TURMOIL IN CHINA: Protests For Democracy : Protesters Weigh Strategy as Numbers in Square Dwindle : Beijing Students’ Bravery Sparked Epic Drama

In the pre-dawn hours of April 20, during a tense confrontation between the police and demonstrators outside Communist Party headquarters, a young man named Wuer Kaixi stood up and threw caution to the winds.

About 150 pro-democracy student protesters had been trapped inside police lines, while about 4,000 demonstrators were forced east along Beijing’s main thoroughfare. A smaller group was pushed to the west.

The police and the biggest group of protesters had paused, about 200 yards east of the party headquarters. No one was sure what would come next. Then Wuer took charge.

“Students, workers, Beijing residents--our friends the police!” shouted the slightly pudgy student from Beijing Teachers University. “We are in a struggle. We don’t know what the situation is for our friends inside. We need to carry on firmly. . . . Please, everyone, sit down for the sake of our friends inside. Sit down! This is the best action.”

It was an irreversible act of defiance, recorded not only by the cameras of journalists for the world and for history, but also, almost certainly, by plainclothes police photographers.

The bravery--some might say recklessness--of Wuer and others like him touched off an epic drama of nonviolent civil disobedience that continues still, with thousands of students camped out in central Beijing’s Tian An Men Square in an audacious assault on the sensibilities of the old men who run China.

The students have been under constant threat of police or military suppression. They have sometimes been divided among themselves on strategy and tactics, and have needed to work through ad hoc organizations instantly declared illegal by authorities wielding the tools of totalitarian control. Nevertheless, their six weeks of protest have been remarkably well-organized--and have shaken China to its foundations.

That morning when Wuer spoke out was a key moment. The police, after hours of indecision, eventually routed the students. But in clearing the core group of protesters from the gates of the party headquarters, a task carried out only after first removing foreign correspondents from the scene, the police are said to have roughed up some students.

Whatever actually happened, rumors that students were beaten circulated on campuses the next day, provoking the anger that provided much of the early energy for later protests.

Two Early Leaders

The two most visible early leaders of the movement were Wuer, who became the first leader of the Independent Assn. of Beijing Universities, and a student named Wang Dan from Beijing University, who for months had been involved in organizing “democracy salons” on his campus, at which speakers discussed how China might be made more democratic.

The movement appears now to be in considerable disarray. Most of the students occupying Tian An Men Square are recent arrivals from provincial universities who have established their own ad hoc organization, the Independent Assn. of Provincial Universities. These students have resisted advice from many of their Beijing colleagues that it would now be wise to leave the square.

“I think our organization is still very weak,” said Li Hai, a graduate student in philosophy at Beijing University and an official of its independent student association. “It is entirely spontaneous, and the leaders are simply the bravest students--the people who were willing to stand up and sacrifice themselves.”

Lacking any legal foundation, student groups have thrown up a series of organizations with rotating leadership. Wuer rose to be a key leader, was kicked out of the top group when he prematurely advocated leaving the square, then was welcomed back to top levels of leadership--and now seems to have dropped out again.

Wang has retained a position on the board of the Independent Assn. of Beijing Universities in its most recent reorganization, carried out last Sunday.

“Now they are in a state of thinking about things,” one student leader explained. “There are all sorts of viewpoints, and they haven’t reached any decisions.”

There is another student-run association in charge of overall activities at Tian An Men Square, including the use of the student-operated loudspeaker. Separate organizations were set up in May to seek a dialogue with top government or party leaders, and to supervise a weeklong hunger strike.

The Beijing citywide universities organization is made up of representatives from independent associations established at each campus, and some activities have been planned and carried out by just one or a few schools.

Art students, for example, have erected on Tian An Men Square a “Goddess of Democracy” modeled after the Statue of Liberty. It has not only infuriated the hard-line leaders in control of the government but has presented them with a no-win public relations problem. The longer they let the 30-foot-high statue stand, the greater its impact, but to get rid of it, they will have to make a physical and ultimately symbolic attack on the goddess.

City authorities seem to be somewhat ambivalent about the situation at the square, perhaps reflecting the bitter political struggle that has virtually paralyzed the nation’s top leadership. Portable toilets, for example, have been set up along one side of the square for the protesters and the crowds of supporters and onlookers.

Students have collected donations of money, food and material from Beijing citizens, and in recent days increased financial and material support has flowed in from Hong Kong. This has included a shipment of about 200 small camping tents, which stand out for their neatness amid the predominantly makeshift shelters of plastic and canvas. Over the last few days, questions have been raised in the Hong Kong press about the students’ system of financial control, and whether all the money can be accounted for.

Some Beijing entrepreneurs who are in the food business have made donations to the students, while contributions have enabled student organizers to buy bread and other items brought into the square for distribution to the campers.

1,000 Cots Appear

Over the last week, more than 1,000 metal cots have appeared in the square, although most students still sleep on blankets thrown onto sheets of plastic or cardboard. At night, many students gather around guitar players to pass the time in song.

Older students, like Li, the Beijing University philosophy student, who is 30, have played a role in suggesting tactics and strategy, but for the most part the actual leadership has been in the hands of undergraduates aged 18 to 22.

“Maybe we think more, but we’re not as brave,” Li said, including himself among the older but less active students.

Still, Li said, he has been active enough that informers must know of him. Having his name appear in print would not make things worse, he said.

“We’re all mentally prepared for trouble,” he said. “I feel this movement is one of the greatest of the 20th Century. If my name can appear in connection with it, or if I appear on a government blacklist, I will feel that is glorious.”

About 5,000 latecomers from the provinces are now camped out at Tian An Men Square, while all but a few of the Beijing students have returned to their campuses to eat, sleep and ponder what to do next. The students at the square say they will stay at least until the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, opens a session tentatively scheduled for June 20.

“The students from the provinces will stay until June 20,” a student at a makeshift tent labeled Tianjin University said, with no trace of doubt in his voice. “It wasn’t easy to come here, and they aren’t tired like the Beijing students.”

He was asked what would happen if troops tried to clear the square. He replied, “I’m not worried about whether I live or die.”