Ma Jian - Beijing Coma

Everyone stood up and stared at the television screen in silence.

Li Peng was sitting stiffly on a red sofa, addressing the students in a stern and resolute voice. ‘The government has never said that the broad masses of the students are creating turmoil. We have never said that. We have unanimously praised the students’ patriotic fervour. Many of the complaints they have made are justified, and we are working hard to solve them. So the students’ efforts have been positive. Nevertheless, events have taken a course of their own. Disorder has broken out in Beijing, and it is spreading to the rest of the country. Beijing is in a state of anarchy. The government cannot ignore the situation. We must protect the students and the socialist system. Factory workers, employees of government organisations and urban residents have gone to Tiananmen Square to encourage the students to continue their hunger strike. I do not approve of their actions…’

The next shot was of Ke Xi, still in his striped hospital pyjamas, upbraiding Li Peng. ‘I thought there was no need to go over this again, but it seems that you still don’t understand. So I will repeat once more: we will only leave the Square on condition that the slanderous 26 April editorial is revoked and the government engages with us in an immediate, open, equal, direct and sincere dialogue. If these demands aren’t met…’

The newsreader then announced that the dialogue came to an end without any issues being resolved.

Loud debates erupted all over the restaurant. This was the first time in the forty-year history of the Chinese Republic that government leaders had engaged in a televised debate with a group of ordinary citizens. Everyone was astounded. The waitresses were so taken aback, they didn’t bother to remove the empty plates on our table or bring us the remaining dishes we’d ordered.

‘Ke Xi was very brave talking back to the Premier like that!’ one of the waitresses said, jumping on the spot with excitement. ‘It was amazing!’

‘Bloody hell!’ Wang Fei mumbled sullenly, ‘Ke Xi’s stolen the limelight. I knew I should have joined the hunger strike!’

‘You students have really got guts, demanding to sit down with the government leaders as equals like that!’ two customers shouted at us from across the room.

‘Let’s give a toast to the students!’ customers on other tables said, raising their glasses. I quickly grabbed a glass and poured some orange juice into it. Everyone cheered and laughed, then gradually quietened down again.

We immediately started picking over the details of the broadcast.

Wu Bin rubbed his small goatee. ‘Did you hear what Li Peng said at the beginning? He categorically stated that the students aren’t creating turmoil! That’s a big concession.’

‘He’s like a fox giving a New Year’s greeting to some hens,’ Tang Guoxian said, removing his shirt. ‘Don’t take his words at face value.’ He’d clearly been keeping up his marathon training in the last three years. His chest muscles looked twice as large as mine.

‘We must set up a national student association at once,’ Wang Fei said, taking a deep drag from his cigarette. ‘We here around this table will constitute its organising committee. If we’re to have any impact, we must act now.’

‘All right, I agree,’ Tang Guoxian said. ‘I can represent the Guangdong students, but who will represent the other provinces? The Beijing students won’t want to join us, so I think we should call ourselves the Provincial Students’ Federation.’

‘I wouldn’t make a good leader,’ Wu Bin said. ‘I hate giving speeches.’

‘Well don’t start having any regrets when others take over the leadership,’ Sun Chunlin said.

‘What will our relationship be to the Beijing Students’ Federation?’ I asked. ‘I suppose they should be taking orders from us, since we’re a national organisation.’ I longed to go back to the campus and have a proper rest.

‘Of course they’ll take orders from us,’ Wang Fei said, nodding his head confidently. I’d clipped his hair before we’d left the Square, but it was still uneven in patches.

‘What financial resources do we have?’ Ge You asked. ‘It costs money to run an organisation.’

‘I’d like to be the first to come forward and make a personal donation of a thousand yuan,’ Sun Chunlin exclaimed loudly.

‘I’ll put out some donation boxes, and we’ll soon have money rolling in,’ I said. ‘The Beijing Students’ Federation’s new finance office has collected hundreds of thousands of yuan already. Last week, they were so poor they couldn’t afford to print any pamphlets and had to borrow money from the Hunger Strike Headquarters.’

‘If we mobilise the students in the provinces and get the protests to spread through the country, this will become the most important student movement in China’s history,’ Wang Fei said excitedly. ‘We’ll establish our headquarters in the Square.’

‘More students from Tianjin and Hunan Province turned up today,’ Tang Guoxian said. ‘It’s like the Great Link-Up movement during the Cultural Revolution, when the Red Guards travelled around the country, exchanging revolutionary experiences.’

‘I’ll give each committee member twenty yuan to cover two days’ living expenses,’ Wang Fei said. ‘After that, we’ll have to live off donations.’

‘That wouldn’t even buy me a packet of fags,’ Tang Guoxian moaned.

‘The Beijing transport authorities have sent some buses to protect the hunger strikers from the rain, but there will only be fifty, instead of the eighty they promised,’ I said. ‘We can’t stay in the Square for ever, you know.’ I kept remembering Wen Niao warning me that if we remained in the Square any longer, epidemics would break out.

‘I have to admit, I’m still not clear what the movement’s goals are,’ Wu Bin said, drumming his feet under the table.

‘The goal of this movement is to strengthen our nation,’ I said off the top of my head. ‘Do you think America would be as powerful as it is today if it weren’t a democratic country?’

‘When General Secretary Zhao Ziyang met with Gorbachev, he confirmed that Deng Xiaoping is still China’s paramount leader,’ Wu Bin said. ‘As Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Deng controls the army. And whoever controls the army, controls the nation. So shouldn’t the first goal of this movement be to remove this power from Deng’s hands?’

‘I thought Deng Xiaoping resigned from that post,’ Tang Guoxian said.

‘That turned out to be a false rumour,’ I said. Earlier that day, Sister Gao had received inside information that Deng Xiaoping was still very much in charge.

‘I feel terrible stuffing my face like this while thousands of people are starving themselves in the Square,’ Tang Guoxian said. ‘Don’t order any more food.’

I too felt uncomfortable. I wanted to get back to the Square. ‘It’s going to rain soon,’ I said. ‘We must move the hunger strikers into the buses.’

‘What for? Where are you driving them to?’ Wu Bin said, looking confused.

‘I told you, the buses have parked in the Square to shelter the hunger strikers from the rain.’ It occurred to me that Tian Yi might have returned to the Square by now and rejoined the hunger strike, which made me even more eager to get back.

‘Apparently lots of the students have refused to board them,’ Wang Fei said.

‘We’ll have to talk them round, then!’ Tang Guoxian said imperiously, having eaten his fill. ‘When the rainstorm hits this afternoon, the Square will be flooded. Let’s go back and get some representatives from the provincial universities to join our association. Come on!’