Chinese dissidents supportive of Clinton's trip

The student protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989

BEIJING (CNN) -- If a U.S. president had traveled to China in June nine years ago, he would have witnessed a radically different Beijing than the city President Bill Clinton is seeing now.

On Monday, Clinton is scheduled to speak to students at Beijing University.

It was there and on other Chinese campuses in the spring of 1989 that students began discussing democracy, and what it would mean to be free.

As their anger and discontent rose, the student leaders took their anti-communist sermons to the center of the Chinese capital: Tiananmen Square.

There, those who loudly touted democracy's virtues would become some of the most famous faces in China that spring. They would also become designated outcasts of Chinese society.

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Since Chinese soldiers silenced the students' cries for freedom, almost all of the Tiananmen student leaders have been exiled, imprisoned or politically marginalized.

But they have not been quieted.

When and where they can, they still speak out against alleged abuses that take place within Chinese society.

They also appear to back Clinton's controversial policy of engaging China's government.

Chai Ling was one of the most radical of the student leaders in 1989

Chai Ling was one of the most radical of the 1989 student leaders. After Beijing's crackdown, she fled to the United States and has since studied at Harvard Business School.

Despite what Clinton's critics have said of his official Chinese welcoming ceremony at the edge of Tiananmen Square, Chai Ling says Clinton is not only right to go to China, but he is right to go to the scene of the bloody massacre.

"I believe President Clinton could go to Tiananmen Square and pay a tribute to all of those spirits. Especially for those ... who lost their life for freedom and democracy," she told CNN.

Wang Dan is among the most recent Chinese dissidents to arrive in the United States.

Wang came to the states in April, freed from a Chinese prison for medical reasons.

He was considered one of the more moderate student leaders of 1989. Nonetheless, he spent more than six years in jail.

Wang Dan

Wang also supports high-level contacts between the United States and China.

"I hope China and the U.S. have good relations, because the trade between the two countries is good for the Chinese people," he told CNN. "But at the same time, I hope the U.S. will uphold its principles."

Unlike Chai Ling and some other student leaders who were active in the Tiananmen demonstrations, Wang urged protesters to leave the square when Beijing threatened to send in the military.

Still, he blames himself for the lives that were lost in June 1989.

"No matter how worthy our aims were," Wang said, "when so many people are killed, then the achievement doesn't count."

Hong Kong Bureau Chief Mike Chinoy contributed to this report.

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• China welcomes Clinton at edge of Tiananmen Square - June 26, 1998
• Clinton calls reports of dissident arrests 'disturbing' - June 26, 1998