Suppressing the Messenger

China waited until now to enforce the martial law controls on foreign reporters in Beijing that it first announced on May 20, but having decided that the time had come to act it has done so with severity. Two American reporters, Alan Pessin of the Voice of America and John Pomfret of the Associated Press, have been ordered to leave China for alleged “illegal” news-gathering. Pessin is charged with “spreading rumors” and “instigating turmoil and counter-revolutionary rebellion,” Pomfret with obtaining “state secrets.” The aim of these serious allegations is clear. The newsmen are being punished for filing stories the regime didn’t like, and at the same time every other foreign correspondent in China is being put on notice that fair and honest reporting could well invite official retaliation.

All this is of a piece with the regime’s current propaganda blitz to persuade the Chinese people that its story of what happened on June 4, when tanks bloodily crushed demonstrators who were appealing for more freedom, is the only true version of events. People in Beijing who saw what happened of course know otherwise. But for most Chinese, who must depend almost entirely on the government for information, official claims about what the rest of the world knows as the Beijing Massacre may in fact be credible. Exceptions might be found among those relatively few Chinese who are able to hear foreign shortwave news broadcasts. That’s a major reason why the VOA, which broadcasts to China in both Mandarin and English, is being attacked with particular harshness for supposedly spreading lies and rumors.

Meanwhile, the crackdown on dissenters goes on, and not only in China. Chinese students in the United States report that their rallies in support of the pro-freedom demonstrators have been videotaped by Chinese embassy and consular officials. A record has thus been made that can be used to identify--and so one day to punish--students who exercised those rights of assembly and free speech that their presence in the United States entitled them to.

The personal danger that now faces these young people if they return soon to China is very real. The U.S. government has already indicated that it is ready to extend the stay of any students who would be at risk because of their political activities. Events in China could well require that thousands of Chinese students now in this country be allowed to remain, to study and to take jobs, perhaps for an indefinite time. That is not a decision requiring a lot of debate. Given the probable behavior of a vengeful regime should the students return home, it is the only humane course to be taken.