China Charges ‘Conspiracy’ in Student Protests

Chinese authorities charged Tuesday that continuing pro-democracy student protests are part of a “planned conspiracy” to overthrow the Communist Party and plunge the nation into turmoil.

The warning, which lays the ideological groundwork for a crackdown on escalating student activism, was read as the top item on state-run television news Tuesday evening.

Presented in the form of an editorial to be published in today’s edition of the official People’s Daily, the announcement accused students of forming illegal organizations and holding illegal demonstrations.

“Their purpose is to poison people’s minds, create national turmoil and sabotage the nation’s political stability,” the editorial declared. “This is a planned conspiracy which, in essence, aims at negating the leadership of the (Communist) Party and the socialist system.”

The editorial declared that if unrest continues, China could fall into turmoil and the accomplishments of 10 years of reforms could be lost.

“A promising China would become a turbulent and hopeless country,” it said.

The warning was rebroadcast on loudspeakers at various university campuses in Beijing, where tens of thousands of students were in the second day of a boycott of classes, demanding press freedom, improved treatment of intellectuals and an attack on corruption.

Students Jeer Announcement

Several hundred students reading pro-democracy posters on bulletin boards at Beijing University late Tuesday jeered and ridiculed the announcement as it was played on outdoor loudspeakers. But some students said the warning means that arrests will come soon.

The current wave of student protests began 10 days ago in the form of mourning for Hu Yaobang, the reformist former head of the Communist Party who died of a heart attack April 15. Hu had been ousted by the party leadership when he failed to control similar student demonstrations in the winter of 1986-’87. The current demonstrations, however, soon developed into a broad drive to pressure the government to grant wider freedoms and speed up the pace of political reform.

A student rally in central Beijing’s Tian An Men Square on Saturday drew at least 60,000 people, who shouted slogans such as “Long live democracy!” and waved banners demanding freedom of the press. It was the biggest protest in the capital since demonstrations and rioting in Tian An Men Square in April, 1976.

The 1976 incident paved the way for a move by more pragmatic party leaders later that same year, after the death of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, to overthrow the so-called Gang of Four, a clique of radical leftists led by Mao’s widow, Jiang Qing. This in turn led to the return to power of Deng Xiaoping, China’s top leader, who is a target of at least some veiled criticism in the current protests.

With the exception of some brief scuffles with police, the demonstrations in Beijing during the past 10 days have been peaceful. But student protests Saturday in the central city of Xian and the southern city of Changsha led to rioting, primarily by non-students.

The official New China News Agency reported Tuesday that police arrested 98 “looters” who attacked 22 shops and a shopping arcade in downtown Changsha on Saturday evening. Those arrested included six students, 32 urban workers, 26 peasants who had come to work in the city and six self-employed people, it said.

Students in Beijing are trying to spread their message beyond the campuses. Students on Tuesday added to a growing number of posters and leaflets on walls outside their campuses, and some posters appeared on walls in various parts of the city.

Students also have been soliciting contributions from passers-by to finance attempts to print leaflets or unofficial newspapers presenting their views.

China’s tightly controlled official media have imposed a virtual blackout on the pro-democracy aspects of the student protests. The Beijing-based Science and Technology Daily first broke through the censorship Sunday with a sympathetic but incomplete account of Saturday’s demonstration.

On Tuesday, the Beijing Youth News became the first Chinese publication to print a full and essentially accurate report on Saturday’s protest.