100,000 Join Pro-Democracy Protest in Shanghai
More than 100,000 students, workers and other Shanghai residents brought the center of China’s largest city to a standstill Sunday in the biggest pro-democracy march in a week.
The student activists and young factory workers vowed to continue their campaign, now almost entirely focused on opposition to hard-line Premier Li Peng.
Protesters gathered in People’s Square, then made their way through shopping streets lined with hundreds of Chinese flags to mark the 40th anniversary of the Communist seizure of the city from Nationalist armies.
Official newspapers had earlier called on citizens to mark the anniversary by rallying around the Communist Party and government headquarters.
Crowds chanted “Down with Li Peng!” and carried banners reading “Li Peng, you cannot stop the people!” in protest at the imposition of martial law in Beijing and Li’s apparent victory over Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang.
Students and teachers from Fudan University bore a replica of the Statue of Liberty, decorated with a black cloth “in mourning for democracy,” the students said.
Others carried a placard depicting Li as a Nazi officer. One activist told the crowd the democracy movement has been the biggest and most peaceful popular uprising in the world in 1989.
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