Beijing students protest teacher’s detention

BEIJING — Nearly a hundred university students gathered outside a Beijing district police bureau Sunday to demand the release of a lecturer — a former leader of 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy demonstrations — who they believe is being held unfairly by authorities.

It was the second day that students turned up at the public security bureau in the capital’s Haidian district to call on police to release Ding Xiaoping, who lectures on various topics at several universities, said Yu Zhiwei, who joined the students Sunday.

It was not immediately possible to confirm Ding’s detention. A man who answered the phone at the front desk of the Haidian police bureau said he had heard of an incident concerning a person named Ding Xiaoping, but did not have details and hung up when further questions were asked. Phone calls to the police bureau’s information department rang unanswered.

Yu said Ding was taken away on Saturday afternoon by police and the students believed it was to prevent him from posing a threat to the upcoming celebration of the sensitive 60th anniversary of the founding of the Communist republic.

“He was taken away for political reasons. The police want to limit his activity,” Yu said in a telephone interview after the students were dispersed. Yu, a 24-year-old recent graduate of the Beijing University of Technology, attended lectures by Ding when he was in college. “The students will not tolerate seeing their teacher being bullied by police,” he said.

Yu said many of the protesters were allowed into the police building but some students and police got into heated arguments. He said he heard that police beat five or six of the protesters, but none was seriously injured.

Ding was among a group of Peking University student leaders involved in pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989. He was later jailed for nearly three years for his involvement. The protests were halted by a security crackdown on June 4, 1989, in which hundreds and possibly thousands died when tanks and troops fought their way into the central Beijing square.

Several activists were taken away before and during last year’s Beijing Olympics as part of efforts to clear the city of dissent. Authorities commonly do such sweeps before and during sensitive periods to curb potential protests.