Fugitive Student Leader Says Regime in Beijing Will Fall

A student leader of the recent demonstrations in Beijing’s Tian An Men Square, in hiding after escaping arrest in China, said in a videotape released Tuesday that the Chinese government will fall because it is “an enemy of the people.”

The videotape, aired in the United States by NBC News, showed pro-democracy activist Wuer Kaixi, 21, speaking from an undisclosed location. NBC said the videotape was provided exclusively to the network.

“This kind of government does not have the power to last very long,” Wuer said on the tape, because it has become an “enemy of the people.”

Much of the world was outraged when Chinese troops massacred the pro-democracy demonstrators June 3-4 in Beijing. Chinese authorities insist that only about 200 people, half of them soldiers, died, but other sources placed the death toll in the thousands.

“Many of my fellow students are lost forever,” Wuer said. “From the beginning, we never thought things would go so far.”

Sources have said that Wuer and two other key intellectuals avoided arrest during the crackdown after the military assault and fled through the Portuguese enclave of Macao to Hong Kong.

Western diplomats say scores of leading intellectuals associated with the pro-democracy movement or with ousted Communist Party chief Zhou Ziyang are being sought for arrest in China.