China In Turmoil : In Prosperous South, Calm Amid the Storm

While many Chinese cities erupted in fury last week as news spread about the massacre in Beijing, Canton and other areas of southern China surrounding it remained relatively calm.

Early in the week, a group of students briefly occupied two bridges over the Pearl River in Canton. But southern China witnessed none of the burning and looting that occurred in Chengdu, none of the citywide traffic blockages of Shanghai, none of the funeral marches seen in Shenyang.

More Independence

Canton’s relative tranquillity was the most telling evidence yet of the way southern China has evolved into a society different from the rest of the country, with an extraordinary degree of independence from the leadership in Beijing.

“It’s quite different here. These people all get along pretty well--the government, the security apparatus, the Communist Party and the military. And they generally all work together to keep things calm,” said one senior diplomat in Canton.

It’s not that people in southern China don’t care what happens in the north. But southern China has grown more prosperous than the rest of the country. And virtually no one wants to jeopardize the region’s stability, which depends heavily on preserving its ties to Hong Kong and the rest of the world.

The people in Guangdong province, which adjoins Hong Kong, “feel less politically aggrieved than people do elsewhere in China,” one Western diplomat here observed this week.

“Guangdong had the highest inflation rate in the country last year, but real incomes were still continuing to grow. People in south China actually liked the fact that the central government in Beijing seemed to be losing control, so that they could be left alone to do their own thing.”

After the People’s Liberation Army’s murderous assault on Beijing’s Tian An Men Square last weekend, it took a day or two before other cities in China learned of the massacre.

The news spread by word of mouth--sometimes from frightened Beijing residents fleeing to other parts of the country, sometimes from Beijing students purposely fanning out across China to let their compatriots know what had happened.

Took to Streets

Throughout much of China, young people took to the streets, sitting down on railroad bridges, barricading major thoroughfares and in a few cases overturning cars and burning buildings.

Tensions were highest in the cities of Shanghai, Xian and Chengdu. But telephone checks in recent days make it plain that the tumult spread in one way or another to most Chinese cities in north ern and central China.

For example, in Manchuria, in northeastern China, virtually all of the major cities in the region had serious disorders. In the cities of Shenyang and Changchun, the situation grew serious enough that there were rumors that authorities were on the verge of declaring martial law.

In Changchun, municipal and Communist Party leaders were forced to broadcast warnings that erecting traffic barricades was against the law.

Two other cities, Harbin and Dalian, also had major demonstrations and upheavals.

Auto Factory

Changchun is China’s Detroit, the home of its largest automobile plant, the Changchun Number One Auto Factory. According to a knowledgeable foreign source, there were credible reports that half the workers in the factory went on strike early last week to protest the massacre in Beijing.

A source in Shenyang, the site of a wave of funeral marches and demonstrations, said that tensions seemed to peak on Tuesday and Wednesday, as more and more young people got the news of the massacre.

On Saturday, the Shenyang resident said, “Things seem to be getting back to normal.” Demonstrations in the city were said to have stopped, and university campuses had emptied. Funeral wreaths placed around the city earlier in the week were being removed.

By the weekend, a semblance of order was returning to other cities, too.

“Things are definitely quieting down, and this seems to be nationwide,” said a Hong Kong-based diplomat monitoring the situation throughout China.

Relatively Quiet

Except, of course, for Canton and the rest of South China, where the situation remained relatively quiet all week.

On Monday, there were student demonstrations in Canton and a memorial service for the victims of the PLA’s military attack in Beijing. One demonstration blocked the People’s Bridge and a main downtown intersection near Liberation Square. But the demonstration was limited and short-lived.

There were rumors that rail traffic was being disrupted in South China, but an official at the U.S. Consulate in Canton said that the trains appeared to be running normally.

ISLAND OF CALM In northeastern China, many cities--including Shenyang, Harbin, Dalian and Changchun--erupted in fury as news spread of the troop assault last weekend in Beijing’s Tian An Men Square. The unrest has rocked Chengdu in central Sichuan province, Xian in Shaanxi province and especially Shanghai, China’s biggest city. Yet southern Guangdong province, which has seen more prosperity, has been a picture of relative calm.