Chinese authorities get tougher

Press, 1 June 1989, Page 10

Chinese authorities get tougher

NZPA-Reuter Peking

China’s communist authorities yesterday showed mounting anger towards students and workers occupying Peking’s Tiananmen Square, but the mass prodemocracy demonstration gave no sign of going away. “Immediately restore the solemn face of Tiananmen Square,” ordered a front-page story in the official “Peking Daily,” reflecting a tougher official approach to several thousand students who have occupied the square since May 13. “Do not poke fun at China’s patriotic feel-

ings,” the newspaper said. Statements published in official newspapers demanded that students remove a giant nearreplica of the Statue of Liberty which they unveiled in the square on Tuesday facing the world-famous portrait of the former leader, Mao Tse-tung. “In the last month a small minority of people have used the patriotic passion of young students to create disorder and turn our great, impressive, clean and beautiful Tiananmen Square into a virtual rubbish heap,” the “Peking Daily” quoted a city worker as saying.

In spite of a Communist Party power struggle apparently resulting in the forced resignation of the party leader, Zhao Ziyang, students encamped in refugee-like conditions in Tiananmen Square have largely been spared official wrath. The hardline Prime Minister, Li Peng, declared martial law in Peking on May 20, but the ban on protests was ignored by the students. An estimated 100,000 to 150,000 troops backed by armour are encamped around Peking but have made no visible move to enter the city since thousands of unarmed civilians blocked their path after the martial law de-

claration. The “Peking Daily” quoted middle-school teachers as expressing “extreme sorrow” that this year’s children festival on June 1 could not go ahead in Tiananmen Square. They called on the students “to return the square to the people.” At daybreak about 10,000 students and workers were gathered in the square, mainly crowded around their 10m high polystyrene and plaster statue. At mid-morning, 10 policemen linked arms in front of their headquarters near the square to guard against about 40 students protesting

against the reported arrest on Tuesday of three members of a rebel workers’ union. Police have made no statement on the arrest of the workers, but the official New China News Agency on Tuesday said demonstrating motorbike riders had been arrested for disturbing public order and 11 people were being held pending further investigation. Students are sticking to their plan to occupy the square until June 20, when a session of the National People’s Congress, China’s Parliament, is due to discuss the “chaos and anarchy" that demonstrations have caused.