TURMOIL IN CHINA: Protests For Democracy : Opposing Rallies, Banners Mark China Conflict

The Chinese government and its student detractors held separate demonstrations assailing each other Wednesday, with the pro-government rallies taking place out in the remote Beijing suburbs and the students holding the high ground in the center of the capital.

Some bizarre signs of an escalating ideological battle surfaced on the 12th day since the government declared martial law to crack down on student protests.

Large anti-democracy propaganda banners appeared on the sides of Beijing’s major tourist hotels. Rumors circulated in the diplomatic community that China’s paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, the chief sponsor of martial law, is seriously ill and hospitalized after suffering a heart attack. And the evening television news program showed scenes of a lackluster government-sponsored rally supporting martial law in Daxing county, about 19 miles south of Beijing.

At Tian An Men Square, the symbolic center of the nation, a few thousand hard-core student protesters continued to camp out in defiance of government orders that they disperse. Their “Goddess of Democracy” statue, a Styrofoam-and-plaster Statue of Liberty look-alike, still faces off with the large portrait of the late Chairman Mao Tse-tung on the Gate of Heavenly Peace, despite demands by authorities that it be removed.

Troops called to the capital area to enforce martial law remained generally out of sight, bivouacked on the outskirts of the city. About 300 soldiers were observed marching down Beijing’s main avenue near the square early today, the Associated Press reported. However, it was not clear whether these troops were linked to the martial-law command.

Though the numbers of pro-democracy campers have dwindled, the students displayed a burst of energy in a nighttime rally in which nearly 10,000 people marched from campuses to the square and past the municipal police headquarters.

The marchers were demanding an explanation of the detention Monday of three leaders of a small independent labor union that had allied itself with student demands for greater democracy, a free press and an end to official corruption. The three were reportedly released Wednesday afternoon.

Still, a throng of student protesters, joined by citizens milling about at the scene, jammed the entrance of the police headquarters and roared in opposition as a police loudspeaker urged them to leave. The tense standoff ended peacefully after about 30 minutes.

The students continued their march, hoisting huge banners calling for the resignation of Premier Li Peng, Deng’s hard-line front man, and an end to martial law.

In contrast, the pro-government rally at a stadium in Daxing appeared to lack spontaneity, and several participants confessed to Western reporters that they were not sure why they had come, except that they were told by officials to appear. The Associated Press estimated that 4,000 farmers, students and workers took part.

‘Turmoil’ Denounced

Television news showed bored, unhappy faces, some seemingly irritated by the exercise while others laughed in apparent embarrassment. Organizers gave speeches denouncing the “turmoil” caused by protesters and burned an effigy of China’s most prominent dissident, astrophysicist Fang Lizhi.

Fang, an outspoken advocate of political reform, is believed to be under government suspicion as an inspiration for the pro-democracy movement that has rocked the country since mid-April.

Fang and his wife, Beijing University physics professor Li Shuxian, returned to Beijing on Tuesday evening after dropping out of sight for several days. “We’re just like before,” Li said in a brief telephone interview this morning. “There’s been no change. He went to an astrophysics meeting in Datong in Shanxi province. Then we went to Taiyuan to visit his mother. Then we came back.”

In one of the most puzzling demonstrations of ideological zeal since the anti-democracy crackdown began, banners went up at the luxury hotels, most of which suffered a sudden drop in tourist business after Premier Li declared martial law May 20.

“Oppose Bourgeois Liberalization With a Clear-Cut Stand!” said a red banner strung from the Jianguo Hotel, built as a joint venture between the Chinese government and a Hong Kong concern.

“Long Live the Great, Glorious, Correct Chinese Communist Party!” said another hanging on the side of the stately old Beijing Hotel, not far from Tian An Men Square.

“Bourgeois liberalization” is a phrase that was used in an earlier backlash against progressive thinking during student unrest in late 1986 and early 1987. Nowadays it is applied by the rigid, orthodox wing of the Communist Party, led by Deng and Li, to elements associated with the party’s disgraced general secretary, Zhao Ziyang.

Zhao, a moderate who favors political as well as economic reforms, is widely believed to have been stripped of his authority and put under house arrest in the power struggle triggered by a dispute over how to handle the latest round of student protests. Zhao opposed the decision to use troops, diplomatic sources believe.

Meanwhile, little reliable information has been forthcoming on the power struggle pitting Deng and Li against Zhao. The former two have clearly come out on top for the time being, but they are apparently having difficulty gaining party-wide consensus for their intended purge of Zhao and his followers, diplomatic sources say.

A rumor that Deng, 84, may be seriously ill with heart trouble made the rounds of Beijing’s diplomatic circles Wednesday, and also surfaced among Hong Kong and Taiwanese sources. Such rumors have frequently been heard in the past when the senior leader has made no public appearances for an extended time.

But an Asian diplomat said some sort of problem with Deng’s health could explain the lack of decisive action and the apparent power vacuum in China’s leadership.