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PERMIT NO. 13
Ninety- nine years of editorial freedom
Vol. XCIX, NO. 6-S Ann Arbor, Michigan -
Prof.
. discusses
youth as
e 16,1989 19
Student speaks
on China crisis
chosen*
people'
BY DIMA ZALATIMO
In comparing the Chinese and
Palestinian youth movements,
Political Science Professor Ali
Mazrui told an audience at the
Palestine Aid Society's fund raising
dinner that the Israelis have elimi-
nated a far bigger percentage of the
youth in the Occupied Territories
than the Chinese 27th army has in
China.
Speaking to an audience of about
200 students and community mem-
bers last Friday, Africanist Mazrui
said while the Palestinian Intifadah
which started in December of 1987
was a revolt against "military occu-
pation and a demand for self determi-
nation, the recent Chinese revolt was
* against corruption and dictatorship
and a demand for a more open soci-
ety in China."
Mazrui reflected on the wider the-
ories suggested by the Chinese and
Palestinian movements. He said his-
torically there have been various
groups in society which perform de-
cisive roles in changing social cir-
cumstances.
Mazrui said that while Social
Darwinism singled out the fittest in
a struggle for survival, racial
Darwinism singled out a chosen
race, Marxism singled out the cho-
sen class, the proletariat, and the
Jewish concept of a chosen people
singled out a religious group, all
these theories and ideologies have
ignored the "chosen age grade."
He said the historical role of the
younger generation has been more
convincingly demonstrated in the
Third World than in the First and
Second Worlds. Mazrui cited the role
played by students and youths in
bringing about social change in
Ethiopia in 1974; in Iran under the
Shah in 1978-79; in overthrowing
President Ja'afar Numeri in Sudan in
1985, and in South Korea 1987-88
where students made major gains in
See youth, Page 2
BY AARON ALIZADEH
"We don't know of our future,
we only know that today we must
fight, and with your support we will
someday overcome; we will win,"
said Xianghui Zhang, a University
PhD student in Computer
Engineering, and member of the
Chinese Solidarity Movement.
Zhang's talk last night, titled
"China in Crisis," was presented as
one in a series of talks sponsored by
the Ecumenical Campus Center fo-
cusing upon world issues.
Zhang spent the first part of his
talk discussing the development of
the democratic movement in China.
"In 1986 there were also mass
demonstrations, the pro-democracy
movement is not new to China," he
said.
Zhang said this year's student
outbursts began with the April 15
death of Secretary General Hu; a
Chinese government official known
to have been tolerant towards the
pro-democracy movement.
On April 18, several thousand
students gathered in Tiananmen
Square to mourn Hu's death. Zhang
continued to outline the now well-
publicized course of events, high-
lighting the April 29th refusal by
the government to accept student
demands; the May13th hunger strike
by 3,000 students; the May 20th
declaration of Marshal law by
Premiere Li Pend; and, on June 4th,
the final culmination of the unrest,
in which according to the estimates
of the Chinese Red Cross, 3,600
people were killed, and over 10,000
injured.
Zhang said that the student de-
mands, contrary to popular belief,
were not so radical as to call for the
downfall of the government, or even
immediate free elections.
"The students called only for a
limited democracy with the imple-
mentation of basic human rights
such as freedom of speech, freedom
of the press, and freedom of associa-
tion."
The most dramatic part of the
talk came when Zhang recounted the
brutality of the June 4 massacre.
"The Army prohibited ambu-
lances from entering the square.
Most of the injured were therefore
taken to the hospitals by bikes.
According to doctors most people
were shot in the back, while trying
to flee. Soldiers shot nine doctors
trying to give blood, and entered
hospitals and cut off oxygen sup-
plies to those injured. They even
burned the bodies in order to destroy
the evidence."
"The government is trying to
rewrite history. Hitler's propaganda
minister had a saying: if you repeat a
lie a thousand times, that lie will
become a truth."
BILL WOOD/Daily
Speak about destruction
The $8.1 million demolition of Old Main, now nearly complete, was
financed by Hospital Capital Reserve - essentially the profits
which the $285 million Replacement Hospital has made.
'U' faculty offer insights on
BY WENDY WORTHEN ageable irritant - the students did offered an explanation of what type
Analyzing the political, eco- not challenge the system itself. The of "democracy" the Beijing students
nomic, and intellectual implications protesters did become a fundamental have been fighting for.
of the Chinese government's brutal challenge, however, when those at "At one end, some students want
crackdown on the student-led democ- the top became divided as to how to to be treated as individuals with in-
racy movement in Beijing, six fac- handle the problem," said Lieberthal. dividual rights. They want govern-
ulty members from the Center for Economics Prof. Robert ment tolerance of independent stu-
Chinese Studies spoke to a crowd of Dernberger, a former congressional dent organizations," said Monroe.
300 at Hutchins Hall on Tuesday. advisor on the Chinese economy, of- "(teCieepol)aemr
Prof. Kenneth Lieberthal, director adio nteCieeeooy f ...(the Chinese people) are more
of the CCS, was visiting China dur- fered his views on the role of eco- clear on the right to individual orga-
ofg the CCSnwa vitinhnadcre - nomics. He said the hardline con- nization. For them, student organiza-
Tiananmen Square. He opened the servatives who won control of the tions and free labor unions-plural-
forum by discussing developments Chinese leadership now face extreme ism of organization- would be
in the Chinese leadership since the economic problems, the most press- democracy."
student protests began. ing being a huge decrease in foreign Political Science Prof. Leonard
"The octogenarians at the highest exchange as other countries levy Woodcock, a former U.S.
levels of China's government saw economic sanctions against China. Ambassador to China, gave a broader
China
"Corruption, nepotism, and infla-
tion have become ever-more disturb-
ing problems to the Chinese. The
government was more divided than
the outside world knew; power was
invested in individuals, and under
stress, the leadership became unsta-
ble," said Woodcock.
He said there is conflicting ideol-
ogy between those who are survivors
of the Cultural Revolution and the
students who speak of democracy to-
day.
"An unbridgeable chasm separates
elderly leaders from youth.
Conservative elders of the
Communist Party are intellectually