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Saturday, January 22, 2005
The New York Times > International > Asia Pacific > For Beijing Students Now, Protests Aren't Even a Memory
The New York Times > International > Asia Pacific > For Beijing Students Now, Protests Aren't Even a Memoryor Beijing Students Now, Protests Aren't Even a Memory
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: January 22, 2005
BEIJING, Jan. 21 - For Yu Yang, a mop-haired biology major, the small notice posted this week on Beijing University's Web site about the death of a former Communist Party leader seemed like an irrelevant historical footnote.
Growing up, Mr. Yu, now 21, barely knew about Zhao Ziyang, except that he had "played a prominent role in 1989." And Mr. Yu acknowledged Thursday that he barely knew about 1989. He knew students had protested at Tiananmen Square; he had heard that Chinese soldiers fired into the crowds to end the demonstrations.
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But Mr. Yu, an aspiring scientist, described that as hearsay. "Rumors say so," he said of a bloody crackdown witnessed by a worldwide television audience outside China, "but I need a lot of evidence to believe it."
If the Chinese government can help it, he may never see that evidence.
For years, the Communist Party has awaited Mr. Zhao's death with trepidation, fearing protests or riots. Purged for sympathizing with the students, then placed under house arrest in Beijing for almost 16 years, Mr. Zhao became a martyr to a generation of Chinese for whom Tiananmen remains an indelible scar.
But for many younger Chinese, who did not witness those events, he is a virtual nonentity, banished from history books and the state-controlled news media. At Beijing University, a focal point of political dissent in 1989, his death scarcely seemed to register with the generation of students who were children when the massacre happened. Some, like Mr. Yu, were simply ill informed, knowing about it only in vague, often inaccurate, terms. Others, frightened, knew they should change the subject.
Asked if any event in the news had seemed significant this week, one student standing in the doorway of his room replied, "You mean the Australian Open?"
When his visitor gave him a quizzical look, the student smiled almost imperceptibly. "Oh, you mean Zhao," he said.
The government's deep concern about the lingering anger over Tiananmen - and the potential that it could still be the match that lights new protests - explains the official response since Mr. Zhao died Monday. Dissidents were quickly placed under surveillance or, in some cases, under house arrest. The Chinese media were banned from covering his death, other than a small mention in state-controlled newspapers.
At elite universities in Beijing, security was increased, and faculty members were initially told to monitor their students to protect against demonstrations. Jiao Guobiao, an outspoken journalism teacher at Beijing University, said political speech was already tightly monitored long before Mr. Zhao's death, a fact that influenced the muted response by students.
"It's not that they don't care," Mr. Jiao said. "It's that they don't dare care. Any student who shows a concern for politics will be discriminated against. They will be sidelined, so they learn over time not to express opinions about political subjects like this."
Mr. Jiao himself is a telling example. Last year, he wrote a scathing indictment of the government's propaganda department. Since then, he has remained on the faculty but not been allowed to teach.
Meanwhile, a popular chat room run by Beijing University students was closed last year after the postings became increasingly political and often critical of the government.
Roger Jie, 21, a junior, laughed when asked if politics played a major role in campus life. "Very nonpolitical," he said. "Neutralized, in fact, pretty neutral. Students are used to not talking about it."
Mr. Jie, who grew up in Guangzhou, said Tiananmen was rarely discussed at his high school. Instead, he learned about it from a program on an uncensored Hong Kong television station. "The pictures were really brutal," he recalled.
Now, he said, the passage of time and economic progress in China have made Tiananmen seem less relevant to his life. "It was long ago, and there hasn't been much news about Zhao for 10 years or longer," he said. Asked if he now felt free in China, Mr. Jie paused for a moment.
"To a degree, it is free enough for me," he said, even as he insisted on using his English-language name.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
: "The Chinese leadership fears Zhao's death could serve as a rallying point for reformists, workers disgruntled at soaring unemployment and farmers disillusioned with the widening gap between rich and poor."
: "There was no mention of Zhao, modern China's icon of reform, whose death the government fears could spark widespread protests."
China, Taiwan Agree to Direct Flights (washingtonpost.com)
China, Taiwan Agree to Direct Flights (washingtonpost.com): "This deal lays the groundwork for further negotiations. . . . We hope that the smooth negotiations on New Year charter flights will pave the way for further cross-strait talks, and be a turning point for positive interaction."
