Ninety- nine years of editorial freedom
- --Vol. XCIX, NO. 5-S Ann Arbor, Michigan - Friday, June 9, 1989 n 1I; Dil

300 condem

massacres

BY LINDA KIM movement and its demands for a the Chinese Student Union, the
Over 300 students/monstrated faster pace of political and economic Chinese Student Solidarity Union,
in the Diag Tuesday to condemn reform. By the time of the massacre, and the Emergency Action
Chinese government massacres and the students had created a diverse Committee, Chinese students at the
to demand US action. movement with some demanding a University have been working hard
"It is not surprising that the mili- multi-party democracy, some favor- to support the students in China in
tary is going against the students, ing peaceful reform of the their struggle for democracy. They
but we never imagined-such a mas- Communist Party, others favoring have already sent financial donations
sacre could happen.We didn't know its violent overthrow and almost ev- of up to $8500 overseas, said
that it would ever be this bad," said eryone demanding a faster pace of re- Rackham graduate student and trea-
Wackham graduate student Hui He, form, an end to government corrup- surer of the Emergency Action
chair of the Chinese Student Union tion and the resignation of Li Peng Committee, Zheng Lou.
and a coordinator of the demonstra- and Deng Xiaoping, the top gov- Some of the goals of the three
tion. ernment leaders in China. campus organizations include help-
Last Saturday, Chinese troops "China is on the verge of a civil ing to establish an independent stu-
opened fire on protesting students war. The situation is unpredictable, dent newspaper in China, to have a
occupying the key public square of but the students realize that they legal student organization recognized
the capital of China, killing any- cannot rely on leaders. They must by the government, to direct live
where from 200 to over tens of depend on democracy," Hui said. coverage between students and the
thousands of students and workers, "We will be seeing some kind of a government, and to do something
Wcording to news reports. change, whether it is a completely about the corruption, said Zheng.
The protests of the past month new system, or just a little change The groups have already written let-
started when students honored the - if it takes a few months or sev- ters and telegrams to various mem-
dead former Communist Party head eral years. Definitely China will bers of congress and other US gov-
Hu Yaobang, who was known as never be the same again." ernment officials.
relatively sympathetic to the student Through the combined efforts of "We want President Bush to

speak more strongly to support the
democratic movement," said Zheng.
"The only way to change is by a
true revolution," said Xinbing Liu,
member of the CSSU. "Students in
the last month have followed non-
violent methods like Ghandi and
Martin Luther King. They were suc-
cessful in their own ways, but under
Chinese communist rule, peace may
not be the right way. A civil war
may change the course of China for-
ever. Many students are waiting to
sacrifice their lives for China. We
must take fundamental extreme mea-
sures - and maybe that means a
revolution."
But Prof. Joseph Lee, a speaker
at the rally, said that revolution was
not the solution for the Chinese
people.
"In order to have democracy and
liberty, the Chinese people and lead-
ers must have a sitting down to-
gether," said Lee,"they must learn to

share their differences as well as their
common desires in order to have a
good life for the people. They have
to learn that democracy cannot come
by brutality, but by a willingness to
understand and listen. It requires self-
respect."
Prof. Jin Do Dai stressed the im-
portance of active support to "do ow
utmost to reach this goal for the
young people who are lying dead."
Many believe the violence has
demonstrated the urgent need for re-
form within the Chinese govern-
ment.
"There have been a lot of casual-
ties. But this has wakened the people
up," said Zheng. "It has created the
first push in channelling the move-
ment forward."
The rally held at the University
served a dual purpose. The opening
remarks by Hui He were dedicated to
those who died. The latter part served
to make the public aware of the ser-
iousness of the situation in China.