European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 2, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Bazine Man in Beijing takes his child for a walk past a giant poster of Lei Feng a naive do gooder who died when he was hit by a falling Utility pole and wound up extolled As a hero. The chinese Are fed an endless diet of role models. A chinese Man stands defiantly in front of a column of tanks near Tiana men Square last june 5. Chill remains Over �?T89 Tiana men turbulence a waiting for change in Beijing by David r. Schweisberg United press International on the afternoon of june 3 last year Ding Rong stood defiantly in Tiana men Square among a sea of demonstrators and proclaimed his belief in Freedom. Then dark fell the tanks came and his world collapsed. An intellectual in his late 30s, Ding a a pseudonym a spent months in prison last summer before he was released a never charged never really freed. Politically suspect he cannot return to his old Job or find new work. It is the second time in his life that politics has left him in limbo. But unlike the first during the turbulence and confusion of the cultural revolution Ding is Clear minded and unrepentant. Quot we did nothing wrong Quot he said recently glancing Over his shoulder in fear of being sent Back to jail. Quot we were peaceful. We wanted change. Some Day there will be change. The chinese communist party is  a year after the army opened fire on pro democracy protesters in Beijing on june 3-4, routing the ragtag head banded College students who led what became the greatest Challenge to China a communist leaders since they took Power in 1949, Many of China a 1.1 billion people like Ding Are waiting. Cowed by Force and silenced by an omnipresent Security apparatus they Are waiting for a sign of change. The sign they most often cite would be the death of the 85-year-old senior Leader Deng Xiaoping although they admit it would not guarantee an improvement. Vet their eagerness for the exit of the once revered Deng who brought China out of the political and economic ruin of the cultural revolution in the late 1970s, is symptomatic of aspirations for a new Era. Ironically Deng appears to have been a victim of his own Success As Well As his failings. Deng s free Market reforms and Quot open door policy awakened the chinese raising their expectations. Those Hopes were voiced during the Tiana men Spring As hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets to join the students in demanding Freer speech honest government and Choice. For six weeks they occupied the Square at the heart of China. They staged a hunger strike that galvanized the citizenry. They eclipsed a historic visit by soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. They erected the Quot goddess of democracy Quot a statue of Liberty look alike facing Down a huge nearby portrait of Mao tse Tung. But Deng and his aging contemporaries had not changed with the times still seeing any Challenge As unpatriotic and foreign inspired. When threatened they turned to the army a yet even the military buckled with unrest at the order to fire on unarmed civilians. Now China is adrift. Its leaders Are unpopular and uninspired seen As without credibility and holding on by Force. Its Economy is shaky stuck Between marxist inertia and free Market instability. Its Young people the Shock troops of social change despair Over their futures. Quot Tiana men was not the beginning but the end Quot observed a longtime american resident of China. Quot it was a revolution of the Young that caught on. It showed the party had already  the Impact has also been a watershed abroad. Tiana men was the first time the world glimpsed China s darkest Side live on its television screens. Tourism Trade and investment Are recovering but caution is the watchword. Sweeping change in the soviet Union and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe have Only sharpened the contrast and diminished China s weight in the superpower geopolitical equation. The United states and the soviet Union no longer need the China card in hand. Still striking and indicative of How slowly change will occur Are the official views of two of last Spring s symbols the White shirted Man who faced Down a tank column near Tiana men Square and the presence of the country a leading dissident in the . Embassy in Beijing. The Lone Man confronting the tanks became the most riveting image of the chinese rebellion. Yet the government persists in calling this a sign of restraint since the tank commander did not simply crush his antagonist. To this Day Beijing has never Given a full accounting of the hundreds and perhaps thousands killed in the first week of june nor of the thousands arrested nationwide in the police dragnet that ensued. Officially the incident remains a Quot counterrevolutionary rebellion. Quot its facts lies and videotape a said a senior Western Diplomat who witnessed last Spring s movement. Quot we do know what  the dissident astrophysicist Fang Lizhi and his wife remain in their Refuge in the . Embassy facing arrest outside. The chinese government wants an admission of guilt that they incited last Spring s protests despite the unlikelihood that the couple stirred so Many millions. Yet even Fang and the dissidents who fled overseas Are More crucial to perception than reality. Although those who escaped have formed the first real overseas dissident movement since the communists took Power their activities Are largely irrelevant to those left behind within China. More pertinent is the nearly Universal belief that although the students perhaps should have compromised they were right a unlike the cultural revolution when Many chinese blindly accepted persecution through their Faith in the party. Quot Back then if the party said you did something wrong you believed you must have somehow done wrong a said a Middle aged factory worker. Quot now no one believes that. They will say or do what is needed to stay out of trouble but in their hearts they know Quot evidence of this appeared in the failure of the leadership s Calls for a thorough purge of anyone who supported the protests. The victims of several rounds of investigations have largely been limited to those who were most visible. Most people protected rather than turned in each other. Yet the big chill remains with Little sign of initiative in the Economy in the arts. Many of China s Best and brightest including the thinkers linked to the ousted former party Leader Zhao Ziyang have been silenced Deng has once again dubbed an heir apparent his third the communist party general Secretary Jiang Zemin who is seen As a moderate. But president Yang Shangkuan is still believed to control the military and a Post Deng Power coalition May not change the present ones political stripes. Saturday june 2, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 13