Information Note from Romanian Embassy in Beijing to Ministry of Foreign Affairs

03 June 1989, 06:00 am


Cde. Olimpia Solomonescu, Deputy Foreign Minister

In regards to the internal situation developing in China, we would like to mention a number of facts, which will help give a [more] complete the picture of the events [taking place]:

1. Students are still present in the city's central plaza. Tiananmen Square However, their numbers have been dwindling. The majority of those still there are [students] from provincial universities. Based on official data, there is a strong trend towards re-starting course-work, especially in provincial universities (there is about a 90 percent attendance rate of students in the cities of Changchun, Wujan and Chongqing).

2. In recent official declarations, the State Commission on Education has requested that the leadership of educational facilities efficiently organize pedagogical activity and to use intensely the remaining time until the end of the school year to allow for completion of course-work as detailed in the educational plan. [It also demanded that they] insure that exams are offered on time, during the designated exam period. [The declarations] underlined that the policy of allowing students to travel by train for free, in order to facilitate their return to class, will end on 3 June.

3. In the districts bordering the capital, state-organized and -sanctioned marches continue. [It is] through this [marches that] the rural population show their support for the policies instituted by the government to normalize the situation. The campaign initiated to explain the discourses of Li Peng Prime Minister of the PRC in 1988, member of the CCP Politburo in 1987; Declares Martial Law on 19 May during a meeting of party, government and army cadres in Beijing, speech recorded and partially televised by the Beijing Television. and Yang Shankun Member of the CCP Politburo beginning in 1987; president of the PRC in 1988. Ordered military units of the PLA into Beijing to "in the interest of security" during the 19 May televised speech. continues as well. [The discourses is] considered [as representing] the position of the party and state leadership.

4. Due to the effect of the internal developments on foreign [public opinion], an important number of contracts with [different] corporations and tourist companies have been postponed indefinitely. The Chinese lost over 40 million RMB between 1-25 May of this year.

Presently, hotels in the capital are only filled at about 50 percent of their capacity.

(ss) [Ambassador] Angelo Miculescu