World Leaders Vent Grief, Anger Over China Killings

World leaders voiced grief and outrage today over China’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.

French President Francois Mitterrand condemned Chinese leaders who ordered troops to fire on the demonstrators and Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke canceled a proposed visit to China to underline his government’s “deep distress.”

“A regime which in order to survive is reduced to opening fire on youths it has educated and who have risen up against it in the name of freedom has no future,” Mitterrand said.

The European Commission, the executive body of the European Community, canceled ministerial talks with China scheduled for today.

The Commission “deplores the brutal repression of the people of Beijing, so sorely tried. It recalls that the cooperation between China and the Community can only suffer as a result,” a statement said.

Belgium said two of its ministers had canceled meetings Tuesday with Foreign Trade Minister Zheng Tuobin, who was in Brussels to review China’s trade and cooperation agreement with the 12-nation Community.

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said he was shocked by events in Beijing and expressed “heartfelt sympathy” for Chinese students who had sought more freedom and human rights.

West Germany and France warned their citizens not to travel to China unless their visits were essential.

Nonaligned Yugoslavia, which has cultivated close political ties with China since both countries distanced themselves from the old Soviet form of communism, also attacked the clampdown.

“As friends of the Chinese people, we honestly believe in the soonest possible overcoming of the current complex situation in the People’s Republic of China with political means, without violence and the use of armed forces,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Sweden canceled a planned trip to Beijing by Defense Minister Roine Carlsson and a visit to Sweden by former Chinese President Li Xiannian.

In Paris, two Chinese interpreters caused a diplomatic flurry at a UNESCO meeting when they donned white headbands emblazoned with the words “in mourning.”

Chinese delegates made no comment on the protest.

The sole expression of support for the Chinese action came from Vietnam, whose own Communist leaders are fighting a crisis of public faith over political and economic reform. Vietnamese radio, monitored in Bangkok, said the Chinese army “could in no way refrain itself from taking action.”