China Rejects Activists’ Ultimatum : Refuses to Recognize or Talk With New Student Groups

The Chinese government this morning rejected an ultimatum from pro-democracy student activists who are threatening another protest march for Thursday if not granted a formal dialogue between their association and top leaders.

Class boycotts by tens of thousands of university students continued in Beijing today, while about 8,000 Chinese students staged a pro-democracy protest march in Shanghai on Tuesday.

“Give Us Democracy and Freedom,” “Down With Bureaucratic Profiteering” and “Media Must Tell the Truth,” proclaimed banners carried by the demonstrators in Shanghai.

In Beijing, a group of about 60 student protest leaders from more than 30 schools delivered copies of a petition to state and Communist Party offices Tuesday afternoon seeking legal recognition for their unofficial student association and the opening of a formal dialogue between at least one top government leader and the association.

They threatened that if they did not receive an answer by noon today, they would “reserve the right” to stage another protest demonstration Thursday.

Thursday is the 70th anniversary of student protests in 1919 that launched a campaign for science and democracy called the May 4th Movement. The current pro-democracy campaign has consciously modeled itself as a successor to that movement.

State Council spokesman Yuan Mu, at a press conference this morning, rejected the students’ demands. He charged that the students are being incited by “a handful of people engaged in political struggle and negating the leadership of the Communist Party and the socialist system.”

Yuan said the government is willing to engage in dialogue with students through official student associations, as it has already begun doing, but will not recognize the ad hoc association that has organized the protests. He urged students to return to classes and forgo protests, but also implied that the government does not intend to use force against demonstrations Thursday if they do occur.

The government mobilized thousands of police and soldiers in an attempt to intimidate protesters last Thursday. But about 50,000 students marched in defiance of government warnings, accompanied by tens of thousands of Beijing residents, while hundreds of thousands of supportive spectators saw them on their route.

Since then, the government has adopted a conciliatory but firm attitude, seeking to separate the mass of students from their most radical leaders.

“We would not like to see any more demonstrations that are harmful to social stability,” Yuan said this morning. “If such demonstrations do take place, we will continue to abide by the correct attitudes and practices we have adopted the past few days.”

Yuan implied that there may be arrests, but not immediately.

“There are some people . . . who have engaged in behind-the-scenes activities who are very vicious, and at present they are also involved in the current events,” Yuan said. “But at present we are not planning to take action against them because now the good and the bad are mixed together, so the circumstances are not favorable for direct action such as detentions or arrests. If we do that, it would be too stupid.”

Among the demands of the students in Shanghai is reinstatement of Qin Benli, former editor of the World Economic Herald, a weekly newspaper that under his guidance was one of the most liberal and most informative publications in China. Qin was fired last week, at the orders of Shanghai Communist Party officials, for trying to publish material deemed too supportive of protesting students.

In another conciliatory effort to cool protests, Hu Qili, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, issued a call Tuesday for the gradual growth of political democracy simultaneously with economic development.

Hu said that “one should not precede the other,” according to a New China News Agency report on his comments, which were made in a meeting with a visiting Bulgarian delegation. “The most important work for China to do at present is to maintain political stability. Of course, stability doesn’t mean that people cannot voice their opinions.”

The Chinese leadership is believed to be especially sensitive about the possible demonstrations Thursday, in particular because the Communist Party has long honored the May 4th Movement and finds it humiliating to have the progressive nature of that struggle turned against it.