Of the four hunger strikers, only Hou avoided arrest. He continued to defy the government. After Gao and Zhou were released they, too, refused to be silenced. At their abortive press conference last week the three men intended to demand freedom for the hundreds of political prisoners still in jail. But the day they were to deliver their challenge, they disappeared.
As the June 4 anniversary approached, government intimidation intensified. Newspapers in Sichuan province announced the execution of nine people accused of taking part in protests in Chengdu last June 5. The government citing the 150th anniversary of the Opium War, declared the square off limits. But at Beijing University late Sunday night, several hundred students mounted a protest, throwing bottles and chanting, “Rise up; rise up.”
