Beijing Students Boycott Classes : Activists in Chinese Capital Strike to Press Demands for Democracy

After a tumultuous week of pro-democracy street demonstrations, Chinese students in Beijing began a boycott of classes today that they hoped would spread nationwide to press demands for greater democracy.

Organizers hoped to build on the momentum developed when students from at least two dozen Beijing campuses took part Saturday morning in a pro-democracy demonstration in central Beijing’s Tian An Men Square.

An estimated 8,000 students staged a rally on the Qinghua University campus this morning. More than 1,500 students listened to political speeches in the center of the Beijing University campus and heard a call for the entire student body to assemble for an afternoon rally.

Students are pressing demands for press freedom, better pay for intellectuals, more funding of education and an attack on corruption.

Many Are Absent

Nearly all of the 15,000 students at Beijing University and many students at other campuses in the capital were absent from class this morning in the beginning of the organized boycott, and the strike was a topic of excited conversation among both students and members of university staffs.

“The people of all sectors of society have no confidence in the government and are dissatisfied with its performance,” said a student in the crowd at Beijing University this morning. “This fire will spread very quickly all over China, I think. It is very possible this time. Even our teachers support us--openly and covertly. Usually the teachers are very responsible and don’t support this kind of affair. But this time they give us their support.”

Pro-democracy student demonstrations also took place in at least half a dozen other cities around China last week, and it appeared virtually certain that the Beijing students--who have spearheaded the past week of political activism--would have at least some success in seeing the boycott spread to other cities.

Rumors have begun to spread among students and other Chinese that China’s top leaders have called 20,000 army troops to Beijing.

A student at this morning’s rally at Beijing University said the father of a friend was among an elite force called to the capital from the city of Baoding in Hebei province.

“The 38th Army has been ordered to Beijing,” he said. “That is the best army in China.”

It was not immediately clear whether such preparations, if true, would be only to prepare for maintaining order in case of rioting, whether they might show an intent by authorities to crack down on the demonstrators, or whether they could involve internal politics within the top leadership.

Saturday’s protest--which drew at least 60,000 students, supporters and onlookers, with some estimates running twice that high--was the largest anti-government demonstration in Beijing since an April, 1976, outburst against radical leftists then in control of China’s government.

Last week’s demonstrations followed the death April 15 of Hu Yaobang, former head of the Communist Party. Hu was dismissed two years ago as head of the party for failing to put down student protests. Students said he symbolized hopes for political reform, and among the students’ demands was that the party leadership re-evaluate Hu and acknowledge his contributions.

The protests in other cities last week led to rioting in two places, the central China city of Xian and the southern city of Changsha. Much of the rioting apparently involved rowdy unemployed youths and young hoodlums, rather than students, according both to the official media and foreign witnesses.

At some Beijing schools, students now are seeking to develop organizations free of university administration or Communist Party control. Attempts are also under way to improve communication between students on campuses in Beijing and around the country. Students described their actions as the beginning of a movement to “save the country.”

Some students began organizing months ago for pro-democracy demonstrations intended to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the May 4th Movement of 1919, a student-led struggle for science and democracy. Hu’s death provided students with the perfect pretext to begin these activities early, protected from an immediate crackdown by the claim that they were primarily honoring a great Communist Party leader.

Students see their present activities as a continuation of this decades-old attempt to bring technological and political modernization to China. A poster outside the Beijing University campus this morning declared: “Carry Out to the End the Unfinished May 4th Movement.”

While plans were being made for the boycott, posters went up on campuses Sunday mocking government leaders.

A cartoon posted on a wall at Beijing University caricatured Premier Li Peng with the face of a pig, big ears and eyeglasses. During last week’s protests before the Great Hall of the People and at the gates of Zhongnanhai, the compound housing Communist Party and government headquarters, students had repeatedly shouted for Li to come out to listen to their demands.

Another cartoon ridiculed Li by showing him hiding in a snail shell, a mocking reference to his failure to appear before the students.