Jiang proponents claimed that the media hadoverplayed the views of vocal dissidents,distorting the sentiments of the majority ofChinese citizens.

"It's no longer the Cold War, and China is nolonger the Communist country it once was," saidHui Kuok '00, a student from Hong Kong.

About 100 well-wishers journeyed from YaleUniversity to catch a glimpse of the president.Several students agreed with Jiang's contentionthat the idea of human rights is a relativeconcept.

"Everybody sees things through their ownculture and point of view," said James Ma, aChinese national at Yale's business school. "Humanrights is a cultural thing."

As a political science student at BeijingUniversity, Ma participated in the 1989demonstrations but said his views on democracy andChina had changed.

"The process of democracy is not something thatcan be completed overnight," he said. "We don'twant what happened to Eastern Europe to happen inChina."

A Cold Reception

Protesters began planning demonstrations weeksbefore Jiang even set foot in America.

The Coalition for Freedom and Human Rights inAsia, a cooperative project of 25 human rightsgroups, put together an array of events to drawattention to what they called China's egregioushuman rights abuses.

The coalition represented groups protestingChina's policies regarding the three "terribleT's": Taiwan, Tibet and Tiananmen.

A 48-hour hunger strike was organized atSwedenborg Chapel, located a block away from thesite of Jiang's speech, by the Tibetan Associationof Boston.

The PBS documentary on the Tiananmen Squaremassacre, "The Gate of Heavenly Peace," was shownin the Yenching Library Lecture Hall.

Chinese dissident and former political prisonerHarry Wu addressed thousands of protesters outsideSwedenborg Chapel and told the crowd that Jiangwas in America for a fund-raising campaign.

"[Jiang has] come here begging--begging formoney," Wu said. "Money can't buy overtotalitarianism."

Wu, honored by the Harvard Foundation forIntercultural and Race Relations in 1995, said hewas ashamed that there were so many Chinese peoplestanding outside Sanders Theatre in support ofJiang.