China Outraged Over Embassy Bombing ..c The Associated Press By JOHN LEICESTER BEIJING (AP) -- Several thousand students marched in front of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing today to protest the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, while the government accused NATO of a ``barbarian act.'' With police looking on, the students march in front of the embassy in well-ordered ranks that represented at least five universities. Some students held posters and red flags, shouting ``Down with Americans,'' while other pelted the Embassy with eggs and stones. The Chinese Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, summoned U.S. Ambassador James Sasser and lodged the ``strongest protest,'' the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. Earlier, China called an emergency meeting of the Security Council to condemn the attack. A cheer of ``Hao,'' meaning ``Bravo,'' went up whenever a plastic water bottle or piece of pavement landed on the Embassy building. Police joined hands in a chain to block the embassy gate. Some of the protesters sang the Chinese national anthem, and others shouted ``Protect sovereignty, protect peace,'' and ``We don't want war.'' Signs hung on a bus that brought students to the embassy said ``Nato Nazis.'' Some police applauded the students when they sang the national anthem Wang Zhihai, a retired worker who was throwing lumps of pavement at an Embassy building, shouted, ``What are we scared of? There are 1.2 billion of us.'' A U.S. official walked out of the embassy in Beijing several times to receive protest statements from the demonstrators. He expressed ``sympathy and condolences'' for those killed in the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The protest was highly unusual for China, where authorities generally have banned any large gatherings or demonstrations for fear of unrest. Demonstrators said they had asked school authorities for permission to march, and it had been granted. Several hundred people with banners also demonstrated outside the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai, and several dozen protested in Hong Kong. The Chinese government has strongly opposed the NATO air strikes in Yugoslavia since they started. At least three people were killed and more than 20 injured when NATO missiles struck the embassy in Belgrade, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said. One person was missing. A Xinhua reporter, Shao Yunhuan, was among the dead, it said. NATO said it did not intentionally target the embassy. The U.S. Embassy advised its staff and Americans living in the Chinese capital ``to raise their security awareness,'' said Bill Palmer, an embassy spokesman. An embassy notice said there was ``the possibility for acts of retaliation against Americans and American interests worldwide'' following NATO actions in Yugoslavia. In a statement, China's government said U.S.-led NATO fired three missiles from different angles at its Belgrade embassy, in ``a gross violation of Chinese sovereignty.'' ``The Chinese government and people express their utmost indignation and severe condemnation of the barbarian act and lodge the strongest protest,'' said the statement reported by Xinhua and broadcast on nationwide television. ``U.S.-led NATO should bear all responsibilities,'' it said. The bombing also angered ordinary Chinese. ``It's not right, not right at all,'' said Cai Jin, a 50-year-old restaurant cashier in Shanghai. ``The U.S. government should not be attacking Chinese. The Chinese government should send troops to Yugoslavia to fight back. They should attack the Americans.'' Beijing's statement today said NATO has been ``wantonly bombing'' Yugoslavia, ``killing and wounding large numbers of innocent civilians.'' Chinese news media, all controlled by the government, have given a one-sided view of the conflict in Yugoslavia. They have heavily reported civilian casualties from the NATO strikes, but have not reported on attacks by Yugoslav forces on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. With restive ethnic regions of their own, Chinese leaders fear that NATO has set a dangerous precedent by attacking a sovereign nation without U.N. authorization. Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.
