China Students Seek Official Status, Call Talks a Sham

Pro-democracy protest leaders pressed Monday for government recognition of their unofficial student organization, while authorities issued a May Day holiday appeal to workers for stability.

Speaking at a press conference on the campus of Beijing University, student leaders condemned weekend talks between government officials and officially chosen groups of students as a sham aimed at quieting demonstrations without addressing protesters’ demands.

“We don’t recognize this ‘dialogue,’ ” said a spokesman for the United Assn. of Beijing Universities, the ad hoc federation that over the last two weeks has organized the largest pro-democracy protests in China since the 1949 Communist revolution.

“We demand a dialogue based on the principles of equality and openness, conducted directly between democratically chosen student representatives and government decision-makers,” said the spokesman, who sought to lessen the probability of reprisals by asking that his name not be used.

Key student demands in the protests have included freedom of the press, improved treatment of intellectuals and a more effective battle against corruption.

The official Guangming Daily, presenting the government’s view, praised the weekend meetings as expressions of “socialist democracy” that can help “clear up misunderstandings and suspicion.”

State radio reported that the government-initiated meetings continued Monday, with Metallurgical Industry Minister Qi Yuanjing meeting with students at the Beijing College of Science and Technology, while Aeronautics and Astronautics Minister Lin Zongtang spoke with students from the Beijing Aeronautical Institute.

While there have been no organized workers’ protests in connection with the past two weeks of pro-democracy student demonstrations, thousands of workers or unemployed youths informally marched alongside about 50,000 university students during part of a daylong, banner-waving procession through Beijing last Thursday.

Many people along the protest route, in expressions of sympathy for the students, provided them with food and drink. Such expressions of support from the general public appear to have aroused deep official concern.

The official People’s Daily, in a front-page May Day editorial Monday, called on workers to “preserve social stability and promote reforms and modernization.”

“We believe that together with the people of the entire nation, they can make even greater contributions to our country’s socialist modernization and to stability and unity by firmly supporting the Four Cardinal Principles and by backing the policies of reform and openness.”

The “Four Cardinal Principles” are socialism, the “people’s democratic dictatorship,” leadership of the Communist Party and adherence to Marxism, Leninism and Mao Tse-tung teachings.

The official New China News Agency, in a feature article about the holiday mood on May Day at central Beijing’s Tian An Men Square, credited the government-student dialogue with having brought calm to the city.

“The square, which was filled with tension only a few days ago as a result of massive student demonstrations, was filled with relaxed and lively (Chinese) tourists,” the article said.

May Day is an important holiday in China, but there are no major parades, as in some socialist countries.