500,000 March in Beijing; China Promises Reforms : ‘Like Our Hotheads’: Gorbachev

Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang today promised students on a hunger strike that China will take concrete steps toward democracy, one of the demands by the 500,000 people jamming Tian An Men Square.

As China’s leaders held a historic summit with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev inside the Great Hall of the People, protesters surged onto its steps today and turned the adjoining 100-acre square into a vast parade ground, including 3,000 students on a 4-day-old hunger strike.

Hundreds of police and soldiers guarded the hall’s entrances, but no police were seen in the square.

After midnight, Zhao sent a message to the students on behalf of the party Politburo Standing Committee, the highest party body, saying it affirmed their patriotic spirit in calling for greater democracy and attacking official corruption.

He also promised that the government won’t punish them and will “work out concrete measures to enhance democracy and law, oppose corruption, build an honest and clean government and expand openness.”

The message addressed key demands of the students, but it was not clear whether they will be satisfied. He did not accede to a demand for a dialogue with officials, to be broadcast live.

No Reforms Overnight

Gorbachev, in his meeting with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping today, raised the issue of the unprecedented protests raging in Beijing and said, “We also have hotheads.”

Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, stayed clear of the mass of student demonstrators for a second day today.

Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady Gerasimov told reporters that Gorbachev raised the student issue with Deng and expressed confidence that the Chinese leadership could resolve the situation “for the benefit of the entire country.”

“ ‘We also have hotheads’ is what he said,” Gerasimov reported. “He said both sides have their hotheads who want to renovate the system overnight. Gorbachev said this was, of course, impossible.

“He said this does not happen overnight. That only happens in fairy tales,” Gerasimov said.

Gerasimov said Gorbachev also raised the question of the demands of the students as expressed in their banners and slogans.

‘Who Is More Interested?’

“We also have our slogans. They are similar to what our slogans, the slogans of our party, were. After all, who is more interested in renovating the system than the party that introduced the reforms?” Gorbachev was quoted as saying.

When asked whether Gorbachev’s remarks about “hotheads” meant that he was also referring to the Chinese students as such, Gerasimov stumbled and said unconvincingly that the Soviet leader was referring to Soviet radicals only.

He then repeated: “ ‘We also have hotheads’ is what he said.”

The Soviet leader, on his way back to the state guest house after lunch with Deng, avoided Tien An Men Square but stopped his car and got out to shake hands with pedestrians, New China News Agency reported.

Raisa Gorbachev earlier toured the national library with Zhu Lin, the wife of Premier Li Peng. She, too, walked into a crowd of spectators upon her arrival and greeted them with handshakes and hellos in Chinese.