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WORLD REPORT Outside agitators for democracy From the U.S., Chinese students fight on hina’s democracy movement was unrest from outside would be futile. Ear- not all flower power. Behind the lier exile movements, like that of Sun C harmony in Ticnanmen Square Yat-sen, which helped overthrow the were rival factions, whose secrecy and Ch’ing dynasty in 1911, relied on allies leadership struggles sometimes mim- and uprisings within the country. But no icked the Communist regime the stu- organized resistance can operate today dents were demonstrating against. Since under the totalitarian thumb of Deng. the June 4 massacre, Beijing’s Revolu- Glimmers of opposition burn on in tion Central has moved to the United China: Isolated acts of sabotage, an illegal States, which has the world’s biggest student gathering, a letter threatening Sntingent of mainland students outside terrorist killings. Some student activists in «Jhina and now the largest number of the United States concede that while their Chinese activists anywhere. Factionalism own movement is avowedly nonviolent, had been transplanted even earlier. It the violence of others can enhance their reached B-movie dimensions last week bargaining power. A fringe group is urg- ing Taiwan to launch commando raids. when, on the eve of a nationwide “unity” vvu iu ui IIIUUU I. rrepunrig IU uizinuuie uit: conference in Chicago, But virtually everyone agrees that a large-scale several Chinese student upheaval is unlikely. “I groups played capture can’t conceive of an up- the flag with the best- rising in China in the known living symbol of near future,” says Su the student revolt, the Shaozhi, one of China’s flamboyant hunger leading intellectuals, striker Wuer Kaixi. who escaped the Deng Wuer, who was dragnet in early June smuggled out of China and attended the Paris in early June and then and Chicago meetings. kept under tight securi- Su and others also dis- ty in Paris for several miss chances of an Army weeks, was spirited revolt, at least as long as away from O’Hare Air- the powers behind the port to stop him from June crackdown, Deng Wuer Kaixi flying on to Boston, as Xiaoping and President he had planned, or from Yang Shangkun, are railing into the hands of rival groups. A alive and in control. Safe haven. Asking Washington to few days later, he appeared on a Chicago This leaves militant students abroad with platform, along with other prominent es- two missions: Keeping the Tienan- men spirit working to ensure their own safety by capees, including Yan Jiaqi, a political alive by assembling archives, pamphleteering persuading Congress to waive requirements that adviser to China's recently purged party and somehow beaming their message back they return home anytime soon. So far, they boss. Their object was to boost the effort home, and keeping up indirect pressure on have proven remarkably effective lobbyists. by U.S.-based Chinese students lo weld Beijing by lobbying foreign governments for Representative Joe Barton (R-Tex.), who dozens of local organizations and a host economic boycotts. The reasoning behind the introduced a bill that would extend the students’ sanctions campaign is simple. China is already of aspiring politicians into a single de- visas, noted that Chinese lobbying has been so heading for economic crisis. Withholding mocracy movement. A week earlier in energetic that he received 800 letters about the credit, investment and certain kinds of trade Chinese in one week, more than on any issue Paris, Wuer and Yan were among the will not only hasten its decline but also apart from catastrophic health care for the founders of a Front of Democratic Chi- strengthen the hand of the remaining reformers elderly. Senate Majority Leader George na, intended to lead a worldwide resis- in their battle with hard-liners. Professor Su Mitchell (D-Mc.) acknowledges that he got in- tance struggle. It remains to be seen also argues for suspending academic volved in drafting protective legislation for the whether these will be competitive or co- exchanges to reinforce Beijing’s sen.se of Chinese as a result of student operative campaigns. quarantine. America’s academic ’ Dreams am! illusions. Exiles from Deng Xiaoping's China, stranded students and senior dissidents alike, have potent persuasion. He says that he will attach dreams but few illusions. Their aim is to mun.iy . 'morph divide..' on * hi. j the Mitcheli-Dole amendment, now part oust the regime that ordered tanks to MJIC. rations foo- ■ peer, can- > of a threatened immigration act, to suc- crush the democracy movement. B»u mors are going a r -ad j cessiye bills until it gets they know that any attempt to foment students now r passed. All the u the U.S are : pending bills would allow students to U.S.NE-.VS & WORLt REPORT, t v r. 7 . 19*9 expired visas have applied for this special status. HISTORY LESSONS The crackdown has concentrated the students’ minds on the dangers they face. Harvard’s Chinese Student Association polled Dissidents some 600 students throughout the country and found that, whereas 58 percent intended to then and now return to China before the massacre, fewer than 1 percent arc sure about returning now; 30 percent want to become permanent U.S. resi- or 40 years, the Communist dents, up from 4 percent, and an additional 54 Party has inculcated Chinese F youth with tales of the revolu- percent are waiting to see which way the political winds blow in China. tionary ardor of their forebears. Threat and retribution. Some Chinese History books extol the student students report cold political drafts even on demonstrators of the 1920s and U.S. campuses. These have come in the form of 1930s for their acts of courage and WANTED threatening visits from Chinese consular love of motherland. They credit FOR officials, mysterious telephone calls and the protesters with awakening a harassment by fellow students acting as nationalist spirit in the Chinese informers. One Harvard activist moved to a people and ultimately sweeping new apartment and obtained an unlisted phone the Communists to power. This number after receiving a call with Chinese spring, as students of a new gener- funeral music in the background. Intimidation ation took to the streets calling for is a two-way street. The computer networks, political reform and an end to which Chinese students use to coordinate official corruption, it was apparent strategy, have recently carried lists of the that they had learned their history names of children of high-ranking Chinese lessons well. Too well, in fact. Last npno XlJop'y week, the Communist Party closed dissident magazine, China Spring leaders studying in this country, with the implied, anonymous threat. the Beijing University history de- Fear of retribution has been reinforced by partment to further enrollment. reports from Beijing about the use of television The U.S. role. Chinese students film to identify protesters. An official of the abroad also draw justification for New York consulate confirmed that it has been their political actions from official videotaping demonstrations in the United Communist Party history. When States. Even so, many thousands of Chinese Sun Yat-sen, the grandfather of students have joined the struggle over the past the modern Chinese state, set out several months. At a press conference in late to establish a democratic republic, June, for instance, some 300 students who were he turned for support to Chinese card-carrying members of the Communist Party communities in Hawaii and main- publicly renounced their membership. Attempts land U.S. and to students in Japan at intimidation notably failed to restrain the and Europe. In October, 1911, the participants in the Chicago meeting, who victory of Sun’s United League in denounced the “murderous” Chinese regime. Wuchang was the death knell of But they slopped short of calling for the over- the moribund Ch’ing dynasty. throw of China’s Communist Party. A decade later, some of China’s As seasoned experts in Marxist hair- most prominent personalities cut splitting, Chinese know the weight of words. their political teeth in Europe. In And they know, too, that their hopes for a 1921, Chou En-lai helped found a democratic China must rest, at least in the first Chinese Communist Party in Par- stage, on forces within the Communist Party is. He returned to China to orga- itself. “We can’t expect an opposition party to nize worker uprisings and was emerge even in 10 years,” says Ding Xueliang, China’s Premier for 26 years until a Harvard activist. “What we hope is that his death in 1976. reasonable elements in the party will turn it in Not all returning students have new directions.” For this to happen, Ciiinese fared so well. In 1930, 28 Mos- say. pressure must be applied cow-trained ideologues returned Phone work. Organizing from Poston home to lead China’s fledgling Communist movement. But the re- remain in the U.S. for three or four years and turned students soon found them- allow them to work, unless the President selves on a coiiision course with certifies that it is safe for them to return to Mao. Spouting Marx, they insisted China. • h f ivvnli'finn h<* wnn in lTi/» houses for goingbeyond .»;> administra- from all sides. The 40,000 Chinese stu- ! dents '.be lion measure that: give: Chinese stu- ar's U.S. are one source. Politi- • cians and ei;;: .s vlao backed a more agrarian- dents a -single yegrace and requires their businessmen in the U.S., Eu- | rope and Japan are a oriented approach. Mao, the tried them to declareneed for o safe ild make • ignifican t ot her.