracy Wall” movement who served prison time as punishment.

“People are praying for the awakening of a legal system,” Ren said. “This is a historical necessity. Democracy Wall lives again!”

In 1978 and early 1979, authorities allowed a brick wall several blocks west of Tian An Men to be plastered with political writings and wall posters. This unaccustomed freedom of expression, not long after the repressive era of the Cultural Revolution, drew daily crowds of readers and became known as the Democracy Wall. In a later crackdown by authorities, the writings were banned.

Some dissidents Friday voiced rare public criticism of China’s paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, who has masterminded a decade of generally successful economic reforms but who has refused to allow major political liberalization.

“Our leader is old,” one speaker told the crowd. “Maybe he is crazy. Many people hope he will die.”

One of the hundreds of student organizers in the square said in a brief interview that one purpose of the demonstration is to push Deng from power.