CHINA IN TURMOIL : 2 UCLA Students Who Returned to China May Be Missing

It was almost on the spur of the moment that Ding Jian and Tong Boning, two graduate students at UCLA, volunteered to carry $8,000 in donations from Southern California to the student demonstrators in Beijing.

The idea of returning to their homeland was important and exciting for the two Chinese students. They hoped to witness history in the making.

“You will regret you didn’t come,” Ding said in a phone call to a friend in Los Angeles soon after arriving in Beijing two weeks ago. “This is a moment that comes only once in a lifetime.”

But the two, who had been sending back regular eyewitness reports of what was happening, have disappeared.

The fate of both students, who were well known on the UCLA campus for their activities with the Chinese Students and Scholars Assn., is uncertain. Chinese students at UCLA have drafted a letter to President Bush asking for help in locating and bringing their two colleagues back to the United States.

Students here called Ding’s family in Beijing on Saturday and were warned not to call again because of fears that Chinese police had tapped their telephone.

Ding was last heard from Tuesday, when he made a brief phone call from China to friends in Los Angeles.

He said he had fled his family’s home in Beijing after becoming suspicious that he was being followed. Chang Shaoping, one of Ding’s best friends at UCLA, said he thinks Ding is hiding somewhere outside Beijing.

“Whether he is safe, I don’t know,” Chang said. “Sometimes I fear Ding is too brave.”

Tong was last seen Monday at Beijing airport boarding a plane for San Francisco. But friends waiting for him said he never arrived.

UCLA students say they fear Tong was arrested at the Beijing airport along with a Chinese woman from the University of Chicago and her infant.

Wang Ge, a leader of the Chinese students at UCLA, said the woman’s family in Beijing accompanied the students to the Beijing airport as far as a security gate that only passengers could enter.

“We have not been able to find them,” Wang said. “We don’t know what we can do now.”

Chang said Ding called here for the last time on Tuesday seeking help in returning to the United States. But no one was sure how to accomplish that.

Ding and Tong, who are both Chinese citizens, are two of perhaps a few dozen Chinese students from across the country who decided to return to China after the student movement began in April, according to university students.

The idea of going back to China came to Ding, a graduate student in library and information science, just four days before he left on May 19.

He and Tong, a graduate student in mathematics, had watched the demonstrations on television. But as the movement picked up steam, they felt they should return to observe events and carry donations from students here.

They could not have picked a worse time to return home. The Chinese government declared martial law May 20.

Their friends from universities around Southern California suggested that they wait to see how events would unfold.

But Tong said to one friend: “Everything has already been decided. We can’t worry now.”

“We all took a picture together at the airport,” Chang said. “Maybe some were crying. I just told them to take care.”

The two stayed with Ding’s family in Beijing. Each day they called friends at UCLA to report on the latest activities of the student movement.

“Ding sounded so excited, so full of energy,” Chang said. “He was really inspired to see this great movement.”

But on Saturday, when troops opened fire on the students, the tone of the conversations changed. Chang called Ding’s family in Beijing and was warned not to call again. Previous phone calls had been interrupted by loud sounds on the line that made conversation difficult.

Ding called back a few hours later. He said he and Tong had become separated and he would call back when he located him. It was the last phone call from Ding until Tuesday.

Tong managed to reach another friend at UCLA by using a telephone at a Beijing hotel. He held the phone to a window so his friend could hear the gunfire in the background.

No one at UCLA has heard from Tong since.

Chang said he has spent the last few days waiting by the phone for word from his friend.

He said he slept only a few hours Tuesday night. But he added, “I kept the phone by my side.”