Many Troops Have Left Beijing, but Martial Law Will Continue
Troops have pulled out of Beijing in large numbers this week, diplomats said Thursday, but China’s Communist Party leaders indicated that martial law in the capital would continue.
A city of tents near Shahe airport, outside the capital, has disappeared and troops from the northeastern city of Shenyang sent to put down the student-led democracy movement in June have returned to base.
Diplomats estimated that about 15,000 troops remain on active duty in Beijing out of an original 100,000 or so mobilized for martial law, declared May 20 after the biggest anti-government protests since the 1949 revolution. The large-scale withdrawal began at the end of July and gathered pace over the last week, they said.
Government spokesman Yuan Mu, in an interview with a Japanese newspaper published Thursday, said martial law “will not be lifted for the time being.”
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that soldiers loyal to President Yang Shangkun detained the defense minister and several commanders in a dispute over a top military post vacated by Zhao Ziyang, the purged Communist Party boss.
Quoting Chinese sources, the AP article from Hong Kong said President Yang, a central figure in the martial-law crackdown on the student-led pro-democracy movement, apparently ordered the action to strengthen his control of the Chinese military.
It said soldiers loyal to Yang went to the Beijing residence of Defense Minister Qin Jiwei on Wednesday evening and took him and one of his armed guards away.
Other troops detained the heads of the Beijing, Canton and Nanjing military regions, who supported Qin and were in Beijing for an important meeting, the Chinese sources said.
Control of the military is essential in high-level Chinese politics. Senior leader Deng Xiaoping’s only official post is chairman of the Central Military Commission, China’s top military body.
Qin and Yang have been competing to get the No. 2 spot on the commission, left vacant by Zhao’s dismissal June 24.
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