Students Defy Chinese Decree Against Protests

Thousands of pro-democracy student demonstrators confronted police on the streets of Beijing this morning, defying a government edict that protests would no longer be tolerated.

Shortly after noon, an orderly procession of about 15,000 students had gotten past three sets of police lines and was marching toward downtown Tian An Men Square.

Soon after the first students began marching, a line of several hundred policemen blocked their path, but after a nonviolent 10-minute face-off--during which bystanders shouted for police to let the students pass--the line yielded and the students marched on.

In the next two hours, the procession broke through police lines in two more places.

The students sang the Chinese national anthem and chanted “Long live democracy!” In what appeared to be a move both of political self-defense and a gesture of conciliation, they also carried banners expressing support for the Communist Party.

Authorities have accused the students of seeking to overthrow the Communist Party, a serious crime under Chinese law.

The students were cheered and applauded by onlookers, who emptied out of shops as they passed. Many bystanders called on the police not to beat the students.

Thousands of additional police were waiting for the students along the seven-mile route to the square, and further confrontation appeared likely. It was not immediately clear whether students from other campuses had already joined the column or whether they might join it on its way to the square.

Plans to crush the protest were announced by Beijing Municipal Communist Party Secretary Li Ximing at a mass meeting Wednesday of Communist Party officials.

Li said that authorities were aware of plans for “a large-scale demonstration” today and would not permit it.

“We will deal with it in accordance with the stipulation that no demonstration is allowed without prior approval,” Li said, according to the official New China News Agency.

Today’s demonstration was organized by a new student-run association linking about 40 colleges and universities in Beijing, according to both Li and student sources.

Some students said they were prepared to die. It is widely rumored that authorities have moved 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers into Beijing to deal with the demonstrations.

Trucks carrying police or soldiers armed with bayonet-tipped rifles were seen entering the city around midnight. But it was not clear whether authorities intended to permit security forces to use firearms.

The crackdown on the escalating student protests began shortly after midnight, when about 100 police officers temporarily sealed off Tian An Men Square and removed dozens of wreaths honoring the late reformist Communist Party leader, Hu Yaobang. Student protesters had placed the wreaths at the base of the Monument to the People’s Heroes in the middle of the square during demonstrations last week.

Late this morning, thousands of police, some equipped with helmets shields and sticks, again sealed off the square.

The current wave of protests began as mourning for Hu, who died of a heart attack April 15. But the protests soon developed into a broad drive to pressure the government to accelerate the pace of political reform. At least 30,000 students marched to Tian An Men Square before dawn Saturday. They were joined there by 30,000 or more supporters in a demonstration that continued past noon. At times, onlookers swelled the crowd to about 100,000.

Specific demands being pressed by the students include freedom of the press, improved treatment of intellectuals and public revelation of the income and wealth of high officials.

Li made his announcement of the impending crackdown at a meeting in the Great Hall of the People attended by the heads of Beijing’s 10,000 Communist Party branches. Li said that 60,000 out of a total of 160,000 students at 40 colleges and universities in the capital were boycotting classes Wednesday. Student leaders estimated that 70,000 students were taking part in the strike.

Li said that by putting up big-character posters, organizing unauthorized student unions and carrying out strikes, the students were “stirring up turmoil,” the official news agency reported. It quoted him as saying: “We must firmly stop such riots.”

The official People’s Daily warned in a commentary published Wednesday that the Communist Party and the entire nation face “a grave political struggle” against the challenge posed by the student demonstrators.

Li was quoted as saying that Communist Party cadres must stop their children from attending protest activities and as calling on Beijing residents to “stick to their posts, maintain production and guarantee the supply of daily necessities.”

Beijing Mayor Chen Xitong, who also spoke at the meeting at the Great Hall of the People, made what could be interpreted as a conciliatory gesture toward the students.

“I welcome the students’ demand to publish details of the property belonging to senior leaders,” Chen said, according to the news agency. “Li Ximing and I can take the lead in this respect.”

Premier Li Peng, the official most frequently targeted by protesters for criticism, publicly endorsed a tough stand against the students in comments made at a meeting with a visiting official from Thailand.

“No country, no matter what kind of social system it has, can possibly survive, not to say develop, without a normal social order,” Li said, according to the New China News Agency.

Li was also quoted as saying that the political situation in China is stable and that China will not change its policy of reform and opening to the outside world.

China’s paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, gave his approval for the crackdown on Tuesday, according to a Chinese journalist who talked with the Associated Press.

“The peasants support us, the workers support us, the army supports us, so why should we be bothered by the students?” Deng said, according to the journalist.