Beijing Tightens Curbs on Foreign Reporting

China clamped tight new martial-law restrictions on foreign reporting in Beijing on Thursday, banning interviews with Chinese citizens and virtually all other forms of press coverage.

The new rules also ban any photographing or videotaping in the areas around Tian An Men Square, the center of the city where approximately 10,000 young Chinese are continuing their demonstrations for democracy.

The crackdown on foreign news reporting could well signal an impending move by the Chinese regime to clear the demonstrators from Tian An Men Square. Early Thursday morning, a small contingent of Chinese troops was seen marching down a city street near the square.

A Hint From Mayor

In another hint that the authorities are on the verge of removing the pro-democracy demonstrators, Beijing Mayor Chen Xitong told a group of children Thursday: “I think that you will soon be able to pay tribute to the revolutionary martyrs at the Monument to the People’s Heroes.”

That monument is located in the center of Tian An Men Square and is now surrounded by the demonstrators.

Late Thursday night, tensions in downtown Beijing were high.

A crowd of students gathered outside the gate of the Beijing municipal police headquarters near the south end of the square. Another crowd assembled outside the gate of Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party headquarters. Onlookers listening to students’ speeches at Zhongnanhai spilled into Beijing’s main thoroughfare, partially blocking the street.

All but a few of the students outside Zhongnanhai dispersed around midnight. But about 500 students and a few other people, incensed by an alleged police beating of a student, spent the entire night in angry protest outside the police headquarters.

Despite the tenseness of the confrontation, both sides showed great restraint, as has been typical of virtually all such confrontations between students and security forces since martial law was imposed May 20.

“Down with dictatorship! Long live democracy!” shouted the students, who despite their obvious anger maintained order throughout the night.

The police, including about 20 who stood guard under a bright spotlight in front of the station throughout the night, showed virtually no reaction to the crowd, as if they were afraid of provoking a bigger incident.

“These students aren’t in turmoil,” said a middle-aged woman who joined the crowd. “Our government is in turmoil. The police are in turmoil. They’re arresting people as they please. Do we have laws or don’t we? The officers must obey the law. The (officer who allegedly beat the student) should be punished severely according to the law.”

At dawn, the voice of a student who allegedly was beaten came on a police loudspeaker, after discussions inside police headquarters that included two or three other protesters, and said that officials had agreed to discuss the incident more thoroughly and seek to resolve it in a mid-morning meeting with student representatives.

The alleged victim then urged the crowd to go back to Tian An Men Square to rest. Those gathered outside immediately accepted this and dispersed.

Over the last few days, Chinese authorities have shown increasing irritation over a huge white “Goddess of Democracy” statue that Beijing art students erected at Tian An Men, just across from the portrait of Mao Tse-tung overlooking the square. Thousands of young Chinese have had their pictures taken in front of the Styrofoam-and-plaster “Goddess,” which resembles the Statue of Liberty.

Students camped on the square pitched 60 red and blue camping tents on all sides of the statue to help ensure that no sudden raid by police or soldiers could snatch it away.

The official Chinese news media have begun to take a tougher line towards the pro-democracy demonstrators, suggesting that the regime’s hands-off approach of the past few weeks is coming to an end.

‘A State of Anarchy’

“Many places have been in a state of anarchy,” the Beijing Daily, this city’s official newspaper, declared Thursday. “The degree of disorder in some sense has been similar to that of the Cultural Revolution.”

Chinese officials announced the new restrictions on press coverage here during a weekly news briefing at the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

“Without the approval by the Beijing Municipal People’s Government, foreign journalists or journalists from Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan shall conduct no press coverage, photographing, and videotaping of the troops enforcing martial law,” said Ding Weijun, a spokesman for the Beijing government.

Ding said press coverage, photographing or filming is banned in the downtown areas around Tian An Men Square and the Great Hall of the People.

The rules also bar foreign correspondents from “press coverage in a disguised form, such as making appointments with Chinese citizens to meet at the offices or residences of foreign journalists . . . or at hotels or elsewhere.”

Reporters or photographers who run afoul of the new rules have no rights of appeal to the Chinese courts. The decree on news reporting says it is up to Beijing municipal authorities to settle disputes over how the rules should be interpreted.

However, authorities gave no indication of how strictly or swiftly they would seek to enforce the new rules, and it was unclear even whether they are united in their will to do so. Members of the foreign press corps said they will continue working as they had before until officials clarify their intentions.

China has expelled at least five foreign correspondents over the past decade. The most recent two cases were in early 1987, when an American reporter for Agence France Presse and a Japanese reporter for Kyodo News Service were forced to leave China after their coverage of student demonstrations for democracy.

Earlier Rules Vague

When the Chinese regime first imposed martial law in Beijing nearly two weeks ago, it included a series of restrictions on foreign press coverage. But those earlier rules were vaguely worded--leaving unclear, for example, whether they applied in the areas around Tian An Men Square.

Over the last few days, Chinese authorities have called in representatives of several foreign television networks, the British Broadcasting Corp. and the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri to warn them about possible violations of martial law.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Beijing issued a written statement Thursday calling the restrictions on foreign reporting here “a deplorable case of press censorship and harassment.” The ban on press coverage “calls into question China’s policy of openness to the outside world,” the statement said.

Despite the imposition of martial law in the nation’s capital and the disappearance from public sight of Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, who refused to endorse the martial-law decree, the Chinese regime told foreign correspondents Thursday that there are no serious problems here.

Says Government Is Stable

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Li Jinhua assured reporters at the weekly news briefing that the Chinese government is stable. She said China’s policies on economic reform and opening to the outside world are unchanged.

“China hopes that foreign investment in China won’t be affected,” she said.

Li also asserted that there have been no changes in leadership positions of the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government, the People’s Liberation Army or the National People’s Congress.

Beijing remains surrounded by an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 troops called here from other regions of China when some of the People’s Liberation Army forces stationed in the Beijing area reportedly refused to enforce martial law here.

Zhao, the party secretary, has not been seen since the night of May 19, when he made an emotional, tearful appearance before some of the demonstrators. He has reportedly been under house arrest. In addition, a source in Hong Kong who is in touch with Zhao’s family has reported that the Chinese Communist Party was preparing to denounce Zhao as a counterrevolutionary.

Hong Kong newspapers have reported that several other senior Chinese officials, including Defense Minister Qin Jiwei and Wan Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, would be ousted from their leadership positions along with Zhao.

Besides having the potential to inhibit foreign press coverage at Tian An Men Square, the new restrictions on news reporting may also be aimed at cutting out leaks from Chinese sources to foreign correspondents about the ongoing power struggle within the Communist Party.

Over the past week, several documents have circulated which give accounts of recent party deliberations, such as a reported speech by President Yang Shangkun urging party elders to take action against Zhao.