Fugitive Chinese Student Says Democracy Campaign Is Still Alive

At 20, Shen Tong is already an outlaw in the eyes of the Chinese government, which has posted his name on a list of 21 students wanted for activities in the pro-democracy movement.

The lanky, self-assured Shen, who escaped China and arrived in the United States on June 11, said Friday that while he fears for his safety, he intends to continue fighting for democracy in his homeland.

“We have to try our best,” he said. “This movement is still a movement.”

Shen, who is studying biology at Brandeis University, broke a self-imposed silence and gave an interview before a news conference in which he declared the Chinese student movement victorious.

Shen helped organize student demonstrations at Beijing University and was also a leader of a student group that tried May 18 to negotiate conditions with Premier Li Peng for the students to leave Tian An Men Square.

He was about one mile from Tian An Men on June 3-4, when Chinese troops bore down with tanks and guns on the demonstrators and the people of Beijing.

Men standing beside him were shot dead, he said.

“Beijing people were very brave,” Shen said. “They didn’t leave the street but walked around the bodies and in front of the soldiers. All of the soldiers were crazy, shooting people. I was just another brave Beijing person.

“I wasn’t frightened. The strongest feeling was anger. I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

Shen escaped China under circumstances he refuses to reveal. He also declined to disclose anything about his family.

Shen belonged to the Olympic Institute, one of the groups that built the strategy and momentum of the pro-democracy movement.

The original aim of the students, he said, was to include the Communists in their efforts. But by fighting the student-led movement, the party showed it no longer is of the people but is their enemy, he said.