Exiled Student Sees New Hope for China

Standing before a towering replica of the Goddess of Democracy, the statue built by students in Beijing as a symbol of their quest for greater liberties, student leader Wuer Kaixi fixed his audience with an intense, doleful gaze.

“Some people say the democracy movement of 1989 is over,” he said. “Some say China is hopeless at the moment. I want to say the hope is just beginning.”

Referring to the statue that students patterned after the Statue of Liberty and that the military destroyed in its bloody crackdown on student protesters last month, Wuer told 600 Chinese students Friday in Chicago, “I believe we will be united and we will erect a Goddess of Democracy (again) on Tian An Men Square someday.”

Lectured Li Peng

Wuer, one of the fugitive students most wanted by the Chinese authorities for his role in organizing the student revolt in Beijing, first came to the attention of Americans when television cameras captured him, weak from a hunger strike, lecturing Premier Li Peng in a meeting during the demonstrations.

The charismatic 21-year-old brought that same seriousness of purpose to Chicago on Friday. Under heavy guard, their movements cloaked in secrecy, Wuer and five other organizers of the Chinese protests are here this weekend to attend what is being called the “First Congress of Chinese Students in the United States.”

It is an organizational meeting of more than 600 activists from 200 colleges nationwide who want to lobby the U.S. government, raise funds and establish a radio station and newspaper to carry the pro-democracy message to the people of China.

Wuer was one of the handful of student leaders who escaped China after the military crackdown June 3-4 in which hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people reportedly were killed. Many of the leaders fled to Hong Kong and later to Paris and are now are working to rally support for their cause.

On the first day of the three-day conference, the students received videotaped messages of support from Illinois Sens. Paul Simon and Alan J. Dixon, both Democrats who have supported the students’ movement in Congress.

Wuer also exchanged vows of support with Hubert Romanowski, the U.S. representative of the Polish Solidarity movement, who attended the conference. Afterward, the student leader said they agreed to hold a formal meeting to discuss what Romanowski described as their common struggle against government oppression.

In a news conference, Wuer, speaking through an interpreter, said the goal of the democracy movement is not to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party but to obtain for the Chinese people the right to choose what type of government they want to live under.

“I have never said . . . we are going to overthrow communism,” he said. “I have been repeatedly emphasizing that the primary thing we would do is give the people the right to choose.”

In response to a question about whether the movement might eventually join the Chinese government, as the Polish Solidarity movement has done in Poland, Wuer said: “First of all, we have to struggle for the right of people to choose. As for the question of whether we will join the government or whether we will be the government, that is something for the future.”

Wuer and Yan Jaiqi, former director of the Political Science Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, were kept in seclusion after arriving in Chicago on Wednesday because of concern for their safety, according to Minxin Pei, a Harvard University student and spokesman for the conference.

He said Chinese students at universities in the United States have faced harassment from Chinese officials, including threats because of pro-democracy activities.

Rumors of Taiwan Meeting

At Friday’s news conference, Wuer also denied rumors that he met formally with a representative of the Taiwanese government to enlist Taiwan’s aid. He declined to say whether they might hold informal meetings.

China has claimed that Taiwanese agents helped instigate the student protests.

“To us, anyone who opposes dictatorship is our friend,” said Li Lu, another of the student-leaders-in-exile attending the conference. “Those who support it, our enemy.”