White House Decries ‘Repugnant’ Chinese Call for Student Reprisals

The White House today denounced as “repugnant” calls by Chinese officials for reprisals against student leaders of the pro-democracy demonstrations.

Despite the reappearance of Chinese leaders in public, including the first view of leader Deng Xiaoping in more than three weeks, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said it still is not clear who ordered the killing of civilian demonstrators in Tian An Men Square last weekend.

Fitzwater told reporters that U.S.-Chinese relations will not soon return to normal.

“Keep in mind that the government has murdered many, many of its citizens. We have had an incredible upheaval in (that) country,” he said.

‘We Don’t Know’

Citing loudspeaker calls in Beijing for neighbors to turn in demonstrators and for punishment of student demonstrators who met with hard-line Prime Minister Li Peng, Fitzwater said: “Reprisals are repugnant. We certainly watch this situation with grave concern.”

The spokesman said “no one doubts in terms of the overall government” who is in charge in China, “but in terms of individual actions and individual decisions and motivations and responsibilities, that’s where we don’t know.”

“You can watch television and see who the government is, but in terms of individual actions and motivations . . . we don’t know,” he reiterated.

President Bush, in his televised news conference Thursday night, refused to fix blame for the massacre in Beijing but said it would be “extraordinarily difficult” to have ties with anyone responsible for the bloodshed.

Bush said the United States won’t have normal relations with China until the government there recognizes demands for democracy.

Despite a military crackdown that killed hundreds if not thousands of people in Beijing, however, Bush emphasized Thursday night that he wants to “preserve the relationship” with China.

For that relationship to be normal, however, he said, “it will take a recognition of the rights of individuals and respect for the rights of those who disagree.”

He said, “I don’t want to pass judgment on individual leaders, but I want to make very clear to those leaders and to the rest of the world that the United States denounces the kind of brutality that all of us have seen on our television.”

Pressed on whether he could maintain relations with anyone who ordered the firing on unarmed students, Bush said, “It would make it extraordinarily difficult.”