2The Tar HeelThursday, June 8, 1969
World and Nation
Divided
From Associated Press reports
BEIJING Armies loyal to hard
line and moderate government lead
ers traded gunfire Tuesday, witnesses
said. Citizens urged soldiers they
considered friendly to kill those who
crushed a popular movement for free
dom. The U.S. administration said it
appeared likely that China's senior
leaders had left Beijing. The State
Department in Washington urged the
1,440 Americans in Beijing to leave.
Three Chinese armies were re
ported in the Beijing area. Witnesses
said soldiers from the 27th and the
28th armies briefly fought each other,
but no casualties were listed.
It was the 27th that drove pro
democracy demonstrators from the
center of Beijing last Saturday on
orders from the hard-line hierarchy.
The 28th was believed loyal to Zhao
Ziyang, a moderate who challenged
the conservatives and was stripped
of his post as Communist Party leader.
White House press secretary Mar
lin Fitzwater said the United States
has been in contact with midlevel
Chinese officials but failed to con
tact top-level officials. "The assump
tion has been that the top-level people
China
and Taiwan also spoke. "As we
watch television, in tears we cried
out, 'No, no, no! You have no right! "'
said Chesei Liu, who spoke on be
half of UNC students from Taiwan.
After the speeches, organizers led
the crowd in chants. "Support Chi
nese democracy," "Down with the
Chinese government," they said.
The crowd marched with banners
and signs through the quad, down
Cameron Avenue and Columbia
Street, to the post office on Franklin
Street
The students collected signatures
Monday and Tuesday on a petition
they plan to send to Congress and
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army factiomis
have moved out to other locations,"
he said. "It's like the place is closed
down. There's no indication who the
leadership is."
On Tuesday, in the first appear
ance of a top official since the crack
down began, government spokesman
Yuan Mu said China is "not afraid"
of the universal condemnation that
greeted its action against the pro
democracy campaign. "The rebellion
has not been completely quelled,"
Yuan said. "The situation in the capi
tal remains very grim."
Soldiers continued firing into
crowds around Beijing four days af
ter troops began killing hundreds of
pro-democracy protesters in the most
violent suppression of a popular
movement in Communist China's 40
year history.
Witnesses said a small boy was
killed and a girl wounded in the head.
Police in riot gear cruised the streets
in vans as night fell, beating up and
shooting passers-by.
Anti-government demonstrations
spread to Shanghai, Nanjing, Ch
engdu, Shenyang and other cities.
Washington made arrangements
for U.S. airlines to fly Americans in
Beijing to safety. Other countries also
President Bush. They also collected
signatures on a letter of support that
they will send to China through Fax
machines.
"We want the U.S. government
and Congress to do something as a
member of the international commu
nity," said Weiqiao Wu, a graduate
student in sociology.
President Bush has already sus
pended military sales between the
Chinese and U.S. government and
visits between the two countries'
military leaders, and is urging Ameri
can citizens to leave China.
The students said they agreed with
these sanctions, but more may be
necessary if the violence continues.
"It's stopped being a political is
sue," said Weiqiao. "It concerns all
humanity."
Weiqiao, who was a student at
Beijing University before coming to
at
jMj rest"
urged their citizens to leave the capi
tal. A State Department official, speak
ing on condition of anonymity, said
China's most famous dissident, astro
physicist Fang Lizhi, was permitted
to take refuge in the U.S. Embassy in
Beijing.
President Bush told the Justice
Department not to move against Chi
nese whose visas have expired. De
partment spokeswoman Margaret
Tutwiler said they could stay indefi
nitely. Yuan said on television 300 people
were killed, including 23 students;
and 7,000 were injured and 400 sol
diers were missing. The evening TV
news said 32 people were arrested,
most of them for trying to set fire to
public buses.
Government casualty totals appear
to be low. Diplomats have estimated
the death toll at about 3,000.
The political struggle between
conservative and moderate factions
of the Communist Party intensified
as the military factions appeared to
take sides.
A report that senior leader Deng
Xiaoping had died added to the chaos.
The report, from Taiwan, was denied
from page 1
the United States, said he identifies
with the protesters in China. "People
who have been killed or injured could
very well have been my friends," he
said.
The Chinese Friendship Associa
tion collected more than $3000 for
the families of the protesters who were
killed. The association has not found
a secure way to send the money yet,
but they are determined that it will
get to China somehow, said Jijie Liu,
association president.
The Chinese students from UNC
also marched in Raleigh with Chi
nese students from Duke and N.C.
State University Wednesday.
"We want to form an American
front here," Jijie said. "We're all doing
the same thing, just in different
places."
"What the students were fighting
for is worth dying for that's what
we want to get across," said Keqing
Xia, a graduate student. "We will be
heard eventually."
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by the government.
Ming Pao, a Hong Kong newspa
per, said a young guard shot conser
vative Premier Li Peng in the thigh
on Sunday but the wounds were not
serious. It said the guard was shot to
death immediately.
Chinese sources said they heard
the man shot Li because a relative
was killed by soldiers in Tiananmen
Square, focus of the student protest
for democracy.
Zhao supported having a dialogue
with the students and was driven from
the leadership late last month in a
confrontation with Li, President Yang
Government sets
casualties at 300
From Associated Press reports
BEIJING The Chinese govern
ment says that 300 soldiers, "thugs,"
bystanders and students have been
killed during the martial law occupa
tion of Beijing.
But most other estimates of casu
alties are far higher. State Council
spokesman Yuan Mu said on Tues
day that 7,000 people, including 5,000
soldiers, have been injured and 400
other soldiers are missing and may
be dead or wounded.
Non-official sources say Yuan's
figures on civilian casualties are far
too low, but most have different esti
mates on the number of victims. They
range from 500 to 12,000 people slain.
In Washington, U.S. intelligence
reports indicate 3,000 people proba
bly were killed, according to a U.S.
official who spoke on condition of
anonymity. He said estimates of the
number of dead could go higher.
Nearly all of the deaths and inju
ries occurred Saturday night and early
Sunday when troops, firing randomly
into large crowds, smashed through
barricades to reach Tiananmen square
and attack demonstrators demanding
democratic reforms.
One doctor said Sunday that a
quick check of 10 hospitals placed
the death toll at 500.
Other sources, compiling various
reports and surveys, estimated more
than 1,000 people had been killed.
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gunfire
Shangkun and Deng, the conserva
tives who ordered the army action.
Most of the soldiers involved were
from the 27th Army, which is based
in Hebei province and apparently is
led by members of Yang's family.
The 27th, which fought China's brief
1979 war with Vietnam, invaded the
city Saturday night and rolled into
Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds
on its way.
On Tuesday afternoon, witnesses
said the 27th Army fought with sol
diers from Shanxi province's 28th
Army, believed loyal to Zhao. There
were no reports of casualties.
That number has increased with
additional details and rumors of kill
ings. Some officials of China's Red
Cross said 2,600 people were killed
but Beijing's Red Cross office has
refused to provide any figures.
One Hong Kong newspaper re
ported 5,000 deaths and 30,000 in
jured. An Eastern European diplomat,
whose country has good relations with
China, insisted that 12,000 people
were slain by soldiers as they attacked
protesters in Tiananmen Square.
That figure is certainly high. Proba
bly fewer than 10,000 people were in
the square when the troops moved in
and most were able to escape un
harmed. But students who had joined the
Tiananmen occupation said hundreds
of colleagues from the Academy of
Fine Arts who were huddled around
their "Goddess of Democracy" statue
in the square were shot or crushed by
tanks. Beijing University students said
150 of their fellow students who were
in the square are missing.
There were rumors that after the
square was cleared troops burned
many corpses in large bonfires and
other bodies were removed by heli
copters and garbage trucks to mini
mize the death count.
The exact number of people killed
may never be known.
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