CHINA IN TURMOIL : Phones, Faxes: Students in U.S. Keep Lines of Communication Open

In a cramped apartment a few blocks from the Caltech campus in Pasadena, a group of Chinese students pressed close to a telephone Monday and listened as a voice came from the speaker box.

“What is happening there?” the students in the apartment asked hurriedly in Chinese.

“Do you have the names of the injured?”

“Do you know who died?”

The man on the phone, an unnamed student leader at Beijing University, answered calmly and read a statement calling for a general strike throughout China.

In response, the students in Pasadena then described President Bush’s plans to cut off military aid to China, information the student in Beijing had not heard.

Such information exchanges have been taking place for weeks in this cluttered two-bedroom apartment, which belongs to Caltech graduate student Wang Youqi, and a handful of other campus locations around the United States.

Because the Chinese government strictly controls news, the students in Beijing are relying on this improbable network, among others, to learn about events and to relay information to the rest of the world.

The message about the general strike was taped by the students in Pasadena and transmitted to the Voice of America for broadcast back to China.

“Information is the single most important thing now,” said Wang, whose apartment is crammed with a constantly ringing telephone, televisions, radios and newspapers. “When they know the truth there, they will know what to do. This is a lifeline.”

Chinese students studying in this country are manning such information centers near seven schools, including Caltech, UC Berkeley, Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Texas, the University of Maryland and the University of Chicago.

“In the beginning, a lot of us wanted to go back and demonstrate in the streets,” said Xie Wen, a sociology graduate student who is heading the effort at Columbia. “But now people are saying we should do something important to help. Staying here and sending information is the most important thing we can do.”

For the last several days, Xie said, he has been furiously transmitting articles from American and Chinese newspapers to fax machines in China. The fax numbers were obtained from business directories and business cards that people kept.

“It’s completely random,” Xie said, adding that he has no idea whether anyone on the receiving end is reading the articles or destroying them. Chinese students at USC are doing the same.

But the most powerful weapon so far has been the phone.

Wang, who is the leader of the Caltech group, said the students call Beijing University at least three times a day. They also are in contact with students in Canton, Shanghai, Nanjing and Wuhan. To their amazement, they have been able to direct dial.

Wang’s Pasadena apartment also has been serving as a clearinghouse for information about activities and demonstrations around Los Angeles.

On Monday, numerous calls came in with questions about a news conference that was held by Chinese students in Los Angeles. At the briefing, the students had asked for aid from the Red Cross and the human rights organization Amnesty International for victims of the violence in China.

So far, Wang said, his group has been able to keep using the phone because he has not received a phone bill for the bulk of the calls to China.

One bill that included charges for just three days came to more than $700. Wang expects the next bill to be more than $10,000.

“We don’t know how we are going to pay, but we will keep the line alive,” he said.

Among those at this end, there is a pervasive sense of powerlessness over the turmoil in their country.

As the phone call from Beijing came to a close, one woman in the room leaned toward the phone.

“Please be careful,” she said. “Goodby.”

In a moment, the voice was gone.