Pressure to lift martial law in Peking

Press, 12 August 1989, Page 16

Pressure to lift martial law in Peking

NZPA-Reuter Peking China’s communist hardliners are weighing the consequences of lifting martial law in Peking in the face of passive protests, scattered resistance and huge financial losses, according to foreign diplomats. “A simmering rebellion” was how two diplomats described China after a recent tour of main cities. The lifting of martial law is believed to be an important discussion point among Chinese leaders plying back and forth between Peking and the coastal resort of Beidaihe, where the senior leader, Deng Xiaoping, is spending the summer. “As usual, different factions will have different ideas,” a Western diplomat commented. Premier Li Peng declared martial law in Peking on May 20 after the biggest anti-Govern-ment protests since the 1949 revolution drew more than a million people into the streets. Unarmed crowds blocked the first wave of troops on the edges of the city but two weeks later columns of tanks, trucks and armoured personnel carriers crashed through protestors to put down the student-led democracy movement in Tiananmen

Square. The tanks have ecae but the vast square is still closed to pedestrians and armed troops patrol the city. Although sceptical of claims by exiled dissidents that there is an organised underground opposition, residents say there is widespread passive resistance to the martial law authorities and unconfirmed accounts of isolated attacks on soldiers. One diplomat quoted an official internal document as saying four soldiers were strangled to death in a park in mid July. Shots are occasionally heard at night when main streets are mostly deserted, apart from military patrols. Some residents suspect snipers, a new breed of urban guerrilla, are at work. Others believe nervous soldiers are letting off warning shots. A defence attache recounted how a soldier was shot dead by a child on July 15 after he gave him his gun to play with. City spokesmen refuse to comment on anything about the army but official reports say many weapons were stolen on June 3 and 4 when the People’s Liberation Army, acting on Mr Deng’s orders, took control of the city. If any soldiers have

been killed since June 4, their deaths have not been made public. But in an unusual admission of dissent, the official “Economic Daily” said earlier this month that a man “with a crafty smile” had offered poisoned water to thirsty soldiers on patrol. “They saw through his plot.” Travellers on Peking’s subway said that on one occasion recently they were suddenly plunged into darkness to find antigovernment leaflets on the train when the lights came back on. A foreign resident said he found a pro-democracy leaflet in his mail. Apart from the loss of foreign visitors, China’s struggling economy is already suffering from a lack of new loans which were suspended after the unrest. “Lifting martial law would be a signal to the outside world to think about business again,” an Asian banker said. A Western diplomat said a police officer told him “martial law won’t last very long.” An Asian colleague quoted informed Chinese sources as saying it could be lifted by the end of the year. The authorities’ confidence will be tested on October 1 when communist China marks the fortieth anniversary of its founding.