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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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070389
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07038900.057
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1990-09-22
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WORLD, Page 27CHINAThe Face of RepressionA wave of executions triggers a second round of U.S. sanctions
The punishment was swift. Escorted from their cells in a
Shanghai prison, the three shackled men were led to an execution
ground outside the city. If tradition was followed, executioners
stepped behind the prisoners and fired a single pistol bullet into
the base of their skulls. Six days earlier, the three men were
convicted of torching a train that had plowed into pro-democracy
demonstrators on June 6, killing six people; the court took only
a few days to reject their appeals. The procedure was similar in
the Shandong province capital of Jinan, where 17 were put to death
for "seriously endangering public order." Seven more were executed
in Beijing, convicted of "attacking" People's Liberation Army
troops that participated in the Tiananmen Square "clearing
operation," which took the lives of many hundreds.
There was little likelihood that the 27 deaths would be the
last. A wave of repression was sweeping across China last week:
many among the 1,600 reported to have been arrested so far could
eventually face the same fate.
China's legal philosophy, dating to imperial times, has
generally favored the state over the individual, though in recent
years that imbalance ameliorated somewhat. But in the wake of the
government's brutal assault in Tiananmen Square, there was little
surprise in China when, beginning June 7, the Supreme People's
Procuratorate relayed "emergency notices" to public-security
agencies throughout the country, warning them not to be "hamstrung
by details" in prosecuting those accused of "counterrevolutionary"
crimes.
The executions allowed Premier Li Peng, the principal target
of the student demonstrators, to declare victory for the
government. At a meeting with relatives of soldiers killed in the
clashes, Li announced that the "counterrevolutionary rebellion is
basically over." Nevertheless, he warned, "quite a lot of rioters
are yet to be apprehended, and we can in no way leave them
unpunished." None of those executed last week were identified as
students; most were called workers or unemployed.
The announcement of executions triggered a second round of
sanctions by the Bush Administration, which earlier banned U.S.
arms sales and military contacts with Beijing. Many other Western
nations condemned the killings, but most took only token measures
against China. The U.S. measures outlined last week include a
suspension of nonmilitary exchanges between high-level American
officials and their Chinese counterparts and a promise to apply
U.S. pressure on international monetary organizations to deny new
loans to Beijing. The actions were calculated to convey U.S.
revulsion but at the same time, as Secretary of State James Baker
put it, preserve a "very important relationship." Many members of
Congress, both Democrat and Republican, were less than satisfied.
Said Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell: "There cannot be
business as usual with a government that takes actions like these."
Ever since Deng Xiaoping, China's senior leader, made his first
post-massacre appearance on June 9, a speech he delivered on that
occasion has been political topic No. 1 in China. In one version
of the speech, he reportedly defended the Tiananmen operation as
necessary to prevent China from becoming another Poland, where the
Communists have been forced to share power with the independent
Solidarity trade union.
Last week a somewhat different version of the speech appeared
in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post. There was no reference to
Poland, but Deng said that "some comrades don't understand the
situation" in China, in that the revolt was not merely the work of
"misguided" people but also that of a truly "rebellious clique."
The second version also contained approving references to the "open
policy," allowing Chinese ties to the outside. Said a senior Asian
diplomat in Beijing: "The line to the world is reassurance. To
China, it is terror."
Another message that emerged from Beijing was that the power
struggle at top levels of the party had finally been settled. On
Saturday, following a two-day meeting of the Central Committee,
officials announced the ouster of Party General Secretary Zhao
Ziyang. In a report read by Premier Li, Zhao was accused of holding
"unshirkable responsibilities for the shaping of the turmoil" of
the past two months. Zhao was also stripped of his other official
posts, making his disgrace more complete than that of his
predecessor Hu Yaobang, who was allowed to remain on the Central
Committee following unrest in 1987. Named new General Secretary was
Jiang Zemin, 62, a member of the ruling Polituburo and party head
of Shanghai. Though regarded as more technician than ideologue, he
tends to side with the conservatives, who have clearly now
consolidated their position.