BOSTON--A crowd of approximately 150 people gathered at the State House yesterday afternoon to protest the detention of Chinese dissident Shen Tong in Beijing.

Shen, a Boston University graduate student and a Brandeis alumnus, was one of the student leaders of the 1990 Tiananmen Square demonstrations who escaped to the United States.

He was arrested Sept. 1 at his mother's home in Beijing, shortly before he was scheduled to hold a press conference about creating a new chapter of the Democracy for China Fund. His colleague, Harvard research associate Ross Terrill, was deported.

Speakers at the rally, which was organized by Amnesty International and students at local colleges, denounced Shen's arrest as one of a series of ongoing human rights violations in China.

A number of scholars, state officials and human rights activists addressed the group, requesting that both state and federal governments increase economic pressure on the Chinese government.

"We are here to sound a call for action and to put the Chinese government on notice," said State Sen. Lois G. Pines (D-Newton). "We are here to say that until the People's Republic stops using political prisoners as slave labor, no more favors for China's dictatorial government."

Pines said she supports legislation that would remove China's most favored nation status, "while not discriminating against products from private or joint enterprises."

Bill in Congress

The U.S.-China Act of 1992, a bill calling for such action, has won over-whelming support in Congress and the endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Gov. Bill Clinton.

The bill, according to Pines, is currently awaiting President Bush's approval.

Shen's arrest has prompted concern among many Chinese students enrolled at local colleges. The 24-year-old scholar-activist has spoken at Harvard several times.