By: MARK ABLEY

This evening, when Chinese Premier Li Peng arrives at the Sheraton Centre in downtown Montreal for a gala dinner, he will be greeted by more than just a smiling Jean Chretien and nine provincial premiers.

He will also be met by stark reminders of Chinese government policy: its crushing of the democracy movement in 1989, its occupation of the once independent nation of Tibet, its continued testing of nuclear weapons, its creation of the largest gulag for political prisoners in the world.

Inside the Sheraton, where ``Team Canada'' (minus Premier Jacques Parizeau) is expected to talk business with Li Peng, all should be sweetness and light. But in the gathering darkness outside the hotel, the Coalition Against Li Peng's Visit promises there will be hundreds of demonstrators.

Echoing a symbol from the suppressed student movement, a Chinese-Canadian woman will be dressed as the Goddess of Democracy. Starting at 6 p.m., Tibetan Canadians will hold candles in a solemn vigil. And across Rene Levesque Blvd., facing the hotel, will be a life-size tank built out of cardboard.

The tanks that rolled into Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, were not made of cardboard. They carried People's Liberation Army soldiers, who killed many hundreds of unarmed demonstrators. And within the secretive leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, the man who ordered the assault is said to have been Li Peng.

``It's very, very clear,'' said Wang Zhao, the president of Alliance for a Democratic China - Canada. ``It was Li Peng who declared martial law; it was Li Peng who gave the order. His face was very ugly then. It is very ugly now.''

At 28, Wang is a student at Concordia University, hoping for a career in law. But six years ago, he was finishing his studies at a marine college in the coastal city of Tianjin, 100 kilometres southeast of Beijing.

``At the beginning, I was confused,'' Wang admitted. ``I didn't know what was going on. But then I realized it was a very serious movement - not the `counter-revolutionary riot' that the media were saying.''

Luckily for Wang, he did not catch a train to Beijing and join the huge demonstration in Tiananmen Square. But he did take part in demonstrations in Tianjin. The brutal suppression of the movement surprised and dismayed him. And in 1990, as a young sailor, Wang seized the chance to jump ship in Canada and apply for refugee status here.

One of his colleagues in the Alliance for a Democratic China is an engineer named Chunmeng Wu. Originally from China, Chunmeng has been in Canada since 1984. He insists that despite the passage of time, Li Peng must not be forgiven for his repression of the Chinese democracy movement.

``Could you say the same thing to the Jewish people - that they should forget what happened to them 50 years ago?

``Besides, China is operating the last concentration camps in the world. There are close to one million political prisoners in China.''

Chungmeng's remarks are echoed by local businessman Kenneth Cheung, chairman of the Montreal Society in Support of Democracy in China.

``Li Peng is the most hated man in China, and he should be hated all over the world. He must be made responsible for all the atrocities being committed.

``The Chinese government is spending huge sums of money on `defence' when they desperately need money spent on education. They have no legitimacy to run the country except by brutal force.''

Cheung insists that his position is backed by a majority of people in the city's growing Chinese community, which, in greater Montreal, is believed to number at least 80,000.

But Montreal's Chinese are by no means unanimous on this issue.

``Many of us feel that it's a good thing that a person of Li Peng's stature is coming to Montreal,'' said Cynthia Lam, director of the Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal. ``Generally, Canada is a little slow in establishing relations with the Asia-Pacific. So contacts are definitely to be encouraged.''

Lam wishes, however, that the Chinese leadership had sent someone other than Li Peng. ``He does have a questionable record. He definitely is not the best choice of person.''

It's not only activists for Chinese democracy who will be on the streets this evening. The Coalition Against Li Peng's Visit includes several other groups.

Amnesty International has organized a silent demonstration in favor of human rights in China. Starting at 5:30 p.m., its members plan to march from Complexe Guy Favreau down Rene Levesque Blvd. An open letter to Li Peng will be read outside the Sheraton Centre about 6:45 p.m.

Montreal's small Tibetan community will also be out in force. Tibetans remember Li Peng as a hard-liner with a reputation for cracking down on human rights in Tibet.

``At least 10,000 Tibetans, many of them monks and nuns, are in jail today,'' charged Chokey Tsering of the Canada-Tibet Committee. ``By doing business with China, Canada is guilty of collusion with China in its suppression of the Tibetan people.''

Li Peng is also known to be an advocate of the giant Three Gorges hydro-electric project in central China - a project that, if completed, would cause the permanent dislocation of more than one million people.

Canadian businesses, including several in Quebec, and the Canadian International Development Agency have played a significant role in Three Gorges - both in money they have sunk into the project and profits they hope to reap.

``We are deeply concerned at the role Canada is playing in the Three Gorges project,'' said Anna Berlyn of Voice of Women - Quebec. ``It is an ecological and human disaster.''

The Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility is equally unhappy about Li Peng's visit - particularly in light of China's recent decision to purchase Candu reactors from Canada.

``I'm insulted by our prime minister and premiers,'' said spokesman Marc Chenier, ``who want to socialize and have dinner with a dictator like Li Peng.''

For the moment, Li Peng remains one of the most powerful leaders in the world. Over the past few years, China's economy has undergone dramatic reform. At the same time, the pace of political change has been glacial.

Can that contrast endure? Wang Zhao believes not.

``I'm very optimistic. Central control is loosening - China is so big, the central government can't control all the local governments even now. And if the idea of freedom is in people's minds, you can't stop them having this idea.

``I think the trend toward democracy is irresistible.''