China Accuses Beaten Foreign Journalists of Lawbreaking

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday that foreign journalists who were beaten a day earlier in Tian An Men Square were breaking the law. He cited an unknown or nonexistent law to back up his accusation.

Spokesman Wu Jianmin, at a tense and heavily attended news conference, charged that Japanese television cameraman Atsushi Yamagiwa, who was severely beaten by plainclothes police while videotaping scenes in the square, had, along with other correspondents, broken a law requiring journalists to obtain advance permission for any reporting in the square.

He called the incident “tragic” but portrayed it as entirely Yamagiwa’s fault.

Police have in the past occasionally claimed that such a law exists. No correspondent in Beijing has seen a copy of the law, however, and the office charged with administering it--the Beijing City Foreign Affairs Office--denied its existence only a few days ago. The Foreign Ministry had not previously spoken of such a law.

Security at the square remained extremely tight Thursday, with Beijing enveloped in an atmosphere of repression as it passed the third anniversary of the June 3-4, 1989, massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators.

Late in the afternoon, in what appeared to be a self-sacrificing act of remembrance or protest, a man with short-cropped hair and a deep suntan who appeared to be in his late 20s slipped quietly past a chain-link barrier to walk up steps of the Monument to the People’s Heroes in the middle of the square.

This monument was the central gathering point for the 1989 demonstrations, and it was the ultimate goal of troops who shot their way into the city center to crush the protests.

It long has carried political significance as a place of mourning. A posted sign forbids visitors from crossing the chain barrier.

The man was quickly detained by uniformed guards, photographed by plainclothes police and driven away. He remained calm throughout and spoke softly with his captors.

Wednesday evening, police had detained a former political prisoner and unofficial labor union organizer, Han Dongfang, and two other people when they walked into the square, according to a friend of Han. They were released Thursday morning, but by evening Han and his wife were under house arrest.

The incident could raise further questions about whether Han will be permitted to travel abroad, an issue that has been a sore point in official U.S.-Chinese relations.

During a visit to Beijing in early May, Arnold L. Kanter, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, told a news conference that Chinese officials had informed him that exit permits had been granted for Han, 28, and another former political prisoner, Liu Qing, 45. Han was imprisoned for 22 months for his role in the 1989 protests, while Liu was imprisoned from 1979 to 1988 for earlier pro-democracy activism.

Han and Liu told reporters in the days after Kanter’s announcement that they did not have the exit documents and knew nothing of any decision to grant them.

Han was soon informed that he could apply for documents, but he still has not even been issued a passport.

Liu’s situation is not clear, but he also apparently does not yet possess travel documents.

A Western diplomat, speaking on condition that he not be further identified, said in mid-May that he believed the promise made to Kanter about Han and Liu would be kept and that doing so would be simply a matter of completing the procedures for the travel documents.

He indicated that he did not believe the Chinese had lied to Kanter.

But he added that he thought the U.S. Embassy would worry more about the matter if a month or so passed without Han and Liu actually receiving their documents.