Chinese Anger Over Embassy Attack Recedes

China’s major cities, racked by protests for days after NATO aircraft bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, were calm Tuesday and early today as news of apologies from President Clinton for the alliance miscue filtered belatedly through the country.

But there were fears that public anger here could reignite after the remains of three Chinese journalists who were killed in the bombing were returned to Beijing today.

Relatives of the victims arrived from Belgrade on a special plane with the ashes about 10 this morning. They were greeted by an array of senior Chinese leaders wearing dark suits with white flowers pinned to their lapels, a symbol of mourning. Nearly a thousand students and workers also gathered on the tarmac, many crying as the father of 28-year-old Zhu Ying carried two red cloth-draped boxes with the ashes of Zhu and her husband, Xu Xinghu, 31. The 19-year-old son of Shao Yunhan, the third victim, followed with her remains. The more than 20 diplomats and embassy staff members who were injured also arrived, and ambulances whisked them to hospitals.

Across Beijing, flags flew at half-staff. At the U.S. Embassy, where Ambassador James R. Sasser had been trapped by protesters until this morning, U.S. Marines lowered the Stars and Stripes as well.

During furious demonstrations across China after the bombing, protesters had said they would stay in the streets until the United States apologized. Although Clinton expressed condolences and regret, China’s state media did not report his statement until Tuesday, a day later, and Chinese officials indicated that they are still dissatisfied.

The midday national news broadcast Tuesday led with a meeting between Chinese President Jiang Zemin and an official from Kiribati, a Pacific island nation. A video clip of Clinton didn’t appear until 20 minutes into the 30-minute program.

“They were so indifferent,” Li Zhaoxing, China’s ambassador to Washington, said on CNN of the apologies of some NATO country leaders. “They simply said, ‘Well, we’re sorry.’ Then they shrugged their shoulders and walked away.”

In his first direct comments on the protests, President Jiang Zemin called NATO’s bombing “a provocation to 1.2 billion Chinese people” and praised the protests as showing “the great patriotic spirit of the Chinese people.”

In addition to a full and formal apology for the Saturday attack, Beijing has demanded an open and thorough investigation of the bombing, which the North Atlantic Treaty Organization says was an accident, and punishment for those at fault.

Washington is addressing those requests, U.S. officials say. “The presidential letter and public statement ought to fulfill their demands,” said Bill Palmer, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy here.

After three days of raucous and sometimes violent demonstrations, calm returned to Beijing’s diplomatic area Tuesday. Having earlier supported “legal protests,” the government began trying to dampen public anger.

“We are working on creating a cooler atmosphere, to make students more sophisticated in expressing their anger,” a university official in Shanghai said. “It is understandable that they want to protest. But we are telling them now that they should observe the law and not neglect their studies.”

Marchers continued to parade Tuesday in Beijing along an officially sanctioned protest route in front of Western embassies, though there were far fewer demonstrators than in previous days and they were stripped of rocks and bottles by police. British Ambassador Charles Galsworthy, who had been trapped in his embassy since Saturday, was able to leave Tuesday.

Protesters focused on the U.S. Embassy a block and a half down the street, where on previous days they had shattered nearly all the windows, started two small fires with Molotov cocktails and splattered the facade with paint. Ambassador Sasser was finally escorted out of the battered compound by embassy staff members today.

Some protesters took their fury to cyberspace, hacking into several U.S. government public information Web sites, including those of the White House and the departments of Energy and the Interior, and leaving the slogan “Down with the barbarians” on the home page of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. The White House Web site was shut down for at least 24 hours starting Monday evening, a spokesman said.

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Farley reported from Shanghai and Chu from Beijing.