China In Turmoil : Use of Force Protested Worldwide

Amid chants and tears, hundreds of thousands of shocked and angry supporters of China’s pro-democracy movement rallied Sunday in Hong Kong, New York, Washington and San Francisco to condemn the use of military force in Beijing that crushed student protesters with a warlike violence.

The bloodshed also sparked denunciations from Western and Communist countries alike.

The biggest show of support took place in Hong Kong, where more than 200,000 people staged a protest march, waving black banners--some of which said “Down with the killer warlords!”--and shouting, “Down with (Chinese Premier) Li Peng’s fascist government! We will fight until the Li Peng government falls!”

Police said the crowd marched to the central business district, where union leaders called for a general strike to show solidarity with the Chinese people.

“We will ask all shops to close their doors, all factories to strike and all schools to cancel classes,” said Hong Kong legislator and teachers’ union leader Wah Szeto, calling for the stoppage to take place Wednesday.

The bloodshed also heightened fears over the British colony’s transition to China’s control in 1997 under an agreement signed by London and Beijing five years ago.

“I won’t work with an administration that doesn’t have the mandate of the people,” legislator Martin Lee told the marchers, many of whom wore black or the traditional Chinese mourning color of white.

In New York, about 3,000 demonstrators, many wearing white headbands and black armbands, waved banners bearing messages like “Death to Tyrants!,” “Punish the Murderers!” and “Long Live Democracy!” rallied outside the Chinese consulate in New York.

“It so very sad; we feel so angry,” said Yin Yichun of Brooklyn College, one of about 40 universities or colleges represented at the rally. “It’s a shame for the Chinese people and the government.”

The students chanted “Don’t Forget Bloody Sunday!” and “Stop Slaughter!” before marching to the United Nations with a letter to Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar urging an emergency meeting of the Security Council.

In Washington, about 4,000 people held a peaceful but noisy rally outside the Chinese Embassy. They carried posters saying “The Whole World Is Watching!” and “Honk for Freedom!” Drivers on the busy Connecticut Avenue honked their horns outside the embassy for about four hours.

In Vancouver, Canada, more than 500 demonstrators rallied in front of the Chinese consulate there chanting “We support democracy!” and “Shame to the government!”

In San Francisco, police said between 5,000 and 10,000 demonstrators, with clenched fists raised, marched from the Chinese consulate to Chinatown, a haven for thousands of Chinese immigrants and one of San Francisco’s chief tourist attractions.

“They just killed the people. And then they tried to burn the bodies so we don’t know what happened,” said Larry Lou, a Taiwanese nationalist who joined the protest. “Those people--our brothers and sisters--are now sacrifices for democracy and freedom.”

The condemnations from world leaders poured in through the day.

In London, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said Britain is “appalled by the indiscriminate shooting of unarmed people.”

Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui ordered the army to brace against possible military action by China in case the mainland government collapsed from opposition to the “mad action” by its leaders.

Labor Minister Norbert Bluem of West Germany, a member of Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s conservative Christian Democrats, called for a U.N. special session to protest the Chinese government’s action.

In Paris, French President Francois Mitterrand said he hoped the Chinese would solve the crisis through dialogue. “A regime which is reduced to firing on its youth to survive, when the youth it has educated rises up in the name of freedom, has no future,” he said.