Tiananmen protesters in U.S. lament stunted movement

By I-Ching Ng

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three Chinese dissidents who spent much of the past 20 years behind bars for marring Mao Zedong's portrait at Tiananmen Square said the students who led that movement have failed to continue the struggle.

Heralded as the "three heroes of Tiananmen" by the Chinese dissident circle, the young men pelted dye-filled eggs onto the ultimate symbol of Communist rule on May 23, 1989.

They desecrated an icon of the Communist Party at the very spot where Mao declared the People's Republic of China, but their act also ruffled student protesters who were distrustful of the outsiders from Hunan and informed on them to police.

After a long periods of imprisonment and upended lives, the three childhood friends met in Washington before the 20th anniversary of the protests.

Tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square before dawn on June 4, 1989, to crush weeks of student and worker protests. On Thursday, China smothered the square with police to prevent commemoration of the crackdown.

Twenty years ago, when the student protests in the capital brewed, Lu Decheng, then a bus driver, Yu Zhijian, a middle school teacher, and Yu Dongyue, an arts editor of Liuyang Daily, founded the "Hunan Petition Group" in their hometown.

Just before martial law was imposed, they boarded a train to Beijing, where they hoisted banners and defiled the portrait of Mao.

"Our act provoked people to rethink the legality of the Communist dictatorship," Yu Zhijian said.