Students battle in Shanghai

Press, 11 July 1979, Page 8

Students battle in Shanghai

NZPA-Reutir Peking Several young Africans and Arabs ae in hospital in Shanghai alter a pitched battle with stone-throwing Chinese felow students, according to reports reaching Peking.

Student soirees in the port city say 12 African and Arab students are being treated for i jiries suffered in nearly thne days of clashes at the Sianghai Textile Institute last week, Other reports say 16 have been admitted to hospital. About 50 stuients from Third World cointries are believed to be Studying at the institute. Diplomats in Peking say they believe the uninjured have been taken to a hotel outside Shanghai to avoid further violence. The student sources say tronble flared on July 3 when one foreign student refused to turn down his radio at night as requested by a Chinese. Fighting broke out immediately, with casualties on both sides. The clashes resumed the next norning when a poster appeared on the foreigners’ building accusing them of being criminals, the sources say, that the violence went o» for almost three days.

The sources say Chinese students besieged the build ing, throwing rocks and stones, and the police made no attempt to intervene. Some foreigners are said to have been assaulted when they tried to leave the building.

There has been no official Chinese comment on the incidents, and foreign embassies in Piking say they have received only sketchy reports.

Western stutents say that relations betoreen Chinese and Third W»rld students have been terse for some time at several institutions around the coirttry. Clashes were reported in April at the Hydraulics Institute ini Nanjing. *