Thank you. If I'm a little surprised.
This is a CBS News special report from Beijing. Here is Susan Spencer.
And in Beijing, the reports are coming fast and furious. Announcements from the government.
First of all, there is a wire service report, several wire service reports,
that martial law has now in fact been declared in parts of the capital.
In addition, there is a warning out that foreigners should obey the government authorities, whatever that means.
This all follows an earlier announcement that a curfew was in effect,
and that anyone who disobeyed the curfew could be subject to some sort of disciplinary action.
The government has also said that foreign journalists should not either leave or enter the capital city of Beijing.
Now all of this follows a half an hour period here at the square of some confusion.
There was a series of helicopters, a convoy of helicopters, five or six of them, that flew over Tiananmen Square.
It was not obvious looking at them, whether these were military helicopters, whether these were friendly helicopters,
whether they were perhaps on a reconnaissance mission or simply an attempt to go by the square and see what was going on.
The crowds were, the crowds also had no idea what was happening.
The helicopters flew around for two or three minutes and then left.
In addition to that, our own transmission from the square itself, Dan Rather has been broadcasting all evening from the square itself,
our transmission from Tiananmen Square has now been cut.
Chinese television told us that under orders from the foreign ministry, all transmission from the square would have to end.
It is also, and as you see there, that's what happened to us.
It was also announced that CNN, the network that has been broadcasting this as well, would have its transmission cut at 10 o'clock local time.
That was about 10 minutes ago.
So events are almost outpacing the ability to keep up with them.
It is obvious now that what was a crackdown and then seemed to ease off is going to be cracking down once again.
The crowds are still in the square.
This morning they met a government convoy of soldiers. There were embraces, there were hugs, and nothing happened.
But it appears that the government's patience is running out and we will keep you posted to the best of our ability,
given the situation that they are imposing on journalists.
We'll be back as soon as we can with more special reports.
I'm Susan Spencer in Beijing.
This has been a CBS News special report.
This is a CBS News special report from Beijing. Here is Susan Spencer.
The Chinese government apparently has decided to impose a news blackout on a situation over which it has no control.
Government officials have just arrived at the CBS satellite transmission point.
They have told us that all satellite transmission must be stopped.
As you can see, entreaties are underway even as we speak.
They had earlier made the same threats, made the same announcement, and showed up also at CNN satellite transmission point.
CNN briefly was off the air.
Let's listen for just a moment.
The government allows us to broadcast until 0100 on Sunday, and you're telling us we have to close down our plant now?
As you hear, our permission to broadcast from here extends through noon Sunday, which is 14 hours from now.
This is going to change.
Don't we have to be notified by the Foreign Ministry of the change?
We've heard nothing from the Foreign Ministry.
Everything inside is done by China.
I just called the official dental center.
They said we're authorized to stay up until midnight.
This man represents the satellite company that we've hired and brought the satellite this year to Beijing, and he says we can still broadcast.
I just called the official dental center, which China agreed to for this particular lease.
They said, per the legal agreement that the United States signatory and Chinese signatory both signed to, that we have another 13 hours to stay on the air.
The Chinese officials are continuing to insist that on the basis of the agreement,
that on orders from the Foreign Ministry, the satellite transmission has to end.
It's unclear exactly what the rationale is, except that clearly the government is not very happy with the rest of the world seeing the situation here right now.
We had been told we had permission to broadcast through the Gorbachev visit and then on until noon tomorrow.
The Chinese government is now saying, no, your permission was only through the visit of Mr. Gorbachev.
That has now expired and you have to go.
Let's listen again.
Does anyone have any questions?
I mean, anybody can come here and say they represent somebody else and we're here to turn off your satellite.
How do I know who you say you are?
Mr. Mike Lam knows who they are, they spoke to him before they came here.
But we'd like to see some identification.
We think turning off a satellite transmission is a very serious prospect.
We have a written agreement with the Chinese Foreign Ministry that allows us to broadcast until 1100 Sunday.
and we think that turning off that satellite transmission would be a very serious thing.
It's a time crash and it would be in our countries against the law to be violated a time crash.
This is not completely unexpected on our part.
Earlier today, about 45 minutes ago, CCTV, the Chinese Central Television,
abruptly pulled the plug on our transmission from Tiananmen Square,
where Dan Rather has been broadcasting most of the evening.
As you can see there, Dan was in the midst of about to begin a report,
and we weren't given any warning, we weren't told that this was about to happen,
and suddenly that's exactly what happened.
So meanwhile, we are continuing to try to change the minds of the Foreign Ministry,
people who have suddenly arrived here at the CBS headquarters,
saying that our satellite is no longer operable, that we will have to stop broadcasting from China.
The gentleman in the middle is Lane Venardo, he's in charge of our special events coverage,
he's in charge of the coverage here.
As we said before, everything has been done strictly by the book.
By the book, there is no reason for this.
In agreement with the Foreign Ministry, I think we ought to have something in writing
that says the agreement is now broken.
The effort to persuade by an attention to detail seems to be falling on deaf ears.
I've just been told that another gentleman from CCTV is making an attempt to come into the CBS control room
and shut off all of our receivers while this discussion goes on.
So if we suddenly go off the air, it certainly won't be any mystery as to what's happening.
These events of attempting to impose a complete news blackout
follows a very ominous and strange occurrence down at the square about an hour ago.
There were helicopters, unclear whether they were military helicopters, civilian helicopters,
what they were or what they were doing, but they made several flybys over Tiananmen Square
where thousands of people are still defying the government, staying in the square.
You can hear the sound of ambulances and sirens that has gone on throughout the day and night.
Troops who have attempted to get in the square or at least made a half-hearted attempt to get in the square
were turned away by crowds.
In fact, before they left, they ended up embracing some of the people in the crowd.
So it seems that the government has decided that if it is unable to call its own troops to control its people,
it at least doesn't want anyone to know about it.
We are now back in our own hallway here at CBS headquarters
where the negotiations with the Foreign Ministry are continuing
and they seem to be getting a little bit more heated.
These people have told us they are from the Foreign Ministry.
My understanding is that so far they haven't produced any information.
And as I said before, there are also CCTV, Chinese television people who are trying to get into the control room,
stop the transmitters at that point.
If they don't recognize us as these representatives,
then we can just eat.
They have been working with Michael L. Holt now.
We should also tell you that the Foreign Ministry is busy on several other fronts.
Martial law has been imposed in parts of the capital.
The Foreign Ministry has warned foreign journalists that they should obey the government authorities.
They should not enter or leave the city that they are under orders not to do so.
So it's up to us and the Foreign Ministry to talk to one another.
So they have heard about Lord CBS consultant who is presenting our case to the official from the Foreign Ministry.
We need to keep this going for a few minutes.
Well,
while these gentlemen go on unclear what progress these gentlemen from CCTV is making inside the control room,
it does seem that this is probably not an argument that people are going to win.
On the other hand, CNN had a similar experience about half an hour ago,
and they in fact were off the air very, very briefly.
They had only audio.
Now they have returned to the air.
So I suppose it is possible that there could be a breakthrough here, that they could change their minds.
On the other hand, the people who are in our hallway are probably not the people who made the decision in the first place.
And it appears now as I glance over to the other screen that CNN is in the middle of similar negotiations around the city.
This is Dan Raddick from the Chinese Ministry of Communication.
And they are here to tell us that we are being ordered off the air in spite of our agreement with the Chinese Foreign Ministry,
that we have to expires at 1 a.m. Sunday morning Beijing time, that we must cease our satellite transmissions right away.
And we know them to be people who have been here with the Chinese PTT,
but we have asked that because we had a letter of agreement with the Foreign Ministry,
that we should now have a letter of rescinding that agreement,
and that we shouldn't just cut off our transmission simply because somebody comes and tells us orally.
Well, certainly we agree with that.
Is anybody speaking English or who is translating for us?
Betty Bowles is translating for us.
Oh, thank you. Well, first of all, greetings to our colleagues.
And I'm sorry this is an awkward situation for you as it is for us.
Well, that's happening. Let me explain that we were until fairly recently broadcasting live from Tiananmen Square.
That was until late mid-morning.
Now, at the first time the camouflage helicopters flew by low over the Tiananmen Square,
the first time the helicopters flew by is when we lost our live capability at Tiananmen Square.
That's about a 20-25 minute drive from here. This was our main headquarters in Beijing.
Now, we stayed in Tiananmen Square hoping that we could get our live capability restored there.
While we were trying to do that, unsuccessfully there was a second flyby of the camouflage helicopters.
There were five the second time around. I think there were eight the first time around.
What they did the second time was pretty much what they did the first time, except they flew lower and they flew slower.
The crowd, of course, is very much concerned about what was happening there.
They didn't know whether someone was going to drop tear gas or make a landing, but they didn't do any of that.
But when it became clear we couldn't get our live capability back up after that second helicopter flyby,
at which the leaders of the protest movement in the square thought was an effort by the military
to tighten the kind of psychological vice on them while the military continued trying to get their land forces into the square.
At that point is when we left Tiananmen Square and came back here to our main headquarters in the Shangri-La Hotel,
which is this day is about a 25 minute drive.
The other thing that has been happening, whether our friends here were aware of it because they've been having to do their business during the morning,
is that we had this incredible videotape, incredible is the only word for it, of the various army trucks
who were using restraint, the soldiers were, and trying to get through to Tiananmen Square.
But neighbors, neighborhood people would come out, the supporters of the main core protesters in Tiananmen Square,
they would come out and surround the army trucks.
And this is what you saw and heard, these scenes of rank and file Chinese pleading with the young men who were serving in their own army,
not to go any further.
From time to time they'd sing patriotic songs and give them flowers.
Those kinds of scenes are going on all over the city.
Now what we have seen coming back, driving from Tiananmen Square to our broadcast headquarters in another part of the city,
just driving over this side, is that at almost every intersection there are crowds.
But I should emphasize that both the government and the demonstrators have used a great deal of restraint.
Now where there hasn't been restraint is in this pulling the plug on our broadcast.
I don't quite know where we stand at the moment here now, but they pull the plug on us in Tiananmen Square,
and these gentlemen are here trying to pull the plug on us at the moment right here.
Yes, and they emphasize that they're just messengers.
Betty Ballard-Lorde has been helping us here all week long.
So the situation is that the government and the party are making an effort to break the back of the movement for freedom, democracy, and reform.
The key to that is getting the original group of student strikers out of Tiananmen Square,
and up to and including now they haven't been able to do that,
although they are making these low-level helicopter flybys in an effort to, if not scare them out,
at least let them know that the armed forces under the direction of the government and the party are trying to do that.
And there are two pieces of information that you should know. At 10 o'clock, martial law has been declared.
All former journalists have been barged from either entering Beijing or from departing from Beijing.
This follows on another announcement from the government a little earlier in the day that the government would try again tonight.
This would be the second night they've tried this, to impose a curfew here in Beijing.
This time they're going to try to make it sick beginning at 8 o'clock tonight.
I believe at 9 o'clock.
9 o'clock, correct, and that would be 9 o'clock Beijing time.
But that's the situation here in Beijing.
Dan Rather, CBS News.
Now.
This is Dan Rather, CBS News at our PBS News broadcast headquarters in Beijing.
We've had the plug pulled on us for our live coverage in Tiananmen Square,
and now these gentlemen who've been here for quite a while were sent and they emphasized just as messengers to tell us that we should stop broadcasting from here.
Now, through our interpreter, Betty Bao Lord, we'll get brought up to date on what they say, what's happening.
Well, they, you say it again, why isn't he here? You didn't tell me earlier.
Now, I'm just going to tell you the instructions we've received from our boss.
So, you say the material for the book, what about it?
Our colleague will call him right away to give him the information.
And we have raised the issue of having a written statement for this. His colleague is going to make the phone call and she'll try to get us the written order.
And that's what his colleague is doing now?
Yes, or he's about to go on his way.
Yes. Well, for those who find this hard to follow, welcome to the club.
It's a very confusing situation here in China, and it has been deteriorating in terms of confusion over the last four to six hours.
The people's liberation army, since dawn, arrived in Tiananmen Square, the center of the protest movement,
and the people's liberation army had not been able to make its way to the square as the government and the party had wanted it to do and to shut down the protest demonstration there.
Then these developments, elements of the people's liberation army have continued to try to inch their way toward the square without using violence.
It's important to say that the army has engaged in tremendous restraint, as have the supporters of the protest.
This is not the kind of situation that we've been seeing, for example, in South Korea.
Neither side wants violence. Neither side has had violence.
But the army is trying to maneuver its way, inch its way, weeded its way to the square to break the back of the protest movement.
So far, they haven't been able to do it. So they had those helicopter overflies in hopes of scattering them and scaring them, but that hasn't worked either.
Now, we've just been called to the control room. Excuse me, sir, to our Chinese bureaucratic friends who are here to try to shut us down.
We have the pictures that we've sent out of there that we wanted to put on the air.
Right. Now, what you're going to see in here, we hope, what you're going to see in here right now, we hope, are videotapes of some of what's been happening this morning.
This is the kind of thing they pulled the plug on us in Tiananmen Square.
Now, before, these are army units trying to get to the square.
Watch and listen to this. As the people say to the army, don't do this to your own people.
And you can see how uncomfortable the soldiers are.
These young Chinese, dispatched from outlying provinces into Beijing to move into Tiananmen Square and try to shut down the protest movement.
Watch and listen to this.
The commander stays in the truck.
Commander, at one point, you can see virtually his tears in his eyes. And look at that soldier in the left-hand quadrant of his crew.
Now the commander smiles and is forced to shake hands. This kind of scene is happening all around Beijing today.
The army trucks surrounded, the people throw them flowers. This soldier, it's on his face.
Is this what I got in the army to do?
The crowd surround the trucks. Trucks managed to inch forward a little and then they're stopped again.
Now, let's go to another piece of videotape. This is a little while later, actually in Tiananmen Square.
What you're going to see are the helicopters come by for the first time.
Listen to the crowd as they see them. Camouflage, military helicopters flying past the Heroes Monument in the middle of Tiananmen Square, over the Great Hall of the People.
The crowd doesn't scatter. Some run at the edges, but others shout, shake their fists, and cry to Rizhin.
Nobody knew at this point, this was the first helicopter to fly by, whether they were going to drop tear gas canisters or let troops off or what they were going to do.
Now, it was roughly at this point where, despite our agreement, the Foreign Ministry directed the state-operated radio and television to pull the plug on us.
When that first helicopter fly by was there, it turned out the helicopters made a run around the square and they swooped away.
That's when the plug got pulled on our live coverage in Tiananmen Square.
Now, about 20 minutes later, there was yet another helicopter fly by, where there was the same helicopters nobody could say.
But again, this time five helicopters. I think there were eight the first time.
Five helicopters came the second time and swooped down lower, at slower speed, over the square.
The crowd rumbled with talk that they're going to land, they're going to let troops off. They didn't.
Again, they finally flew away.
We were at that point desperately trying to get back on the air with our live coverage from Tiananmen Square,
but it became increasingly apparent that they weren't going to restore our live capability from the square.
So that's when we made a run for our main broadcasting facility some 20, 25 minutes away in the Hotel Shangri-La.
We arrived here to find the people from the state-operated, state-controlled television saying they were only the messengers,
but they'd been told by the foreign ministry that they were to pull the plug on us here,
despite a written agreement well in advance that we would be able to broadcast at least until one o'clock this afternoon Beijing time.
Now, a note has just been handed to me which says, to recap briefly,
the government continues trying to crack the back of the core of the protest movement in Tiananmen Square.
It has yet been unable to do that. Van Ruther, CBS News in Beijing, China.
This has been a CBS News special report.
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This is a CBS News special report. From Beijing, here is Van Ruther.
This is Van Ruther, CBS News in Beijing with Betty Bowel Lard.
The situation in Tiananmen Square is that the Army continues to try to move in there and crack the back of the protest movement, which is still headquartered there.
The Army hasn't been able to do that. They've had several helicopter flybys.
When we broadcast, tried to broadcast, the first of the military helicopter flybys, the state-operated television radio pulled the plug on us there.
We quickly came over to this location, which is our headquarters location, where we have our dish that feeds the satellite.
This is the basic control for all of our broadcasts, and two gentlemen from the state-operated television and radio are here now.
They represent the Telecommunications Bureau.
Yes, the Communications Bureau, which has control of television and radio broadcasts out of the country.
Now, their argument has been that they have instructions that are only messengers, that their argument is to shut us down.
They come back with three points. They hope that we will cooperate with them by shutting down the machines ourselves.
If we do not do it this way, it will influence the future cooperation between their company and CBS.
They hope that we will comply, or this will be difficult.
Well, you see the situation. Now, it's important to know that we have, in writing, an agreement in which we could continue broadcasting.
This agreement was made some time ago, in writing, and was agreed to by, among others, a representative of the Foreign Ministry,
that we could continue broadcasting with our own satellite dish through noon, Saturday, New York time.
Now, this is a difficult situation for us at CBS News.
We've in good faith been operating with this written agreement.
Our Chinese friends, many of whom have visited the United States up to now, have helped us in every way they could.
They keep emphasizing they have their instructions. And that's where we stand.
All of this against the backdrop of Daoist, Deng Xiaoping, and Lin Peng trying to exert authority over the country.
And it's clear that they simply couldn't take our coverage, don't want to take our coverage.
They shut us down in Tiananmen Square, and they're now trying to shut us down here.
What, gentlemen, Betty, if you could tell him, I understand what your problem is, but could we please have it in writing?
Yes, we're having some trouble with our slack here, but, Betty, the situation is, since we have an agreement in writing,
if he's going to break the agreement, could we have that in writing, please?
Where's the contract?
Here's the contract. This is a, this is, this was approved by the Foreign Ministry.
This was our fax copy of our agreement. As you can see, it says 1,600 finished mean time on Saturday.
We have another 12 hours by this written agreement, which was reaffirmed, Betty, reaffirmed within the last two weeks.
This is the original contract.
The original contract, of course, which we can provide to you, but you would understand that our legal department has the original contract.
It is, as you said yourself, I think, a confirmation of, by Telex, this is a confirmation of what the agreement is.
You said you have the right to sign it.
They said they're not trying to stop our transmission. They would like to do it by another manner, which is that we, after we are filmed it, they will do it for us.
Yes, at their location.
Yes, yes.
But that was not the agreement. But I want to emphasize, Betty, and please, this is important, and for those of you just joining us,
this is live from Beijing, China, and the effort here is for the government to shut down our own broadcasting by our own satellite dish,
which was being done by written agreement. And they're changing that agreement.
They pulled the plug on us in Tiananmen Square when we broadcast the helicopters swooping down, the military helicopters swooping low,
trying to break up the protest demonstration there. And now these gentlemen are to do the actual act here.
Betty, it's very important to emphasize and please that we're a guest in this country.
I respect their country and I respect the authority of their government.
I hope they will understand when I say we have a written agreement with their government that we can do this broadcast and continue to do it through tomorrow.
And I respectfully hope that he would consider that.
We understand that he is a guest in China. He respects the Chinese government and the Chinese people.
But the problem is that the contract is like this.
Now we're listening to your gossip. This is too much of an impact.
I would not feel comfortable in ending the broadcast until I had something to write in because I have only his vocal word of this.
He said that the purpose of this contract was for us to report the Gorbachev trip.
And since the Gorbachev trip is over and anything that's left over, he would be glad to help us to transmit it.
Respectfully, I know that he's an intelligent gentleman and he understands and we understand that that's not what is issue here
because we specifically said that if we're going to bring the CBS Evening News to China, we need to be able to broadcast for the full week.
And we would need to broadcast for the time after Gorbachev left.
Not only was it agreed to in writing, but it was reaffirmed just last week.
Since we have something in writing, I do respectfully request that he give us something in writing in return.
You know that the Gorbachev trip was part of it. The second part was seven days.
We haven't reached the seventh day yet.
He respects your mission very much.
But he can't just agree to your request and say the word.
But now, based on this report, it's just an inter-sites, reliable, and usable official report.
For those of you who just joined us, the gentleman is trying to explain.
I respect his position and the authority of his government and I can't physically and won't physically prevent him from doing what he has to do.
I do protest in the most respectful manner.
They don't have to deal with inter-sites.
Why don't you talk to them?
Inter-sites have not been given time yet. I don't need to request time from them again.
He says that according to this, we haven't gone beyond the stated times agreed with inter-sites.
So until we go beyond that, he has no reason to get in touch with inter-sites.
I realize he doesn't want to talk with inter-sites because they're going to support our position.
But I don't want to be disrespectful and I can only say that he must do what he must do.
But I want him to understand that I respectfully protest as strongly as I can, particularly since he doesn't have anything in writing to break a written agreement.
While this goes on, correspondent Susan Spencer has pictures. These are the first pictures we've had of demonstrators clashing with police, not with the army, we think, but with police. Here's Susan Spencer.
This happened at an intersection not too far from our CBS headquarters.
It may indicate some reason why the Chinese have decided that they don't want us to continue broadcasting from here.
There were students who were blocking an overpass, as we understand.
When we got there, there had been pushing and shelling, as you can see there, for some time.
And then, as you see, the police take out nightsticks and they aren't showing much mercy as they try to get the students away from this intersection.
This happened, I believe, within the last hour or so. The students clearly hadn't expected this at all.
As you said earlier, you're correct, this is not the People's Liberation Army.
These were the police, not generally very highly regarded by the populace.
And clearly, they have decided that at this point, force is not something that they are going to avoid.
They pushed the students, trying to get them out of the intersection, trying to get them back on the bus.
This, as we said, took place after three or four attempts by the students to get by the police line.
We are around the city. It's unclear whether or not incidents of this sort are going on anywhere else.
But as we have covered this event, as you pointed out earlier, there hasn't been this sort of confrontation.
And so this in itself is disturbingly significant.
You can see there, one of the protesters seemed to grab the policeman's glasses and this was clearly, clearly very serious.
Dan?
The question continues to be here in Beijing whether the center will hold, whether the central authority's authority will hold,
that the city has not descended into chaos, it has not descended into anarchy,
but it's getting rougher, as you just saw in those videotapes.
And we've just told that the government has issued a new instruction, a new decree for all foreign journalists,
that foreign journalists are not to disseminate any information out here from this country that would be harmful to the country
and all kinds of controls that have suddenly been placed on where journalists can and cannot go.
They can't go to factories, they can't go to schools. All of this is brand new. It's just happening now.
And our negotiations with these gentlemen continue to see if we can continue to broadcast at all.
They've already shut us down our live coverage from Tiananmen Square,
and now they're trying to shut us down from our own satellite dish in Beijing.
This, as Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng, his number one right-hand man, have made their decision to go with the hardliners.
They're trying to break the back of the protest movement and they don't want the kind of coverage that they have had.
These gentlemen are in the process here of trying to shut us down.
This is Dan Rather with Susan Spencer in Beijing. We'll try to stay on top of events for you.
Stay tuned to this CBS station.
This has been a CBS News special report.