Freer Debate, Less Corruption Asked by Students : China Protesters Seek Wider Limits

BEIJING — A young woman copying poems at the Monument to the People’s Heroes here the other day predicted fervently that a wave of student protests will promote democracy rather than provoke a backlash of tighter controls.

“Our country is beginning to become more democratic,” said the woman, who gave her name only as Zhu. “They cannot reverse course just because people express views this way. I don’t think it will happen.”

A little more than two years ago, when a similar wave of pro-democracy student protests swept China, the immediate result was a hard-line ideological backlash. But by the end of 1987, more reformist elements within the Communist Party had gained the upper hand, and analysts could no longer so easily assert that the student protests of late 1986 and early 1987 had backfired.

Most protesters last week--while generally recognizing that a multi-party system and free elections will not come anytime soon to China--appear to believe that their actions can widen the limits of political debate in this country, improve the pay and status of intellectuals and promote a fight against corruption.

No Clear Split

Unlike many Western analysts and journalists--who often describe the Chinese leadership as split between reformist and conservative factions--the demonstrators, like most Chinese, do not clearly divide their rulers into opposing groups. Most protesters thus do not fear that they will hurt those among the top leaders sympathetic to their cause by providing a pretext for action against them.

“We should search for the truth, not Marxism,” said a young man named Shi who was interviewed amid a crowd of demonstrators Friday. “We should follow science, democracy, independence and creativity.”

Another student said that most important are two reforms: “Ordinary people’s views should reach the real decision-makers. And there should be public supervision of how policies are carried out. For this, we need press freedom.”

A male student named Li recalled how, when the late Chairman Mao Tse-tung launched the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, he labeled intellectuals the “stinking ninth category” of class enemies.

This anti-intellectual bias of Chinese communism has yet to be fully reversed, Li said.

‘Road of Protest’

“Intellectuals’ social status is the lowest. Their income is lowest. They have no opportunity to make money in black-market dealings,” Li said. “Our leaders say the people must not copy Western consumerism. But they themselves ride in fancy foreign cars. I think intellectuals have no choice but to depend on their own strength and take the road of protest.”

The protests began a week ago as memorial activities for Hu Yaobang, who died April 15 of a heart attack at 73. Hu, widely viewed as the most liberal of China’s top leaders, lost his position as head of the Communist Party in January, 1987, after being blamed for not suppressing the student demonstrations of that winter. He remained a member of the Politburo, however, until his death.

While paying homage to Hu is partly a pretext for the demonstrations, there also is a strong element of respect and even love felt toward him. Thus the demonstrations cannot be considered purely anti-government, and many protesters think of themselves as a kind of loyal opposition.

“We want the country to be stronger, more prosperous and more democratic,” said a woman student named Wang. “We can use this method to put pressure on the government to grant the people more freedom. But we oppose chaos. We know that with chaos, economic problems cannot be solved.”

Not all demonstrators--numbering 30,000 or more on Friday evening, with tens of thousands of additional onlookers--are so articulate. “It’s interesting,” said one student at a demonstration earlier in the week. “I don’t think it will do any good. But it’s interesting.”

Another protester expressed the hope that the demonstrations could make the country’s leaders “a bit more clear-headed.”

This man said he believes that China must have a more democratic system. But at the same time, he charged that for most of his fellow demonstrators, “the kind of democracy they want is anarchy.”

Others standing nearby interrupted to protest that statement.

Demonstrators share a strong strain of resentment against what is widely perceived as the luxurious life style of China’s top leaders. Criticism on this issue, as well as that of political liberalization, reaches all the way to the country’s paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping. One of the students’ demands has been that the income and wealth of Communist Party and government officials should be made public.

“This should begin with the No. 1 person in China,” said the young man named Shi.

Protesters also see attempts to separate government functions from control of the economy--which is part of China’s current reform efforts--as essential in the fight against corruption.

Resentment against corruption is widespread in China, even as almost everyone who gets an opportunity tries to participate in it.

One of the few middle-aged people in a crowd of several thousand protesters outside Communist Party and government headquarters Wednesday night praised the students as “very great” for being brave enough to demonstrate in this way.

“The officials are corrupt,” this man said. “The people are not satisfied with them. The people, especially the intellectuals, hate them. Everywhere there is corruption, a mess, confusion.”