Ma Jian - Beijing Coma

‘Many of the hunger strikers are refusing to stop their fast,’ said Wang Fei, standing behind the television. ‘What should we tell them?’

No one paid him any attention, apart from Bai Ling who was now lying on the camp bed. ‘I’m not in favour of ending the strike either, Wang Fei,’ she said. ‘But we have to go along with the majority decision.’

‘There are hundreds of thousands of people in the Square, so it’s vital we stay united,’ Mou Sen said to Wang Fei. ‘You and Old Fu have been in this movement from the start. How could you behave so badly at such a crucial moment?’

‘I didn’t go as far as Old Fu,’ Wang Fei said. ‘Still, I did act stupidly. I’m sorry, Bai Ling.’ He’d calmed down a lot since Nuwa had shouted at him.

‘All the university hunger strike groups have given up the fast,’ Bai Ling said. ‘The students who are carrying on are acting independently. We can ignore them. But we must take control of the next stage of the movement. You’re head of propaganda, Wang Fei. Print up some copies of the Hunger Strike Termination Statement, so that we can hand them out at the press conference.’

‘I’ve told the suicide squad to form a protective chain around the students, and have issued a first-degree combat order,’ Wang Fei said, clasping his clenched fist.

‘Just make sure we’ve got enough towels and face masks,’ Bai Ling said. ‘We’ll need at least 50,000 of each.’

Chen Di walked in with Hai Feng and said, ‘Old Fu’s gone to the Voice of the Student Movement and announced that the hunger strike hasn’t achieved its goals yet. He’s using the strikers as hostages. He won’t let them give up until the government has agreed to our demands.’ Then seeing the look of fear on everyone’s faces, he sneered, ‘What’s the matter? The moment you hear the words “martial law” you’re reduced to shivering wrecks!’

Mou Sen stood up. ‘I’ll chair the press conference today. Dai Wei, can you help me set up the microphone?’

‘I don’t see the point of holding a press conference now,’ I mumbled. But Mou Sen ignored me. He asked some of his Beijing Normal classmates to set up tables and chairs outside, and hang up a large poster behind that said WE WANT DENG XIAOPING’S FOUR MODERNISATIONS TO BE IMPLEMENTED WITHIN OUR LIFETIME.

I told Yu Jin and Xiao Li to fill in for me, then went to look for Tian Yi. I wanted to take her back to my mother’s flat and make her some rice congee, or some other easily digestible food.

I was relieved to find her sitting on a quilt, eating a piece of a chocolate cake that a foreign student had brought for the hunger strikers who’d given up their fast. I told her that as soon as the press conference was over, I’d take her to my mother’s flat and look after her. She wouldn’t be able to rest back at the campus. The dorms were packed with students who’d travelled up from the provinces.

‘Let’s go to my home,’ she said. ‘I can have a shower there. All I want is a warm shower.’

‘Hasn’t your sister just had a baby?’ I said. ‘There won’t be enough room for us all.’ I lay down beside her, stretched my arms back and closed my eyes. ‘I’d like to sleep for twenty-four hours. Old Fu and Bai Ling had a big argument just now in the broadcast station, and they forgot to turn the microphone off.’

‘Yes, I heard it.’

‘Deng Xiaoping has secretly ordered the army to surround Beijing,’ I said, my eyes still closed.

‘You all look so frightened now. In the beginning, you were ready to cut off your heads for this movement.’ She took a swig from a bottle. It was too dark for me to see what was inside.

‘Berkeley has sent me a letter of admission,’ I said.

‘You have an escape route, then.’

‘I still have to apply for a passport and a US visa, so there’s a long way to go yet.’

‘Don’t try to fool me. You already have one foot in America now.’

The official loudspeakers attached to the hundreds of lamp posts dotted around the Square suddenly crackled into life. A recording of Li Peng’s latest speech, given at a meeting of government and army cadres, echoed through the night sky: ‘… It is now clear that if we don’t take firm measures to turn the situation around, our great nation, which was founded on the blood of revolutionary martyrs, will be in great jeopardy…’

Then the fiery voice of President Yang Shangkun declared, ‘Beijing has been placed under martial law. The army has surrounded the capital. We have imposed new restrictions on the media, forbidding foreign journalists from conducting interviews within the municipality…’

‘Shall we go back to the flat now, or do you want to stay for the press conference?’ I asked Tian Yi, suddenly feeling breathless and trapped.

‘Let’s go to the press conference.’ Tian Yi stood up. I held her arm, and slowly walked back with her to the Monument.

Soon we heard Bai Ling’s voice cry out into the night. ‘Fellow students, the hardline clique headed by Deng Xiaoping, Li Peng and Yang Shangkun has staged a coup, and General Secretary Zhao Ziyang has been sacked from his job. I implore all the hunger strikers to stop their fast, and for everyone to gather round the Monument so that we can prepare ourselves for martial law…’ As she repeated the announcement, I could hear Wang Fei whispering in the background, asking her to read out the statement he’d just written.

Tian Yi’s hand started trembling. Trying to calm her nerves, I said, ‘Don’t worry. If they really have imposed martial law, we’ll return to the campuses. It’s no big deal.’

‘Zhao Ziyang was such a fine, upstanding politician,’ Tian Yi said, clearly distressed. ‘How could they just get rid of him like that?’

The crowds of students and residents in the Square were in uproar. Everyone was rushing about, crying and shouting.

‘So much for the bloody “People’s Premier”! What a tyrant!’

‘Those hardline despots have no idea how to run this country!’

‘Call every citizen of Beijing to the Square! We’ll build a human Great Wall to keep out the enemy hordes!’

‘Down with Li Peng’s puppet government! Down with the corrupt military regime! Down with Yang Shangkun…’

Everyone was distressed and angry. People who didn’t know each other became embroiled in loud debates. Girls hugged one another and wept. Nurses in white coats shouted, ‘Calm down everyone!’ then groaned, ‘What kind of government treats its people like this?’

‘It makes me sick to think we nearly starved ourselves to death for this rotten regime!’ Tian Yi muttered, then walked off hand in hand with Mimi. I went to find some more student marshals to guard the broadcast station. I knew that if the martial law troops turned up, their first goal would be to destroy our tent.

The area we’d cordoned off for the press conference was already packed. I spotted a few fair-haired foreign journalists speaking into cameras. Their reports were being transmitted live via satellite to television sets around the world. Old Fu and Han Dan hadn’t arrived yet. Mou Sen looked very cool with his shoulder-length hair, denim jeans and leather money belt. He held the Hunger Strike Termination Statement in his trembling hands and read it out on Bai Ling’s behalf. By the time he reached the closing paragraph, tears were pouring down his face. Nuwa then read out the English translation, but her voice didn’t sound loud enough. I regretted we hadn’t used the Voice of the Student Movement’s speakers.

Mou Sen took the microphone back and said, ‘I now urge every one of the hundred thousand of us students here in the Square to begin a mass hunger strike.’

I couldn’t believe my ears. A mass hunger strike? Had he lost his mind? There was a sudden blaze of light as thousands of camera flashes went off.