Wuer Kaixi

BEIJING - On a warm summer night in 1989, a 21-year-old Chinese student waded into the South China Sea from a deserted beach. Still wearing his clothes and Nike sneakers, he swam to a speedboat waiting 200 yards offshore. Wuer Kaixi's role as a student leader in the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests had landed him the No. 2 spot on the Chinese government's list of 21 most-wanted organizers. His plan was to escape with the help of activists in Hong Kong, who had arranged for the speedboat, and return to China when things calmed down.

BEIJING - On a warm summer night in 1989, a 21-year-old Chinese student waded into the South China Sea from a deserted beach. Still wearing his clothes and Nike sneakers, he swam to a speedboat waiting 200 yards offshore. Wuer Kaixi's role as a student leader in the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests had landed him the No. 2 spot on the Chinese government's list of 21 most-wanted organizers. His plan was to escape with the help of activists in Hong Kong, who had arranged for the speedboat, and return to China when things calmed down.

Wuer Kaixi, one of the leaders of the student pro-democracy movement in China, will be a visiting undergraduate student at Harvard College during the 1989-90 school year, according to Harvard officials. Wuer was chairman of the Beijing Universities Students Autonomous United Assn., the unofficial union that coordinated the majority of student demonstrations in Tian An Men Square.

After being permitted to enter Hong Kong, a prominent former Chinese student protest leader who helped organize the pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square nearly 15 years ago said Wednesday that he still hoped to be allowed to return to the mainland someday. "I have to have that hope -- that one day we will come home," said Wuer Kaixi, whose name was once the second on a list of 21 most-wanted student leaders of the Tiananmen protests.

Chinese exiles meeting in Paris chose former government official Yan Jiaqi and student protest leader Wuer Kaixi to lead an international movement to end Communist rule in their country. On the final day of a three-day inaugural meeting of the Federation of Democracy in China, delegates elected Yan as chairman and Wuer as vice chairman.

A student leader of the recent demonstrations in Beijing's Tian An Men Square, in hiding after escaping arrest in China, said in a videotape released Tuesday that the Chinese government will fall because it is "an enemy of the people." The videotape, aired in the United States by NBC News, showed pro-democracy activist Wuer Kaixi, 21, speaking from an undisclosed location. NBC said the videotape was provided exclusively to the network. "This kind of government does not have the power to last very long," Wuer said on the tape, because it has become an "enemy of the people."

A group of exiled Chinese dissidents who fled the country after a bloody June crackdown in Beijing urged their countrymen at a Los Angeles forum Saturday to support a movement to build a political force capable of challenging the Communist government. The forum, which drew more than 1,500 people to the University of Southern California's Bovard Auditorium, capped a weekend of activities hosted by Southern California Chinese groups for visiting leaders of Beijing's pro-democracy movement.

After being permitted to enter Hong Kong, a prominent former Chinese student protest leader who helped organize the pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square nearly 15 years ago said Wednesday that he still hoped to be allowed to return to the mainland someday. "I have to have that hope -- that one day we will come home," said Wuer Kaixi, whose name was once the second on a list of 21 most-wanted student leaders of the Tiananmen protests.

They were cocky and restless, full of explosive ideals and recklessness. They thought they would move their world. Now they are fugitives. For a few heady weeks, student leaders from major universities in Beijing and other cities occupied the symbolic heart of Beijing and the minds of supporters on Tian An Men Square and opponents behind the walls of Zhongnanhai, China's Kremlin. The weapons in their battle for democratic reform have all but disappeared: No more bullhorns, leaflets or banners carry their message to young followers, a restive public and a foreign audience that marveled at their brashness.

In the pre-dawn hours of April 20, during a tense confrontation between the police and demonstrators outside Communist Party headquarters, a young man named Wuer Kaixi stood up and threw caution to the winds. About 150 pro-democracy student protesters had been trapped inside police lines, while about 4,000 demonstrators were forced east along Beijing's main thoroughfare. A smaller group was pushed to the west. The police and the biggest group of protesters had paused, about 200 yards east of the party headquarters.

Chinese exiles meeting in Paris chose former government official Yan Jiaqi and student protest leader Wuer Kaixi to lead an international movement to end Communist rule in their country. On the final day of a three-day inaugural meeting of the Federation of Democracy in China, delegates elected Yan as chairman and Wuer as vice chairman.

Wuer Kaixi, one of the leaders of the student pro-democracy movement in China, will be a visiting undergraduate student at Harvard College during the 1989-90 school year, according to Harvard officials. Wuer was chairman of the Beijing Universities Students Autonomous United Assn., the unofficial union that coordinated the majority of student demonstrations in Tian An Men Square.

A group of exiled Chinese dissidents who fled the country after a bloody June crackdown in Beijing urged their countrymen at a Los Angeles forum Saturday to support a movement to build a political force capable of challenging the Communist government. The forum, which drew more than 1,500 people to the University of Southern California's Bovard Auditorium, capped a weekend of activities hosted by Southern California Chinese groups for visiting leaders of Beijing's pro-democracy movement.

A student leader of the recent demonstrations in Beijing's Tian An Men Square, in hiding after escaping arrest in China, said in a videotape released Tuesday that the Chinese government will fall because it is "an enemy of the people." The videotape, aired in the United States by NBC News, showed pro-democracy activist Wuer Kaixi, 21, speaking from an undisclosed location. NBC said the videotape was provided exclusively to the network. "This kind of government does not have the power to last very long," Wuer said on the tape, because it has become an "enemy of the people."

They were cocky and restless, full of explosive ideals and recklessness. They thought they would move their world. Now they are fugitives. For a few heady weeks, student leaders from major universities in Beijing and other cities occupied the symbolic heart of Beijing and the minds of supporters on Tian An Men Square and opponents behind the walls of Zhongnanhai, China's Kremlin. The weapons in their battle for democratic reform have all but disappeared: No more bullhorns, leaflets or banners carry their message to young followers, a restive public and a foreign audience that marveled at their brashness.

In the pre-dawn hours of April 20, during a tense confrontation between the police and demonstrators outside Communist Party headquarters, a young man named Wuer Kaixi stood up and threw caution to the winds. About 150 pro-democracy student protesters had been trapped inside police lines, while about 4,000 demonstrators were forced east along Beijing's main thoroughfare. A smaller group was pushed to the west. The police and the biggest group of protesters had paused, about 200 yards east of the party headquarters.

An exiled leader of last June's pro-democracy movement went before the U.N. Human Rights Commission today and condemned Beijing for continued repression in a speech that a Chinese delegate failed to stop. Wu'er Kaixi told the 43-nation panel that "systematic violations of human rights" continue in his native country and urged the international community to keep a close watch on the situation there.