A Call to Arms

The young man on the videotape appeared pale and tired, but his identity was unmistakable. He was Wuer Kaixi, 21, the former Beijing Normal University freshman who emerged as the most charismatic leader during the student uprising in China, then disappeared after the massacre in Tiananmen Square. He evidently spoke from hiding in Hong Kong, where he is believed to have fled in mid-June through Macao. Thanks to an effective underground of sympathizers, only six of the 21 most-wanted student leaders have been apprehended. Wuer's friends say he may go to the U.S. to organize an alliance to continue the struggle.

Wuer's message was an emotional call to arms to Chinese dissidents. "Those of us who remain alive, our lives are no longer our own . . . We have to be responsible in our struggle for democracy and for science. We have to be responsible to the martyrs." Wuer said there were many that night. "Simply put," he continued, "on June 4, the darkest day of the republic, China went sick." He said he saw "many comrades and compatriots" killed and beaten by "bestial, fascist troops" or "crushed to death and flattened out by tanks." In a separate statement, he likened the present rule in Beijing to "a black sun" that rose "on the day in June that should have belonged to a season of fresh flowers." He predicted that it would not last long: "Black sun, I'm going to shoot you down."