Word: li
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...time, via satellite TV transmission, hundreds of thousands of students and sympathizers filled Beijing's Tiananmen Square, demanding greater democratization and an end to nepotism and corruption. On Saturday, May 20, with the government and the Chinese capital paralyzed, the curtain rang down ominously on Act I: Premier Li Peng, a principal target of the demonstrators' wrath, and President Yang Shangkun imposed martial law; troops from the People's Liberation Army (P.L.A.) mustered to enter the city...
...last the curtain fell again, with the disturbing clang of a prison door closing. Li Peng appeared on television for the first time since martial law was declared, receiving -- as if to underscore his legitimacy -- a covey of newly arrived ambassadors. The Premier declared that the soldiers would move into Beijing as soon as the city's residents understood the need to restore order. From all available signs, Deng Xiaoping had cast his lot with the hard- line faction headed by Li. The losers were a more reformist group led by party chief Zhao Ziyang. Diplomatic sources said that Zhao...
Although George Bush's personal ties with China date back to his years as head of the U.S. liaison office in Beijing (1974-75), the President seemed as unsure of the situation as anyone. Bush met with an old tennis-playing crony from his Beijing days, Wan Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Afterward, Bush issued a cautious statement that appeared both to back the students, by saying that the U.S. encouraged the worldwide growth of democracy, and to encourage the government, by vowing that he was committed "to expanding normal and constructive relations...
...match with the President), ostensibly for reasons of health, and headed home. But instead of returning to Beijing, he landed in Shanghai, where he was put up in a guesthouse outside the city -- possibly under house arrest. On Saturday a statement was read on Chinese television saying that Wan Li supported Li Peng -- dashing the hopes of protesters that Wan would convene an emergency session of the National People's Congress to consider Li's removal...
...demanding that the P.L.A. not be used to quell the uprising. "The army must absolutely not shoot the people," it read. Two days later, the military's Liberation Army Daily quoted a letter from the P.L.A. general staff (also dated Monday) urging troops to study carefully a speech by Li Peng denouncing the uprising as a counterrevolutionary threat...