Marchers in Asia, Europe Support Beijing Protesters
Thousands of native Chinese marched in Hong Kong, Paris, Tokyo and scores of other cities Sunday in a worldwide show of solidarity with their besieged brethren in Beijing.
In Hong Kong, a British colony scheduled to revert to Chinese rule in 1997, a crowd estimated at from 400,000 to 1 million people virtually paralyzed the city during a peaceful march in support of the Beijing protesters.
Media were generally supportive. Even the staff of the New China News Agency, the unofficial representative of China in Hong Kong, wrote a banner to support the marchers.
The crowd marched for three hours, then entered a race track and listened to speeches by community leaders, movie stars and lawmakers.
Taiwan Condemns Regime
On Taiwan, the Nationalist government condemned the Beijing government for ordering military troops to crack down on the student-led protests. Nationalist leaders said they may take “effective measures” to support the pro-democracy movement.
Government spokesman Shaw Yu-ming refused to say what that might include, because “we don’t want to offer the mainland any excuse to take retaliatory action against the students.”
About 100 Taiwanese demonstrated in the capital, Taipei, to support the Chinese protesters.
The Nationalists, who fled to Taiwan in 1949 when they lost a civil war in China, continue to claim they are the legitimate government of all China.
In Tokyo, thousands of Chinese studying in Japan rallied and marched downtown.
Spokesman Yang Zhao said that 4,500 people joined in the gathering organized by the Solidarity Union of Chinese Students in Japan.
The Japan Broadcasting Corp. said Chinese students also marched in Osaka, Nagoya, Tsukuba and other cities.
About 1,000 Chinese students demonstrated in Paris, carrying banners in French and Chinese with slogans such as “Brothers and sisters we love you, old dictators we hate you!” and “1789 liberty for the French, 1989 democracy for the Chinese; Bastille equals Tian An Men!”
In the United States, Chinese students in New York City said in an open telegram that they no longer recognize the government led by Premier Li Peng.
“We 10,000 Chinese students in New York City and the East Coast of the United States are on the side of the Chinese people,” the telegram said.
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